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/949296
CYCLE NEWS CRUISER BUYERS GUIDE CYCLE NEWS CRUISER BUYERS GUIDE e Good Times Keep Rollin' On Kawasaki Like Honda, Kawasaki showed up to the motor- cycle party late. The company got into the busi- ness after World War II but didn't start exporting motorcycles until the 1960s. Kawasaki's company backstory is much older, though, originating with the shipping industry in the late 1800s as Kawasaki Heavy Industries. It later added aircraft manufacturing to the mix and eventually motorcycles. At first, Kawasaki Aircraft manufactured motorcycles under the Meguro name, having bought the motorcycle manufacturer with whom Kawasaki had been in partnership, Meguro Manufacturing. Some early motorcycles even had a "Kawasaki Aircraft" emblem on the fuel tank. I'm going to go out on a tree branch and make the wild leap in logic that none of this took place in a modest shack unlike Honda's or Harley-Davidson's origin stories. However, it wasn't until 1985 that Kawasaki launched its first V-twin cruiser motorcycle. Launched worldwide, the Vulcan VN700A was a shaft-driven bike displacing 699cc to avoid United States tariffs on Japanese scoots over 700cc. When that tariff was lifted in 1986, Kawasaki bumped displacement up to 750cc. Apart from paint schemes and minor adjustments those Vulcans remained largely unchanged throughout their 22-year production run. But, as the ancient adage clearly states, that was then, this is now. In the time since that first Vulcan debuted in the Age of Mullets, Kawasaki has kept a hand in the cruiser market with more Vulcan variations. Technology has come a long way since I was playing ColecoVision games in 1985 (thankfully) and the modern Vulcans offer improvements like ABS brakes, Ninja-derived performance in some models, and, of course, other models that rock traditional cruiser style. For 2018, this all adds up to nine motorcycles for your viewing pleasure and purchasing consider- ation. From the 649cc sporty Vulcan S, to the mid- size, more traditional Vulcan 900 or the Vulcan 1700 Vaquero and Voyager luxury liners, Kawa- saki's cruiser offerings cover a pretty fair amount of territory in the riding style department. 2018 Line up