None for me either thanks.

 

Yep. Pretty much all of us here love to ride. Most of us love motorcycles in general. Many of us have owned different models and brands through the years. A good deal of us own more than one bike.

 

Guilty!

 

Do you prefer the Sporty over the Victory? I realize this is an apples/oranges type question but I mean generally overall e.g. quality, handling, acceleration.

 

It's a Kawasaki Vulcan 2000, not a Victory.

But it is still an apples/oranges comparison due to the size differences alone, both displacement and physical dimensions.

The bikes are definitely very different in 'character' and other than sharing a basic engine configuration are entirely different machines.

The Vulcan has a more, for lack of a better word, 'refined' engine. It has twin counterbalancers to deal with any vibration issues from its 125 cubic inch V-twin. It's also liquid-cooled and fuel-injected. Both bikes use a toothed-belt final drive. Just tooling along, it gives the impression of being mellow and smooth, but still has enough 'thump' in it to let you know your riding something with a monster V-twin down there, and it literally roars when you open the throttle up and let it go. It's a very impressive engine and redlines at a basement-class 5250 rpm, though it's not necessary to ever really run it even that high because it's peak torque happens somewhere around 3000.

The Sportster has a comparatively rowdy engine, with more of a raw character, which is a big part of what a Sportster is all about anyway, so it's a good thing. The 1200 Sportster is definitely not a ***** bike in spite of all the 'skirtster' BS, it's much more of a bar brawler than a flower arranger. It's just 'ballsy' in a unique way that no other modern motorcycle is, regardless of horsepower or speed potential, and I like the fact that it is a true classic American motorcycle, and one that I watched my hometown's 'bad boys' ride around on back when I was a snot-nosed kid on a red Honda 90.

Of course, the Sportster is quite a bit smaller in wheelbase, and lighter than the Vulcan by almost 250 lbs, so it handles and feels entirely different.

One of the most glaring differences in the two bikes is in their suspension, the Sportster, with it's stock rear shocks gives a fairly miserable and stiff ride, one of the worst I've ever experienced, it's fine on smooth pavement, but throw in a few bumps and it pounds it's rider. It can go around curves faster than the Vulcan, but will still wobble if pushed or you run over any road irregularities mid-turn. I'm going to invest a bit in improving it's ride and handling, because the bike has some real potential to be a decent backroad fun machine if a few things are addressed.

The Vulcan has very, very soft suspension and offers a quite nice ride, though the seat will start to inflict some pain in well under 100 miles. I think the stock sportster seat is more comfortable than the Kawasaki's.

Both have pretty nice transmissions (for cruisers), and I have no complaints about either.

The Vulcan has 116hp and 141 pounds of torque to play with, and even considering it's substantial mass, it is a lot stronger than the Sportster's 1200, and at highway speed, a roll-on between the two would have the Vulcan running away from the Sportster, at least on a straight road. Throw in some curves though, and the Sportster, even in stock form, would show the much larger Kawasaki a thing or two. But the only production V-twin cruiser that has more horsepower than the 2053cc Vulcan is the Suzuki M109 at about 130 hp.

I like them both, or I wouldn't have them, and I like the differences between them.

It would be more relevant to compare the Vulcan to a big twin Harley rather than the relatively little Sportster.

 

The reason Harley Dealers consider the sportster an entry level bike is only for the fact that it is the First and lowest cubic inch model Harley has before moving up in models and motor sizes. That is in no way to be compared with an Entry Level motorcycle period but just for the Harley line.

Now with the 500 and 750 coming to a Dealer near you I wonder if that will remove the sportster from the "Entry Level" spot because as tradition goes the new Entry Level would have to be the 500..

 

Jealous....

Those black/orange Busa's are a thing of beauty.
I often regret selling my bus. It was such an enormously competent bike and a GREAT ride to suck up a few hundred miles a day on.
My current Buell is GREAT fun but someday, I suspect it'll have a 190hp stablemate much like yours.

 

I am impressed! Nice collection.

 

What's funny is we like to call ourselves bikers but the majority of the worlds riders which come from Asia don't ride anything bigger than a 250cc machine. Its the primary mode of transporation in many countries and let me tell you from experience. They use them as workhorses. A 125cc with a sidecar? What defines them from us is they use them for work and transport where most Americans simply ride for pleasure if you will.

It wasn't until the early 80s where manufacturers started making motorcycles with over 1000cc for whatever reason. As I've stated in many posts the 883/1200 is in fact the perfect motorcycle for just about every purpose accept doing nothing but riding down the interstate 2up.

People would have a lot more money in the bank if they didn't buy into the bigger is better mentality of America. In foreign countries especially, cash is the only way to buy. If that was the case in America just about every Harley Davidson on the road would be a Sportster.

A lot of people own touring bikes but in all realism they can't handle them outside of a straight line. I don't know how many times I've kicked my 600lb bike out of a slide knowing not very many men or woman could kick a touring bike out if the nose that started sliding. I can't imagine kicking one of those 800 lb bikes out of a slide and I weigh near 240 strong as an ox.

I have several friends that own Sportsters and baggers. They hate driving there baggers locally. They like em two up in a straight line at 75mph but if not for that they are on there Sportster's for everyday fun.