Kawasaki's latest touring-cruiser Vaquero (which means "cowboy" in Spanish) was appropriately introduced amid longhorns and cattle ranches in the Lone Star State north of Houston. The Vaquero shares Voyager's wide upper fairing, but with a shorter windscreen and revamped lower bodywork, plus new, hard saddlebags. The upper fairing also houses the Vaquero's unique louvers which can additionally mount driving lamps.

Most young riders, and surely many seasoned riders as well, want the ultimate sportbike - they want to feel like a MotoGP racer. Of course, in reality, a motorcycle that's been specifically designed for the track isn't the most practical on the street. Kawasaki engineers took this into account and produced a very capable, purpose-built sportbike for the street.

When Kawasaki invited us to ride the Vulcan 1700 Voyager in sunny California, I jumped at the chance. What could be better than touring the Golden State's vast highways and beautiful byways on a comfortable machine equipped with everything touring riders need to rack up the miles? Besides nice styling, there's a large frame-mounted fairing, ample storage capacity, a plush saddle, cruise control, a premium sound system, and a big engine.

Kawasaki recently invited RoadRUNNER to attend a two-day ride highlighting the light side of their model lineup. Austere times and higher gas prices have given pause to the gluttony of just a couple years ago, when all the attention was on huge, heavy models.

In his best-selling book, Blink: the Power of Thinking without Thinking, Malcolm Gladwell describes the usefulness of rapid cognition, the two-second critical judgment we all make when meeting someone new, walking into a building for the first time - or when riding a new motorcycle. I thought it would be useful to apply this principle to my sampling of Kawasaki's new range of premium cruisers - the Vulcan 1700 Classic, Classic LT, Nomad and Voyager - at the April 2009 press introduction in Mill Valley, California.