Kawasaki Vulcan 1600 Nomad

First Ride

As so often happens, I'm sitting in this huge plane getting ready to fly between Charlotte and L.A., and I'm wondering: When did they build the first of these Jumbos? More then 30 years ago. It's 2005 and this bird looks the same. Well, of course, there are the more modern electronics and the seats have been changed a few times, but if it had developed along the lines of the computer, say, this steel bird would probably look more like "Star Trek" Voyager or at least have a delta shape utilizing carbon fiber and other advanced space-age materials. The trip from Charlotte to L.A. would be doable in an hour and the seat rows wouldn't be so narrow that you can't help looking like a seal begging with its flippers for a herring during meals. We take off. My destination is Irvine, CA, the American headquarters of Kawasaki, where I will test the new Kawasaki 1600 Nomad.

Eighteen years ago, Kawasaki introduced the Vulcan® 1500 and for a long time the bike was the largest regularly produced two-wheeler in the world. I owned a 1500, and I'm quite curious to see how they've advanced. Russ Brenan, Kawasaki's Media Supervisor, provides some of that information during a briefing we receive before hitting the road. "The new Vulcan 1600 Nomad retains the elegant style of the Vulcan 1500," he says, "but it features more chrome, enhanced passenger comfort, and the big V-twin engine's displacement has been boosted to 1,522cc to give it an even keener power band." ...

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