Kawasaki's Vulcan Puts the Hammer Down

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Vulcan

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Nobody uses much in the way of high revs on a bike tuned for low-end torque, and there isn't even a tachometer on the Vulcan. If you rev it hard to make a pass, you can feel the power delivery go soft as engine speed reaches the point of diminishing returns.

But that's the beauty of the bike. You short shift and twist the throttle and let the offbeat firing pulses build to a jackhammer roar, then shift and do it again. Five gears is plenty for a bike with this power spread, and the belt drive keeps things quiet and smooth at the big 180 rear tire. Since both tires on this machine are mounted on cast alloy wheels, they are tubeless units. That's not something you can have on the spoked rims flaunted by many cruisers.

You might expect a tall and skinny front tire like the 90/90 that graces the remarkable front wheel (which has no straight lines and is extremely complex to make) to offer little in the way of grip or feedback, but it turns out that there's enough information coursing back through the bars to provide the rider with an adequate idea of what's happening at the contact patch. Since lean angle is restricted by the typical cruiser layout, anyway, high speed corner grip isn't really an issue.

On the Vulcan, cornering clearance isn't too bad, but one reducing-radius downhill bend chosen by our photographer for repeated passes prompted ugly scratching noises from the under-slung hardware unless one watched the entry speed carefully.

Fast cornering is not a cruiser's concern. Nor is high-speed travel, where the upright riding position soon produces fatigue. That's why the brakes on cruisers are comparatively modest. The single disc front brake on the Custom is gripped by a twin-piston caliper, and required a firm full-fisted pull for quick stops. The rear brake is also a disc, and it proved useful in slow maneuvers as well as adding to overall braking performance.

In the end, the aim of the cruising game is to have a relaxed ride on a machine with an equally relaxed disposition. The Vulcan, with its generous low-slung seat, its ease of operation, its quality fit and finish, and its happy compromise between size and weight, fits that bill quite well.

One has to ask the question here; does any other cruiser really do a better job of carrying rider from place to place at a nice relaxed clip? And that question becomes more pertinent when you add in the price. Even with a couple of thousand dollars worth of Kawasaki accessories (available as the bike goes on sale) tacked onto the bill, the Vulcan still stickers southwards of ten grand. Okay, it doesn't have a Harley badge on it, but for those who don't need to join that club, it leaves a lot of barbecue money in play.

Surely even Roman gods can appreciate that.

Provided by MotoSavvy—Dedicated to bringing the Motorcycling lifestyle closer to the heart of the public