Full Road Test: 2004 Kawasaki Vulcan 2000 Motorcycle

The newest and biggest Vulcan gives Kawasaki a commanding lead in the ongoing cruiser displacement race. The first production motorcycle engine to break the two-liter barrier, the 2053cc pushrod V-twin in the Vulcan 2000 is more than 250cc larger than the next-biggest motorcycle V-twin, Honda's VTX1800, and makes 1500-class twins suddenly seem like middleweights.

But what does 125 cubic inches in the engine room give you? Well, bragging rights certainly, and a massive dollop of power to be sure, though perhaps not the tire-smoking, arm-wrenching shot of acceleration that you might anticipate if you think that displacement automatically delivers horsepower. However, you get the kind of power that delights riders who like a motorcycle that rumbles down the highway at a relaxed pace but can still deliver a strong lunge when you roll on the throttle. Both fourth and fifth gears are overdrives, so the engine is turning only about 2250 rpm at 60 mph in fifth. But at that rpm, it is already making a massive 120 foot-pounds of torque, just off the 121-foot-pound peak, which it reaches just above 85 mph. When you roll it on, the engine gets up and chugs.

The V2K's broad powerband thrills a rider who likes to short-shift and still drop right into a strong stream of power the next gear up. In fact, this huge twin is happiest when you shift early. If you launch hard in first, you'll want to upshift just as soon as you can get your foot to the shift lever. It is also easy to take off smoothly and strongly in second. The power is quite linear, and the tall gearing spreads it over a wide mph range. Even in that tall top gear, it will pull well from 35 mph (about 1300 rpm) with just a hint of surging at first. On a winding road, you can simply leave it in third or fourth gear the entire way and get great acceleration out of corners.

If you really romp on it, the displacement asserts itself despite the tall gearing and the bike's 820-pound wet weight. The Vulcan 2000's 12.43-second quarter-mile, at 104.2 mph, puts it just ahead of Honda's VTX1800, though Yamaha's V4 V-Max still will have it for lunch, as will Harley's little, light (and much-lower-geared) V-Rod. We sort of expect the hot-rodders to offer a set of replacement gears for the countershaft-to-output-shaft power exchange to shorten the overall ratio and let it rip a bit. (The European version has a different ratio at that point, but it is taller.)

Throttle response is exceptionally crisp and predictable in all circumstances, thanks, in part, to ECU-managed sub-throttle systems in the two huge 46mm injector throats. The sub-throttles help the engine digest sudden large helpings of throttle, keeping response smooth even when the rider isn't. And we have no complaints about abrupt response, though the shock absorbers in the drive train do create some lashlike responses if you get on and off the throttle suddenly. Even though there is no back-torque limiter, it seems reluctant to lock up the rear wheel if you get clumsy with downshifts. The belt drive certainly helps to make the drive train smooth and absorbs some shocks.

Clutch disengagement requires a lighter pull than some smaller, less-powerful engines, and it engages very smoothly and predictably, welcome traits when you are hooking up to all that torque spinning rather hefty flywheels. The heel-toe shifter delivers light, short lever throws and positive gear changes, albeit with a hardy clunk in the lower two gears.

The fuel-injected engine starts up immediately when the button is prodded and runs smoothly right away. The fuel-injection and engine-management systems apparently use fuel pretty efficiently, because the V2K averaged close to 40 mpg, and we didn't even drop below 30 mpg when riding hard on snaking back roads. Of course, the tall gearing contributes on the highway, where the 5.5-gallon tank lets you comfortably ride more than 150 miles before looking for some 90-plus octane petro-swill. The low-fuel light came on with more than a gallon in the tank. Straightening the bike when filling the tank allows you to add about a half-gallon more fuel in the tank.

The upsizing extends beyond the Vulcan 2000's displacement. The V2K is a big motorcycle, with a 68.3-inch wheelbase and 820 pounds of road-squashing weight. Although the saddle is just 26.8 inches off the road, you feel the mass when you lift the bike off the sidestand (which should be lengthened a bit to keep the motorcycle from leaning so far, in our view). Once rolling, the sense of mass is reduced, though not as dramatically as with that other recent leviathan, Honda's Rune. The wide bar offers plenty of leverage, but its length can also create problems when making full-lock turns at walking speeds. Then the outside grip of that long handlebar will actually be out of reach for shorter riders, and the inside end of the handlebar will be bumping into your knee. It's pretty awkward. The bar's width is also an issue for lane-splitters.

Once moving, steering is remarkably responsive and immediate even though stability is excellent at all speeds. Keeping fork offset at just 10mm makes steering quite light. You can turn the big motorcycle into corners more quickly and precisely and hold a line better than on some bikes, such as the Yamaha Warrior, that would seem to be better suited for such activities. The maximum Vulcan can almost match Kawasaki's great-handling Mean Streak 1600 on a winding road. Despite the emphasis on length and lowness, the cornering clearance is reasonable, better than Kawasaki's big Vulcan Classics, Yamaha's Road Stars, Victory's Vegas and the Honda VTXs, but behind Harley's big twins. The floorboards drag first but fold just a few degrees before they make solid contact.

The motorcycle also feels unusually stable, probably because the chassis is so solid. The emphasis on rigidity is visible everywhere: the fork has massive 49mm legs, forgings are used for the steering-head and swingarm-pivot portions of the frame, the cast wheels are strong and wide, and the triangulated swingarm, with its single damper set near horizontal under the right side of the seat, looks very stiff. There is no sense of looseness in corners, on bumps or in gusts, and it holds a line well when leaned over.

Our only real handling complaint at speed concerns the single-shock rear suspension. Even with the eight-point rebound damping set at its maximum, the rear end kicked up over larger bumps, which unsettled the bike in corners and was unpleasant at other times. This was less of an issue for larger riders or when carrying a passenger, but light riders in particular found the rear end's ride jarring over large pavement irregularities.

Kawasaki has matched the Vulcan 2000's heft and power with strong, controllable triple-disc brakes, a pair of four-piston calipers on 300mm discs up front. At 90 mph, we could easily and comfortably get the front tire squealing, while the rear brake has been tempered a bit to require slightly more than average pressure before it locks. This is an optimal arrangement for non-anti-lock brakes, in our view, though ABS would be a welcome feature. The big Bridgestone Battlax tires, a 150/80-16 in front and that meaty 200/60-16 on the rear, provide decent braking traction on dry pavement, but you are still stopping a lot of mass -- more than half a ton with a rider. The bike isn't going to stop on a dime.