American

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You might want to check the 1/4 turn plastic screw in the bottom photo showing the access cover on the right lower fairing, It looks like it is not secure, the long edge in the center of the plastic 1/4 turn screw should be facing up and down. If you want to remove that cover remember after removing that 1/4 turn screw you have to slid the access panel up and then pull it outwards to release it from the plastic slots in the lower fairing.

Two up ride today 174 miles 3.629 gallons of fuel for an average of 47.94 MPG.

The reason they recommend premium fuel is two fold, one for knock prevention, it allows them to provide the best tune for the engine and two premium fuel burning slower actually will assist in cooling the engine some.

What brand and viscosity of oil are you using now.

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Glad to hear you did not get any damage, this mirrors the one journalist group ride where on of the riders dropped a Star Venture in the parking lot, they as well said the bike tipped over to about 45 degrees and rested on the black plastic along the bottom of the saddle bag and the front crash bar and resulting in no damage, from the sounds of it your tip over was not a controlled tip over sitting on the bike but rather the bike falling over so it is good news that the system Yamaha designed does protect the motorcycle in a worst case tip over which you suffered.

I have never received a thumb drive from Yamaha or the dealer. I have an 8 GB Toshiba thumb drive that I have set up to use. It might help if those links were put in a sticky thread or tech page so they can be easily found and used for future owners.

Yamaha page for infotainment system software information and how to download updates. https://www.yamahamotorsports.com/transcontinental-touring/pages/infotainment-software-update At the top of the page where it say Download latest software update is an active link, you click on it and it will down load the latest software onto your computer then you copy that to a thumb drive and use the thumb drive to update the software on the infotainment system. The current software is R12.0.6. The page shows you how to check the software version on the infotainment system and walks you through the rest. I have the Yamaha toolbox on my desktop but I am not sure what good it is, going to the link provided above will get you to the software, the Yamaha tool box always tells me there are no updates available. Here is a link on how to install the Yamaha Toolbox: https://yamaha.welcome.naviextras.com/download/yamaha_user_guide_en.pdf Here is a link to the install page for the Yamaha toolbox: https://yamaha.welcome.naviextras.com Between the three links everyone should be able to find one of them that works for them on getting software updates for the infotainment system.

Yamaha page for infotainment system software information and how to download updates. https://www.yamahamotorsports.com/transcontinental-touring/pages/infotainment-software-update At the top of the page where it say Download latest software update is an active link, you click on it and it will down load the latest software onto your computer then you copy that to a thumb drive and use the thumb drive to update the software on the infotainment system. The current software is R12.0.6. The page shows you how to check the software version on the infotainment system and walks you through the rest. I have the Yamaha toolbox on my desktop but I am not sure what good it is, going to the link provided above will get you to the software, the Yamaha tool box always tells me there are no updates available. Here is a link on how to install the Yamaha Toolbox: https://yamaha.welcome.naviextras.com/download/yamaha_user_guide_en.pdf Here is a link to the install page for the Yamaha toolbox: https://yamaha.welcome.naviextras.com Between the three links everyone should be able to find one of them that works for them on getting software updates for the infotainment system.

Yamaha page for infotainment system software information and how to download updates. https://www.yamahamotorsports.com/transcontinental-touring/pages/infotainment-software-update At the top of the page where it says Download latest software update is an active link, you click on it and it will down load the latest software onto your computer then you copy that to a thumb drive and use the thumb drive to update the software on the infotainment system. The current software is R12.0.6. The page shows you how to check the software version on the infotainment system and walks you through the rest. I have the Yamaha toolbox on my desktop but I am not sure what good it is, going to the link provided above will get you to the software, the Yamaha toolbox always tells me there are no updates available. Here is a link on how to install the Yamaha Toolbox: https://yamaha.welcome.naviextras.com/download/yamaha_user_guide_en.pdf Here is a link to the install page for the Yamaha toolbox: https://yamaha.welcome.naviextras.com Between the three links everyone should be able to find one of them that works for them on getting software updates for the infotainment system.

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Saddle bags are easy to remove, just four Allen bolts/screws and one electrical harness to unplug.

12.0.6 is the latest software version.

I heard that you purchased a Yamaha Star Venture Transcontinental and wanted to congratulate you on the new motorcycle.

No problem Freebird, But I have decided that this is not the forum for me, hope you have success with the forum for years to come.

Been watching the different cowpuc videos of the new Star Venture and every single one he is less then complimentary of the new Venture so take it any way you want, cowpuc has an issue with the new Star Venture that he shows in his posts that are thinly veiled jabs at it. He even does a video which I stopped watching after they make the claim that the Star Venture is not comfortable for the passenger. I can refute that comment as my wife thinks the Star Venture is the most comfortable bike we have had yet and she did not complain about the others but this one she say is the best of all of them. Seems in every video cowpuc just can't bring himself to praise the new Star Venture without have to get his thinly veiled jabs in on it be it in the video itself or in the comment section of said video. I could care less if you block me by the way. I see why some of the new third gen Star Venture owners are starting to drop out of this forum.

