The Vulcan 750. Tell me what you know!

with jap cruisers you're in your element jerry. and I agree 99%(withholding one point for your body of work)
inline four cruisers were cool, and original. seriously I think cornball retro is trending gone. even in autos, even at Harley for that matter.

...but his hair covers it nicely.

actually, the old superbikes from the 80's like the GS1100ES and the GPZ1100 were running sub 11 second quarter miles, and they were air cooled.

Every now & then when I see one I think it would be cool to have an old XJ or Seca as a daily rider and keep something else as an occasional hooligan ride. I guess if you grew up with them, they just look like a no BS bike.

Radian with a top box would do nicely too.

It's called making something as bad as a Hardley Ableson!
Apparently that's something that N.American rollers (rollers, not riders) want.

The M109 is a bit of a beast. Pretty sure it could take a V-Rod in a straight line, and if not it would be close. And still be able to hustle through decent roads more than you'd think.
A Japanese Diavel mayhap?






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Yeah, I had a Radian last year as a salt bike that I regret selling. It was a nice solid bike, even with the finish getting rough on some parts.

I'm with you on having one for a rider. It's nice to keep an old rough hewn carb'ed air-cooled 4 around for kicks. The warm up times, sound, fury, and feel are all very nostalgic if you grew up when they were new.

I picked up a GS1100E a few years back and enjoyed it, although briefly.

I made the mistake of buying it in a fairly dark garage and it turned into way more work than I expected, but hey I only paid 700 bucks for it.

The last one I had ridden was in about 1989 and I remember so vividly breaking the back tire loose on asphalt by accident. I think it was the first time I'd ever experienced that, and I was all hooollly shit!

The GSE is the neutered, domesticated version of the bike we are chatting about...but I'll give you a pass because of your Vizla

In a perfect world of my own creating, I ride a XJ750X Maxim to work, have a Diavel for weekend hooligan overnighters, and come home every night to a happy Viszla that hasn't pissed or shit on the first available carpet and has a rock solid, never fail recall.

Sigh, one can dream...






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Oh and a Kerker slipon is the epotame of PO sins...one must replace that shit with a full system at the earliest opportunity!






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A Kerker from back in the '80s was 10 times better than a new two bros POS beer can pipe. I'm not into aftermarket exhausts, but an older race mechanic on another forum says he is unaware of any company that builds even a halfway decent exhaust system today. Every one I've seen always seems to be all dinged up, and/or has rivets falling out. That does not seem to apply to a lot of cruiser systems. I've seen some really nice, heavy, well made ones.

That is a full system as they came with a 4-2 setup that was not able to have a slipon added. The ES version was the exact same drivetrain but had a smallish front fairing. Lower handlebars and 2 tone paintscheme.

Yep, and yep. The 1100E (or ES) is a great 80s bike. If I found another one in similar condition for similar money I'd probably have to buy it.

And my Vizsla is a total spaz, but a pretty good dog.

So it sounds like pretty much everybody agrees that the vulvan 750 is kind of a piece compared to some of its competitors of the era? I thought I'd heard that they were potentially a great cruiser/light tourer. But then here everybody just points out weaknesses and talks air cooled 4cyl?
I'm a little lost.
Is the vulcan a piece of shit or not? I have to say the styling is a little 'different' now that I've looked at a few.

I had this whole cool post, with pics & debatable arguments over what a full Kerker exhaust was (which yours wasn't)

But I'm on my phone qand my thick thumbs lost it. I'll catch your next GSE though!

All hounds are spaz's, that's what makes them so damn lovable...atleast yours is quiet. For a hound. While he's being a spaz. Damnit where's that axe handle...awwwww aren't you so adorable...okay boy, c'mere...

Fuckin' hounds & 80's bikes...never can get them out of your system despite the bullshit they put you through.


Oh and yeah, Vulcan's were POS's when they were new. Don't tell Jerry though, he already knows. That's why he either has a Honda Rebel or a scooter as an everyday "bike"






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Classic JerryH.

If it s on the internet it has to be true.

The 4 cyl crowd may be looking at it from a performance standpoint. Maybe not exactly what your needs are.

If you can get the Vulcan cheap, it'll be a lot of fun. We've pointed out some of the weak links - which all bikes have.

It is kind of an odd looking bike to me, but my friend with one doesn't see it that way? Go figure?

If you get it cheap and like it, you win. If you get it cheap and hate it, sell it and move on. You'll be wiser for the experience.

The Vulcan 750 is far from a perfect bike, and has several issues. The stock cam chain tensioners are crap, and can destroy the engine if not dealt with. And it has FOUR cam chains. The shift mechanism is weak and easy to break, especially if the bike falls on the left side. The balancer assembly has a tendency to deteriorate, and break a chunk out of the case before you know whats going on. The stator has a tendency to fail, and you have to pull the engine to replace it. The rear final drive splines tend to chew themselves up if not lubricated on a regular basis. Removing and reinstalling the carbs is a real PITA. Even the tool box door behind the seat is designed to break off.

Having said all that, I have bought two brand new ones, and have a total of over 160,000 miles on them. Only problems I've had so far were the cam chain tensioners (which can be fixed permanently by replacing them with manual tensioners), one tool box door broke off, I replaced it and have not used it since, replaced one set of clutch plates, and recently had to remove the carbs for a good cleaning and some minor repair. These carbs seem to be very sensitive to ethanol gas. Oh yeah, I have also had to rebuild the petcock about 3 times on the second bike, again due to ethanol damage (the rubber parts melted)

Knowing what I know now, I would buy another new one, but probably not a used one. If the PO did not know about all these issues, and deal with them, the bike may have serious damage because of that. You can check some of it (listen for cam chain noise, check to see if it is charging, listen for a grinding noise near the bottom left front of the engine, etc. Unfortunately you have to pull the rear wheel and gearcase to get a look at the drive splines.

Overall it's been a great bike (for me) and over the years people have found ways to deal with it's problems. But I still see a lot of new owners of used bikes show up on vn750.com with lots of problems.

OK... Now you've got me all curious,. Which part of a full system was that 4 into 1 missing?



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So true.

Consensus is:

Everybody: There were better bikes out there.

JerryH: There were bikes and there was the Vulcan 750.

Seriously, it's old, it's overly complicated, it is a Kawasaki and features Kawasaki's exclusive bean counter bonehead engineering "features" and refusal to accep they screwed up. You know, BMW always refuses to accept any design flaws and blames the users for any malfunction, but they do redesign the parts... Kawasaki just keeps happily making the same flawed parts for 20 years.

I'm on my 3rd Kawasaki and it's the same with all of them, the cost cutting is quite evident.

same with Suzuki...