Yamaha Royal Star

[Dragon Tamer]

A buddy of mine bought a new '07 Royal Star Venture about the end of June this year. It is a magnificent machine with all the bells and whistles a person could ever want on a bike. Tremendous power and very smooth and quiet. Well quiet as far as the exhaust system goes, the machine has a "gear" whine that drowns out the radio!! It whines so loudly that I can hear it from over 50 yards away going down the freeway at 70 mph! We cannot tell just where the noise is coming from but seems that it would have to be either the transmission or the final drive, he has had it to two different dealers and they cannot locate the source of the noise either. They just told him to ride it until it goes away or gets a lot worse. They seemed to think it would quiet down as it broke in which they said would be about three thousand miles. He has nine thousand on it now and it is getting worse instead of better.
Has anyone out there had any experience with these bikes? If so, do they all whine like this? We are about at our wits end over this and if it does not get it fixed he is going to dump her next spring.

[Crazcnuk]

A buddy of mine has an '05 Royal Star Tour Deluxe, and it makes no such noise.

It was so quiet he spent $700 on pipes, so now it sounds like a '47 merc with headers.

I wouldn't dream of 'dumping' it, I'd make Yamaha fix it or replace it. The dealers can say all they want, it isn't supposed to make that noise, and they better fix it pronto.

I also wouldn't be driving it, to see if it goes away, if it is in the driveline, it may be a fatal way to find out...

[Crazcnuk]

Ok, I asked my friend, with the RS Tour Deluxe, and he said that the noise is usually caused by a faulty clutch basket, and is covered under warranty.

He said to do a search for enthusiast sites and there is quite a bit about this problem.

[Dragon Tamer]

Thanks Guys,
I have communicated this all to my friend and he is going to search out another dealer for another go around. I anyone else has something please keep it coming!!

[madbiker]

Delphi Forums Royal Star Riders -V-Fours Rock or Royal Star Venture and Tour Deluxe
Madbiker

[Dragon Tamer]

Thanks again guys, I have checked those forums and there is indeed a bunch of info on the clutch problem and it does seem that there is where his problem lies. The other part of the problem is that none of the dealers that we have talked to yet will admit being aware of the problem (the old, "first time we ever heard of that" line). They have had the final drive apart and it made no difference. We will contact several different dealers this weekend and see what happens.

[Don Hughes]

Those dealers are liars.
They do very well know about the clutch basket whine.
It is an issue with some of the Royal Star Ventures due to the square cut gears. They will fix it but SOME dealer do still give owners a hassle about it.
Tell him to go to the Venture web site.

www.venturers.org

They are a great bunch of people and just about as helpful as the people on this site. The web site is very much like this one although there is a yearly fee (you can log in as a guest first) it is well worth the money.

[Dragon Tamer]

THANKS GUYS!,
I have checked the forums as brought to my attention by Don and Mad Biker. I also appreciate the personal experience from Crazcnuk and his friend. Due to the info gathered here we have determined that Yamaha is indeed aware of the problem and even has a tech bulletin out on it.
We brought this fact to the attention of the original dealer and they have agreed to replace the clutch as per the bulletin.
Due to the annual deterioration of the weather here in WI this will probably take place in the coming spring. This is not a problem due to the phenominal warranty that Yamaha has put on this machine. It still feels funny that a company with that good a warranty has to have its chain yanked so hard before it will do something about a problem like this.
Once again, thanks for the input, it saved me hours on the computer trying to track it all down, it is guys like you that make this site so good!!!!!

[Don Hughes]

I should also have stated that this whine does not cause any damage to the motorcycle. If you can stand the noise it will not cause any problems later on.
The noise level varies from motorcycle to motorcycle and is tolerated by some less than others.
On the Venture site the joke is that you just turn the radio up louder to over come the whine. That of course is not an option with some as the noise is just too much.
Also changing the cluch basket out can some times make it worse. But again the dealer should change them until it quietens down to a tolerable level.
On most off the Royal Star Ventures there is some whine at certain RPM.s all the time. Again that RPM changes from bike to bike.
Even the first generation Ventures have a slight whine but it was not nearly as bad as the 2nd Generations.

[toxictoad]

The noise is caused by the clutch basket due to the square cut gears. All Royal Stars and RS Ventures have the noise in one form or another it's just more noticeable on the Venture and the second generation Royal Star due to the fact that lower cowling blocks airflow by the motor. It doesn't hurt the bike. The gear is square cut to make it stronger.

Toxictoad