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Custom Bike Review: Custom 2002 Yamaha V-Star 1100 Classic - From RoadBike March 2007  Wise Guy By Jon Langston, Photos by Bob Feather Once upon a time, there was a young magazine writer who wanted to purchase a motorcycle. Determined to take an educated approach, he shopped around, did his research, and asked lots of questions. Most important, he sought out the advice of his colleagues, people who had been around bikes for years and who knew motorcycles inside and out. “Buy an old clunker and fix it up,” the gearhead told him. “It’s a piece of cake.” “You can get a good deal on eBay,” the penny-pincher said. “Buy a new bike,” he said, “and leave it alone. If you want to change cosmetic stuff to make it look cool, that’s fine — but when it comes to the engine, leave it alone.” In response to a quizzical look, Bob continued. “The engineers who design these things are a lot smarter than we are, and the companies they work for spent a lot of time and money getting these things just right. So unless you want to be futzing with it every day until you finally get fed up and just unload it, go buy a new bike, and then leave it alone.” Naturally, our hero didn’t take this sage advice, and ended up wishing he had. But that’s another story, one from which we can all learn and one which will eventually grace these esteemed pages in expanded form. To this day, Bob’s words of wisdom resonate: Leave it alone. Sometimes ya’ gotta know when to quit. Jim Wilkos knows this very well, as evidenced by his 2002 Yamaha V-Star, a motorcycle that exemplifies RoadBike’s take on “real-world customs.” See, Jim could have dolled up his Star with flashy components and trick parts. He could have bolted on a set of lumpy cams, high-compression pistons, and a ground-pounding exhaust.
It all started back in 2002, before Wilkos ever rode a motorcycle. He wanted to give bike ownership a try, but nobody he knew would loan him a bike, and the prohibitive cost of a brand-new Harley-Davidson had the same daunting effect on him that it does on the rest of us. So Jim did the smart thing and exercised a bit of restraint, keeping his eyes and ears open for the right deal. “I’ve always liked motorcycles, but just never got into them. I wasn’t even sure if I would enjoy riding,” Jim said. “But I knew that I liked being in the convertible cars we build and riding around in my boat. So that whole open-air, loud feeling was always there. I just thought it was a natural progression.” His patience paid off, and Jim soon found the “right deal” at his local Yamaha merchant. The V-Star had style and power, and, at less than 10 grand, the price was right. Once he threw his right leg over that motorcycle, Jim Wilkos also threw his restraint right out the window. Thankfully, five years ago, the cruiser customization aftermarket wasn’t quite at the level of sophistication that it is today, so after a few bolt-on goodies purchased straight from the dealer — saddlebags, driving lights, mirrors, grips, and such — Wilkos’ V-Star had gone about as “custom” as it was going to get. “Back then, dealers didn’t really carry a lot of custom parts,” Wilkos said. “My local guy had the Yamaha-branded stuff, and a handful of aftermarket components from the big companies. But, honestly, at the time, there must have been about 10 parts available. So if you went out and bought every one of those… well, unfortunately the next guy did the same thing, and the next guy did the same thing, and so on. “And that’s exactly what happened. The more stuff I put on it, the more it looked like everybody else’s bike,” he said. Unfortunately, that “custom look” was a little too pedestrian for a man who builds replica 1923-34 Ford hot rods for a living. As the riding season came to a close in the Northeast and the bitter New England winter began to creep in, Wilkos realized he didn’t want his new toy — which, it turned out, he’d enjoyed riding quite a lot, thank you very much — to look like all the other bikes on the road, and if he wanted to make it stand out from the crowd, the time to get to work was now. But again, where to get aftermarket parts for a V-Star? “Every component was bought sight unseen off the Internet,” Jim admitted. “I really had no other options.” And what exactly was it that turned Jim’s showroom special into a custom cruiser? Let us survey the high-end, aftermarket cruiser-parts landscape. Baron Custom Accessories provided the Profiler gas cap, an axle-mounted license plate bracket with a sleek cat’s eye taillight, and lowering kits for the suspension. From Küryakyn he obtained a set of polished and chromed fork covers and Phantom rear axle covers. For lighting and electrical, Wilkos turned to a company called Adjure, which supplied a 5-3/4" flamed bucket headlight, front turn signals in flamed housings, and halogen rear signal lights. He removed the floorboards and bolted on Mapam forward controls and rear passenger pegs, and — against his better judgment — decided that a little extra power and attitude wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing, so he installed a simple jet kit and slip-on, slash-cut exhaust pipes from Cobra and a free-flowing K&N air filter. He finished the V-Star off with meaty Metzeler tires, including a 200mm to look and do the business out back. In addition to these bolt-on improvements, Jim, master fabricator that he is, cut, reshaped, and lowered the stock steel front fender, and shortened the original rear fender by 16". The silver tribal flame paint job by Bill Connelly at Paint Heads put the finishing touch on this custom cruiser. Specifications Owner Jim Wilkos ENGINE Displacement 1100cc CHASSIS Frame Stock frame, all welds detailed and repainted ACCESSORIES Headlight Adjure, flamed 5'' bucket with tri-bar halogen lens
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But, nooo. Jim, who’s been building custom Ford hot rods for more than ten years, knew better. Knowing that his Star’s powerplant had enough go to satisfy his developing bike-handling skills, he focused on show.