Star Motorcycles V Star 1300

Big Double, No Trouble

Western North Carolina has some of the finest motorcycle roads in the United States, many of which just happen to be a stone's throw from the palatial confines of the RoadRUNNER offices. So when we got an offer to visit beautiful Asheville and spend a very unconfined day riding Star Motorcycles' brand-new V Star 1300 – well, let's just say no one heard any clatter from my keyboard for a while.

There was a time not long ago when an invitation to ride a mid-sized cruiser would have landed me aboard Honda's Shadow 750, Yamaha's Virago 750, or maybe Harley-Davidson's 883 Sportster®. My, how times have changed. The displacement détente that seemed to pacify the cruiser world throughout the 1980s and early '90s has given way to an all-out, custom-fueled jug war that has seen 750cc go from an engine's size to a cylinder's volume. Yep, bigger is better, and the "super-size me" attitude now has middle-of-the-road V-twins hovering in the 1300 to 1500cc range. But before my quibbles about change begin sounding like the incessant ramblings of a crotchety old coot pining for the "glory days" of outhouses, ringer washers, and 600cc cruisers, allow me to profess my belief in the good ol' American axiom that "there's no replacement for displacement." That said, it should also be noted that there's no substitute for excellent engineering. And you can rest assured that Star Motorcycles has embraced both ideas in creating the "mid-size" V Star 1300, a ride that carries all the big-bike amenities without the big-bike foibles....

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