Choppers are defined by the lazy lean of their forks, and the Star Stryker boasts a 40-degree-of-total-fork rake, with the steering head positioned at 34 degrees and the clamps adding 6 more degrees of tilt.
The second hottest spec du jour is seat height, and the Stryker sports the lowest saddle in the Star Motorcycles lineup, with a perch positioned just 26.4 inches above pavement. The number is notable since Star expects that 35 percent of Stryker buyers will be female. To defy those proclivities, Stryker employs two engineering tricks: a low center of gravity, and a steering yoke tilted at 6 degrees.
While the Stryker's lengthy 68.9-inch wheelbase proves unwieldy during parking lot maneuvers and U-turns, that awkwardness dissolves once the bike gains momentum and hits highway speeds. Unlike the Honda Fury, the Star Stryker does not offer antilock brakes..
After 130 miles of riding, we walked away pleasantly surprised by the Star Stryker's obedient road manners and agreeable personality.
Though it's an unlikely time for a custom-style chopper to hit the market, Star's Stryker is a well-priced and attractively finished bike that makes the frivolous genre more appealing to mainstream riders.
The Star Stryker's ergonomics and suspension geometry may not be for everyone. But for those seeking a durable, reliable take on the decades-old chopper genre, the Stryker serves up some serious competition for the Honda Fury, which can no longer claim to be the sole custom-style chopper offering from a major manufacturer.
As so often happens in the cruiser business, Star opted to use an existing engine; that found powering the V-Star 1300 range. It’s a 1304cc, 60-degree V-twin with liquid cooling, single overhead cams, and a four-valve cylinderhead design. It certainly feels pretty responsive right off the mark, with crisp throttle response and urgent thrust from low engine speeds.
The frame is specific to the Stryker, fashioned from steel tube with an emphasis on a low center-of-gravity.
The steering head tube itself is set at 34-degrees—the rest was obtained by having the lower triple-clamp six-degrees ahead.
While the Star Stryker has a tall and thin front wheel and tire (a 120/70-21 Bridgestone Exedia) and a fat rear equivalent (210/40R-18), the bike handles surprisingly normally.
The fork offers over five inches of travel, while the rear shock has 3.9 inches of overall excursion. Typical of cruisers, the raked out fork reduces the sense of front-end dive under hard braking, while the rear shock, shortish travel or not, seldom provided that shot-up-the-spine shock over severe bumps one often encounters on bikes with this sort of riding position.
It is altogether big fun to ride. The engine may not be displacing the big cubes found on fullsize cruisers, but there’s ample power for passing and accelerating.
While dual balance shafts kill the serious vibes that attend a 60-degree V-twin, there’s a pleasant throb through the bars that accompanies the loping exhaust beat endemic to common-crankpin twins. Since there’s no tach on the Star Stryker, an intensifying buzz at the bars tells the rider when the engine is approaching its 6,600 rpm ceiling.
Nice build quality, solid engineering, properly calibrated drivetrain, and pleasantly balanced dynamics all integrated pretty seamlessly. The brakes are operated by big, broad levers that fit comfortably under your fingers, and provide decent braking with solid feedback.
The friendly power delivery, easy-to-use clutch and mild handling characteristics ought to be a big help for persons new to motorcycling. Since a high-speed cruiser is really a contradiction in terms anyway, the slightly less manic acceleration and speed suit the bike’s likely mission quite well.