2008 Star Raider - First Ride

People frequently describe motorcycles as having "attitude," but everybody probably has a different idea about what that means. Webster's defines attitude as "a feeling or emotion toward a fact or state."

Our feeling is that the attitudes most such cruisers have are "handling doesn't matter" and "comfort is for sissies." That's because the road to attitude usually involves some heavy-handed styling. Everyone knows the classic chopper-influenced look-long, raked fork, skinny front wheel, a little fuel tank over a huge engine framed in a stretched-out chassis, low saddle and massive rear wheel. All those fashionable pieces and tweaks may make for tasty eye-candy, but they tend to diminish a motorcycle's road-worthiness.

Those way-wide rear tires result in sketchy steering, especially when coupled with skinny front rubber. It only gets worse when the fork is pivoting around a radically angled steering head. Trainlike wheelbases make a visual statement and help stability, but they don't do anything for steering response or cornering clearance. Stretching out the riding position doesn't help control either, and it tends to strain the rider. And those skinny, ultralow seats reduce the comfort quotient, too.

Of course, style sells and motorcycle engineers and designers have gotten increasingly sophisticated at packing serious function into radical aesthetics. For example, several manufacturers have learned to keep the steering head reasonably steep for steady steering characteristics while kicking out the fork legs at a more radical angle to net both style and control. Occasionally, however, there's no getting around simple physics-fit an en vogue wide tire on a bike, for instance, and you usually give up handling.

Fortunately for those of us who like to ride our motorcycles first, and gaze at them later, the Star Raider never forgets that it's going to be ridden. Looking at it, you might guess the Raider would need manhandling to go where you want it to. The fork legs jut out at 39 degrees, and at just shy of 71 inches, the Raider has the longest wheelbase of any OE cruiser. And with that minimalist bodywork, there's plenty of room left around the engine-always high on the stylists' wish list-and to let the saddle sit low on the frame. That seat swoops down to 27.4 inches off the road. The tires, however, might tip you off that this bike is more than a design exercise. Though the front hoop is a 21-incher, instead of an ultraskinny tire, it wears 120/70-21 rubber. And rather than a monster rear tire wider than your passenger's butt, the Raider rolls on a 210/40-18R Metzeler ME880 Marathon.

Drop into the saddle and you learn that the designers remembered the ergonomics, too. The handlebar isn't too high, and the reach to the forward footpegs gives room enough for tall riders without forcing shorter ones to scooch forward. The seat is full, roomy and relatively flat.

Instead of the floppy low-speed handling its raked-out fork might suggest, the Raider is pretty neutral and needs just mild effort to negotiate its 730 pounds (wet) through a crowded parking lot (partly because 6 degrees of that radical fork angle are taken up on the triple clamps). Steering is light, if somewhat relaxed. You also notice the bike length when trying to make a full-lock turn.