The Kawasaki folks came up from sunny Orange County last week to
show off their all-new-for-2009 Vulcan 1700 family to journalists in
the San Francisco Bay Area, and were stunned by the quality of rides in
our part of the state. It's always nice to have out-of-towners around
to remind us not to get complacent! Sure, they get 300 days of warm
weather and sunshine even at the coast, where we get summer fog, but
we've got a seemingly endless variety of country and coast roads, with
not too much freeway angst.
Photographer Kinny Jones did a great
job of capturing the moment. Below is a photo of the ride from Stinson
to Mt. Tam, with the blue of the Pacific Ocean melting in to the blue
of the sky over green hills dotted with spring wildflowers. I'm riding
the Kawasaki Vulcan Classic.
Below, we're higher up on the road to the top of Mt. Tam, with Muir Woods and the Pacific Ocean below. (If you come for a ride in the San Francisco Bay Area, try to make it a weekday, when the roads are empty, like this.)
Below is the road past the tiny town of Nicasio. Now I'm on the Kawasaki Vulcan LT, which adds windshield, saddlebags, passenger rest, two-toned paint and studded leather. You could add any of these options onto the Classic, but if you want them all, it much more cost effective to buy the LT. You can see that it's an easy reach to the handlebars and floorboards. The bike's seat height is 28.3 inches, and I'm 5"7' with a 32" inseam, which gives me flat-footed stability with a few inches to spare. (By the way, I'm wearing Joe Rocket Woman's Alter Ego Textile Pants, Firstgear Monarch jacket, and Tourmaster boots.)
Note the nice dual pipes and the nice, bright LED taillight below. On the Classic and the Classic LT the floorboards are set a little more forward than they are on the other two members of the new Vulcan 1700 family. I kind of think of the Nomad and the Voyager as the parents, with dual pipes sacrificed for integrated saddlebags and passenger comfort. Their many additional touring features make long and two-up cruises as comfortable as possible, like cruise control and a sort of uber-ABS braking on their "flagship" model, the Voyager. K-ACT ABS not only activates both front and back brakes in correct measures but
senses speed and rider input to adjust calipers
accordingly. It's also got a frame-mounted fairing and comprehensive dash, adjustable windscreen, iPod-Ready sound system, and a trunk that holds 2 helmets. But this time around I just rode both of the teenagers in the family; the Classic and the Classic LT, which are sportier-looking day-trip and weekender cruisers.
In Point Reyes, Agata Formato jumped on pillion for a tour around town. I'm not terribly experienced riding a passenger around, but the bike is so low and well-balanced that I hardly noticed she was there. Note that it's gotten so warm that I've changed to my new, bright pink mesh Fieldsheer jacket. A lot of people on the street smiled and waved at us. I guess they've never seen two women on a motorcycle before…
Back in Mill Valley on Richardson Bay I'm standing next to the Classic where you can see what a wonderful low, cruiser profile it has. (Kawasaki's Jan Plessner is about 5"3', and she roared off on a Nomad, no problemo.) The day was so beautiful and the Vulcan so comfortable that I could have done about 100 more miles, but I was just grateful to have experienced another beautiful day in the neighborhood on a classy new cruiser
Look for reviews of the Vulcan 1700 family, the Fieldsheer mesh jacket and Joe Rocket textile pants in upcoming issues of Women Riders Now. Join my mailing list and I'll send you a monthly letter on motorcycle misadventuring articles, events, and journeys.
Oh, and if you didn't catch the little video I did earlier this week with Kawasaki's footage of the Vulcan series in action, here it is.
I think I was on that road when I visited Muir Woods last May. Such a wonderful place. Your pants look fine. A 32″ inseam is unusual for a 5′ 7″ person; I thought you were taller. I’m 5′ 9″ with a 30″ inseam. It was 32″ when I was younger, but got shorter as I got fatter, for some reason. Do you have a secret to keeping the weight off or is it just diet and exercise? I work out on a Nordic Trac everyday and eat less now, but it doesn’t seem to do much. Maybe you just have good genes???