Let me start by saying that I love my '05 America. I've put a ton of money into it, and it's pretty much the best bike for what I usually use bikes for. What it isn't great at is cruising two-up: I'm not tiny, my wife is 6 feet tall, and there just isn't enough room to be really comfortable without making too many compromises on a day-long ride, not to mention a tour.
So while I'm keeping the America, I'm in the market for a second bike. My considerations are: It can't be a sport-tourer (just sold a BMW R1150RT, and I never really liked it); it can't have a big trunk I need to shlep around all the time (that lets out Goldwings and H-D Electra Glides, among others); it can't be a "road-sofa" performance-wise; and it can't be suited only to touring. Oh, and the Rocket 3 is out because it's one of the ugliest bikes on the market today; no way am I going to ride a bike with a radiator the size of Nebraska out front. What I'm really looking for, I've decided, is a heavy cruiser that can cruise comfortably with luggage add-ons.
I started my search at the Harley dealer. I've had Harleys before, years ago, and thought that surely with their huge selection there would be one that fills the bill to a T. I looked at the Softail Deluxe. Nice bike, but over $20K with tax and fees. Then I looked at the Road King line. Also nice, also over $20K. Same with the Street Glide  the new pay-more-to-get-less variation on the Electra Glide. Nothing I saw really got the juices flowing in an I-gotta-have-it kind of way. In fact, looking around the dealership, I saw what many call "tradition," but which could also be characterized as a plethora of tired, old designs spruced up with a few moderate technological improvements and glitzy paint jobs. I just couldn't get excited about anything there except, perhaps, the V-rod; but that wasn't what I'm looking for.
I then looked at the "other" American bike, the Victory. The choices there included the Touring Cruiser and the Kingpin Deluxe. The TC is an old design that's been around since the company began building motorcycles; it's a little dowdy, and each year Victory fans think it's going to be discontinued. It probably will be, as soon as Victory comes out with a proper, modern touring rig. Meanwhile, they're touting the Kingpin Deluxe, which comes with bags (tiny), a windshield, and, in '06, a 6-speed tranny for about $17K before taxes and fees.
The Kingpin certainly looks nice, and the dealer had a 5-speed '05 I could take for a ride. Actually, the bike is yet one more iteration of Victory's Vegas line. The seat is not very comfortable, and the bike may not have been in tune because it rode (and sounded) like a tractor. Also, the tank passes a pretty fair amount of vibration through to one's legs, which I found very annoying (especially coming off the America, where nothing vibrates enough to be noticeable). More than anything else, the vibration put me off. Overall, the Victory's are nice bikes. But they have taken one design, the Vegas, and are rolling out every possible iteration of it as quickly as they can.
Unlike the Harleys, which have terrific tradition but are technologically deficient, the Victory line is technologically in the 21st century (though far from cutting-edge) but has no character or soul that I could discover. In fact, with their fat-rear-tire Hammer and Jackpot models, as well as their clothing and club, Victory could be taking over from H-D as the ultimate, mass-produced poser-bike manufacturer.
I stayed away from Honda, Kawasaki and Suzuki, not because they're Japanese necessarily but because I do see their cruiser designs as slavish copies of Harleys, or what they thing Harleys should like like. Not that they're not fine bikes; it's just that I don't have any "feel" for them, as I do, for example, for my Triumph America. That being the case, even if they were the best bikes in the universe, I wouldn't enjoy riding them. So they're out.
That brought me to Yamaha, and specifically to the new Road/Stratoliner line, which, in an earlier thread, I referred to (with my usual restraint) as a "monstrosity...encrusted with every design element ever invented."
Well, even a "monstrosity" deserves another chance, so I rode over to my local dealer for another look. The Stratoliner (the Japanese really have to get the naming thing right) is not yet in showrooms, but the Roadliner is. In fact, most dealers, like the one I was at, have one one hand for test rides. The RL is the SL without the detachable windshield, passenger backrest and saddlebags; otherwise, they are identical mechanically.
It definitely is a very large motorcycle by any measure, with a 101.6-inch length, a dry weight of 758 pounds, and a 113 cu. in. engine. But if you get on one and intend to move it off its side stand, be very careful or you'll throw it over onto its right side. It's every bit as light off the stand as my Triumph, and I say that without exaggeration. I think it's some kind of Japanese sleight-of-hand...and it doesn't end there. Somehow, Yamaha has made the bike look heavy and be heavy without feeling heavy. It feels a tad heavier at slow speeds than my Triumph, but nothing like as heavy as my BMW RT, which was lighter than the RL/SL.
I decided to take it for a ride, albeit a short one. I had never ridden a bike with that size engine and that amount of torque before, and I was curious. The bike they rolled out for me was a Midnight RL, with everything, including the engine, blacked out. Nice, if you are anti-chrome, but not my taste. The moment the bike began rolling it seemed light on its feet, not at all heavy. More Japanese trickery. The torque maxes out at 2500 RPM, so you get to play with it in traffic if you want. Acceleration was what you would expect, but I'm not an acceleration-type of guy, so I got on it once, saw what was there, and slowed down. For me, it's the torque that makes the ride fun.
There is almost no vibration at all. What there is comes from the boom of those jugs moving up and down in their cylinders. There's an appropriate deep rumble, not at all obnoxious, which would be loud enough for me. The suspension can only be described as plush. Fit and finish are perfect, with many tiny details going unnoticed during a first pass. There's a small Yamaha decal behind the seat on the fender, apparently easily removed; another small Yamaha logo on the engine case; and as far as I could see, no Star identification at all, anywhere on the bike. Go figure.
All in all, unless I come up with a better idea real soon, I think I'll be putting in an order for a Stratoliner "monstrosity" (how I wish they would change that name). It's big, roomy, powerful, and is its own design  definitely not a Harley clone, unless, by definition, one considers every cruiser-style bike to be a Harley clone.
