Babes In Golfland
Rollin' around the streets of the touristville that is the Coachella Valley we got a little more insight into our babies. The two bargain bikes were far more suited to life in the city. The pullback bars, while tiring at a long stretch offered good leverage, and combined with their lithe steering and low center of gravity both the Sportster and Shadow worked pretty good. They both had transmission issues though, the Honda is squishy-soft, while the Harley goes clunk and has a heavy clutch with an inconsistent disengagement. The Aero's brakes were good in the stop-and-go, with the front brake strong enough to make up for the only drum rear in the test. The 883's brakes were a weak spot, slowing the bike, but having very wooden feel at the levers. The rear was more effective than the front, which, for a beginning rider, is not a good thing. Also, the 883's levers themselves are set close to the bars for smaller riders, but some of us big monkeys had trouble getting our armored gloves in and out from behind them. The Vulcan's brakes are a concern as well with a good initial bite that goes soft , so in a panic stop a firm hand is required. The America has adjustable levers, which is a nice way to adapt to different riders, and good, solid braking, as does the V-Star 950 which is equipped with the only floating brake rotor in the test.
The Triumph is probably the bike least suited to city life. With a top-heavy rev-happy powerband, a relatively top-heavy center of gravity, and hard to reach foot controls, the America in constant danger of a parking lot tumble with our less experienced riders. The shorter-geared bikes (Honda and Kawasaki) had an advantage around town, but the torquey Star had no problems keeping up, it just never got out of third gear.
Before we knew it, we were trading the bright lights, silver hair and golf of Coachella for the desolation of the eastern Salton Sea. Here long, slow stretches of road frequently caught behind trucks with nowhere to pass brought the best of us in touch with their inner demons. A trick most touring riders will do to uncramp their legs and change which muscles are getting the brunt of their weight is to switch to the back pegs for a bit. Unfortunately, on the Star, Kawasaki, and Honda it requires a bit of contortion to reach the rear pegs, so it's a brief respite at best. The Triumph had the best rear perches, down low and back for a real change-up from the stock position, while the Harley's were just inches in back of it's midmounts for a very minor change of venue, if easy to reach.
The CA 111 might be a boring road with a bunch of testosterone-fuelled menfolk raring to get past cars, but add a passenger and Bluetooth headset, and suddenly you've got enterainment. Perhaps not surprisingly, as much as we'll complain about the rider accommodations on these rides, the passenger set-ups were pretty solid. With low pegs and a wide seat, the Triumph passenger had little to complain of. The V-Star and Vulcan have nice roomy rear seats, but slightly high footrests. The Sportster perch is actually quite nice, though a passenger with big feet might run into yours...now about that suspension travel. On that same note the Honda doesn't really have the suspension to deal with the added load. Sure you could crank on the preload, but the damping just isn't there.
Run To The Hills
Whether you're into riding on mountain and canyon roads or not, you find out a lot about a bike by going around corners. For that we headed west from Salton Sea into North San Diego County. It was here that we discovered the one chink in the V-Star's domination of this test: really low lean-angle clearance. Like many of the bikes in the Star line it drags boards at the first sign of a curve. Thankfully, it's such a solid-handling machine that the chassis doesn't get upset even a little bit. Star thoughtfully put replaceable steel sliders on the ends of the boards to keep from rubbing through anything expensive.
Most of the other bikes aren,'t far behind in dragging parts. Honda, Harley and Kawasaki are also pretty easy to grind on. The Vulcan has skid plates like the Star and also doesn't get upset with a little dragging. The Sportster 883 drags it's peg feelers about the same time that its dragging its kickstand (left) or pipes (right). While the kickstand is like a warning that you,'re about to ping off of something hard like the frame, the pipes aren't the most pleasant thing to touch down, sometimes messing with your line through the corner. The Honda just drags its pegs and your feet, but it's least stable of the bunch leaned over, especially at speed. On any kind of mountain road, the Aero's bars shimmy in the hand while leaned over. It never does anything worse than the shake, and the more experienced riders just rode around it. While it's a good bike for a smallish beginner to get some time on, we can't help but think that this would sap their confidence while trying to get to the next level. Combined with sub par power in this class, most riders were swiftly left behind when riding the Shadow; brakes are good though.
The Sportster was a nice ride in the hills, lithe tight handling holds the road well, just look out for potholes! Some riders complained that with the tiny peanut tank, you cant squeeze anything with your knees when leaned over. Power from the 883cc motor is perfectly tuned for riding in the twisties with a predictable, flat torque curve. The Vulcan is a nice ride on a curvy road. While its transmission is short for the open road, it's perfectly spaced for backroads, laying down the Vulcan's torque. The light-steering machine is very little work to ride and never does anything weird. Both Harley and Kawasaki have brakes that don't offer a lot of feel, so a firm tug on the fronts is needed from both, and they fade under heavy use.
