Possible Vulcan 500 purchase

General questions, information, and/or comments about the Vulcan 500. For specific questions, post them under the applicable topic.
ultracyclist
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Joined: Sat Jun 22, 2013 10:05 pm
I ride: BMW

Possible Vulcan 500 purchase

Postby ultracyclist » Sat Jun 22, 2013 10:44 pm

I was not sure where to post this, so I placed it here.

I am new to Kawa but not to motorcycles.
There is a 2006 Vulcan 500 with about 9900 miles on the clock at a dealer. What are the potential trouble spots or points of concern?

My last three bikes have been BMW's which are shaft driven. What specifically should be addressed about the chain?

Thanks in advance for your help.
Ride safe!

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Triangles
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Posts: 819
Joined: Sun Dec 27, 2009 10:35 pm
I ride: '94 Black Cherry Vulcan 500, '06 Candyfire Red Vulcan 500 LTD
Location: Toledo Ohio
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Re: Possible Vulcan 500 purchase

Postby Triangles » Mon Jun 24, 2013 2:01 pm

Keep the valves adjusted every 6k miles and change the oil regularly and the engine is bullet proof. Biker Bill rode his to something like 115K miles before rebuilding the engine.

When you let the bike sit for a while the carbs gum up and cause a big flat spot mid throttle. This usually 85% self corrects after riding it a couple short trips and completely goes away after a few tanks of gas thru the engine. So you generally don't need to do any tedious carb cleaning unless it's really bad. I use a bottle of carb cleaner in the gas tank to speed up the dissolving of varnish in the carb.

I believe the manual says to lube the chain every 600 miles or something similarly short. I find this much attention unacceptably annoying. I use a "loobman" manual chain oiler and don't worry too much about cleaning the chain. Its cheap and with the occasional button push your chain gets some fresh loob. There is a company that makes an expensive belt drive conversion. I had thought of doing this but I had a bad experience with them and wouldn't recommend it. I was going to engineer my own belt conversion but it would be even more expensive than the kit to build a one off kit for myself not to mention the time involved engineering it. The loobman has been the compromise for me between converting to belt and very often chain maintenance.

My 2006 is still on the factory battery. This bike uses flooded lead acid batteries that require occasional topping off. I couldn't find any maintenance free lead acid batteries but I would think there's some out there. I switched out my '94's battery with a lithium ion battery that is maintenance free and supposedly will last twice as long. Requires custom wiring but not a big deal. I intend to do the same with my 2006 battery when it gives up the ghost.
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