[Rand007]

Well my buddy bought himself a cruiser (Yamaha V-Star 1100) yesterday, he has very little experience riding (no MSF yet although I'm encouraging him to take it) so he was not comforable riding it back from the dealer. He ask me to ride it for him and I said sure. Now the only time I have been on anything other than a sport bike was at the MSF and that was a while ago, so it felt very odd to be so low to the ground :confused and it was big ass heavy. So I throw on the beinie helmet :redflip he just bought and took off. About half way back there is a decent down hill turn, so I crank it over....hmmm...this thing isn't turning very sharp....oohhh look that curb is getting pretty close...shit I'm grinding this things peg off :eek ... must not target fixate at fast approaching curb... Well I made the turn by a few inches and took it easy the rest of the way.

Observations:

1. It was pretty cool sitting back while riding.
2. Cruisers can't turn for shit.
3. Beinie helmets look stupid (damn I'm a squid) :twofinger

 

[WOT Blake]

remind me NOT to let you ride my bike.:redflip

 

[Rand007]

Yeah those Honda's don't corner for shit either :redflip

 

[fett005]

TURN BABY TURN !

 

[ZoomByU]

i wonder what your friend must have been thinking seeing you scraping the pegs

 

[Nepenthe]

Was it the V-Star 1100 Custom? Or was it the 1100 Silverado or 1100 Classic? There is a significant difference in weight and cornering clearance among those.

I rode my Uncle's '99 Kawasaki 1500 Vulcan Nomad over vacation up in Vermont. You'd think with two massive 735cc cylinders, it would have some balls... nope. It was completely gutless. Of course, my Aunt was riding on the back, we had the bags fully loaded, it was at high elevation on a somewhat muggy day, and there were lots of hills to climb... :eek

When I got home, I looked the bike up in MCN magazine. They got 49 rear-wheel HP for that bike. :rolleyes

The cornering clearance was just bad. And the wheelbase was huge. It's amazing the massive difference six inches of wheelbase makes. I liked the ride because the scenery was great and the roads were nice, but I sure wished I had a real bike...