Breaking Away With The 1999 Kawasaki Vulcan 1500 Nomad

This article was originally published in the April 1999 issue of Motorcycle Cruiser.

Unlike Honda, which simply bolted a windshield and saddlebags on its flagship cruiser, Kawasaki made significant changes from the base model Vulcan 1500 Classic when it created the Nomad touring version.

The frame has been beefed up using larger-diameter tubing and lengthened, with an additional quarter-inch between the axles. Steering geometry has been rearranged through the use of a different triple clamp to give 7.4 inches of front-wheel trail compared with the Classic’s 4.84 inches. Cast wheels mounting tubeless tires (a wider one in front) offer greater rigidity and load capacity than the Classic’s wire wheels. The tubeless tires also offer some resistance to blowouts and may be easier to repair temporarily on the road. An additional disc and caliper on the front wheel supply added braking power to decelerate the additional load Nomads will presumably carry.

Air-assisted shocks with rebound damping adjustments at the rear offer a half-inch more travel than the Classic’s and raise the height of the deeper, fuller saddle about three-quarters of an inch.

The floorboards are moved slightly rearward, and the passenger also gets floorboards on the Nomad.

Those changes plus the addition of the adjustable windshield, side-opening saddlebags and saddlebag guard rails add about 80 pounds of wet weight to the Nomad compared with the Classic, even though they both still have the same 4.2-gallon gas tank with instruments atop it. The Nomad’s exhaust system, which splits to run down each side to clear the bags better than the Classic’s right-side staggered arrangement, may also add a few pounds.

Although the Nomad brought a few innovations to the engine bay (such as a relocated oil-level sight glass) when it was introduced, most of them have now been adapted to the Classic. However, the heavier No­mad gets slightly more flywheel mass. Essentially, it is the same liquid-cooled, single-carb, single-overhead-cam, eight-valve 50-degree V-twin that we first saw in the Vulcan 1500 Classic in 1996. That machine was derived from the Vulcan 1500 A model. Deep finning gives the Classic's engine a traditional air-cooled appearance, unlike the A model which looks liquid-cooled. A gear-driven counterbalancer takes the vibration out of the engine at highway speeds and reduces it to a gentle throb at low engine speeds. A large airbox runs through the V and uses round chrome covers on both sides of the engine. These days, all the bikes based on the Vulcan 1500 Classic—which for 1999 includes the ultra-retro Drifter—have five speeds. Shaft-drive sends power to the rear wheel.

Tank-top instrumentation includes a fuel gauge in addition to the standard speedometer and an array of warning lights.