HARLEY-DAVIDSON
FXDX Dyna Super Glide Sport and FXSTDI Softail Deuce
Picking representative Harley models for a big twin comparison is always a challenge, since both its cruiser families have multiple worthy models. There are seven Softail models, five of which are straight-ahead cruisers that would have been suitable for this comparison. The Fat Boy scored at the top of our last big-twins round-up. This time we asked for the Deuce, since its all-around excellence has impressed us recently. Four of the five Dyna models also would have fit here, but we went for the performance-oriented Sport version of the Dyna Super Glide.
Dynas and Softails use basically the same air-cooled 1450cc 42-degree overhead valve twin driving through five speeds and a belt. However, the Softail family adds counterbalancers and mounts the engine solidly in the frame. The Dyna models rubber-mount their engines and have no balancer. The two also have different frame designs. The Dynas use a conventional twin-shock rear suspension on an "internal" frame. The Softail series also have two dampers, but they are placed horizontally under the engine, and the triangular swingarm creates the uncluttered look of an unsuspended hardtail rear end. Its frame tubes are more outboard.
The Super Glide Sport distinguishes itself in the Dyna family with a sporting attitude created by a steeper steering head to provide quicker steering response, suspension that's adjustable for preload and damping at both ends, a higher ride height to increase cornering ground clearance, dual discs and calipers up front, a wide 150-section tire on the rear, a tachometer (mounted with the speedometer up by the handlebar), and a blacked out engine and black staggered dual exhaust pipes. The handlebar is low and narrow, and the seat is a sporty, scooped design. The suggested base price (which readers report is beginning to be what you actually pay on many models in parts of the country) is $13,895 plus $210 freight and $290 higher in California. But you can add over $800 more in manufacturer's options including wire-spoke wheels (which seems like a poor choice on a sporting-oriented bike, $320), pearl paint ($240), and a security system ($275). If you don't want the sporting accoutrements, the base model Dyna, the standard Super Glide, is $2000 less.
You can get a Softail with a 40mm carb or fuel injection, and our Deuce was fitted with the injection, which adds $600 to the $16,555 (plus $210 freight and $290 for California emissions) base MSRP. You can also add as much as $585 for paint. The Deuce is the most expensive Softail cruiser without saddlebags. The least expensive, the Softail Standard, has a $12,995 base price. The Deuce has a unique stretched style suggesting a real custom. The look is built around a long 4.9-gallon fuel tank with the instrumentation atop it, and stretches back from a skinny 21-inch wire wheel up front. The steering head kicks the chromed, curved-profile fork sliders out to 34 degrees, and the narrow fork legs, small headlight, tiny turn signals, and brief front fender give the Deuce a sleek look. At the back, a low, somewhat narrow saddle leads to a fender that reaches well rear of the 17-inch disc wheel. The engine is finished in natural silver metal colors, and the unique dual "shotgun-style" exhaust enhances the Deuce's long, low appearance.
HONDA
VTX 1800R
Honda's big V-twin platform is the 1795cc VTX, molded into two models. The first, the street-rod-styled VTX 1800C, was introduced last year as a 2002 model. It set new limits for displacement for a production-line twin and finally put Honda in the lucrative big-twin game.
The second VTX model, rolled out this winter, restyles the same basic bike with a more traditional look. Instead of the comparatively brief fenders on the C model, the new VTX, informally called "the retro," gets deeply valenced steel fenders. The wide look carries to the beamier 5.3-gallon fuel tank, which holds an additional 0.8 gallon, and the fuller, plusher rider and passenger saddle. Staggered dual fishtails replace the two-into-one exhaust of the C with its large canister-style muffler. The new VTX has floorboards instead of the C model's footpegs and a taller pullback handlebar. Details like a license-plate light that mimics the profile of the rear fender tell you that Honda stylists put a great deal of thought into this one.
There are two variations of this latest VTX 1800, dubbed the S and the R. The S model has wire-spoke wheels with bias-ply tires. The 1800R that we tested has cast wheels and tubeless radial tires. Both have a 150/80-17 front tire and 180/70 rear tire, though the R's rear wheel has a 16-inch diameter and the S has a 15-incher. (For comparison, the C has130/70-18 front and 180/70-16 rear radials.)
