Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127987
1999 Kawasaki Vulcan 1500 Drifter By Mark Hoyer Photos by Kinney Jones and Tom Riles tyle. It was definitely all about style. The Loews Miami Beach Hotel and its sister building, the St. Moritz, Art Deco restoratioD madness down at the beach on Ocean Drive and Collins Avenue - the heart of the historical Deco preservation district at South Beach - the ambiance of this press introduction was geared toward the glamour of the 1940s, precisely the era to wruch the new Vulcan 1500 Drifter owes its form. What we sure weren't in Florida for were the roads. While southern Florida may have sunny skies, warm water, white sand, beautiful people and some fabulous Art Deco architecture, the topography is limited to F-L-A-T flat. In fact, when it came time to plan some photo shoots during the day, we took a moment to discuss finding a turn, because that's usually where we like to shoot our "action-packed" pictures. "Well, I think there's a turn about 17 miles up the road here - straight up the road." And when our guide said "a" turn, that's what he meant. Hell, when we got there, we thought about taking pictures of the empty corner, just because it seemed more rare than the manatee. "What's that thing called where the road like veers to the side, or something?" "That's a turn, Billy, a rare creature involved in a delicate symbio is with a thing called 'hill.'" "Dad, what's 'hill?'" '1t's a place where the earth shoots toward the sky like a Wayne Gardner high-side." '1s anything that high?" So, no, we weren't really there for the roads, but we were there to ride. We spent the first day on strictly local cruising with a few stops for photo-op-type stuff. After the mandatory 50 V-turns for passes by the photographer's lens, we headed straight for Ocean Drive. What's more important on a cruiser tha n being seen? People asked, "What kind of bike is that?" Then you tell them it's a Kawasaki, and they repeat what you just told them with this perplexed, somewhat incredulous tone, "Kawa...saki?" "Yep." Even in my chrome-dome full-face. space helmet and plastic jacket, there was lots of finger-pointing and the like. Or maybe it was because of the space heIniet and plastic jacket. 0 matter, people like the Drifter, for when it was time to stop for a slow-to-arri ve dry chicken sand.wich and soggy fries at the Clevelander (the heart of Ocean Drive and heavy with parked motorcycles) to get away from the bike and see how it did on its own, crowds were spending less time on the fully customized, acresof-chrome, 5&5-equipped, ape-hanger sideshows than they were the skirted fenders; sand-east-look engine sidecase (redesigned for easier oil filling_and level sighting), and blacked-out trim of the Drifter. (Note: It would be impossible to get through this story withou t using the word "Indian," so there it is. To say the Drifter owes a lot of its look to the fabled American marque wou.ld be an understatement. Derivative or not, people dig it.) 30 The latest addition to the Vulcan line Is the Vulcan 1500 Drifter. No one said .. "Harleyclone" the whole time.