Powerful beast

My neighbours think I'm schizophrenic – or at least that I'm leading a double life.

There's no other excuse for the vehicles in my driveway. For the car I'm currently driving and the bike parked alongside fit such different profiles, only a Jekyll and Hyde would buy them both.

The Toyota iQ measures under three metres long, has a 1.0-litre engine, and suits city driving. The Kawasaki Vulcan is barely 40cm shorter, has a 1.7-litre engine – and suits the open road.

Both are mobile toys, but they don't half look ludicrous parked side by side because one's so metrosexual and the other so gruff; a great black beast of a machine, some 345kg of motorised muscle.

This is the 1700 Vulcan Classic – but it's classic in style and name only. For what's under the skin is thoroughly modern.

There's Kawasaki's first fully electronic throttle actuation system for example.

This bike's ECU controls the volume of the fuel going through the injectors and the air into the throttle valves to smooth engine response and deliver a reasonable cold-start idle. Familiar throttle feel remains, because though the actuation is electronic, the throttle grip is still connected to cables.

What you're controlling is this mighty, long-stroke, liquid-cooled, eight-valve 1.7-litre V-twin, a powerplant delivering 15 per cent more urge than the 1600. It uses a valve system based on the bigger VN2000, but with a sohc arrangement in place of ohv.

The 2.0-litre bike also donates its dry sump setup that lets Kawasaki lower the crank to impart the longer stroke without increasing engine height. Which is a good thing, for despite the low seat that results, this thing's wide – which makes it a tad harder to straddle.

A belt delivers drive to the rear wheel, with carbon fibre replacing Kevlar as its tensile strength is greater so Kawasaki could reduce belt width.

This engine pulls strongly through the mid-range, but there's plenty on tap in top gear, and certainly more than enough in first. Plenty, but not as much as you'd expect from a powerplant this size. Still, given a 100kmh speed limit, how much do you need?

As for handling, Kawasaki says it designed the frame to be light, slim and rigid, with a shorter wheelbase than the bigger VN2000 or the VN1600, as well as a shorter distance from seat to steering head. That's all designed to make the bike light to handle, and to ease those necessary u-turns.

Light, of course, is all relative. This thing tips the scales at 345kg thanks in part to all the tech that's been packed in. But that is not light. You don't notice it when cruising, but you certainly do when parking or manoeuvring the beast – unless you're built to a similar scale.

Still, once you're under way it's all good. The seat-to-pegs-to-bars arrangement isn't too great a stretch even for my 1.66 metres. That grunty engine never feels stressed, yet is happy to flex a few muscles at a moment's notice. She'll tip into bends with reasonable ease too, though you won't change direction in a hurry – this Vulcan boasts typically long, low, lazy cruiser handling, and you have to take that into account – especially given this is a powerful beast.

Fortunately the brakes are good. The suspension's reasonably effective, too. I didn't need to play with the dual adjustable rear shocks, their work assisted by this capacious dished seat.

You could sit here all day – and play with the trip meter. It'll show fuel use (6.4/100 average – the car averaged 6.25) and, more usefully, range. The last thing you want to do on a bike this big is run out, and have to push it.

The switch to flick from trip to clock to odo, and the like, is on the right bar and is reasonably easy to reach.

Less easy to use is the display itself or the speedo. Tank-top instrument arrays might look the part, but you have to take your eyes a long way from the road to read them. Fortunately the speedo is enormous – there's no tacho, all you need to know is that power and torque arrive early in the rev range and stay there.

I did like that powerband. I rather liked this bike's blend of ancient and modern, too; that trip, the fuel injection, the LED taillight juxtaposed with the classic lines and flashing chrome.

But I'd recommend anyone close to my height think twice before buying one. Yes, it looks impressive. Yes, this engine feels impressive too – and if you like to say "mine is bigger than yours", 1.7 litres and 345kg delivers a fair few boasting rights. And it's certainly a doddle to ride, yet there are big, heavy cruisers that don't feel this hefty when you're pushing them round the garage forecourt, turning them in your garage, or thinking carefully about where to park.

Sure, to some extent any cruiser is a tad cumbersome, it goes with the territory. But this one is a more cumbersome than most.

Perhaps I noticed it more given the perky little car I parked beside it – perky, but definitely lacking the style the big Vulcan boasts in spades.

- © Fairfax NZ News