2004 Yamaha Road Star 1700 Engine View
Maximum Twin-Cylinder Motorcycles: Honda VTX 1800N vs. Kawasaki Vulcan 2000 vs. Yamaha Road Star 1700
On a bike intended to house a classical rendition of the V-twin cruiser motorcycle engine, the Road Star's mildly tuned air-cooled powerplant makes a bit of sense. For 2004, Yamaha increased the bore to match the specification of the Road Star's Warrior stablemate, at 97mm, giving this Road Star engine the same total displacement of 1670cc. Yes, it's the smallest engine here, but that's not why its power lags behind the two bigger bikes we pitted it against. Simply put, the Road Star's 48-degree, air-cooled V-twin engine has very mild camshaft timing, four small valves per cylinder, and must breathe through a single 40mm carburetor. That's partly why the Road Star's engine, at 61.1 horsepower and 93.1 foot-pounds of torque, dramatically lags behind even its Warrior brother, which, thanks to fuel injection, hotter cams and a freer-breathing exhaust system, pounds out 76.3 hp and 97.9 foot-pounds of torque, and has a 1000-rpm-higher redline to boot, even though its basic engine specifications are the same as this Road Star's. Yamaha is keenly aware of the gap, and we are fairly sure the company has something afoot, either hot-rodding or a new injection of good old displacement, to remedy this situation and achieve parity. View Related Article