KAWASAKI VN1500 CLASSIC (1996 - 2004) Review

Great all rounder. Cheap thrills. Easy powers along with passenger on back. So comfy and great road presence. Pulls along beautifully

Solid and powerful. Great power

Great quality bike from kawasaki. Strong engine and fantastic Kawasaki reliability.

Very basic bike.

Big HP and performance I have aftermarket Vance and Hines 30HP kit. Comes with hypercharger and custom exhaust.

I like that its has a fuel gauge.

comfortable, I need a break after4 hours of riding.

Single front disc, rear drum, pay attention and don't be stupid the brakes are good enough. Great for highway cruising, good in the mountains (where I live), twisties ok and fun, scrape the floorboards no problem-gas on it, not so great on dirt roads but ok. Need gas before get tired.

Cruiser with cruiser power delivery, no complaints, didn't buy a racing machine.

When the EPA had MTBE taken out of gasoline and replaced with 10% alcohol mileage went from 43 to 40 mpg and bike decided it preferred premium instead of regular. Alcohol softened rubber tip of float valve and it stuck wide open, replaced valve and seat and all gas lines with newer materials in 2015. Runs like a dream. Rest of bike is near flawless, no rust or pitting, garage kept.

Original 600 mile service at 600 miles by a dealer. Then a local guy does the rest, 1 front tyre, 1 rear tyre, a handful of oil and filter changes, plugs once, coolant once, air filter once, carb work once. I'm cheap, this stuff doesn't get done every year. Total for maintenance and repairs in 14 years under a thousand US dollars.

Floorboards, love them, luxury item. Added a windshield, saddlebags and radar detector.

A single disc on a 300kg machine? Caliper lacks bite to boot. Hoses aren't braided. Kawasaki Heavy Industries could have improved on the H-D breed but copied the formula in every respect to the detriment of the bike. Handling is....OK for a barge. You have to take these things in context - she's a long, long bike. Nice wide sweepers are more this bikes forte. Mini roundabouts less so. But that's to be expected.

You would have thought there'd be spades of low down and mid-range torque in a 1470cc twin! Not so, really. Mid-range was OK. Not impressive for the size of the engine. And being a big twin, it ran out of puff at 5k rpm....So it was a bit duff really. And then we get to the gearbox. Only 4 gears, 1st was really low, but 2nd and 3rd were much higher so it was quite a jump from 1st to 2nd and 3rd which was annoying as hell around town. And there was the "positive neutral finder" - which made shifting from 1st to 2nd a two prod action as there was no way to shift through neutral without it being engaged. Frustrating.

I don't know how, if it's something wrong with the sidestand but I dropped it twice off the sidestand. And it used to really take some cranking to fire up, often requiring a throttle twist before starting. The battery is slightly undersize so it's anything less than 100% charged you can't start your bike. Which is a bugger when your bike has an alarm....

The most efficient bike I've ever had - as in: the most efficient way to turn fossil fuels into sound with movement as a mere by-product. They are a lot of engine, so they will always be worth a bit of money so minimal depreciation saves the day. About 35mpg out of mine.

The main reason I bought it was everyone told me the state of NZ roads was terrible and I had to take it easy. So I bought a comfy, shaft driven, easy going bike (this bike). Clock mounted on tank is stupid - you have to keep glancing down to see it. And the clock lights aren't very bright at night. And having the clock on the tank means you can't have a tank bag! Chrome is the cheap flaky variety. Leather saddlebags look a bit Village People, young man. And aren't waterproof. But at least they are there.

This bike is so comfy, have been on many long trips. IE, Oregon to Sturgis, glacier park, Yellowstone....etc. it's like cruising in a Cadillac. I'm a woman about 5'4" and I am flat footed at a stop. Very easy to handle almost drives itself. I love my bike!