I've been riding my 650 Yamaha V-Star for almost two years now and really like it. It's got classy styling, sounds good and has enough motor to pull me down the highway in excess of posted speeds. I've told my wife several times that I really like it, I just wish it were slightly bigger. Well, last night I kinda blew away the 'slightly' part of that! I came
Home last night with an '04 Roadstar 1700 Midnight Special! It's only slightly bigger than the V-Star but has almost triple the engine in it! It's going to take some getting used to but it's a pretty comfortable bike. It's hard to tell the difference between 60 and 85 without looking at the speedo! And, if you twist the grip, it scoots up there pretty quick! I hope I end up liking it as much as the smaller V-Star that I've gotten so used to.

Here she is:

Here's the 650. It looks like the 1700's little brother!

I like them both, but I do like the 1700 better. Did you keep the 650? When I got the Harley I decided to just keep my old bike in case one was down for some reason I would always have something to ride. I like my old bike anyway and didn't want to see it go. We become attached to these things.

Thanks! The 650 did have to go to pay for this one. Luckily it went to a buddy so I can see it whenever I start to miss it! I've got a '71 BSA barn find I want to get up and running over the winter and then I'll have two different styles to tool around on.

Quite nice. Do tell. Twin? Single? A triple perhaps ala BSA Rocket? There is a really good support and parts base for the vintage English iron.

Kinda plain Jane. It's a '71 Thnderbolt; 650 twin with one carb. Oil in frame set up. I got it with nothing up front. It had rear ended a car in '82 and has sat since. It's not locked up and I found a set of forks, wheel, tire and brake set up for it. Two cans of engine degreaser and its looking more like a bike!

My hope is to get it up and running and maybe do a little visuals on it. Nothing permanent but I like the look of this simple little cafe:

That's a good solid piece of British iron. The single carb will be much easier to set up than having to mess with and synch two Amal Monoblocs. The BSA twin engine was known as the power egg due to the egg shaped side cases. For a parallel twin they were smooth and probably more reliable than the competition. A very nice cafe bike could be coaxed out of that. You also have a really good drum brake on the front. Hitting that aluminum with 2,500 grit paper and then 3,000 grit, then billet polish will spiff it up right quick. Use WD40 as lube for the wet dry paper. BSA had a nice candy red color they used to use on their tins that I can see in my mind's eye on that bike with clipons, rear sets and a cafe seat.

When I relaced the wheels on my older bike (Kawasaki Z1A 1974) I ordered polished stainless spokes and nipples from Buchanans. Changed the whole look with that little bit of wheel bling.

After 30,000+ miles with the Victory, I find that I don't miss the smaller bikes all that much. YMMV