Hi everybody, it's Peter, and in this review I'm gonna review the Vulcan 1700 Voyager. This is the top of the line Cruiser and compared to other Japanese makes, it doesn't seem like the most technologically advanced, but it has a whole bunch of hidden technology that I wanna make sure I show you in this video. Now, if I don't answer every question that you have, here's the best part. I have complete access to the entire Kawasaki lineup here at Jim Gilbert's Powersports in Fredericton New Brunswick. So if there's a question that I don't get to that you have, make sure you ask in the comments below and hit subscribe because I'll be able to come back to this bike and answer in your comments in the comments section as well as in future videos. So I wanna thank Jim Gilbert's Power Sports for giving me complete access to the lineup.

Let's get going with the review. So when you look at the long distance cruiser vehicle motorcycle class, there's a lot of options. And of course there's the traditional Hartley Davidson type route, which this very much follows in. But there's also the other side of the spectrum, the Honda Gold Wing with things like Apple CarPlay, the BMW with power, everything. And both of those are more expensive than this and take away from some of the motorcycle routes. To me, I don't think you want the distractions of an Apple CarPlay on a motorcycle. Now I say that recognizing that they could redesign this bike in a couple years and have Apple CarPlay in it, and I'll be probably promoting that as well. But to me this is a genuine, honest motorcycle. But it does have some things that other videos aren't showing you and that I think need to be pointed out that make it exceptional.

But we're gonna start with the basics. What do you need to make a great motorcycle? What you need? A big wind protection, big faring, good gauges in here, we're gonna show you some of that stuff. You need a comfortable seat with a low ride height for the driver and a raised ride height for the passenger with that's very comfortable all day seat and you need lots of storage. This bike has all of that, including the big engine. It's a low reving engine, which is the traditional style of an engine in a bike like this. Now here's the thing, Kawasaki are known for their high revving, high horsepower motors. This one is not that when Kawasaki makes a motorcycle, they do a really good job of understanding the class. This has happened with the KLR as it's been redesigned in the past. We've talked about that in a previous video just a few days ago. 
And if you look at this Vulcan 1700, it's the same thing here. The 1700 cc engine has much more torque in foot pounds than it does in horsepower, and that's the way you want. And all of that torque is available very down low in the rev range. So this has a six speed transmission with both fifth and sixth gear as overdrive gears. They won't have a ton of passing power in those gears, but it will give you that long-legged great fuel efficiency, easy to drive highway miles that you want. So the whole bike is set up for touring. But what are those details that other videos aren't showing you? Let's look into those right now. So the first cool and kind of unique feature I wanna point out is just the ignition here. You throw the key in, you turn it to on and you can actually run this bike without the key in it. So if you're

A a driver of this vehicle, you don't have to have the key in. It can keep this area clean looking. It also keeps your key chains from rubbing against your uh, vehicle there. But you can leave it in the opposition and then simply turn it off because of the shape of this with your fingers. So pretty cool system there. Something that I didn't really think about, but again, on a long cruise you don't want those things rattling around or or damaging anything here. So simply throw the key in, turn it to the on positions, hit the start button, it's good to go and you can keep the key outta the vehicle. Now that we have the key on, let's show you what the dash looks like. Taking a look at the dash again, you have that traditional motorcycle look here. So again, I don't have an issue with Apple CarPlay in my car, but I just don't want it on my motorcycle. 
I don't want distractions, I want that sort of traditional feel. And that's what this has. Now you do have a digital display down there, we'll talk about that in a second. That's your audio system and other things over here. Traditional fuel gauge speedometer with, again, a unique font, not something Kawasaki uses in uh, another line of motorcycles or anything. Digital dash which gives you the information you need. We'll talk about that in a second. Tachometer over here, red lines at 6,000. And again, all of that torque isn't that 2000, just over 2000 RPM range. So you can really have this thing pull like a freight train. Then the temperature gauge over here. So good set of gauges behind a nice windshield there that keeps you clear. And down here is your little communications uh, type system. So we've got AM FM and weather band down there.

You can also have this sort of preset up for an intercom system, which you can set it up with a CB system. You can get installed, uh, you can use Bluetooth connectivity and other things to um, get your stereo going through the dual speakers. There's one on this side, one on the other side. I wanna take a little bit closer look at some of these digital gauges though here just to show you what's in there. Alright, I had to switch to a handheld camera just cause I couldn't quite get on the angle with my tripod. But what you have here is your odometer up top and uh, some fuel information down there. And this is your six speed transmission. What I like about this is you have a display here but where the uh, individual areas lit up. So right now it's on neutral first would be below neutral, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth. 
What I like is you don't even have to read the number or in this case the letter. You could just glance at it to see what gear you're in because of where it's positioned. So it's a smart system that's super easy to uh, read there. There are controls on the right hand side, we can show you them in a second. If you switch these ones here, you can switch down your fuel economy as 12.9 kilometers per liters. What this bike has been getting, who knows if that's what we'll get. Uh, there's some range numbers there and then also on top you can go with the odometer or you can go with, if I just get my right hand on there, the trip A and the trip B. So very basic information but very clear information which I think is what you want overall. There's some extra lighting up here, low fuel, light signals left and right. 

