Kawasaki Vulcan Vaquero

      Kawasaki considers the bagger and cruiser markets to be important niches, as the 2011 Vulcan Vaquero is carefully tailored. The goal is to offer the classic profile, long and low and curved. Okay, it’s the style that spells Motorcycle for at least two generations of Americans, and the Vaquero is a point-by-point match for Harley’s FLT. No offense intended, because if we didn’t get to copy what works, only Peugeot would have four-valves-per-cylinder heads, and only Cadillac would offer the electric self starter.

    
      The 1700 engine is a 52-degree V-Twin, slightly undersquare at 102mm bore, 104mm stroke. It is liquid-cooled, overhead-cam with four-valve heads, single-pin crankshaft (for the classic staggered potato-potato exhaust beat), and rated at 108 foot-pounds of torque, no power rating given. EFI and digital ignition, of course. There are six speeds in the gearbox, with the top two overdrive so the sprockets for the belt final drive can be the most efficient size.

There are some clever touches here:

• The dual throttle bodies are controlled by the ECU, ride-by-wire as we say, but the actual throttle grip pulls a cable, so the rider gets the feel normal to the now-banished carburetor; two, the radiator is integrated into the bodywork while the cylinders have fins, as seen in air-cooled days; and three, the rear suspension is dual shock absorbers, again like the old days. You can’t see them, but they are there and can be adjusted for preload with air, and offer four-position rebound-damping adjustment.

      Such features add up in other ways, too, and the straight-shooting factory reports a ready-to-ride weight of 835 pounds. Wheelbase is 65.6 inches, described by the factory as “relatively short,” which it is considering the cruiser-style long-and-low profile and the size of the drivetrain.

A rider who’s 5-foot-9 and weighs 150 pounds in his waterproof boots tips the Vaquero past a certain angle and the bars are on full lock, the Vaquero will keep on tripping and the rider—no points for guessing who—will not be able to hold it up.

      Even so, as the cliché goes, the faster you go, the lighter the Vaquero feels. The posture is classic classic, as the seat is shaped right and the wide bars are just high enough and close enough for style and control. The rocker shift falls readily to foot, the brakes do exactly what your pressure demands. There’s more than one metric cruiser that’s hampered function while achieving form, but not this one.

      Speaking of quirks, when they installed the cable to mitigate ride-by-wire, they went a tad too far, in that the cable has some lag, just like the analog kind. The temperature gauge is more precise than it needs to be, so that in traffic, the needle goes way close to the red zone but drops down when under way; there’s an electric fan, of course, and the temperature never got into the danger zone, but most such gauges just sit there, no worries.

      Finally, the best part. The under-square engine is a bit harsh below 2500 rpm, long stroke and low speed does that, and the big engine has a rev range matching the muscle-car dashboard redline.