An old friend of mine, who hasn't owned nor operated a motorcycle
since 1986 when he had a Kawasaki KZ1000, asked me to help him
pick a new Kawasaki Vulcan model.
He had narrowed his choices down to Harley-Davidson FLSTC and
the Kawasaki 1700 Nomad. The FLSTC was eliminated as it doesn't
have hard bags plus the Harley tax didn't help.
However, I didn't think the 1700 Nomad would be a great choice as
he's an re-entry rider, and that bike has a curb weight of 834-lbs. I
would hate to see him dump a $16K motorcycle.
I then suggested the 900 Classic LT which is lower, gets better gas
mileage, and has curb weight of 657-lbs. However, he's a heavyset
guy, and plans to do some 2-up riding with lots of freeway droning
to visit with friends scattered all over the place. $9.5K price is very
tempting, but no go.
Since Kawasaki didn't have any other models worth considering, I
looked into other brands, and found out that the Yamaha V-Star
1300 Tourer is liquid cooled, weights 712-lbs, gets good mpg, and
costs $12.1K with 27.2" seat height. He checked them out, asked
lots of questions including load capacity, and that's what he plans
to get in next few weeks.
I wish Kawasaki had a VN1300 Classic LT as that'd be a great choice
btw the VN900 and VN1700 models. They don't so he had to go with
a different brand.
since 1986 when he had a Kawasaki KZ1000, asked me to help him
pick a new Kawasaki Vulcan model.
He had narrowed his choices down to Harley-Davidson FLSTC and
the Kawasaki 1700 Nomad. The FLSTC was eliminated as it doesn't
have hard bags plus the Harley tax didn't help.
However, I didn't think the 1700 Nomad would be a great choice as
he's an re-entry rider, and that bike has a curb weight of 834-lbs. I
would hate to see him dump a $16K motorcycle.
I then suggested the 900 Classic LT which is lower, gets better gas
mileage, and has curb weight of 657-lbs. However, he's a heavyset
guy, and plans to do some 2-up riding with lots of freeway droning
to visit with friends scattered all over the place. $9.5K price is very
tempting, but no go.
Since Kawasaki didn't have any other models worth considering, I
looked into other brands, and found out that the Yamaha V-Star
1300 Tourer is liquid cooled, weights 712-lbs, gets good mpg, and
costs $12.1K with 27.2" seat height. He checked them out, asked
lots of questions including load capacity, and that's what he plans
to get in next few weeks.
I wish Kawasaki had a VN1300 Classic LT as that'd be a great choice
btw the VN900 and VN1700 models. They don't so he had to go with
a different brand.