I got a 2011 Vulcan 900 Classic LT in early May this year. I've been away from bikes for several years so I jumped on the internet to get some info and found this site. It's a great source of information...and some misinformation but that is the nature of the web. Shortly after getting the bike I had the urge to mod it. I do that with everything, I always want to tinker. So I set out to gather info and make some informed decisions. The info I was looking for was scattered across this forum and others so I'll consolidate what I did here. The following is a mixture of facts and opinions.
First oil change at 615 miles. I used Rotella T 15W-40 and a Fram PH6017a filter. You can't find the legendary WalMart 6617 filter anymore - I looked everywhere for it. No local parts houses carried a Wix filter that would fit which surprised me since we have Advance Auto, AutoZone, and O'Reillys around here. I prefer Wix filters but Fram will do just fine for now. MOM says just shy of 4 qts when changing oil and filter. After several "add a little more and check the site glass" I had too much - damnit! Drained a little out and it was just right. After the oil change the bike sounded better at idle, it was noticeable. I might use synthetic for my next oil change or I might not. If the Rotella works fine then I'll be happy with my $22 total cost oil change. I did compare the Kawasaki filter to the Fram - there's a big difference in the construction, just visual inspection not cutting it apart. Makes me think I might get the Kaw brand filter next time. They are $4 more than the Fram around here.
Stage 1 kit at 670 miles. This is where it gets fun. The 900 is a great all-around bike but FOR ME it's a little tame. I wanted a little more kick but didn't want to invest a lot of money to do it.
I got:
Cobra Speedster Longs with Hard Kore baffles - bought used from Harry2u on this forum (great deal from a great guy!)
Arlen Ness Big Sucker Stage 2 air filter from Powersports on Amazon $150 free shipping
Cobra FI2000R from Powersports on Amazon $185 free shipping
The pipes: These are much louder than stock, MUCH. I thought the stock Vulcan was very quiet, too quiet. Now it's loud, almost too loud. I thought about the fiberglass wrap on the baffles to quiet them but that changed after adding the other two mods (more on that later). These pipes, even though loud, sound fantastic. What I like is that they sound great taking off from a stop but when you get up to speed they mellow out very nicely. Going down the road at 55mph I was able to hear my wife giving me driving instructions while riding 2 up...maybe I need louder pipes
I put the pipes on a couple days before the Big Sucker and FI2000R arrived. Just pipes and no other mod didn't do anything for performance on my bike. Maybe just a little more responsive in 2nd and 3rd but based on what I had read here I wasn't expecting a boost in performance so I wasn't disappointed. I just wanted a little rumble while going down the road. Install was easy even without instructions. After some initial fitting I found that loosely attaching the header first then adding the muffler was the way to do it. After that it was just bolting it all together. About 1.5 hrs and one scraped knuckle to get it done. I took my time and made sure it was done right.
Big Sucker and FI2000R: I like to research things, it's part of the fun of tinkering. I decided to get a simple fuel injection control module instead of the other more complicated models because I didn't want to go thru the whole dyno and tune process. I know it optimizes everything, I get that. I like to tinker but my interest ends when I feel like I'm tinkering and tuning more than riding and enjoying. That's just me and everybody has their own thing that makes them happy. I also decided against the autotuners, like the Power Pro, because of the $300 difference in price. I made a judgement call based on the info I found here and on other sites. You can make your own conclusion but to distill it for this narrative: for the Vulcan 900 there isn't much gained using the Power Pro vs. the FI2000R. Yes it autotunes and you don't have to touch it after install, but the FI2000R is set it once and forget it. BUT I'm not dealing with big elevation changes like going from Iowa to the Colorado Rockies. If I was going to do that, which I'm not, I would have looked harder at the Power Pro. Both work, both are quality...you make the call.
The FI2000R is small, about the same shape as a flip phone but smaller in every dimension. The install instructions are very thorough and clear with detailed pictures. The hardest part of the install is popping the injector connectors off the engine. This is where a needle nose pliers is necessary, at least for my fat fingers. Even going slow and making sure I didn't miss anything, the whole install was done in about 15 minutes. I will say that removing the stock air filter assembly is a very good idea. Some guys have said they are able to do it without removing the air filter assembly but I wouldn't be able to. Out of the box my FI2000R was set at 4-2-1. I've read enough about settings to make my head spin, but I did see several guys settled on 2-2-1 or 2-1-1. I decided to set mine at 2-2-1 and adjust if needed. After a few more miles I'll check the plugs for lean/rich condition but it's running good right now.