There's a neutral light that's on right now high beam and also a cruise control. We'll talk about cruise control a second. And uh, ABS is currently lit. We're gonna talk about the abs in this bike as well cause it's unique to this bike and I think it makes sense for what this is. Taking a look at the throttle side controls pretty standard stuff for the class. Nice big grips that are, you know, comfortable, easy to operate. And then you've got your cruise control down here and what I just showed you in the dash. So changing the features in your dash, that's what this control is.

Left side moves the middle row, moving it to the right side, moves the top row there. You got your start button, your kill switch and your hazard lights are on the right hand side. Let's show you the controls on the left hand side while we're here and then we'll keep continue moving on through left side controls. Everything's just as easy to reach as well. You've got your headlights switch up here so of course headlights always on high beams right there. There are driving lights on this bike. I'll show you that. Control in a second horn button right there. Signals which I believe are self canceling on this bike, which would be pretty rare for Kawasaki but I'm pretty sure that's what this has. And then down here you have some of those radio controls. A little harder to reach while you're still on the grip, but again, easily uh, accessible volume tuning and the squelch, that's more of your intercom uh, system right there, which of course this is preset up for.

So you can uh, work with that as well. We're gonna stay on the left side of the motorcycle now and move down the faring here. You've got your speakers right there, which we kind of hinted at before. You've got a little storage compartment. There's identical on both sides but uh, this one has some wiring in there so you can connect some accessories up to there. And then down here is the uh, driving lights that we showed talked about earlier. So we'll show you them a little bit later. We're gonna continue moving down and show you a couple cool features down lower than this. So I love this view here. It shows a number of things. You've got the big fins on your v twin engine there, even though this is liquid cooled, you still have big fins in there. You've got liquid cooling out the front here. 

It's all vented. We're gonna talk about that in a second here about how it keeps the heat away from your body. But of course the faring also keeps the cool air away from your body. But sometimes you want more or less air to come through and this has a little switch right here which you can open up and allow all the air through the faring onto your feet. You've got the heel toe shifter here for that six speed transmission. You've got the foot boards or floorboards here instead of the foot pegs, which is kind of nice as well. And I really like this ability to just let that air come through because that's the, one of the issues with these bikes is if if they have this much wind protection it can get quite warm but you're easily able to just really open it up to varying degrees to let that air come through and keep you nice and cool. 

So we talked about the floorboards floorboards front and rear, but they're set up really nicely with sort of this sort of floating rubber pad here. And the rear pads are the same way. Floating rubber pad that really helps deal with vibrations so that you have a nice enjoyable ride and you can ride it for a long, long time. So pretty cool system here, which is sort of bit of a floating pad. You've also got this system here which helps direct air. It's actually electrically uh, powered and it can direct air, hot air away from various uh, people and various things. So kind of cool system there. And I want to talk about the rear suspension because that's a hidden piece that I think a lot of people overlook and it's super cool with this bike. All right, I'm currently free handing my camera on the tripod cause I wanna show you where we're getting to right here. 

So we're gonna set the tripod down there and you can sort of see where we're at and in the center of your display screen there, we'll zoom in for a second there you have a little nozzle right there. This is the top of your suspension. You've got one on the left and one on the right. And this can have an air attachment to it like you know, something like a compressor from your garage or at a gas station. And if you have a lot, lot of weight in the bike to lower the, that sort of squishes the bike down from either a passenger or extra gear. Uh, you can adjust that by adding air to there to sort of level out the ride height and increase the suspension. So again, this is where Kawasaki keeps things really simple. Something like a BMW obviously would add a compressor and charge you three times as much for that. 
What they do here is they recognize, hey, if you're gonna load this up in your garage, you throw a little compressor on there for a second and get a little extra air pressure in there, uh, suit, get the ride to suited the way you want it and you can also tweak it at a gas station. So very simple system, uh, where you don't have pieces to break down, but it still gives you the feature of having that sort of ride height and the ride feel that you want. And again, one of these on each side on the left and rear side of the motorcycle. So kind of a cool system. Gotta talk briefly about the bags here as well so they can be locked or left unlocked so you can, you don't need the key to get into it if you leave them unlocked. And of course unlike Kawasaki sport bikes or something like the Kawasaki Versys 1000, uh, if you open that one, it sort of opens from the side where this one's opens from the top gives you a ton of space in here and a lot of carved out space in the top as well. 