Beneath the bodywork, all three versions of the VTX 1800 are the same except for the wheels. The engine is the same 6-valve 52-degree liquid-cooled V-twin with two plugs per cylinder and programmable fuel injection. The five gearbox ratios and other internal gearing are unchanged, and the shaft final drive is the same on all the 1800 twins.
The same brakes stop all three versions, with two 296mm rotors pinched by three-piston calipers up front and a 316mm spinner squeezed by two pistons on the rear wheel. The same 43mm inverted fork supports the front end with dual preload-adjustable shock propping up the rear. Though the steering head is welded at the same 32-degree angle, the retro version has an extra 0.6 inches of front-wheel trail, perhaps to make it more stable. The wheelbase is the same stretched 67.5 inches. The thicker saddle makes the new version's seat height about a quarter-inch farther from the road. The changes have added to the tonnage. At 796 pounds tanked up, the R was 38 pounds heavier than the C we tested. Finally, the retro rendition is more expensive than the street rod. The least expensive retro, at $12,999, is $200 more than the most expensive C, which starts at $12,499. If you choose all the high-priced options, including the ChromaFlair prism paint, suggested retail is $13,499. Honda is planning to make about equal number of the street rod and the retro, but because the bikes are made in Ohio, that can change if demand turns out to be different than anticipated.
Kawasaki Vulcan 1500 Clas...
Kawasaki Vulcan 1500 Classic,
KAWASAKI
Vulcan 1500 Classic FI, Vulcan 1500 Mean Streak and Vulcan 1500 Drifter
Kawasaki rolled out the first of its current line of 1500 V-twins in 1996. The single-carb Vulcan 1500 Classic was derived from a now-discontinued twin-carb Vulcan 1500 V-twin. It brought traditional American style with an entirely new twin-shock chassis and fresh lines and bodywork. It immediately became Kawasaki's best-seller. The company then built upon it, introducing the Nomad bagger for '98, the very retro Drifter for '99, a substantially revised version of the Nomad, the FI, for 2000, an almost entirely new Classic FI model for 2001, and most recently, the Mean Streak, a street-rod-style extension of the line.
With each new Vulcan 1500 model, Kawasaki introduced improvements and innovations, some of which were then incorporated across the line, so that even the original carbureted 1500 Classic, which remains in the line (for $9999), has been improved noticeably along the way. However, the carbureted model is significantly different than the Classic FI ($10,599), which has a stiffer frame with a longer wheelbase and revised steering geometry, a larger 5.0-gallon seamless fuel tank with updated instrumentation atop it, a more powerful fuel-injected engine, adjustable shocks, and many detail changes and improvements. However, the resemblance is clear, since both Classics have full fenders over wire-spoke wheels each with a single disc brake, covered fork tubes, floorboards, wide teardrop fuel tanks, deep and wide saddles and staggered dual exhausts on the right side. We included the FI but not the carb-sucker.
Some of the changes on the FI, including the fuel injection itself, were introduced on the Drifter. Styled along the lines of some of the luxurious American big twins of the late 1930s and early 1940s (Indian being the best known), the Drifter ($11,799) has deeply valenced fenders, a large solo saddle, floorboards, and a sort of 1930s streamlined look, stretching from the long shell for the reflector-type headlight to the fishtail on the muffler for the two-into-one exhaust that evokes that era. It was originally introduced with a blacked-out style to closely match the bikes that inspired it, but customer demand changed most of those parts to chrome. For 2002, it has also gotten the seamless 5.0-gallon tank of the Classic FI. The dual-shock chassis is stopped by a single disc brake at each end.
The Mean Streak ($10.999) takes the Vulcan 1500 in yet another direction with a performance orientation. Up front, the cast wheel has two discs with six-piston calipers. An inverted cartridge fork and dual shocks that adjust for air pressure and damping combine with revised steering geometry and 17-inch radial tires to invite aggressive cornering. The abbreviated fenders, sleek and seamless 4.5-gallon tank, drag bar on pulled-back risers, tachometer, low-cut saddle with an abbreviated passenger pad, and the dual straight-through-style pipes (which actually share a large collector chamber under the bike) all suggest a bike that is happy to be ridden hard.
