Introduced for the 2006 model year, this Yamaha cruiser was created as the flagship of the company’s North American Star lineup. It marked a major step in Yamaha’s big-bore cruiser strategy, arriving as a new full-size V-twin aimed at riders who wanted a more premium, long-distance American-style machine with Yamaha’s own design language. The model’s styling leaned into a smooth “neo-streamline” look, with clean bodywork and a more sculpted, elegant presentation than the more traditional custom-cruiser shapes of the era.
This nameplate sat at the center of Yamaha’s 1,900-class cruiser family and shared its core engineering direction with related Star models introduced in the same period. Its debut established the formula for the line: a large-displacement, air-cooled V-twin cruiser with a focus on torque-rich character, relaxed highway riding and distinctive visual presence. Yamaha positioned it as a modern flagship rather than a retro copy, combining classic cruiser cues with contemporary features and finish.
The model is closely associated with the early- to mid-2000s expansion of Yamaha’s Star brand in the U.S. market. Over time, the same basic platform was also used for related derivatives and regional naming variations, but the Roadliner itself is generally treated as a distinct Star-series nameplate from the 2006 era. No separate earlier or later production run is known for this exact marketed nameplate.