If the Honda pilot always got left in the dust, the Triumph rider always did the running first. Combining a sportbike-like powerband, loads of ground clearance and solid brakes, the Triumph was deceptively and smoothly fast in the mountains. The slightly tippy feel in town, transformed when cranked over at speed. The Triumph simply destroys corners, leaning over readily and carving them easily.
Despite its appetite for destroying its own foot perches, the Star is actually pretty solid in the twisties. While not a quick handling as either the Kawasaki or Triumph, it is extremely stable and easy to guide around corners. So stable that the boards can be used as feelers to gauge lean-angle. It was the machine, along with the Kawasaki, that riders of all skill levels liked and trusted.
The Proper Beatdown
Before we knew it, our days in the dez were drawing to a close. We took one last long look at the bikes, while we were swapping our luggage up to trade bikes one last time for the ride back to LA.
The 883 Low, despite adding rubber engine mounting a few years back, is roughly the same design it started life with back in the 1950's. Which at the time was a sportbike; a superbike even, as given to racing as to doing anything else. Now, with the switch to lowered suspension on all Sportster models, it's truly become that which its supporters had denied for years: a girl's bike, best suited to those under 120 lbs. The exhaust note is pretty girly as well. Styling and details are hit and miss, but it's a solidly built machine, without a lot of plastic (yea, we're looking at you Honda). The accessories chosen for it mostly didn't help, the shield buffeted, while the seat was a flat-out bad design. Thankfully, the saddlebags were large, well designed and fit tight to the bike. Due to competing complaints between it and the Honda Shadow Aero, it barely ended up in last place.
The other bargain-priced machine ended up sharing the hind tit. Honda's Aero pleased the one shorter rider we brought along, as it was the one bike that seemed to be built for him. He was just bummed that so many of the details got skimped on for price. With more power, better suspension, and a good seat, he'd have picked it #1. As it was, the ergonomics on the Star and Kawasaki were good enough to vault them over this fine, but flawed, machine. The bar shake when cornering hard was a big downer for some testers, which caused them to drop it to the bottom in their rankings. Details were predictably cheap on the Shadow (can you say "plastic"), but overall design was solid and attractive, and the pipes had a nice rumble to them. The touring equipment was the best designed of the add-on bikes with good-sized, solidly-mounted bags and a killer windshield.
It probably shouldn't have been a surprise that the converted cruisers were at a disadvantage to the "real tourers" in this test, but this one had the smallest gap to the Star and Vulcan. The Triumph, with its fusion of old-school brit styling with 21st century cruiser retroness, was an odd duck in this test, but one that riders and passersby would stop to stare at. As far as overall design went, the America was duking it out with the Star for first place, but in the details it wins, hands down. Everything looks like it got the designers touch. The best detail? Dual EFI throttle bodies designed to look like carburetors. The exhaust down both sides of the bike got a lot of looks as well. The engine was the smoothest in the test, and also the highest revving, maybe not the best for a cruiser but on the backroads nobody cared. The touring add-ons were pretty weak, the small bags were impossible to overstuff with non-functioning buckles, the windshield wasn't very protective, and boards were plain bad. None of the testers lost sight of that, or the fact that this bike starts life naked at almost the same price as the fully-rigged tourers.
The Kawasaki Vulcan 900 Classic LT has owned this category for a couple years now, and only barely gives up the crown now. While the shiny new Star has a more cutting edge design, the Vulcan still has gobs of smooth chrome. The Star brings better gas mileage, while the Vulcan has a bigger tank. The 900 sinks on some of the little details. The gauge has only a single tripmeter, while all the rest (even the very un-tour-worthy) have two. It has smallish faux leather bags to the V-Star's locking hardbags. And while some might prefer that giant screen, most of us were groovin' on the compact and effective Star unit. The gearing, which might work fine on the non-touring 900 Classic, isn't suited to life on the road.
The folks at Star as much as admitted they took careful aim at the Vulcan 900 when designing the V-Star 950, and it worked. It does everything that groundbreaking machine does at least as well, and excels at all of its weak points. As a testament to the basic similarities of the machines, some of our testers would get confused which they were riding and when. The sporty design, a blend of the classic cruiser, with something a little meaner just works for it. Unlike some machines that get hard bags stapled to their hindquarters, this one looks like it was made for it. And the sound out of those pipes... if you change them, you're an asshole.
Most of these bikes will be purchased as a rational argument to the semi-irrational choise to buy a bike. People will get the bike they can afford or works best. There are two bikes in this bargain bagger test that our testers deemed lust-worthy; actually a bike that a rider would go for, not thinking of another bigger or more premium bike. The Triumph America qualifies, as does the Star V-Star 950. They're both bikes that will move you in more ways than one.