Harley-Davidson Rocker Vs. Star Raider S

Harley-Davidson Rocker vs. Star Raider S

When worlds collide

PAUL DEAN

THERE’S NO DENYING THAT CUSTOM MOTORcycles are impressive expressions of their creators’ unbridled imaginations. But once you stop gawking and start riding, the cool factor usually comes to a screeching halt. If their deficiency isn’t a raked-out front end that flops around like a fish out of water, it’s an ultra-wide rear tire that makes leaning an exercise in hand-to-hand combat, or a rear suspension that delivers a bone-pulverizing ride, or too little cornering clearance for reasonable turning ability-or all of the above. Makes you wonder: Can’t someone build a custom that actually works, one that functions normally despite its radical appearance?

Yes, someone can. And Harley-Davidson and Yamaha each have produced a new chopperinspired custom that proves it. H-D calls its version the Rocker Softail; Yamaha’s is the Star Raider. These two behave so normally as you rumble down the road that you have little awareness you’re aboard bikes with forks angled at or near 40 degrees and rear rubber that’s as wide as many car tires.

Though both bikes are comparable in concept, they’re quite different in execution. With the Raider, Yamaha has merely dipped a toe in those raked-out, fat-tired waters, while H-D has plunged into the pool with a big, splashy cannonball. Built on a Softail platform, the Rocker is austere and uncluttered, with a solo saddle, a simple little headlight, hidden handlebar wiring and most of the pieces that usually are chrome-plated instead coated in satin-finish metallic gray paint. The steering-head angle is a rakish 36.5 degrees, the fork kicked out yet another degree.

But the most original touches for a production-line custom are out back, where the “Rockertail” rear fender mounts to the swingarm rather than to the frame. This allows it to wrap snugly around the 240mm rear tire and move up-and-down with the suspension. What’s more, the two red-lens rear lights function not only as tumsignals but also as running lights and brakelights, a feature H-D debuted last year on the Sportster Nightster.

There’s nothing even remotely as radical on the Raider, aside from its 210mm rear tire and 40-degree fork rake (a 34-degree steering head, with another 6 degrees provided by angled tripleclamps). Whereas the Rocker is stark and uncluttered, the Raider is glitzy and busy, with a conventional frame-mounted rear fender, a passenger seat, a large, oddly shaped exhaust system and chrome in most of the usual places (our test bike was the Raider S, which, for an additional $600, features tribal graphics and more chrome than the standard model). The result is a bike much more akin to a typical cruiser than the Harley, which really does look a lot like the work of an accomplished custom builder.

HARLEY-DAVIDSON ROCKER

$17,295

Álps A Looks like atme one-off custom A Feels small and tidy A Proves that custom and function can co-exist Downs ▼ Weak-suck brakes ▼ LED license-plate light waay too bright ▼ Requires an “I ride alone, ma’am” mentality (passenger perch optional)

Despite those differences, the two feel reasonably similar on the road. Both are smooth and stable, both provide a decent ride, and both are able to herd their considerable heft (671 pounds dry for the Rocker, 719 for the Raider S) around corners without drama. Overall, though, the Yamaha feels the most conventional. For the most part, it rolls on the same aluminum-framed chassis as the Star Roadliner except for the fat rear tire and raked-out front end. The key ingredients in its handling formula are those 6 added degrees of fork rake, which help compensate for the 34-degree head angle by reducing frontwheel trail to a very conservative 4.1 inches. As a result, the Raider steers as normally as many standard-style motorcycles. It’s an exceptionally long machine, its wheelbase falling just shy of 71 inches, but it nonetheless turns easily and gracefully, even at parking-lot speeds, without a trace of front-end flop. And the wide rear tire seems to offer no detectable resistance to leaning.

But that tire is “only” 210mm wide, whereas the Harley’s is a 240, and the Rocker’s front-wheel trail is a whopping 6.2 inches. Combine those two specifications and you get steering that is unexpectedly good but still not as consistently neutral as the Star’s. At road speeds, the Rocker actually turns into comers a bit more easily than the Raider; but once it’s banked over a bit more, you start to feel a small resistance to further leaning. This is caused partly by the rear tire’s width and partly by the long trail that gives the front end a slight tendency to fall inward. It’s nothing that prevents the rider from comfortably arcing around comers and is a far cry from the awkward front-end feel of most chopperesque customs, but the steering is not as linear and predictable as the Yamaha’s.

