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Royal star venture.

9K views 8 replies 3 participants last post by  MysteryWriterMan 
#1 ·
Does anyone on here ride a venture? I'm looking at buying one and wondered how your thoughts are of it. Is it comfy on long rides, how does it take curves, is it top heavy?. Thanks for your input.


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#2 ·
I've owned my Venture just over a year now. I rode a Road Star prior and still do. The Venture is a very comfortable touring machine with great creature comforts, stereo, CB, cruise control with comfortable (stock) seating for me and any passenger. With little maintenance they are very reliable and bullet proof. Don't be afraid to buy one with 50k maintained miles. I've logged 13k miles on mine and ride it more than the Road Star.

It took me a while to get used to the weight and slow speed handling, I feel comfortable now but am not a master of tight u turns. The Venture is probably the most difficult to control in slow speed maneuvers of all similar motorcycles. I've never scraped anything on it like I do on the RS. If you have the skills it can surely complete a motor officer course.

I have test rode many of the latest and greatest $25k+ touring machines. I come away questioning what can they do that my Venture '08 $9k can't? Turn heads? I don't need flash, I want affordable reliability.
 
#4 ·
I'm 63 years old and stand 5'8" with a 29" inseam. My bike is stock with no height modifications. I can barely flat foot both feet at a stop. In the early days with this bike I did manage to mishandle the top heaviness and drop it while stopped more than once. There was a learning curve with respect to stopping. I've become very aware of things like surface firmness and inclines, paying close attention has helped dramatically, no mishaps in a long while.

Yes, there are many ways to lower the bike. Lowering links, smaller tires, seat mods, etc... I like things stock and haven't changed anything.

I'm perfectly happy with my Venture. Reliable smooth running 4 cylinder, water cooled with 98 horse power. It's a detuned V Max engine. Speed isn't what I'm into now days but wind it up and shift points are 30 mph, 60 mph and 90 mph. Around town there's no need for 4th or 5th gear. It's very comfortable on the highway at 85 mph or so, downshift to 4th, a simple twist of the wrist, triple digits. I average about 37 mpg, with a best of 45 on a speed managed trip.

Hope this helps. Look around there are plenty of low mileage well kept Ventures priced under $10K. I have the "S" model with additional chrome and get complements on its looks often. The bike is relatively unchanged throughout its life cycle, 1999 till 2013. Yes, it's true, every single one has a high performance cassette deck. Have you researched the Venture Forum? Venturerider.org
 
#7 ·
Ok I'm 52 yrs old, 5'9" tall. I currently ride a yamaha 950T. I've been riding motorcycles since I was a teenager. I've looked at these ventures for several years now just wasn't able to pull the trigger. Just today I went and looked at a 2008 model, I rode it to see if it was what I wanted, it was not a problem with the top heavy part, I was able to put both feet flat on the ground so it worked for me very well. I did not purchase this bike because it was not the color I wanted. I had found one on Graigs list over the weekend but it was 2 hours away so hadn't looked at it as of yet. After looking and riding this one today I called the man and worked out the deal over the phone, so I'm going up on Saturday to pick it up. It is the Black Cherry color, 2006 model. I will post pics after I get it home. Thank you again for your help.


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#8 ·
We'll I went up on Saturday and picked my new to me 2006 royal star venture, black cherry in color and rode it home, we'll almost home about 20 miles from home we stopped for ice cream and my bike would not start. "Not good" . Boosted it off and rode it home, started testing and it looked like stator went out. My wife was not happy. So any way I ordered a new one, put it on today and it fixed the problem. Rode for about 100 miles and I loved it. Hope that's all that goes wrong with it.


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#9 ·
Does anyone on here ride a venture? I'm looking at buying one and wondered how your thoughts are of it. Is it comfy on long rides, how does it take curves, is it top heavy?. Thanks for your input.

I'm 75 and have a 29 inch inseam. I have a 2006 Venture. When standing still, my feet are flat on the ground. In my opinion, this bike handles as well at slow speeds as any big bike I've ever ridden. I disagree a little bit with the person who said it's the worst big bike at slows speeds. I think, perhaps, the absolute worst is an early (1998-2003) Honda Valkyrie Interstate. At slow speeds that bike WANTS to fall down. It BEGS you to let it go over. In that regard, this Venture is a dream compared to the Valkyrie. (However, I must be fair and state that the Valkyrie has the dream motor. The 6 cylinder is the smoothest most powerful engine I've ever experienced.) MY only complaint about the Venture V-4 is the sound of the drive train. It whines so much that at first I thought there was something wrong with the transmission. Now I've heard other Venture owners say that the sound is a characteristic of the bike. For whatever it's worth, I love the Venture.
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