I said in response to Half_Crazy: Your comment about test rides on the Yamaha and Indian and people thinking they are powerful is because the engineers have designed the engines to be responsive where people are going to be riding the bike 99% of the time. I would much rather have a bike that is in the power band 99% of the time over a bike with a power band I will use 1% of the time. Mister-g: love this statement right here. it is so key yet few people talk about it ,,, like it's no big deal . with this gearing set-up and the bike in touring mode, well that sure sounds like a winning combination to me ! i have sat on them a few times and was happy with that assessment, i will be looking to get a test ride at some point this summer. nic job on that OP

This is Half_Crazy's first post in that thread you pulled the posts from. Like normal Half_Crazy dishes out his thinly veiled jabs. If you are going to use posts from another forum at least be honest in them, it is clear you took a real likening to Half_Crazy. I would have 3 issues with the bike. 1) Pricey. 2) Load capacity is only 408 lbs. I'm 220, so that leaves 188 lbs for passenger and all luggage/gear. 3) Power level right there with the Indian 111. http://www.thevog.net/attachments/1212-png.466105/ 4500 rpm and it's over? This sounds so familiar... yup, has Indian written all over it. Why would you need 'driving modes' on a bike that weighs 963 lbs and makes 0.68 horsepower per cubic inch? I guess you wouldn't want it to get away from you, huh? Let's see... 12.5 lbs per horsepower for the Yamaha. A stock Cross Country Tour is 10.7 lbs per horsepower, a stock Cross Country is 9.4 lbs per horsepower, and a stock steel frame Vic is 8.2 lbs per horsepower (my bike is 5.2)... People come away from a test ride on the Indian or the Yamaha thinking it felt really powerful. It's the way they are tuned to run, but when you open it up there's nothing there. Shift at 3500 and ride the torque curve, because that's all you have. Now here is a post responding to half Crazy from another VOG member: lou8700: Come on Larry, you can't judge all bikes only by what's best for you. It's like comparing a 69 Hemi Cuda to a 69 Cadillac Coupe Deville. If you and your wife were heading out on a month long tour of the country which bike would you rather do it on, your KP or this Yamaha? You and Half_Crazy have a lot in common in the way you both post cowpuc.

Boy I have a lot I really want to say about you cowpuc, but I will just bite my lip and not engage you because in the end your just not worth it.

OK, I finished watching your video and you way over simplified the effect of horsepower to the point that you failed to mention at the end that in order to use that horsepower you built you will have to down shift and get those RPM's up or you are dead in the water. I know you are still trying to justify your high RPM V-4 engine over the low RPM V-Twin that Yamaha decided to go with, but reviews have been pretty good on the power delivery of the 113 V-Twin with reviews stating that there is not much need to drop down a gear to pass because of the torque of this 113 engine. To many people like to use a dyno graph to push horsepower over torque but when all is said and done horsepower is still just a product of torque, it is a measurement of work done to move said object. What these people do is they will point at the graph where the torque curve starts its downward path, that does not mean torque is no more, and they point at horsepower that continues to climb a little longer before it starts to drop off. Without torque there is no horsepower. Once torque falls off so far horsepower starts to follow torque and fall off as well because once you get to the point of not enough force to move said object horsepower can no longer continue to climb as horsepower is a measurement of work. Once the work drops to a certain point the horsepower starts to drop with it. Now many dyno graphs can't show this because of the limitation of RPM's of the engine meaning the engine runs out of RPM's before the horsepower starts to drop and follow the lose of force. Fords used to have an advantage over Chevrolet at certain race tracks that favored torque in a certain RPM range coming out of the corners and the Fords would spank the Chevrolets on those tracks every race, currently in Pro Stock drag racing the NHRA limited the RPM's the engines could turn, this hurt the Mopar's and Ford's but it favors the Chevrolets as the Ford and Mopar engines need more RPM's to make their power where as the Chevrolet engines favors the lower RPM limit set by the NHRA. In my opinion it is more of General Motors dollars to over come the competition, it has gone on in NASCAR for years. In NASCAR when every Ford would get an advantage the rules changes would come weekly until Chevrolet was winning again , but when it is the other way around Ford is told to shut up and work harder. But that is another discussion. What you may find interesting is an acceleration curve pretty much follows the torque as torque builds acceleration is hard pushing you back into the seat but as torque starts to fall off so does the acceleration. Torque gets you there horsepower keeps you there.

Here is a less confusing explanation of Torque and Horsepower than the cowpuc video.

If my Leno video was to long here is an even shorter video: