Long-Term Bikes

Star Road Star S

MSRP: $13,090
Caretaker: Bartels
Measurements: 6'0"/198 lbs/33" Inseam
Odometer: 3117
Miles Since Last Issue: 408

It was a season for ups, downs and disappointments for our Roadie. Our stated mission from the outset was to make a bike both functional and cool, in this installment we're hoping to bridge the two requirements with a little tomfoolery. To be blunt, there's nothing badass about a bike with a sissy bar and luggage rack, it messes with the lines a little too much. So we needed to be able to strip this girl in a hurry (before her daddy comes home).

To this end we ordered up a few Star Genuine Accessories. A passenger backrest not only lets a passenger relax a bit and not feel the need to constantly cling, but opens up a world of luggage possibilities for solo riding, Add in a luggage rack, and you'll also have the ability to strap things above and below the rack, as well as add a ton off bungee attachment points. So to achieve all of our goals we made sure we got Star's Quick-Release accessories.

To install it, I had to swap out the stock fender trim rails for a set of flat chrome ones while the mounting hardware gained some almost-invisible mounting points for the Quick-Release gear. I'd like to say that the sidearms, backrest and pad went together without a hitch, but that would be a lie. The vinyl cover on the pad covered two of three threaded screw holes, and needed to be trimmed, while the holes in the sisybar didn't exactly line up either, and I needed to take a Dremel to it.

Once all bolted together, everything slides together relatively easily, though the sidearms do take a little coaxing to line up with the front mounts. It seems counterintuitive, but to go from passenger and luggage-friendly to stripped for the strip, it's best to put everything on and take it off in reverse order, starting with the rider seat (just a flick of the ignition key) followed by the passenger seat (which needs the rider seat off first), then the backrest. On our tester the wide Corbin passenger seat interferes with the backrest some during installation (requiring some wiggling to get it together), but for anyone with a stock seat this isn't a problem.

Once I had the program down, it's doable in about three minutes, if all the tools are at hand.

For the next step, I have a set of Corbin's Beetle Bags, but it seems like they're not compatible with the backrest, so there are a few hard decisions to make: backrest or hardbags? I'm pretty sure I can strap more stuff to the backrest without bags, but it's not as secure from theft or the elements that way. It's all a moot point until I get the new exhaust put on, as the bags don't work with these pipes.-BB