Kawasaki Kawasaki Vulcan

Lighten up. Twenty years ago, MO was a wobbly start-up with no money, and a part-time job for most of us. Which doesn’t explain the brief haphazardness of some of the old content, but may excuse part of it. Do the Japanese even make cruisers anymore? Some of them weren’t so bad, including this 2002 Kawasaki Vulcan 800. I apologize for being so rude to it (probably because I was secretly attracted). Oh look, they DO still make a Vulcan 900; doesn’t look half bad really.

Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter. Later Vulcan V-twins would grow to 125 cubic inches (2053 cc) before dying off from their own voraciousness, but in 1995, the Kawasaki Vulcan 88 (four years before the H-D Twin Cam 88) was just right. A reading from the book of Tom Fortune, who wrote well if not long. Amen.

One look around the proverbial Motorcycle.com office and it’s hard not to notice one thing: everyone on staff is a guy. Of course, this isn’t surprising considering the male domination of this sport, but women represent one of the fastest growing segments in motorcycling, and it’s only right we get a woman’s voice – and opinion – on our digital pages. Our friend Christina Orris is just the person to help. An excellent rider, both on- and off-road, she’s in-tune with the wants and needs of the female motorcyclist, and best of all, she’s not afraid to speak her mind. When we were thinking of the perfect candidate to review the Kawasaki Vulcan S and its unique Ergo-Fit system, we knew she was the right person for the job. Follow along as she gives her thoughts. —TS

Twenty years ago, yea verily, two decades, huge Hogs and custom cruisers ruled the land, and though the photos on MO grew ever smaller, the motorcycles kept expanding. Bigger was better until it wasn’t, but we weren’t there yet. Nay, we were just getting started. Squinteth along, brethren, to get some idea of the Native American-inspired beauty that was the Drifter 1500. 

File this one in the “They still make that?” file. We’ve been bombarded with so many cutting-edge sportbikes and go-anywhere, do-anything adventure-tourers lately that it’s easy to forget about the cruiser segment of the market. And even among the cruising set, the sub-liter middleweight category hasn’t been getting much love. The attention usually goes to the big-displacement crowd because, let’s face it, cruiser riders have an image to uphold.

Kawasaki’s new Vulcan S forced us to ride these motorcycles again, and now we’re glad we did. Harley’s Street 750 and the new Vulcan are within 10 pounds, 1 horsepower and 400 dollars of each other. And the different-but-still-growing-on-us Honda CTX700N belongs in the mix as well. For the kind of riding most of us actually do most of the time, 700 or so cubic centimeters for around $7k seems like a pretty good place to be. Blatting around town, that is, in pursuit of one of MO’s secondary missions (keep Starbucks afloat), with the occasional blast out into the hinterlands to sniff the wildflowers – courtesy of the recent merciful rains here in SoCal – and ride like MOrons a little.

Kawasaki recently allowed us to ride the 2015 Kawasaki Vulcan S ABS, and and the innovative cruiser hybrid impressed both me and our female tester, Vicki Gray.

Motorcycle.com’s Evans Brasfield reviewed Kawasaki’s Vulcan S last week, and this week we get a different perspective of the versatile new cruiser from Team Green. -Ed.

If you asked most motorcyclists what defines a cruiser, you’d probably hear something like: a laid-back riding position with classic (or even retro) styling, powered by a V-Twin engine. Well, what if one of the major motorcycle OEMs learned through research that there is a whole swath of almost riders out there – let’s call them Intenders – who haven’t quite made the leap to buying a cruiser? Is the definition of a cruiser flexible enough to allow the exclusion of some of the main features traditional cruiser riders expect? Kawasaki has taken its extensive research with interested parties on the cusp of buying their first motorcycle and designed a motorcycle to fit their desires. The result is the 2015 Kawasaki Vulcan S ABS.

Kawasaki revealed a new cruiser model equipped with the 649cc parallel-Twin engine from the Ninja 650. The result is an entry-level cruiser with sportbike-derived power retailing for $6999 ($7399 with ABS).