American

Just came back from getting something to eat and filled up the Star Venture and hand calculated the fuel mileage at 40.1 MPG. The bikes overall average display is reading 40.0 MPG so it is right on the money on my bike. Not bad at all considering the bike is rated at 34 MPG and the engine is in the first 1,000 mile break-in period. I think Yamaha has built a winner in the Star Venture.

I had the 600 mile service done today at the dealer, The only parts were the oil (Yamaha 10w-40 oil) six quarts, gasket x two and an oil filter. They went through and checked the fasteners, checked and adjusted the drive belt did a diagnostic scan, checked all the lights and switches. Total cost $341.75 I bought a maintenance plan that covers the bike for three years for all scheduled maintenance including checking the valves, syncing the injectors, spark plugs, swing arm lube, steering head lube, brake fluid change at the two year mark. Anything the manual states is maintenance this plan covers it parts and labor. The maintenance plan cost $2,695 for three years of maintenance coverage. So deducting the 600 mile service $2695 - 341.75 = $2353.25 left to spend to break even and anything over that is pure gravy. I plan on riding this bike so I expect to get at least three valve adjustments done if not four before the maintenance plan expires. I figure the injector syncing every 4,000 miles, and new spark plugs every 8,000 miles will then add in the valve adjustments at 16,000 miles and the steering head and swing arm check and lube I am betting I come out way ahead and by the time the plan expires we should have a good idea just how these bikes are responding to maintenance requirements. The plan does not cover tires, clutch or brakes. Pretty much standard for any plan. I have never worn out a clutch on a bike and brakes I can do myself as well as tires as I have a No-Mar tire changing machine. Even the drive belt looks pretty similar to the Victory's as far as changing it. The plan comes out to $898.33 a year so for the first year I have already spent $341.75 of the 898.33 leaving $556.58 left to spend on year one to break even, I am betting the by the 8,000 mile service with the spark plug change I will have spent the entire 898.33 and will still have a valve adjustment coming and another set of spark plugs.

This bike is a semi dry sump system, so that may play into trying to take an accurate oil level reading. Remember you are measuring the oil in the oil tank and not a sump in the engine. While in theory you could do it that way, Yamaha wants the bike upright for a reason. I am betting that the bike on its side reads higher on the dipstick than when it is standing up. The Harley was the opposite when the bike was on the side stand the dipstick would show a lower oil level but that was because the Harley dipstick is on the right side of the bike while the Yamaha dipstick is on the left side of the bike.

No we did not purchase the lower wind deflectors. The top ones will direct a ton of air onto the rider/passenger by themselves.

J&S Jacks emailed me and asked me to send them some photos of the underside of the Star Venture so they can see what they can come up with. If they make an adaptor for the frame itself it should be able to be used with the jacks some of you have that are not J&S Jacks. I will post what J&S Jacks says when they reply back. I sent them 14 photos so hopefully they will come up with a solution that is first rate.

I owned a 2016 Harley Ultra Limited Low and the Harley can be checked on the side stand, the dip stick is designed to be checked on the side stand or standing upright. Good move on Harleys part.

I just measured the frame from the holes at the rear and there is at least 3 1/2 inches available before you reach the cross over pipe for the exhaust. I wish I had a machine shop to make up two adaptors with a pin to follow the curve of the frame with a flat bottom and secure them via two pins in the holes in the frame, that extra 3 to 3 1/2 inches would make a huge difference in the center point of the bike when lifting it.

I think a solution may be at the rear of the steel Fram rails, there are two holes in the frame rails where it starts to curve upwards, one hole on each side, if a block could be made that had a pin that would slide into the hole on each side with a flat bottom to extend the frame rearward another 2 inches I think that would make the bike lift more level. I think that would move the jack far enough rearwards to safely lift the bike. The photo rotated on the upload but you get the idea.

My wife and I have white helmets, white goes with any color bike, and white is one of the most visible helmets made. My says when we pass on the road in different directions that my white Arai helmet really stands out.

My wife and I have Arai Corsair X helmets, they are light, full face and they flow a ton of air in the upright riding position. We have Sena 30K bluetooth head sets installed on the helmets. Expensive? Yes, but the fit and comfort is outstanding.

My vin ends in 1063 so that makes another 369 SV/SVTC's out there in the world since yours. As people start seeing and hearing about this bike I think it is going to be a competitor in the market. I don't know if the bagger version shares the vin numbering.

Glad you are enjoying your new Venture, we just bought a Transcontinental and my wife loves the ride of it. We owned a 1989 GL1500 GoldWing, a 2013 Victory Cross Country Tour and a Harley Davidson Ultra Limited Low and this Yamaha Star Venture Transcontinental is head and shoulders above the other bikes we have owned. Stability in the wind and from passing trucks has been great the engine is very well designed as the torque curve just pulls this bike without any complaints. Engine heat is a non issue for us, it is very well managed and as the engine is breaking-in the less heat I am feeling from the engine. Yamaha using air/oil cooling was a good decision I think. I am curious to hear the results of valve adjustments when these bikes start getting to that point, I would think the hydraulic lifters would minimize the valve adjustment going out of tolerance.

I remove that sticker on all my bikes and living in Southwest Florida makes removal easy. I then use some Liquid Glass Polish and it looks like the sticker was never there.

Coming off the MSRP may depend on how big the dealer is, do they move a lot of bikes and can qualify for volume bonuses, how long they have had the bike on the floor plan costing them money or if they are close to the close out of a sales period and they are close to making said bonus so moving the bike with a discount will make them more money via the bonus. I bought mine from a smaller dealer so I paid MSRP but I did not feel it was over priced, I also got a good trade in number on my Harley Davidson Ultra Limited Low. This is a new bike so I would think discounts may not be on the table with most dealers for a while with the exception of larger volume dealers.

I use only top tier fuels, they contain more additives to keep the engine combustion chamber, valves and fuel injectors cleaner. For me I use Chevron the most, followed by Shell then Exxon/Mobil. I have no fuel issues with any of my vehicles. The auto manufactures worked with the oil companies to develop the top tier fuels so that the engines would run cleaner, our Honda Civic recommends using top tier fuels in the owners manual. If you are using Chevron, Shell, Exxon/Mobil, Costco you are using top tier fuel. There are other brands that are top tier as well but there are also some name brand stations that are not top tier. Here is a link to Top Tier that explains it and has a list of brands that are now top tier certified. The list has grown since the last time I checked it. https://www.toptiergas.com

I just bought a 2018 Star Venture Transcontinental, I also own a J&S Jack that I have used with my Victory Cross Country Tour when I had that bike then I used it with my Harley Davidson Ultra Limited Low and now I have the Star Venture. Like you I found that the rear tire does not want to come off the ground and you are just raising the front tire, like you I also repositioned the jack as far back on the steel tube frame as I could and tried again, this time while still tail heavy the rear tire did come off the floor and like you the bike was stable side to side but was not as stable front to rear as you could rock the bike. While we own different manufactures jacks I did email J&S and asked them if they were going to make an adaptor for their jack like they have for other bikes. I am thinking what is needed is the rear lift bar needs to contact the rear of the frame before the front lift bar on the jack, these bikes may need to be tied down to the jacks regardless because of the tail heavy bias of them. When I hear back from J&S I will post what they have to say.