Yamaha XV1100 Virago

...In the early eighties, Yamaha built its first attempt at cracking this market. They produced a 750cc V-twin engined bike in the style of a Harley. This early model fell flat on its arse. The problem was that Harley-Davidson owners had bought into the whole life-style and heritage of the company and the ideals that went along with it. The Yamaha buyers were just getting a marketing ploy that looked similar but just didn't come close. Yamaha went ...
...think. Yamaha had always built efficient, smooth bikes from off road bikes to race replica bikes and still today have that end of the market totally sussed out. But Harley riders weren't interested in how fast the bike was, to them it was all about low down grunt and power. These bikers wanted to load up thier bikes with camping gear, a few crates of beer and maybe even thier wife so they could head off on adventure with the wind in thier faces ...

scarecrow 16.02.2004 (19.02.2004) · Read full review
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Review of Yamaha XV1100 Virago

Passed my direct access test in 2000 and the first bike I owned was an XV100. Blue and cream with gold alloys and bags of chrome, I loved it. After adding a set of highway bars I could cruise all day with my feet out in front, magic. It was big, not very fast although it could cruise effortlessly all day at 80mph but it was a pig in traffic. Like all long wheel based bikes, when the speed dropped, so did the stability. But get it on a motorway or ...
...Sadly my other half would watch all the sports bikes flash past with some little girl on the pillion with her arse up in the air and having a rather nice arse herself decided that my baby had to go and be replaced by a plastic rocket. It was a sad day when I chopped her in at the dealers (the bike that is, not the girlfriend. Damn knew I'd got it wrong somehow) and rode away on a GSX600f. Got to say though, the Suzi has been good, done a couple of ...

Mykeonabike 18.06.2007 · Read full review
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Review of Yamaha XV1100 Virago