The Big Sucker air filter kit is really well made. I like the old school look of it but you can see more of the engine components compared to the stock assembly. This didn't bother me much. Take a look at the BAK if that would bother you. The BAK covers more area, similar to the stock assembly. The instructions are very thorough with a few pictures. Everything you need is in the kit, even a little bottle of thread lock. After taking off the stock air filter cover I could see what all the fuss is about - the stock filter and screen are small and look restrictive. The air filter kit was the most complicated install of the three mods - that's not saying that it was complicated, just the most complicated of these three. Make sure you keep all of the screws from the factory assembly because you'll use a couple of them to install the Big Sucker. It took me about 20 minutes to install the Big Sucker, again going slow to make sure I did it right.
The results after 400 miles
Like I said, just adding the Speedster Longs didn't do anything for performance. After adding the FI2000R and Big Sucker this bike has some kick. I don't have any dyno data and won't be doing that, but it has more pull from a stop and pulls harder through 2nd and 3rd. The best part is that I don't try to get 6th gear as much. It almost feels like I got about another 1/3 gear in 5th. The pipes sound a little deeper and less harsh, it's a nice improvement. I tried messing with the settings on the FI2000R and so far I can't improve on the performance I get from 2-2-1. I'll check the plugs after a few more miles and see how it's doing. There's only one thing I don't like and it's something I read about on another forum - the sound of the intake with the Big Sucker. The stock air filter assembly muffles the intake sound, you can't hear it. With the Big Sucker you can really hear it, maybe it's that way with the BAK and others too. It's borderline too much since it's right there close, sounding like a mini exhaust system sometimes. I might try a cover that goes over the filter, not sure if that will help or not. I do get some minor decel popping once in a while but it's not something I'm going to worry about. If it gets worse, or I feel like messing around with it, I'll try the marble mod but for now I'm satisfied.
A word about gasoline
Yep, oil and gas in the same post. This should be good right? I've been using 87 octane no ethanol gas since I got the bike and haven't had any problems. This past weekend I rode about 220 miles, mostly highway speeds of 65 mph, and it was hot, 90+ degrees. I heard some knocking from the engine, a few times it was loud. So after some research here I decided to try premium 91 octane...the knock is gone. Maybe I got some poor gas, maybe it was a one-time thing, but I'm sticking with the premium for now.
That's a lot of writing. Hope this helps someone out there...
First oil change at 615 miles. I used Rotella T 15W-40 and a Fram PH6017a filter. You can't find the legendary WalMart 6617 filter anymore - I looked everywhere for it. No local parts houses carried a Wix filter that would fit which surprised me since we have Advance Auto, AutoZone, and O'Reillys around here. I prefer Wix filters but Fram will do just fine for now. MOM says just shy of 4 qts when changing oil and filter. After several "add a little more and check the site glass" I had too much - damnit! Drained a little out and it was just right. After the oil change the bike sounded better at idle, it was noticeable. I might use synthetic for my next oil change or I might not. If the Rotella works fine then I'll be happy with my $22 total cost oil change. I did compare the Kawasaki filter to the Fram - there's a big difference in the construction, just visual inspection not cutting it apart. Makes me think I might get the Kaw brand filter next time. They are $4 more than the Fram around here.
Stage 1 kit at 670 miles. This is where it gets fun. The 900 is a great all-around bike but FOR ME it's a little tame. I wanted a little more kick but didn't want to invest a lot of money to do it.
I got:
Cobra Speedster Longs with Hard Kore baffles - bought used from Harry2u on this forum (great deal from a great guy!)
