Faults:

Nothing.

General Comments:

Great bike, the only one complaint I have is that it was too top heavy. With a medium weight passenger and full gas tank, the bike is a little hard to keep balanced at a stop. After riding in the Florida hot sun for several hours, you get tired, and if your passenger moves off center, it is very hard to hold 1200 pounds up on center.

Faults:

The front shocks are weak, resulting in frequent re-springing, oil leaks around the boots and occasional bottoming out, resulting in a dent in fender.

Always leave gas in tank over the winter using the gas additive that you buy at Schucks or the same stuff that keeps lawnmowers fresh all winter. Just mix it in the tank, fill it, clear up and put the cap on. Now ride it for 10 minutes so this solution gets into the carbs. It's now ready to sit for the winter.

At 38k, the engine has serious leakage around the rear engine seal and other areas. I don't recommend changing these, just to keep the oil off the garage floor, but it is annoying at such few miles.

General Comments:

This motorcycle has a little, tiny windshield, but has been ridden from Idaho to Canada, and from Idaho to AZ several times, with joy!

Zero to 60 mph about as fast as any crotch rocket I've ever raced. Enough low end torque to pull up the pavement beneath it. High end isn't comparable with the CRX's and Ninja's, but you can romp on it at 70 mph to pass a car and literally blow by him like he's standing still.

I'm amazed at this bike. Recently pulled up next to a HD 1100. This big fat chump started dissing my bike for not being "American." I then pointed out his Mikuni carbs and Yoshi pipes and blah blah. He said, "what's the difference then?" I responded, "well, I don't have to rebuild mine every spring!" That annoyed him and he started to chase me. It took me about 6 sec. to lose sight of him in my rearview mirror. WOW what a bike!

Faults:

Nothing; the previous owner was a shade-tree mechanic and had bought it as a basket case. He fixed everything and rode it for a year or so, and then bought another bike and sold this one.

General Comments:

This is one of the best bikes and deals I've ever gotten. I only paid $1100 for the bike and it looks and runs great. Of course, it has a few scratches and blemishes, and the tank and fenders are only primered, but after I detailed the bike, it was really nice.

I've had four Harley's and this Vulcan 1500SE looks, sounds and runs as good as any Harley I've had at 1/10th of the price. Also, of course, it doesn't have the "mystique" of a real Harley, but fortunately I've outgrown the need.

I regard this bike a a "throw-away" bike as it was so cheap (relatively). I didn't have the money or desire for a Harley and I was actually looking for an older inexpensive BMW. However, in my price range (under $3K) all I found were old high mileage rust-buckets. I ran across this Vulcan on craigslist.com and gladly bought it.

I found that there are a lot of decent rice-burners out there if you don't need the status of a Harley or BMW. And the prices on Japanese bikes are really comparatively low.