All 1500 Vulcans share the same basic liquid-cooled single-overhead-cam 50-degree counterbalanced 1470cc V-twin rubber-mounted to their frames. The power gets to the shaft final drive through five-speed gearboxes with automatic neutral finder. The engines with the digital fuel-injection have more compression (requiring premium fuel), revised timing for the four hydraulically adjusted valves in each cylinder, and more intake area, thanks to dual throats instead of a single 40mm carb. Beyond that, Kawasaki gave the Mean Streak even more compression, bigger valves, more aggressive cam profiles and a revised routine for the fuel-injection system, which has 40mm throats instead of the 36mm throats on the other injected models.
SUZUKI
Intruder 1400 and Intruder 1500LC
While other companies have appeared to see how many components they can share between different models, Suzuki seems to have set out to make its two V-twins as different as possible. At the most basic level, the two engines are the same, with the same 45-degree V angle, offset crankpins to eliminate vibration, lower-end shafts in the same places, overhead cams operating three valves per cylinder, additional oil supplying some of the cooling, and five speeds with shaft final drives. But virtually nothing else crosses between models.
Introduced a decade and a half ago, when cruiser style favored chopperesque themes and a lean profile, the 1400 was engineered to be clean and lanky. It has a small tank, narrow saddle, pullback handlebar, raked-out skinny fork legs straddling a thin 19-inch wire wheel, chopped fenders, a little headlight, a small speedo mounted adjacent to the handlebar, one pipe on either side of the bike, and a small passenger backrest.
The 1500, on the other hand, is massive and broad in the style that came back into style in the 1990s. It has wide cast wheels (a 16-incher up front and a 15 in back), fat covered fork tubes pulled in 4 degrees steeper than the 1400's, a big headlight, deep fenders, staggered dual mufflers, and a wide saddle. It gets big rider floorboards instead of the 1400's pegs. A large speedometer is set in the top of the conventional fuel tank area, although the actual 4.1-gallon tank is under the saddle. All of the 1500's running gear is different. The wheelbase is 5.5 inches longer, and the LC weighs over 100 pounds more than the 1400. Even the 1500's engine has been styled to look bigger. You'll find many other differences inside the engines, which share virtually no common components. The 1500, actually 1462cc, has a wider bore and longer stroke, lower compression, and uses oil to cool both cylinders, not just the rear as on the 1400 (1360cc). It puts both its carbs between the cylinders, while the 1400 wears each carb behind its cylinder. Changes for 2002 are minor on the 1400 -- just a new tire model. The 1500 has grown an additional brake caliper and rotor on the front, and its wheels have a revised style. The prices remain attractive, with the 1400 fetching just $8349 -- substantially less than any other bike here, and the 1500LC stickered at a neat $9999.
VICTORY
V92C
The V92C is the original Victory model, introduced in 1998. Well, actually, this bike isn't exactly "original," since Victory has been making steady improvements and changes. Victory now has four models (and has discontinued a fifth, the Sport Cruiser) in two families. The new family is the TC series, which have a new, longer chassis. The 92C and the similar 92C Deluxe, which adds features like a windshield and saddlebags, complete the line.
All four bikes have the same 1507cc air/oil-cooled fuel-injected 50-degree V-twin that for '02 has been massaged to give 25 percent more claimed power. The profiles of the single overhead cam were changed, the four-valve combustion chambers have been tightened up to boost the compression ratio from 8.5:1 to 9.2:1, and the engine-management computer was recalibrated. Cooling load was shifted from the oil cooler, which has shrunk, to the cylinder fins, which are now more robust. Those changes also improved engine appearance. Victory calls the revised engine the Freedom. It retains the vibration-canceling counterbalancer system, automatic hydraulic valve adjusters, dual 44mm injector throats, five speeds and belt final drive on the right side. The Freedom package brings smoother, quieter shifting than previous Victory offerings. This year the exhaust system has been redesigned with a slash cut on the staggered dual mufflers.
