One of my favourite things, (sounds like a song) is going for a ride around our brilliant Hunter Valley with a couple of good mates. Such was the case one recent Saturday afternoon when I asked Garry Hughes (Road Star) and Noel Gibson (Kawasaki Nomad) to accompany me and give their thoughts on Yamaha’s latest cruiser offering, the XV1700 Road Warrior.

The Warrior is aimed at riders wanting something in a cruiser style but still capable of blasting along winding roads. A couple of months ago, I was waxing lyrical over the Triumph Speedmaster, well, the Road Warrior is a Speedmaster on steroids.

The 1670cc fuel injected V-Twin produces 60 very useable kilowatts at 4650rpm (redlines around 5000rpm). Belt drive transfers the 136Nm @ 3700rpm torque to the rear. By comparison the Harley Road King produces 110Nm @ 3100rpm and BMW’s K1200GT cranks 117Nm @ 6750rpm. Needless to say, the Warrior has more torque than a Country Women’s Association meeting.

XV1700 brakes, wheels, tyres and upside down front forks appear to have been stolen from an R1 and give the big V-Twin an aggressive low appearance. However, unlike the V-Rod or Kawasaki’s Mean Streak, the Warrior has ample ground clearance to give the odd sports bike rider quite a scare on the twisty stuff. I ran away from my friends on the Wollombi to Broke road with impunity, carving up the corners like I was on some wild roller coaster ride. That massive engine, tossed me out of tight corners like a bullet from a gun, so much so, that on some I was skipping the fat back tyre. It is possible to scrape the hero knobs on the foot pegs, but, you do get quite a good deal more lean than you’d expect from what is after all a cruiser frame.

The gunfighter style seat was firm but comfortable, although I doubt many pillions will volunteer to try the rear seat. Instrumentation is very good although some may criticise it for being hard to read. The test bike had an after-market "Cobra" 2 into 1 silencer fitted, which didn’t detract from the attractive style of the bike as does the original which resembles a big garbage can. Both Garry and Noel’s bikes were louder than the XV1700 but it was still no disgrace in the sound stakes by any stretch of imagination.

Garry (5’4" (160cm)) rode the bike from Broke to Cessnock and found that his arms were a bit too stretched out, while the rest of his body was quite comfortable. Both Noel and Garry had plenty of custom ideas for the bike. Mirrors were reasonably steady, self-cancelling blinkers carry through the good list of standard equipment plus it felt a lot lighter than it’s 275kg dry weight. The fuel usage will depend greatly on how hard you twist the throttle, but I estimate that you may be able to average around 17 kilometres to the litre. This coupled with the 15 litre fuel tank will give you an approximate range of around 210ks before the fuel light flickers.

In the USA where the Warrior has been out for a while, it has won the AMA/Pro Star hotrod cruiser class championship and was voted Motorcyclists magazine cruiser of the year.

$22,000 plus on road costs is keener than Harley’s V-Rod which would appear to be where it is aimed. Test bike supplied by Inskip Motorcycles Toronto 49592937. The bike tested will be for sale at end of September.

Some say it’s all in the name, I reckon Yamaha have got this one christened just right.

May your lid never skid....iparks@hunterlink.net.au....www.users.hunterlink.net.au/~mbbidp