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Mega Gallery: Yamaha Star Eluder

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With massive motorcycles comes massive photo galleries. As such, we thought we would share with you over 100 high-resolution photos of the new Yamaha Star Eluder, the bagger variant and cousin to the Yamaha Star Venture tourer, in this A&R “mega gallery”.

Fat jokes aside, the Eluder and Venture are interesting bikes, as they straddle features and attributes somewhere between Harley-Davidson’s touring lineup (the Yamaha’s feature a 113ci air-cooled v-twin engine) and the well-selling Honda Gold Wing line (both bikes are rolling living rooms on two wheels).

This positions Yamaha’s to siphon-off riders from two of the best selling lines of motorcycle in the United States, which is surely no accident.

The Yamaha Star Eluder is not exactly our cup of tea, that much is for sure. But, while you can hate the player, you’ve gotta respect that game. Yamaha just upped the ante in the touring space with the Star Venture and Star Eluder.

Take a closer look at the 2018 Yamaha Star Eluder in the photos after the jump.

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Bikes

2018 Yamaha Star Eluder – Big Blue’s Behemoth Bagger

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If the Yamaha Star Venture wasn’t enough motorcycle for you, then you will be happy to hear that Yamaha is doubling down on its massive touring lineup, with the 2018 Yamaha Star Eluder.

The concept behind the Yamaha Star Eluder is pretty simple. It takes the massive Star Venture, does away with the big touring seats, and leaves a bagger in its place.

If this kind of transformation sounds familiar, it should, as it is a page taken straight out of Honda’s playbook, which lead to the creation of the Honda Gold Wing F6B and CTX1300 bagger models.

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Bikes

Yamaha Star Venture Production Delayed

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If you were in the market for a motorcycle that’s the size of a medium-sized car, we have bad news for you, as the recently debuted Yamaha Star Venture will be delayed in its coming to market.

Yamaha strategically made this announcement at the start of a three-day weekend, assuring the news would be buried once the American market returned from the Labor Day holiday on Tuesday.

It is not clear why Yamaha will delay the production of the Star Venture – Yamaha only offers an explanation in its press release that it “needed modification to the production process” at the factory in Japan – but the delay will mostly affect customers who purchased the bike through Yamaha’s “Priority Delivery Program”.

As such, Yamaha is offering those early purchasers a $1,000 credit towards Yamaha-brand parts and accessories. We’ll update you when we have more information surrounding the production delays for the Star Venture.

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MotoGP

Successful Surgery for Valentino Rossi

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The Movistar Yamaha team has updated us on Valentino Rossi’s condition, as the MotoGP underwent surgery on his right leg earlier today.

Rossi was first examined at the Ospedale Civile di Urbino, where he was initially diagnosed, then he was transferred to the Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Ospedali Riuniti in Ancona, where the surgery was performed.

The team reports that the operation was a success, and that the doctors implanted metal pins (locking intramedullary nails, to be precise) into Rossi’s leg to hold the bones together.

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MotoGP

Displaced Fractures and Surgery for Valentino Rossi

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Movistar Yamaha has issued another press release about the condition of MotoGP racer Valentino Rossi, confirming that the nine-time World Champion has broken the tibia and fibula bones on his right leg.

As such, Valentino Rossi will undergo immediate surgery to correct the fractures. The condition of the 38-year-old racer will be updated Friday morning, but it seems likely that this news dashes Rossi’s MotoGP Championship hunt for this season.

This is because a displaced fracture is a serious injury, as it means that Rossi has broken his bones in several places, and the pieces of the those fractured bones are not set correctly to heal on their own.

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MotoGP

Movistar Yamaha Confirms Valentino Rossi Injury

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After reports from Italy told of Valentino Rossi breaking his leg in an enduro training accident, we have been waiting for confirmation of that news from an official source.

Now getting on top of this evolving story, the Movistar Yamaha team has confirmed that the nine-time World Champion has been involved in a training accident, and that he was taken to the Ospedale Civile di Urbino for a medical check-up.

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Bikes

Yamaha Begins Teasing T7 Adventure Bike

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Yamaha Motor Europe has begun its teaser campaign for what we expect to be a new adventure bike in the company’s lineup.

Debuting the Yamaha T7 Concept at the 2016 EIMCA Show, the 689cc, twin-cylinder, ADV motorcycle is the prime suspect for the unseen motorcycle in this teaser video.

Yamaha hasn’t been bashful about the T7 Concept either, with prototype versions of the bike being caught out testing, and even loaned out the bike for a special photo shoot with Italian publication DueRoute.

Even in Milan, it was widely known that the concept on stage would be headed into production. So, here we are.

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WSBK

Alex Lowes Re-Signs with Pata Yamaha for WorldSBK 2018

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Yamaha confirmed today its rider line-up for 2018, with Alex Lowes re-signed to the Japanese manufacturer.

Despite having consistently been the man most likely to break the Kawasaki and Ducati monopoly, Lowes’ future had been uncertain until his Suzuka 8-Hours success.

Having stood on the WorldSBK rostrum twice for Yamaha this year, it looked like a foregone conclusion that a new contract would be signed, sealed, and delivered early in the summer.

As it was, patience was key for Lowes, but in the end he got the deal that he had been chasing.

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News

Yamaha Motorcycle Sales Up Overall, Down in USA

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Yamaha Motor has cause for celebration…just not in the United States, as the Tuning Fork brand posted a 6.6% increase in revenue during the first six months of this year, coupled to a 86.8% increase in net income.

These strong financial figures are due to strong unit sales in emerging markets, like Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, and Taiwan. But, they come with the caveat that sales are flat in Europe, and down in the United States.

Yamaha has some good excuses for its performance in these developed markets: blaming environmental regulations for the lackluster sales in Europe (we assume they are referring to the Euro4 emission requirements), and a weak overall demand for motorcycles in the United States.

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Reviews

Welcome to the A&R Superbike Deathmatch

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Hello and welcome to Asphalt & Rubber’s 2017 Superbike Deathmatch – our take on the motorcycle media’s superbike shootout review format, and the solitary path for a motorcycle to become A&R’s Superbike of 2017. Booyah!

What makes the Superbike Deathmatch different from other shootouts, you might ask? Well for starters, instead of renting a track out for a day, and spending only a limited amount of time on the plethora of machines available, we decided instead to take a lesson from college basketball’s very own March Madness.

That’s right, we are using a single-elimination head-to-head bracket system to find out which superbike is the best of the best, and thus worthy of being our Superbike of 2017. Think of it like a two-wheeled Thunderdome: two bikes enter, one bike leaves.

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