Those familiar with previous V92Cs will retain that familiarity as the V92C enters its fifth year of production. It retains the 63.3-inch wheelbase rather than the TC's 65.5-inch axle separation and the same general ergonomic layout that we have liked so well in the past. Like the other Victory models, the V92C has a single shock on a triangulated swingarm, those beefy 45mm fork stanchions, a 5.0-gallon fuel tank, floorboards, and the unique instrument module. The single-face cluster includes a small-diameter tachometer set into the bottom of the speedometer, with an LCD that includes a host of useful functions, includes a clock, fuel gauge, voltmeter, and others in addition to the usual tripmeter and odometer functions. You select and adjust the various LCD functions with buttons on fronts of the handlebar switch housings. The instrument'sangle has been revised.
Victory's base model comes with 16-inch cast-aluminum wheels and tubeless tires, each with a single 300mm brake rotor. The front caliper has four pistons, the rear two. A noteworthy item is the fact that it uses plastic coated braided stainless steel brake hoses.
For '02, there are new colors in addition to black. Besides our eye-catching yellow and black version, there is also a red and white paint scheme, and a special-order multi-color flame treatment. Price has increased by $300 this year, with the V92C starting at $13,699 in solid black. With a fresh engine and new models, Polaris has renewed its commitment to the Victory brand, and sales are increasing.
YAMAHA
Road Star and Road Star Warrior
Yamaha scored a solid hit in 1999 when it introduced the Road Star. After a three-year attempt to attract premium cruiser buyers with its V-4 powered Royal Stars, which missed the target, the success of the Road Star finally gave the company some impetus at the top of the cruiser market. The engine, shaped by what buyers told Yamaha they wanted in a big cruiser, was air-cooled, had pushrod-operated valves (four per cylinder), and packed plenty of displacement. In '99, its 1602cc made it the biggest full-production V-twin on the market.
Now in its fourth year, the Road Star is virtually unchanged. It retains the classic American style it was born with. Full fenders sweep over wide 16-inch wire-spoke wheels. Fat fork tubes reach up past the big headlight to a wide handlebar. A big speedometer nestles into the top of the 5.3-gallon fuel tank. Floorboards confirm the relaxed character of the motorcycle. The large triangular chrome airbox and staggered dual mufflers frame the tall cylinders on the right. On the left, a belt delivers power to the rear wheel under a chrome guard. The price is $10,999 or $200 more if you want two-tone paint.
Although Yamaha has made a Silverado (windshield and leather saddlebags) version of the Road Star and a Midnight Star edition (with more chrome and polished parts and a deep black color), the Warrior is the first significant variation on the Road Star. The Warrior is almost entirely new, although it's built around the same basic 48-degree V-twin design. Instead of the easygoing approach of the Road Star, the Warrior is looking to kick some ass. New cylinders with bigger bores push displacement to 1670cc, and new heads flow more mixture to the combustion chambers, improve cooling and offer additional strength. New camshaft profiles raise its pulse too, and redesigned rockers accommodate the additional rpm. To help get mixture into the engine, there is a new fuel-injection system with two 40mm bodies replacing the standard Road Star's single 40mm carb. It plugs into an expanded airbox network, which displaces some of the fuel to an additional tank under the seat, though total capacity is just 4.0 gallons. Two equal-length header pipes move exhaust gases to that large single canister muffler. The ratios in the five-speed are juggled, though all are lower than the standard Star counterparts. The powerplant is finished in black.
The chassis is even more exotic than the engine, with an all-aluminum frame and swingarm that shorten the wheelbase over half an inch and steepen the steering head for more responsive handling. The 41mm inverted fork and dual-disc front brake components were lifted from the R1 sportbike and grafted to lightweight three-spoke cast wheels mounting radial tires, a 120/70-18 in front and a massive 200/50-17 on the six-inch wide rear wheel. The styling asserts the Warrior's aggressive nature, with a beautifully curved fuel tank, minimal fenders, a small headlight, and a thin saddle that gives only the briefest concession to a passenger. That lack of two-up intent is seconded by the passenger pegs, which are placed very high. Unique, blue-lit instrumentation includes a tachometer and multiple LCD windows. The Warrior lists for $11,999.