Could Kawasaki build a supercharged Vulcan cruiser?

WITH the ongoing success of the supercharged bikes from Kawasaki, it’s only natural that the Japanese brand will want to milk everything they can from one of the most powerful yet user-friendly engines on the planet.

And if the latest news from Japanese magazine Young Machine is anything to go by, the supercharged Kawasaki range could be about to sprout another off-shoot!

The grainy-looking rendering shows a bike that some parts of the internet have been calling for since the Z H2 naked broke cover last year, showing a cruiser-style motorcycle with a supercharged 1000cc engine at its heart.

Clearly visible down the left-hand flank of the bike is the recognisable intake scoop, used to help feed cool air into the forced-induction 999cc engine. From there, the bike takes a familiar stance, echoing that of the current Kawasaki Vulcan cruiser, with a low-set seat, raked front forks, and neat-looking cruiser-style headlight cowl.

With the H2 engine bolted to a cruiser frame, it’s highly likely the state of tune of the bike will sit below the other supercharged bikes in the Kawasaki range, most likely with a power output 20bhp or so below the new Z H2 we reviewed a couple of weeks ago. It would still though make it one of the most powerful cruisers currently available, and a mightily exciting prospect indeed.

It's likely the state of  tune of a supercharged cruiser would sit below that of  the new Z H2

Could a supercharged Kawasaki cruiser really happen?

While the picture you see above is just a rendering from a magazine that has no direct affiliation with any motorcycle manufacturer, Young Machine is obviously very close to some who work within the industry and are no doubt drip-fed information from within the boardroom. They’ve been very close with some of their recent predictions of late, could the Vulcan H2 be another bullseye from the land of the rising sun?