I am not a mechanic , but I do a lot of reading and have seen a lot of people having the same problems with backfireing. Not sure what you have tried so far but a simple tune up , change the plugs and cables could solve the problem after that I would start leaning towards the carbs. After time they just simply need to be adjusted or synced. If you're like me and afraid of making things worse doing that yourself, may look for a local shop that can dyno and tune the bike for you.

  As for what people say about your ride, who cares.Jap bikes get a bad rap , but they are just as dependable if not more so than an  american bike. Its probably way lighter and easier to handle. And most important, you're riding aint ya ? I bought a Triumph brand new, and Harley was going to let me have any bike I wanted. But with every one and their dog riding a Harley any more I wanted something that I could make mine.  You ride what you want and what you can and let everybody else ride their own bikes. They want you on a victory let em buy you one.

   Tha being said , Harley does make a darn fine bike, and I have a Dyna low that my girlfriend rides Just want the bike for me.
 

have you bypassed the ais? i ride a 05 vstar and dont care what others think. they are very dependable rides and are affordable. even though i can afford other bikes (i dont get into brand bashing) i love my star and wouldnt trade it for anything else. ride safe - the bear.

My old school 72 Sportster used to backfire when I was going through the gears, had a tune up done and thought maybe it was the points, the older bikes had points, but after going through that it was still happening so went to work on the carb, had it rebuilt twice still did it then found that it was just a matter of setting the richness of the carb to the right setting and never did it again, so I would say, take it to a shop with a dyno, and make sure your carb is set just right, that most likely will take care of the problem with the back fire, also maybe check your specs as for the gas you are using, maybe running to high or to low on octane... Just a thought and hope that helps you out. As for what you ride, who cares, I personally believe in supporting the American Industry but not everyone like you said can afford to, so I say to you, get in the wind any way you can and Ride Safe.

Peace, Out

The wife and I both ride Suzuki's. She has a 400 Bergman and it was backfiring every time she let up on the throttle. When I tuned it up this winter, I cleaned the pair valve. The book says to replace it when a backfire occurs, but I found it cleaned up real nice. This is part of the air system for the emission control. Don’t know if you bike has anything like that. Just another suggestion.

i'm with Bear on this one.  i own a 07 V-star, and i love it!  she backfires on decel as well.  i've been told to disable my AIS, and to check my idle.  metric bikes have to have their idle up around 1250 or so in order not to have that happen.  i leave mine where it is.  if she farts once in awhile, it lets the people behind me know to back off!