Something strange happens whenever there are more than two kinds of cruisers parked in the palatial Motorcycle Cruiser garage. Fingers get twitchy and eyes dart about nervously. Somehow, sitting in front of the computer becomes a challenge. We're well aware of these symptoms and the damage they can do to our productivity levels. After all, we're seasoned professionals. We learned long ago that the only cure for this obvious case of wanderlust is a road trip! Uh, we mean comparison test! (Just in case the bean counters are reading.)
That's right, when spring is in the air and the garage is full of bikes with fresh tires and no bugs on the headlights, we simply won't get anything done until we take a nice long ride. Two days will suffice, but three or four are always better. So with you, dear reader, in mind, we took three cruisers with hard bags and fork-mounted windshields out for a jaunt, a big, sweeping loop through some of our favorite Southern California scenery, all in the name of research! Yes, by the end of two days of exhaustive, scientific testing, we're now able to tell you which of the hard baggers works the best, holds the most, goes the farthest, and even looks the best (gasp) naked.
The participants include an old standby, a recent update and a new model: the Harley-Davidson Road King, the Kawasaki Vulcan Nomad 1600 and the Yamaha Royal Star Tour Deluxe. The rogues handling these machines are none other than perennial favorite staffer Andy Cherney, former staffer Evans Brasfield (filling in for an ailing Jamie Elvidge) and new guest tester Greg Brenner. Our route was dictated by two somewhat divergent desires. First, we wanted to see Death Valley in eastern California while it still held a large quantity of water from this winter's record-setting rains. Second, we had to meet Kevin Wing in western California to get the photos for this article.The things we do for you readers....
Pack Up Your Troubles
Over the years we've learned that the secret to getting out of town cleanly is to make the meeting point a restaurant rather than someone's house. So we have a regular group of fine eating establishments selected at the four points of the compass (well, three points, actually, since the Pacific Ocean is to our west) to use depending on our planned route of departure. Since we would spend the first part of our ride traveling east, we stocked up on carbohydrates with the various breakfast slams at Denny's on Interstate 10 in Pomona. Between mouthfuls, we compared notes on packing the baggers.
The Road King has the smallest bags, with a narrow opening that requires some items to be squeezed in. While this isn't really an issue for three guys riding solo, going two-up might make space a little tight because passengers seem to require more cargo than riders. The top of the bags closes firmly and can be left locked or unlocked-which is nice when you're spending the day in the saddle and may want to get to your camera or water bottle.
Opening with a simple push of a button, the Yamaha's bags are slightly wider and about the same depth as the Harley's and can also be left unlocked for easy access. However, the latching mechanism takes up a few inches of valuable space on the inside edge of the bags. If you pack carefully with soft items in the center of your bag liner/tote bag, you won't feel the latch compromises your carrying ability too much. Closing the lid rewards you with a firm click, but we always found ourselves pulling up on the lid to make sure it had latched.
The Nomad's bags were the prettiest and most capacious-with one caveat. Since the bags are side-loading, you really need Kawasaki's accessory bag liners to take full advantage of the space. For daily use, having the liners doesn't really make a difference. If you need to carry small things that may fall out under the standard crisscrossing straps, any old duffel will do. When out on the road for a couple of days where you'll need to pack more stuff and carry it into a motel at the end of the day, Nomad riders owe it to themselves to buy the liners designed specifically for their bags. That way you don't have to suffer the indignity of realizing your frilly underthings have been dangling out collecting road grime for the last 400 miles. As a safety feature, the Nomad's bags will not open-or close-without the key. While this can be a bother when you want to take out just one item at a scenic overlook, when you consider the consequences of not latching the bag completely, the trouble seems worth it. The Kawasaki is the only bike that sports functional helmet locks, tucked discretely under each bag's tip-over bar.
Although we encountered no rain on our trip, our previous experience with the Nomad's and Road King's bags is that they will withstand the heaviest storms as long as they aren't grossly overpacked. We'd expect the same to be true of the Tour Deluxe.
Against The Wind
The reality of living in any big city is that getting away requires some time on an interstate highway at the beginning and end of a trip. While time on the superslab may be a nuisance to riders on holiday, we actually can get a good amount of actual work done before we move to two-lane rural highways. As we progressed through our bike swaps every 50 miles or so, we reached a consensus on a few points rather quickly.
First, the windshields on all three bikes are too high. Some are just less intrusive than others. The Royal Star's windshield is the tallest of the bunch. So tall our tallest rider (at just shy of 6 feet) had to either strain upward to see over the Lexan or slouch down to keep the edge from crossing the center of his field of vision. This posed enough of a problem that had we been on an extended trip we would have probably taken a hacksaw to it as we did to a Royal Star Venture on our trip to Alaska. (See Motorcycle Cruiser, December 1999 or www.motorcyclecruiser.com/roadtests/Alaskabikes/.) Next in line, the Nomad's windshield may be adjustable over a two-inch range, but that still isn't enough for riders 5 foot 10 inches and under. With the average height for a Caucasian American male checking in at that height, Kawasaki has made this windshield too tall for a large segment of its riders. Finally, while the FLHR/I has the lowest windshield of the trio, our shortest rider was still annoyed by the edge of the screen crossing the meat of his visual plane. The good news for Tour Deluxe and Road King owners is that shorter windscreens are available directly from the manufacturers. Yamaha offers screen replacements that are seven and 11 inches shorter than stock, while Harley will sell you a four-inch-shorter version of its screen. As of this printing, Kawasaki has not announced whether it has a reduced-height screen available.