Buzz At the Beach
BUZZ AT THE BEACH
THE WORLD CENTER OF cruising, Daytona Beach, is always good for a little Cruze News, and so it was at Speed Week 2000. Harley was first out of the box. No new models as of yet (and very mum’s the word about all those Porsche-Harley spyshots), but NASCAR bigwig Rusty Wallace was on hand to unveil the H-D livery his Penske Ford will run at three night races this year.
Excelsior-Henderson, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December, surprised everybody by showing up at the speedway with a 20-bike demoride fleet (shepherded by nonsalaried volunteers) and a new prototype sporting a conventional telescopic fork in place of the company’s dubiously styled leading-link affair. If additional investment dollars are procured (at least SI5 million is needed), and production is restarted, the as-of-yet-unnamed model would retail for an estimated $16,500, almost $2K less than the Super X on which it's based.
Company offi cials remain op timistic that E-H will be up and running soon. "It's definitely
our intent that you haven't heard the last of Excelsior-Hender son," said co-founder Dave Hanlon.
Kawasaki pulled the tarp off yet another iteration of its 1 500 V-Twin-maybe the best one yet. Dubbed the Vulcan Classic Fl, this mixes-n-matches the fuel injected motor from the Drifter retrobike (with black-box re finements for easier cold-start ing) and its relaxed steering
geometry with the Classic’s styling. Add a two-tone paint scheme and a double-piston rear brake and you’re in business, all for $800 more than the non-injected, non-updated Classic.
Our advice after a day-long test ride? Pony up the extra 800 clams. The FI is worth it.
-David Edwards
