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….and my 2018 Yamaha Star Venture watching from outside when I neglected to tell her I was trading her in.
![Tire Land vehicle Fuel tank Vehicle Wheel]()
The day I bought my Road Glide Limited..
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You thankless bastad!!! 🤬
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Many parts of the Venture were great but it was a failure in my eyes. It left me sitting twice in the 11 months I owned it.
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That would make me trade in also. I would have expected so much better from Yamaha.
What were the issues and were they common with the model?
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I was intrigued by the Venture. It held a lot of promise for being a great bike. I didn’t have to change anything from the get-go. The seat, riding position, bars, were all perfect. It has a strong 113 ci air cooled V-twin, rode very well, handled great, and the roll on passing power was awesome. It was no slouch.
The disabling drawbacks were 2 starters in 5000 miles, electrical front brake switch failure, and there was a ticking noise starting to make itself known from the rear cam. These bikes incorporated flat tappets which require a good amount of zinc in the oil. Oil manufacturers are putting less zinc into their oils because zinc wreaks havoc on catalytic converters. The rear cams and lifters are well known for failing on these bikes.
The Venture was made in limited production for 2018, 2020, and 2021. It didn’t come back for 2022 and rumor has it that it never will. Other than a few Yamaha accessories, there was little to no aftermarket for the bike. All the plastic was cheap and flimsy. The bike was feature rich including GPS NAV, SXM radio, power locking bags, alarm system, reverse gear, power windshield, and full LED lighting but not everything worked reliably. The headlights on this bike rivaled any other stock headlights on any bike On the market. Four bright LED‘s that really lit up the road.
The bike had a lot of gear whine. There wasn’t one chain in the driveline. Gear driven cams, gear driven primary, which were all straight cut and it really all came together in a resonance hum at certain low speeds.
The bike also suffered from low speed drivability issues, occasionally surging and bucking and popping out the intake because of an extremely lean condition. I solved this by adding a Power Commander and a canned map from Dyno-Jet. After that it ran great.
The worst aspect of this bike was the heat. My God the heat! For some reason they incorporated a cast manifold tube that was about six inches long and went between the rear header pipe and the head. It would heat up like a brick oven. Why they didn’t put the header pipe to the head is beyond me and no one at Yamaha technical support could tell me why. I took infrared heat measurements at the front header pipe which was usually about 200-300 degrees F after just idling for 10 minutes, I would get readings on the cast piece of 600-700 degrees. The heat would blow out like a torch against your left thigh and many people had 3rd degree burns. On hot days I could never enjoy the ride. I was constantly thinking about what to do about this heat. Believe me, Harley heat is nothing compared to this.
I owned the bike for 11 months. It was a 2018 demo model that sat on the dealers showroom for 2 years until I bought it in June 2020. The dealer was so happy to see that bike go. It had 400 miles on it. I got a huge discount, like $9000 off.
What I miss most about this bike was the reverse gear. It weighs as much as my Road Glide Limited. Backing it slightly uphill over the lip at the edge of my garage was nice. The one redeeming factor for this bike is that it had a five year warranty. Unfortunately I missed almost the entire riding season of 2020 while it waited for new starters. The first replacement lasted a month. It was a nice looking bike, very different looking fairing with those 4 lights. but as far as the engineering I don’t think it was ready for prime time. I was glad to see it go. Traded it last May, 2021 for my RGL.
^thank you and very interesting. I remember riding one here at a bike festival and yeah, the list of included features was impressive, there was one Youtuber that had 100k on his without any issue, I figured Yamaha would have sold a bunch of these. HUh. I never knew about the heat - that sounds bloody awful.
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So did I. It was a huge disappointment.
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Your speaking of Long Haul Paul. That guy is full of it. He gets a free bike from Yamaha for his “charity”. I’ve never talked to anyone who didn’t have problems and I knew a lot of the owners because it’s a small circle online. I think most of the problems were 2018 which is the year bike that I had.
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My sister didn’t care for the color of my Gauntlet Gray on black 2021 Limited. She told me it looked like pavement. I kinda agree. The black out look is losing its appeal to me. I’m going back to chrome on the next one. I hope they come out with better colors than 6 different shades of gray and black next time. My 2016 Ultra Limited was two tone Velocity Red/Mysterious Red Sunglow. It sparkled like fire in the sun. They need some better colors. I’m gonna hurt someone’s feelings here but that Gunship Gray looks like clearcoated primer to me. Sorry. Eye of the beholder and all that you know….Nice color. I might be partial though.
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