Update nearly a year after my last post...

Greetings!

Apologies for not staying in touch. It turned out that my 1999 Kawasaki Vulcan Nomad had serious clutch & transmission issues. This was eventually corrected and I am now riding the motorcycle regularly. Of course, if I was to try to sell it for what I have into it -- it just wouldn't happen.

By the time I got it fixed, winter was upon me so I've only really been riding it since March of 2012 - but - I've put on over 2000 miles since then...

I keep the sidecar mounted at all times so normally I'm riding it without a passenger. In this case, I keep 100-125 pounds of weights in the sidecar (this is close to what my son or wife weighs so it works well for me). I did try for a while recently riding without any weights but lifted the sidecar too many times for me to feel comfortable - so I'm sticking with the weights.

Gas mileage is OK, if not wonderful -- approximately 35 mpg. This improved after I realized that I wasn't shifting into 5th gear -- the bike has so much power I could easily do highway speeds in 4th. My previous ride was a 1981 Honda GL-500 which is a very high-rev bike so it never sounded "wrong" to keep the Nomad in 4th - lol.

This rig is amazing. High winds don't seem to affect it at all (high in my case is 40 mph with gusts higher than that). Getting passed by truckers doing *way* over the speed limit doesn't throw me off the road. I've even ridden in pouring rain -- again, no problems whatsoever - although I can't say I really enjoyed getting soaked -- but the bike didn't care.

I've decided to keep the loud pipes. My neighbors have not complained and they just sound too cool to remove - lol. I'll be selling the quiet pipes - eventually - probably when I get around to selling the GL-500 - hey, it'll happen, I promise...

RWHH.