The Kawasaki Vulcan [1] 500 LTD is a cruiser style beginner motorcycle that was launched in 1990-2009 [2] by Kawasaki Motors. The Vulcan 500 LTD is powered is powered by a parallel twin, 498cc, liquid-cooled, four-stroke, DOHC, eight-valve parallel twin engine. [3] It is based on the Kawasaki Ninja 500 engine. [4] The Vulcan 500 LTD was priced around $5000, placing it under the beginner cruise bike category.
A V-twin engine, also called a V2 engine, is a two-cylinder piston engine where the cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration.
A straight-three engine is a three-cylinder piston engine where cylinders are arranged in a line along a common crankshaft.
The Kawasaki Ninja 250R is a motorcycle in the Ninja sport bike series from the Japanese manufacturer Kawasaki originally introduced in 1986. As the marque's entry-level sport bike, the motorcycle has undergone few changes throughout its quarter-century lifetime, having received only three substantial redesigns. In some markets the Ninja 250R has been succeeded by the Ninja 300.
The Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R is a motorcycle in the Ninja sport bike series from the Japanese manufacturer Kawasaki, the successor to the Ninja ZX-9R. It was originally released in 2004 and has been updated and revised throughout the years. It combines an ultra-narrow chassis, low weight, and radial brakes. In 2004 and 2005 the ZX-10R won Best Superbike from Cycle World magazine, and the international Masterbike competition.
The Vulcan name has been used by Kawasaki for their custom or cruiser motorcycles since 1984, model designation VN, using mostly V-twin engines ranging from 125 to 2,053 cc.
A sport bike is a motorcycle designed and optimized for speed, acceleration, braking, and cornering on asphalt concrete race tracks and roads. They are mainly designed for performance at the expense of comfort, fuel economy, and storage in comparison with other motorcycles.
A motorcycle engine is an engine that powers a motorcycle. Motorcycle engines are typically two-stroke or four-stroke internal combustion engines, but other engine types, such as Wankels and electric motors, have been used.
The Suzuki Boulevard S40 is a lightweight cruiser motorcycle manufactured by the Suzuki Motor Corporation for the Japanese domestic market, and exported to New Zealand, North America, as well as to Chile and other countries.
The Suzuki GS500 is an entry level motorcycle manufactured and marketed by the Suzuki Motor Corporation. Suzuki produced the GS500 and GS500E from 1989 on and the fully faired model, GS500F from 2004 on. The GS500 is currently being produced and sold in South America. The GS500 has been described in the motorcycle literature as a best buy and an excellent first bike, with adequate if not exciting power for more experienced riders.
The Kawasaki Versys 650 is a middleweight motorcycle. It borrows design elements from dual-sport bikes, standards, adventure tourers and sport bikes; sharing characteristics of all, but not neatly fitting into any of those categories. The name Versys is a portmanteau of the words versatile and system. It was introduced by Kawasaki to the European and Canadian markets as a 2007 model and to the US market in 2008. A California emissions compliant version was released in 2009. In 2010 new styling was applied to the headlight and fairings and several functional changes made including enlarged mirrors and improved rubber engine mounts. In 2015, a new model was introduced with a new fairing style that abandoned the older, stacked headlights for the more conventional twin headlight style commonly found on sportbikes.
The Kawasaki Z1300 is a standard motorcycle unusual for its large-displacement 1,300 cc straight-six engine made by Kawasaki from 1979 to 1989.
Peter Williams was a British former professional motorcycle racer. He competed in Grand Prix motorcycle road racing from 1966 to 1973. He also competed at many levels on home short-circuit races. He raced many times on the Isle of Man TT course from 1966 to 1973. His father was Jack Williams who ran the Associated Motor Cycles (AMC) race department. Williams trained in mechanical engineering and introduced via racing alloy wheels, an innovation which is commonplace on today's road bikes, and was also an early pioneer of solo-motorcycle disc brakes.
The BSA A7 was a 500cc motorcycle model range made by Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA) at their factory in Armoury Road, Small Heath, Birmingham. The range was launched in 1946 using a 495 cc (30.2 cu in) long stroke engine. An improved 497 cc (30.3 cu in) version based on the BSA A10 engine was launched in 1950. The various A7 models continued in production with minor modifications until 1961/2 when they were superseded by the unit-construction A50 model.
A big bang engine is an unconventional engine designed so that some of the power strokes occur simultaneously or in close succession. This is achieved by changing the ignition timing, changing or re-timing the camshaft, and sometimes in combination with a change in crankpin angle. The goal is to change the power delivery characteristics of the engine. A regular firing multi-cylinder engine fires at approximately even intervals, giving a smooth-running engine. Because a big-bang engine has uneven power delivery, they tend to run rougher and generate more vibration than an even-firing engine.
The VN750, also known as the Vulcan 750, is a 750 cc class cruiser-style motorcycle made by Kawasaki from 1985 to 2006. The Vulcan 750 was Kawasaki's first cruiser and first V-twin engine, introduced in late 1984 as the 1985 model.
Turbochargers have been used on various petrol engines since 1962, in order to obtain greater power or torque output for a given engine displacement.
Meguro motorcycles were built by Meguro Manufacturing Co motorcycle works (目黒製作所), founded by Hobuji Murato and a high-ranking naval officer, Takaji Suzuki, in 1937. One of the first Japanese motorcycle companies, it became a partner of Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd, and was eventually absorbed. Named after a district of Tokyo, Meguro had its roots in Murato Iron Works, which was established in 1924. Meguro Seisakusho, which had once developed a copy of a Harley-Davidson V-twin, was established to design and build gearboxes for the nascent Japanese motorcycle industry. Abe Industries, which had once produced its own motorcycle, merged with Meguro in 1931. The brand is being revived by Kawasaki with a new K3 model to be introduced in Japan on February 1, 2021.
Forced induction in motorcycles is the application of forced induction to a motorcycle engine. Special automotive engineering and human factors considerations exist for the application of forced induction with motorcycles, compared to other forms of motorized transportation.
The Yamaha YZF-R3, commonly R3, is a 321 cc (19.6 cu in) inline-twin sport bike made by Yamaha since 2015. The R3 and the R25 are the first Yamaha twins with an offset cylinder design.