Australian Motorcyclist – June 2017

Cafe Style Food

Giftwares

Toilets/Showers

Air Conditioned

Free 24 hour Camping

Open 7 days 7.00am to

5.00pm and by appointment

for evening functions

8679 Putty Rd, Putty NSW

Phone: 02 6579 7015

[email protected]

http://www.greygumcafe.com.au

EXACTLY HALFWAY BETWEEN

WINDSOR AND SINGLETON

ON YOUR PUTTY ROAD RIDE

CLUBS AND GROUPS WELCOME -

PHONE AHEAD FOR QUICKER SERVICE

Plenty of bike parking. Phone ahead for large groups.

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Motorcyclists Ken and Tania welcome

you to their highly recommended cafe.

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D Moto

Motorcycle

Engineering

Unit 4, 3-5 Harbord St, Clyde NSW 2142

02 8677 9120

http://www.dmoto.com.au

Comprehensive or minor servicing

Performance engine mods

Cylinder head reconditioning

Welding and machining service

Fuel injection specialists

Race and track bike preparation

Tyre supply and fitting

Ducati spares

REXXER ecu tuning

AlthoughourbackgroundisDucatiwewillhappilyservice

anymotorcyclebrand!

TechnicalSkill-PersonalService

The Bear’s in the brewery, why?

took a good hard look at the Vulcan
before deciding at the last minute
not to wave...
And the bike offers more than
just looks. I put about 600km on it
on the weekend – no great distance
but enough to get a feel for the
bike. Firstly, it’s comfortable and
manageable. The wide bar makes the
bike easily controllable at all speeds
despite the 282kg weight. The rider’s
seat is large and deep, and incidentally
also low at 680mm. Ergonomics are

top notch and helped along by the

footboards. I got off the bike after

300km feeling pretty damn good.

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clearance before the footboards touch

down. The fat 180 tyre on the back

does give the bike a tendency to follow

grooves in the road surface, but you soon

get used to that. Otherwise the bike is

stable on the straights and in corners

with no tendency to wallow. The 41mm

fork no doubt helps there, and if you do

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are seven preload levels available on the

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into reasonably fast corners and letting

the ample torque pull me out of them.

The fat tyres and the suspension also

handled the various bits of gravel that I

encountered – all roadworks, and all with

pretty good surface. I couldn’t comment

about the bike’s capabilities on poor

gravel, although the long wheelbase and

the tyres should make a meal of it.

The liquid cooled 903cc vee twin

eight valve engine does a decent job of

hauling the bike along. It is strongest

in the midrange, which meant that my

few attempts at getting some kind of

top speed (under controlled conditions)

were unsuccessful. But the bike will

happily track along on the open road at

somewhat over the speed limit.

My bike came with optional pillion

backrest and capacious panniers,

unfortunately not lockable, which held

all I needed for the weekend with the

Bear Army. I strapped my excellent

Kuryakyn cylinder bag onto the pillion

seat – which looks pretty comfortable,

by the way, although I didn’t get a

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camera gear. The bag sat comfortably

against the pillion backrest, also an

extra, and made the cameras easily

accessible. It gave me a backrest, too.

I reckon if you had a Vulcan 900

Classic and didn’t want to take advantage

of the customising possibilities (for

which the Custom version might be

better), you’d need to do very little to get

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Maybe add the accessory screen to take

some of the wind pressure off. But you

wouldn’t even need that if you had a

decent-sized sleeping bag. D