Speaking of “arcing around comers,” both of these rakish rides are surprisingly good at it. They can be banked over farther than quite a few less radically styled cruisers, and they remain stable and controllable all the while. Once their long footpeg feelers make contact with the pavement, the pegs then fold and provide a few more degrees of lean.

So, too, do they ride better than their spec sheets might indicate. Both are pleasantly comfortable over most road surfaces, even though each only has about 3.5 inches of rear travel. The H-D is marginally stiffer than the Star, especially at the rear, which causes it to react a bit more harshly over abrupt bumps. The Raider, on the other hand, has a shortage of rear rebound damping that occasionally allows a big bump to pogo the rider up off the seat. In the end, the

YAMAHA STAR RAIDER S

$13,980

J%lps ▲ Wonderful engine sound and feel ▲ Solid asa rock ▲ Fabulous brakes ^)owns T Passenger pegs much foo high ▼ Tribal art is so two years ago ▼ Hey, who bent my mufflers?

Yamaha’s excessive rebound is less of an intrusion into comfort than the H-D’s occasional choppiness.

Ergonomically, the two are comparable, with forward foot controls, deeply dished seats and grips that place the rider’s hands just below shoulder height. The Harley’s seat is about half an inch lower than the Star’s, a slight benefit for shorter riders, while the Raider offers a slightly more spread-out riding position that’s better for taller folks. Both seats are fundamentally comfortable but lock the rider into just one location, causing him/her to start squirming around after an hour or so in the saddle.

Then, of course, there are the all-important engines, both of them air-cooled, overhead-valve, fuel-injected, narrowangle (45 degrees for the H-D, 48 for the Star) V-Twins. The Rocker’s motor is the same counterbalanced, rigid-mount, two-valve-percylinder 96-incher found in every other 2008 regular-production Softail model, delivering its power through the same six-speed transmission and belt final drive. Likewise, the Raider’s 113-inch engine is identical to those in the Star Roadliner and Stratoliner. It, too, is counterbalanced and rigidly mounted, but with a fivespeed gearbox between its four-valve-per-cylinder motor and belt final drive.

Understandably, the Raider holds a significant go-power advantage over the Rocker as the result of its 17-cubic-inch greater displacement. In just about every aspect of engine performance, it runs circles around the Harley, whether in quarter-mile times, top speed, roll-on acceleration or sheer lugging power.

Motor-wise, the only time the H-D outshines the Star is when bopping down the highway at a mellow pace. The Rocker’s tall sixth gear allows the bike to cruise in a slightly more relaxed manner than the Raider. But if you need to make a quick pass on the Harley, a downshift or two generally is mandatory.

Unless there’s a semi coming right at you, however, there’s usually no need to downshift on the Yamaha. It makes serious torque right off the bottom and never lets up

all the way to its 5200-rpm rev limit. Between 1500 and 5000 rpm, it pumps out more torque than the Harley makes at any rpm, and the output never drops below 100 footpounds between 2000 and 4500 rpm. It simply proves the old adage that there is no replacement for displacement.

Ironically, the Yamaha’s engine also sounds and feels more like a classic big-inch V-Twin than the Harley’s. The Rocker’s exhaust note is heavily stifled by the smallish mufflers, even though the system utilizes a crossover tube that subjects each exhaust pulse to the combined volume of both silencers. No such problem with the S-model, which slams out a deep, powerful V-Twin boom that’s loud enough to make you wonder how Yamaha managed to sneak it past the Feds. The exhaust system isn’t pretty, a consensus reached by just about everyone who views it, but for a stocker, it emits beautiful sounds.

That same contrast of style and function pretty much tells the story of this entire a-Rockin’-and-a-Raidin’ comparison, not just of these two bikes’ exhaust systems. In terms of appearance, the Rocker is the runaway winner, a minimalist bike with so much custom “cool” that it’s hard to believe it rolled off a major manufacturer’s assembly line. The Motor Company is to be congratulated for having the stones to produce a bike that so closely emulates one-off customs yet still behaves like a real motorcycle. Plus, it’s a Harley, a factor that offers a cachet no other brand can equal.

But in terms of function, the Raider S excels in virtually every aspect-engine performance, handling, cornering, braking, comfort, versatility. It’s also some $3300 cheaper, giving it a huge edge in the more-for-less category. Simply put, it’s just a better all-around motorcycle. □