One morning not long ago some folks at Yamaha's Star Cruiser Division woke up and decided they needed to fill the gap between their V Star 950 and 1854cc Raider. The new Stryker was penned with help from custom bike-builder Jeff Palhegyi, an outside design firm named GKDI, and Yamaha's R&D department. The result: a stylish yet functional, easily customized mid-sized bike.

With "baggers" being the hottest trend in the cruiser scene right now and cruisers being the best sellers of all motorcycle categories, we enjoyed a couple days in Southern California riding the new 2010 Star® Stratoliner Deluxe bagger. Star Motorcycles - Yamaha's cruiser division - is now the top-selling metric cruiser brand in this hotly contested market.

Once upon a time, the motorcycle tester's job was much simpler. There were good motorcycles and not-so-good motorcycles. It was only necessary to decide the category in which each particular test subject fell. Major manufacturers no longer build bad bikes, however. Some models may not appeal to your personal preferences, and each has its idiosyncrasies; but all of them work pretty much as they should. The most important question then becomes: Is the bike right for its intended customer? Sounds simple, but it isn't.