Arlen Ness Big Sucker Stage 2 air filter from Powersports on Amazon $150 free shipping
Cobra FI2000R from Powersports on Amazon $185 free shipping
The pipes: These are much louder than stock, MUCH. I thought the stock Vulcan was very quiet, too quiet. Now it's loud, almost too loud. I thought about the fiberglass wrap on the baffles to quiet them but that changed after adding the other two mods (more on that later). These pipes, even though loud, sound fantastic. What I like is that they sound great taking off from a stop but when you get up to speed they mellow out very nicely. Going down the road at 55mph I was able to hear my wife giving me driving instructions while riding 2 up...maybe I need louder pipes
I put the pipes on a couple days before the Big Sucker and FI2000R arrived. Just pipes and no other mod didn't do anything for performance on my bike. Maybe just a little more responsive in 2nd and 3rd but based on what I had read here I wasn't expecting a boost in performance so I wasn't disappointed. I just wanted a little rumble while going down the road. Install was easy even without instructions. After some initial fitting I found that loosely attaching the header first then adding the muffler was the way to do it. After that it was just bolting it all together. About 1.5 hrs and one scraped knuckle to get it done. I took my time and made sure it was done right.Big Sucker and FI2000R: I like to research things, it's part of the fun of tinkering. I decided to get a simple fuel injection control module instead of the other more complicated models because I didn't want to go thru the whole dyno and tune process. I know it optimizes everything, I get that. I like to tinker but my interest ends when I feel like I'm tinkering and tuning more than riding and enjoying. That's just me and everybody has their own thing that makes them happy. I also decided against the autotuners, like the Power Pro, because of the $300 difference in price. I made a judgement call based on the info I found here and on other sites. You can make your own conclusion but to distill it for this narrative: for the Vulcan 900 there isn't much gained using the Power Pro vs. the FI2000R. Yes it autotunes and you don't have to touch it after install, but the FI2000R is set it once and forget it. BUT I'm not dealing with big elevation changes like going from Iowa to the Colorado Rockies. If I was going to do that, which I'm not, I would have looked harder at the Power Pro. Both work, both are quality...you make the call.
The FI2000R is small, about the same shape as a flip phone but smaller in every dimension. The install instructions are very thorough and clear with detailed pictures. The hardest part of the install is popping the injector connectors off the engine. This is where a needle nose pliers is necessary, at least for my fat fingers. Even going slow and making sure I didn't miss anything, the whole install was done in about 15 minutes. I will say that removing the stock air filter assembly is a very good idea. Some guys have said they are able to do it without removing the air filter assembly but I wouldn't be able to. Out of the box my FI2000R was set at 4-2-1. I've read enough about settings to make my head spin, but I did see several guys settled on 2-2-1 or 2-1-1. I decided to set mine at 2-2-1 and adjust if needed. After a few more miles I'll check the plugs for lean/rich condition but it's running good right now.
The Big Sucker air filter kit is really well made. I like the old school look of it but you can see more of the engine components compared to the stock assembly. This didn't bother me much. Take a look at the BAK if that would bother you. The BAK covers more area, similar to the stock assembly. The instructions are very thorough with a few pictures. Everything you need is in the kit, even a little bottle of thread lock. After taking off the stock air filter cover I could see what all the fuss is about - the stock filter and screen are small and look restrictive. The air filter kit was the most complicated install of the three mods - that's not saying that it was complicated, just the most complicated of these three. Make sure you keep all of the screws from the factory assembly because you'll use a couple of them to install the Big Sucker. It took me about 20 minutes to install the Big Sucker, again going slow to make sure I did it right.
The results after 400 miles
Like I said, just adding the Speedster Longs didn't do anything for performance. After adding the FI2000R and Big Sucker this bike has some kick. I don't have any dyno data and won't be doing that, but it has more pull from a stop and pulls harder through 2nd and 3rd. The best part is that I don't try to get 6th gear as much. It almost feels like I got about another 1/3 gear in 5th. The pipes sound a little deeper and less harsh, it's a nice improvement. I tried messing with the settings on the FI2000R and so far I can't improve on the performance I get from 2-2-1. I'll check the plugs after a few more miles and see how it's doing. There's only one thing I don't like and it's something I read about on another forum - the sound of the intake with the Big Sucker. The stock air filter assembly muffles the intake sound, you can't hear it. With the Big Sucker you can really hear it, maybe it's that way with the BAK and others too. It's borderline too much since it's right there close, sounding like a mini exhaust system sometimes. I might try a cover that goes over the filter, not sure if that will help or not. I do get some minor decel popping once in a while but it's not something I'm going to worry about. If it gets worse, or I feel like messing around with it, I'll try the marble mod but for now I'm satisfied.
A word about gasoline
Yep, oil and gas in the same post. This should be good right? I've been using 87 octane no ethanol gas since I got the bike and haven't had any problems. This past weekend I rode about 220 miles, mostly highway speeds of 65 mph, and it was hot, 90+ degrees. I heard some knocking from the engine, a few times it was loud. So after some research here I decided to try premium 91 octane...the knock is gone. Maybe I got some poor gas, maybe it was a one-time thing, but I'm sticking with the premium for now.
That's a lot of writing. Hope this helps someone out there...
