Warpath

Warpath

QUIET RIOT SPECIAL SECTION

A Warrior's winding road to Sturgis

MARK HOYER

FIRST THING MOST CUSTOMIZERS DO IS TWEAK the rideability right out of a cruiser. Insanely wide rear tires, slammed suspension (or no suspension!), whacked-out ergos and silly little seats, it’s no wonder custom bike shows are static affairs.

Here’s to getting the show on the road. For in addition to one mutha of a motor courtesy of Yamaha’s Stage IV Speedstar hop-up kit, this Warrior’s had a subtle-but-significant sheetmetal massage, all with a mind to keeping intact the bike’s sporty ways. Perennial Yamacustomizer Jeff Palhegyi laid on his usual deft work, ending up with a sort of understated elegance mated to overstated engine performance. Think of it as a stealth powercustom, a “light sleeper,” if you will.

While the bike looks quite stock at first glance (only much nicer in the details), just about every little visual bit has been riffed upon. He started by stretching the tank and smoothing the fenders, and finished by dropping a “billet bomb” on the bike after a lengthy tussle with the Yamaha accessory catalog (www.yamaha-motor.com), not to mention adding a chin spoiler and micro-fairing. (As a consultant to Yamaha, it behooves him to include these things, even on personal projects. Plus, he gets the righteous discount.)

“I wanted something I could ride to Sturgis that was cool, but would be fun to ride on backroads,” Palhegyi says. “So essentially what I went for was a very clean, customized bike that not only made no compromise in terms of performance compared to a stock bike, but actually worked better.”

Performance Machine wheels and brakes the same size as stock means there’s some flash, but the chassis still works as intended. Ride height is stock, so cornering clearance is intact, which means it heels over quite well for a cruiser.

Acceleration, however, is explosive. While the 1670cc displacement is unchanged, the Yamaha factory “racing” kit really wakes this pushrod air-cooler right up. It’s also proof that it isn’t necessarily the size of the motor, but how you use it. Oh, wait, it is the size of the motor-this thing’s giant. It’s just better utilized.

New pistons raise compression to 10.2:1, while cams, velocity stacks, an air-scoop, uprated fuel-injectors, stiffer valve springs and a new ECU fire in more air/fuel and allow higher revs. A stiffer spring in the diaphragm clutch keeps a grip on the newfound vigor.

Even pushing the bumped-up rev limit (5500 rpm, thanks to the Yama-box performance brain), the thing still sounds like God’s own potato cannon-boom-boom-boom\

Only you’re the potato. With engine revs anywhere between 2500 and 5000 rpm, there’s 100 or more footpounds of torque at the ready, the 111 peak coming at a tick over three grand. That’s 15 ft.-lbs. up from stock. Bhp got a similar boost, picking up 20 great big blamos for a 96.6-bhp run on the CWdyno. That’s sweet stuff.

Out on the road, tire spin is just a flick of the wrist away. The Bub exhaust won’t win friends if you leave early for a Sunday morning ride, but it’s not eardrum-shatteringalmost a split-personality exhaust, reasonably quiet until you really pour it on. And you’ll be able to leave the neighborhood quickly.

Impromptu drags with some local sportbikers? See ya, suckers! One poor sap on a Suzuki GSX-R600 rolled up with his aftermarket exhaust hanging between his legs and asked, “All right, whaddya got in there?”

It’s just too pretty to be this quick, and with that fat 200mm rear meat, hookin’ and bookin’ is as easy as dialing up 2500 rpm and tossing the clutch. It won’t wheelie over backwards. In fact, we returned the bike with one little mod of our own, a rubberized undercoating on the inside of the rear fender...

Nice thing is, even with the bumpy cams and the rest of the engine work, this Warrior still idles nicely and is as docile as can be chuffing around town.

All up, you’re looking at “more than 20 big ones,” says Palhegyi. Some $6K of this is the Yamaha engine kit, so if you were going to build your own, skipping the laundry list of billet knickknacks, the PM wheels and such would get you in well under Palhegyi’s large budget. And if you leave it stock on the outside, it’s even more of a sleeper.

With Palhegyi flouting the law by using the ultramegaphone exhaust and a complete lack of tumsignals (gasp!) it’s a wonder he made it to Sturgis at all. It was probably just the fine combination of motor and chassis that kept him one step ahead of The Man.