And so our day progressed, with an interesting mix of riding, magnificent scenery and fine company to complement the ride. Up in the mountains, the floorboards will scrape the ground if you get too enthusiastic, but there is a realistic amount of clearance available for spirited cruising, without the accompaniment of grinding metal sounds.

We passed some areas devastated by the recent fires, and a leisurely lunch stop allowed me some time to take in the bikes visual presence. The most dominant feature has to be the lush, chrome nacelle headlight cover and the four-bulb projector headlight inside. It is just massive, and looks like nothing else on two wheels.

There is a nice mix of chrome and deep lustre paint and the quality of the finish is high. I was not quite so taken by the matt black exhaust pipes that stick out a little from their chrome exhaust covers, but you have to get fairly close to notice. Other than this small nit pick, everything else is first class. The large speedometer sits in a nice chrome housing with all the warning lights and is very easy to read on the road. The chrome gas cap sits just underneath and they top of the 21 litre tank nicely.

For day two, I teamed up with my friend and fellow journalist Bob Feather to take care of our photo needs and get some more seat time, on a seat that is actually very comfortable. We rode back up into the mountains for lunch before ending our day out on the coast.

Riding together astride similar machines, it was not until we parked up outside the Santa Barbara, California Harley Davidson dealership to compare the new Kawasaki Vulcan 2000 with some of Milwaukee’s finest that I really realize just how big this thing is. The spindly forks, tiny gas tanks and very “JC Whitney” looking headlights just look plain small compared to the mighty 2053cc, 332kg Kawasaki’s components. And, knowing the power plant is making around double the horsepower just further adds to the Kawasaki’s “wow” factor.

As the world’s biggest production V-twin Cruiser, the 2004 Kawasaki Vulcan has not just raised the bar in this class, it has blown it off the chart.