Over the top? The whole Star thing is over the top and a parody of Harley. It's vulgar, tasteless, and the perfect fit for WalMart shoppers.
Normally I'm not biased against any particular brand of motorcycle, but Yamaha sure is pushing it with their seperation of Star from the Yamaha label. To me it just reeks of Harley wannabe posing. From the STAR club with the back patches ala HOG, to their marketing campaign using vintage Indian board track footage, Yamaha/Star is just offensive. Just what lineage does an Indian board track racer have with a Japanese made Star motorcycle?
And even their prices are Harley-like at $14,000 for one of those Roadliners. So now that they've got the Harley look down, the Harley pricing, and the STAR riding club cloning of the HOG chapters, they've decided to go for the Full Monty by eliminating that Japanese identifying Yamaha logo off the tanks and putting on the ambiguous "Star" badge. Next thing you know there's going to be TV commercials saying "real Americans ride Star!" with America The Beautiful playing in the background.
I could care less what anybody else thinks of what I ride. After all, I'm on a Triumph which I hardly ever see, so I'm not one to be part of the "lifestyle" herd of fitting in. But if you see me on a Star cruiser, just put a bullet in me. It's one thing to be a poser, but posing to be a poser is just too much.
