Hey Everyone, newbie questions about cruisers and customization - Motorcycle-Journal Forums

Vip18971 · 12-10-2007, 11:52 PM

If you don't care to hear the background and just want the question skip to the second-to-last paragraph.

I currently own a Yamaha Virago XV750 Midnight. At just around 500lbs and 40-something HP/TQ, it can get up out of its own way at least.

Now, its a decent bike, but its from 1983, and it's seat sits just a bit high for me - its 28.1 inches up or somesuch, and I'm pretty short (5'5"), so it isn't the easiest thing to manage.

So, I'm looking into a new bike. The Yamaha V-Star 650 Customs have a seat height just under 26 inches, I believe - they're great looking and seem to fit me really well. Overall I like everything about them, EXCEPT the absolute lack of power. Now, I know these aren't sportbikes and aren't meant to haul ass, but the level of power it has is pretty much unacceptable.

Now, I've looked around a lot and aside from its lack of power, this thing's relativley light weight and low seat height and its styling make it great for me.

So what kind of stuff can you do to these V-Twins to get better performance out of them? First, the trans/rearend. As it stands now the thing is suppossedly at just over 4,000 RPMs at 60MPH with a 5-spd gearbox (shaft driven). That isn't going to work. What is it back there? A gear, a sprocket? I have no idea, I'm really new to bikes. Can you swap them out like with a car? And onto the engine. I've looked around online and found something called a Hypercharger that people say is largely a scam, but who knows. Are there other bikes I can pull the heads off of and swap out - or can I machine those heads, port 'em, or any of that stuff? Does anyone make a bigger carbeurator I can slap on there? (Yamaha shrunk the carb to increase low-end tq at the expense of top end power...real nice) Do they make things like higher compression pistons and aftermarket cams for 'em? I'm completely clueless here, I'm coming from cars and well...the two are noticably different.

Any help is appreciated, even if you're just pointing me somewhere else in the right direction. Sorry to sound like a damn idiot, but...well...as it stands right now with respect to bikes I am one. I'm hoping there are a few Yamaha gurus around here that might know - the Yamaha V-Star form hasn't been posted in since 11/30 so I figured that was useless.