They must have figured they'd sell a lot of them. While the Road Star is not a revolutionary motorcycle, the Road Star Project does represent an evolution in how Japanese manufacturers plan to grab more of the North American cruiser market. Yet it is also flexible and expressive, here posing with the epic Northern California coast as a backdrop. Japanese automakers provide a combination of value and quality that has Detroit often playing catch up. Japanese motorcycle manufacturers seemed to approach the North American motorcycle market the same way, offering a good combination of value and reliability with styling nods that attempted to satisfy the traditional American enthusiast.
Many Japanese cruisers take styling cues from America, but the engineering is decidedly Asian.
The Road Star, on the other hand, might be the first Japanese heavyweight cruiser designed with an understanding of what traditional American enthusiasts want in a motorcycle, with both styling and engineering cues taken from Uncle Sam. Yes, you've heard correctly, it's a pushrod engine produced by a Japanese manufacturer. Yamaha explained that they wanted to design an engine that produced tons of low-end torque and allowed for short shifting. In fact, Yamaha claims that the Road Star has the lowest engine height of any V-twin cruiser in its class. The crankshaft is huge, the inertial mass is more than twice that of the Royal Star.