Even with Kawasaki's great success with the Vulcan 1500 everyone knew it was just a matter of time before they updated it. So it was no surprise when the Vulcan 1600 Classic was introduced. The question between us was what could we do with a new Vulcan that Cobra had not done yet? Mike Rinaldi, Denny Berg and met several times until Mike showed up with his first rough sketches of the StradaCruiser. The first time Mike showed it to Denny and Ken, it was "let's go." This was a real challenge for Denny because of the extensive bodywork that needed to be done. We found a metal smith in Costa Mesa, CA who converted Mike's idea to real metal. For several months, Ken went over to the shop to see the progress on the body while Denny was building the frame out in Palm Springs. Performance Machine made a set of special wheels that soon became production. PM brakes were also used. Choosing a color for this bike was both easy and hard at the same time. We wanted a rich classy color, which Ken noticed on a new Mercedes SL500. The first 500 units that Mercedes built were painted a really cool metallic silver green. That was the easy part. The hard part was it was so new, no one from Mercedes could give us the color name or code. We were down to the final days of the project when the codes were finally made available.
The state of California considers aftermarket exhaust systems to be legal replacement parts for non-catalyst equipped motorcycles and/or if slip-on mufflers are installed downstream of the OEM catalysts.
California does not allow the use of aftermarket systems that remove original equipment catalysts, (except for racing use only) unless the Air Resources Board has issued an Executive Order for that system.
For California riders we offer Air Resources Board approved Fi2000 R ARB units. (ARB E.O. No. D-633-1). All other Fi2000 models are not legal for street use in California.