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Riding The Meek Streak
I got to take a quick ride on Kawasaki's new Mean Streak today. My first impression was that it was not as mean as I was hoping for. It made good smooth power throughout the rev range, pulling cleanly from idle to redline, but unfortunately without the big surges in the power or torque curves that give the impression of urgent acceleration. Maybe if the VTX 1800 had never existed this would be different, unfortunately for Kawasaki, that isn't the case. Still, this is the best running Vulcan to date.
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What the Streak gives up in raw horsepower it more than makes up for in the handling department. It's one of the few big cruisers that you can pitch into a medium to fast sweeper and not get that wibbly wobbly feeling. With the combination of its inverted forks, air assisted shocks and 17-inch sportbike sized tires, it makes for one corner carving cruiser. However, you'll run out of ground clearance long before you run out of grip. The folding foot pegs (look ma' no floor boards) touch down easily and I'm sure hard parts would not be far behind. I didn't get to check the amount of air in the shocks though so more ground clearance may be available.
One thing the Streak does not run short of, is brakes. With its big floating rotors and six piston calipers these might be the best brakes in all of cruiserland and with the aforementioned tires and suspension you can put them to good use too. Since the bike is close to a mile long, I don't think we'll be doing stoppies on one anytime soon.
All in all, it's a nice bike and one that will find a home in quite a few garages. It's nice to see the manufactures are finally building cruisers for those who like the sportier side of cruising. It seems not everyone likes to just ride downtown for a latte` dressed like a Hells Angel. DaveW
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