So you've got all kinds of space in here on left and right side. And there's also the top case on the back which we'll show you as well right now. Oh it was heard, the top case is also very spacious and again it can be set to be locked or left unlocked. So right now I've left it unlocked. You have two clips here on the side, you lift this up, I've got the antenna mounted here. I'm just gonna move that just a hair outta the way there. And then you've got tons of space in here. Now Kawasaki claims you can fit two full face helmets in here. I haven't tried that yet. Certainly three quarter helmets shouldn't be an issue. Uh, I believe them on the full face helmet. It's uh, should be doable on either side. But again, good space up here. You've got the little tether hold there to keep things from flipping too far.
And I didn't mention with the side case it's the bike is on its side stand right now. And even on the side stand when we open this uh, this top this way it stays upright so it's all balanced right to stay upright, uh, even when it's on the side stand. Uh, everything's pretty simple. So good storage which is what you expect in this class. While we're at the back of the bike, I do wanna show you the lights here cuz they're pretty good. So you turn the bike to the AM position, you can see that sort of the whole taillight lights up right along here, brake light down low as well. And I'll turn the hazard lights on. But when you tap the brake, it's not just the brake light that lights, I'm just uh, looking at my, there we go. You can see both rear lights light up

So great lighting on this bike, uh, just traditional look but also good light spread where you need it. Next thing I wanna talk about is the brakes on this bike. So you've got different acronyms for different Kawasaki braking systems and this is an ABS system specifically designed for the heavier bike. So Kawasaki has a traditional A bs, they have a sport bike, a bs, they have other ABS type things and this one is designed for this type of bike. And the biggest thing you have is not just that it's abs but that is a, it is a linked breaking system. So if you're driving down the road and something comes out in front of you and you just grab a whole bunch of right lever, which is traditionally just your front brake, it's gonna balance that front and rear, uh, to make sure that your wheels aren't locking up.

And the same thing if you were to slam on your foot brake, the which would be traditionally your rear brake, it's gonna balance things front and rear. Uh, so in an emergency situation, not only is it giving you abs, it's also giving you the balance braking, which on a bike that has a little extra weight, you really wanna make sure that you're keeping your balance, keeping in control. And this is a really smart system that really works well whether you're just breaking normally or whether you jump on the brakes. Overall, very powerful brakes of course, that's what you expect. You've got the dual disks, the left and right here on the uh, front and uh, four piston cas on each uh, side. So you've got really quality brakes along with the quality, uh, electronics that go along with it that will help you stay safe as you're riding. (

One little detail I wanna point out as well is these crash bars here, you've got them here and you've got them here protecting your bags. If you were to lay this bike down, they are good. Well set up for protection of all of these panels here. So again, no one wants to talk about the worst case scenario or you know, even just a slow speed, worst case scenario. But you do have protection here, which is very good in a higher speed situation. Your legs are inside of that, which can help as well if things uh, go wrong, but you've got really good protection as well as some nice style there. So let's talk overall riding position. I'm about six feet tall, so you have reference the bike is a heavy bike but it's very easily balanced. It's of course a lot of that weight is down low. 

I'm six feet. I can easily, easily flat foot with bent legs. And you can see here those floorboards are really comfortable just right in the right spot. The CD position on this bike is absolutely all day comfortable. It's just not something that you have to think about. Um, you've got all the controls, all the wind protection you need, you can see that the um, wind screen is up to my head here. So it's just gonna have, if it came straight off, which it usually doesn't, but even if the wind came straight off is just gonna brush the top of your helmet allowing you to, if you have some venting up there, bring some air into you if you want. But very good comfortable seating position, very in control, easily, uh, positioned and like I said, the heel toe shifter right where you need it. And those foot boards that have a little bit of given them just allow you to just be comfortable and also have the vibration, anti vibration sort of, uh, system there that works really well. So let's talk about who this bike is for. Obviously in this full touring uh, setup, this is for somebody who wants to go long distances and be really comfortable, but you can

Get this, this bike in other variations with the same engine and it depends on what you want. It's a very comfortable bike no matter what. What I love about it is the vwe engine with so much torque down low and it gives you that freight train like power. It still feels like a traditional bike. It's not gone fully modern to something that maybe isn't what you're looking for. If you want a traditional looking bike from a brand with a dealer network and great reliability and frankly great value, this bike looks great in person, it's got all the features you need and I like little things like having the air adjustable suspension without doing complicated things like putting on a compressor and all those kind of things. It's still a traditional real motorcycle that just feels like it should for this type of class. So it gives you the ability to go a long, long ways. 

It gives you the look and it gives you pretty good value. And in my books, that's a pretty good motorcycle. So if you have a question about this bike or any of the other, uh, bikes in this class that you want me to review, I will be reviewing every version of this bike as it comes in. But let me know in the comments what you wanna know about this bike and I'll make sure I come back to it in the comments and in future videos. And again, we wanna thank Jim Gilbert's PowerSports. This bike here is available. I'm reviewing a 2021 model in this video. The 2023 is actually the same thing. This one has just a few kilometers on it. Uh, we'll be getting 2023's in and I'll be reviewing them as they come through. So make sure you subscribe if you wanna see some of those videos. And again, let me know what you wanna see and we'll make future videos. Thanks everybody for watching.