Although Kawasaki has been promoting their H2 superbike with a seemingly endless torrent of marketing videos in the last few months, the supercharged sportbike isn’t their only new model.
Kawasaki unveiled the new Vulcan S cruiser at the AIME show; it didn’t get the fanfare of the the H2R’s Intermot launch, but it’s an interesting move back into the company’s history. While everyone says they want that sportbike and its kajillion-rpm redline, real-world usability might be a bit low, and the price tag will certainly prohibit many from ownership.
On the other hand, bikes like the Vulcan S might not be sexy, muscular or even particularly cool (although the hipster-laden marketing – shades of Yamaha and Royal Enfield! – below seems like they are trying to spruce up the Vulcan’s image). But if you want a reliable cruiser that’s still relatively nimble with a good power-to-weight ration, the mid-sized cruisers Japan built around repurposed engines have always been a good bet.
It’ll be interesting to see how the Vulcan fares once it hit markets. The success of the Yamaha Bolt showed there’s still a market for a well-designed Japanese cruiser. The real question is, has the resurgence of bad-biker television (cough cough, Sons of Anarchy, cough cough) killed the market for cruisers without V-twin motors? Judging by the marketing below, it seems Kawasaki’s betting younger, hipper buyers will show interest.
Now all we need is for honda to come back with the inline four Nighthawk…yah baby!
I’m afraid you’ll have to be content with the CTX700, or the Vultus.