Bought a Vulcan EN750 on e-bay today

[Water Warrior 2]

Good to hear owners are so satisfied with a Vulcan 750. Just did a little lurking on a Vulcan forum. The bike even has a center stand, gotta love that.

[alantf]

Originally Posted by Water Warrior

Good to hear owners are so satisfied with a Vulcan 750.

Tried to do a little searching for prices of a 2011. Looks like it's gone the way of the vulcan 500.

[Water Warrior 2]

Of course it is gone. Must have worked too well and the owners couldn't justify going to a bigger bike.

[burkbuilds]

The VN750 production run ended in 2006 after 20 years of virtually unchanged bikes. It's an older style visually and one I prefer to more "modern" looks. It is carbureted not FI, which probably makes it almost impossible to comply with newer EPA restrictions, and buyers are constantly bombarded with "bigger, faster, more HP" sells tactics so more people want to buy 900cc's or more and that is what the manufacturer's build and sell. I can't really blame the mfg's, they are in business to turn a profit, and there's got to be a lot more profit in selling the larger cc bikes, I mean, how much more can it possibly cost to build them, but they sure sell for a lot more. I can remember when a 750 would have been considered a big bike but by today's USA standards, it is considered a mid size cruiser at best, maybe even considered a small bike by many. I love the fact that it has self adjusting hydraulic valves and the shaft drive. Those two items are becoming tough to find on anything less than 1000cc's. I don't think Kawasaki makes anything less than 1500cc's that currently has the hydraulic valves, and most of their lineup has belt drive, which is okay, but I think the shaft drive probably requires the least amount of general maintenance.

[Easy Rider]

Originally Posted by burkbuilds

I don't think Kawasaki makes anything less than 1500cc's that currently has the hydraulic valves, and most of their lineup has belt drive, which is okay, but I think the shaft drive probably requires the least amount of general maintenance.

They CAN build practical bikes.

The perfect all purpose street bike:
Honda's Nighthawk 550-4.
Hyd. valves, shaft drive, alloy wheels (I think) and virtually no maintenance except changing fluids, plugs and tires. Will break any posted speed limit.....by quite a bit.
A close second: Kaw Eliminator 600. Same as above except valves. Does 100 with TWO gears left.

The sad part is that neither was made for but a few years.
Even sadder is that I owned both......and was too stupid to keep either.

[dhgeyer]

I had an '83 Nighthawk 650 - same as you describe your 550. Way ahead of its time, with full LCD readout including gear indicator and gas gauge. Unfortunately mine was no bargain, as it had been treated very badly. I bought it off some guy's lawn for very little, but it immediately turned onto a huge money pit. One thing after another, and not cheap stuff either. I finally gave it away to a friend. If it had been in better shape, I might still have it. Apart from the ease of maintenance, it was powerful and very smooth. Whenever I see one, I still drool a little.

[burkbuilds]

My son-in-law and I drove out to Apex NC Thursday and picked up the bike. It was indeed exactly as described. Turns out the original owner purchased this bike after he retired and then died in his sleep a month later. His widow couldn't bear to sell it until this Fall. The guy I bought it from purchased it and then decided he needed the cash to use as a down payment on a new house. He replaced the battery with an AGM battery, installed new spark plugs, changed the oil and filter, flushed the radiator and re-filled but only put about 221 miles on it before I bought it.














Now I need to move the rectifier out to get some airflow over it and replace the six year old tires, not worth the risk to me to run on tires that are around six years old.
Other mods will follow.

[blaine]

Really nice looking bike.You really lucked out.It has a few things styled like my older EN450(LTD454),the seat,backrest,rear tool box,and signal lights.The gas cap and gages are identical.
:2tup:

[Water Warrior 2]

Wow, that bike is just so pretty. Looks like it just rolled out of a crate already assembled. New tires are a good idea of course. If you are thinking of a CT on the rear might I suggest an Ice Radial winter tire. The rubber is softer with better grip at cooler temps and the wear factor shouldn't be much of a factor to worry about on a bike.
There is a Vstrom rider with an Ice Radial on the rear and a newly installed studded MT tire on the front. He is quite happy with the grip factor of the rear on all surfaces at any temp so far.

[JWR]

Bike looks great.

I like the colors.