Star Gazing

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Star gazing

David Edwards

THE MOUNTAINS WERE TEASING ME. FIRST it was those damn Alps. I had done the initial legwork setting up this issue's cover story, riding Honda's (so far) Euro-only CB1000R super-standard out of Edelweiss' Alps Touring Center in Seefeld-in-Tirol, Austria. But magazine business-more on that later-prevented me from doing the story, so Exec. Ed. Mark Hoyer ably stepped in.

I did get to ride a CB1000R later for a few miles in SoCal’s San Gabriel Mountains. Not exactly alpine, but enough to know that despite his heaping on of praise, Mark may have undersold the goodness of the CB. As I told American Honda Veep Ray Blank, “Do you realize the kind of positive ink this thing would generate if you brought it in?”

He does and he’s trying, but as you can read elsewhere in this issue, there are many factors at play. Okay, bad enough that I missed the Alps, but then it’s time for the Tour de France, my new HD television teasing me with wide-screen, high-def images of the peloton snaking along the Spanish-French border in the Pyrenees. Only my all-time favorite mountain range. I’d happily ridden the same roads, through the same passes, stopping in some of the same quaint villages, several times, either during new-model intros or on the GP-Euro Tours this magazine used to put on in conjunction with Edelweiss. Miss those rides.

I did have a little jaunt upcoming, though. Yamaha had kindly offered to haul my Warrior cruiser to the Star Days 2009 rally in Billings, Montana. Elephant-minded readers may remember the Warrior from our 2004 “Sturgis Shootout” story. The premise of that comparison test was simple: We asked seven manufacturers to each deliver a retro-cruiser to the big Sturgis Rally in South Dakota, where we’d mix in with 300,000 of our new friends for a week of biker bro’ing down.

The twist was that we allowed the companies to outfit their bikes with any accessory they chose from their own catalogs, and because we didn’t want to be the only riders in the whole blinkin’ state with quiet pipes, our sound meter was left at the office and aftermarket exhausts were permitted.

Star, er, creatively interpreted the rules, starting with their power-cruiser Warrior, not the expected fat-fender Road Star, and dropping it off at their customizer of choice, Jeff Palhegyi of Palhegyi Design. If you've seen a memorable Star custom in the past 10 years, whether it be in a magazine spread, calendar page, TV commercial or bike show, chances are it's been one of Jeff's. His ultra-smooth, distinctive designs have often been featured on the pages of Cycle World-in fact, check out his VMax in this issue's "American Flyers" installment.

While the Sturgis Warrior was fair ly subtle in its execution, it still ran a stretched gas tank, PM wheels, custom flamed paint job, generous amounts of chrome and several items not yet avail able to the public.

Given its rules bending, we were forced to DQ the Warrior, but ironically it was the bike we all enjoyed riding the most, thanks to suspension, brakes, han dling and cornering clearance (all stock) a cut above usual cruiser fare. I've al ways felt at home on Yamaha's big 102Uchpushrod V-Twin, and the 81 rwhp our bike pumped out made for some entertaining times on the backroads of the Black Hills. So much so that when the test was over and the story printed, I asked Yamaha to quote me a price on the bike. After all, it already had the Cycle World logo CNC'd into the handlebar clamp and luggage rack. Did I mention Pathegyi is very detail-oriented?

Deal done, I've been contentedly mo toring about on the "Rainbow War rior" for the past five years. Now it was headed for Big Sky Country. Better news is that instead of being trucked straight to Billings, it was waiting for me in Salt Lake City. Star had laid on a two-day, 600-mile press ride through Utah, Wyoming and Montana. Joining me would be Mark Zimmerman from Motorcycle Cruiser and Kai Raecke from V-Twin magazine. Leading the way with his dog-eared road atlas and corporate credit card was Joe Dagley, Star's dealer development manager.

The other guys had baggers, but I made do with a Marsee mag tankbag and a fa vorite piece of soft luggage, my Taichi LD tailpack, bungeed to the rear fend er-as I Twittered (~CycleWorldMag) during the ride, "More straps, zips and secret compartments than a B&D parlor."

We had a great ride, too. Into the hills out of Ogden, across the (no kidding) Star Valley and into Jackson Hole for a great dinner at the world-famous Cow boy Bar (buffalo ravioli, highly recom mended). Next day, it was Grand Teton National Park in the morning, Yellow stone in the afternoon (buffalo by the hundreds, sorry `bout the ravioli) and then the trip's highlight, the Beartooth Scenic Highway, 65 twisty miles long and once described by CBS's roving Charles Kuralt-one of my journalis tic heroes-as "the most scenic drive in America." That's a snapshot of my War rior parked atop Beartooth Pass, 11,000 feet high, snow still around even in July. See, if you can't get to the mountains, sometimes the mountains get to you...

OH YEAH, THAT MAGAZINE BUSINESS that kept me out of the Alps? Well, the issue you hold in your hands is the last CW that will be stapled together. Starting with the November issue, we'll go to perfect binding (book-style glued spine), just one of many upgrades to your favorite motorcycle magazine. See the ad on the adjacent page, check out the website and tune in next month. It's a new World. D