Yamaha Aims for the H-D Road Glide & Misses the Mark by a Mile
Star Eluder appears to be a Harley Bagger from the future of Blade Runner 2049.
Baggers are big business and probably Harley-Davidson’s most profitable cash cow, so you can hardly blame everyone else for trying to grab some of that milk The latest “casual Friday” bagger (because it is a lot less than a fully dressed tourer) is the oddly named Yamaha Star Eluder. Mixing modern Japanese sports car styling, with big traditional V-twin power, and all the latest convenience features, this bike would like at home cruising the neon noir streets of Deckard’s 2049 Los Angeles.
Spun off of last years big Star Venture, the Eluder is the Road Glide in Yamaha’s lineup, with hard bags and a frame mounted fairing, but no junk in the trunk. You do have plenty of room in the hard bags for 18 gallons of grocery bags, or a weekend’s worth of clothes. There is a comfy seat for you and your passenger, and less than 28 inches between the ground and the seat to make parking lots less embarrassing. Just like Harley does, Yamaha fits a cut-down windscreen to this casual bagger, but there is still a good bit of wind protection.
Yeah, about that fairing though… It really looks like some sort of robotic hammerhead shark which got stuck halfway while transforming back into a motorcycle. The Eluder uses a big, pushrod, air-cooled, 1845cc/113 cubic inch V-twin motor, but it seems nobody told the styling department until it was too late. Pods wrap around the sides of the frame, much as you would expect on a water-cooled Goldwing, but they just have louvers to direct air at your legs or the motor. Then there is another set of pods toward the bottom with what looks to be a spot for fog lights. Strip all that away and you’d actually have a fairly nice looking V-twin motor. But chances are, you can’t remove it without some serious fiberglass work. Yamaha ought to try a version with a batwing fairing like the Street Glide.
