Selling my bikes was something I had been thinking about for some time now. There’s no getting around the fact that I’m getting older and my riding days are not unlimited, I wanted one last new bike. A gift to myself. The truth is , my first intent was to buy a late model cruiser with low miles on it, there are plenty of them out there. It was actually my wife who kept nudging me to get a new one….and so I did.
I had in my mind, certain parameters that I wanted to meet in a new bike. I wanted it to be easy to own, comfortable to ride, reliable, shaft drive preferably and a valve train that I could adjust myself without special tools or too much drama, and to have good aftermarket support. I also did not want an 800 pound bike, so I was looking at mid size cruisers. For me it really came down to two bikes , the Kawasaki 900 Vulcan ( which really is a great machine ) or the Suzuki Boulevard C50 cruiser. In the end I chose the Suzuki,
for a number of reasons.
It is,
Fuel injected
Shaft drive
screw adjustment tappets
Water cooled
simple to work on, no fancy electronics
It has been made for 20 years , it is a solid, well developed bike, with strong aftermarket support and accessories are cheap as chips!
Comparison road tests against other mid size cruisers are almost always the same, they praise the handling, comfort, smoothness, fit and finish and the pleasant nature of the torquey motor. While they comment that it is down on power compared to the other mid size bikes , they also say that those numbers don’t tell the whole story while riding. The torque peaks at just 3000 rpm and most of that is available from just off idle. It has a lot of grunt when taking off from a stop and acceleration builds smoothly, rather than setting your hair on fire. I’m fine with that, what I wanted was a comfortable riding position and the ability to occasionally take it on the highway without feeling beat up. Today was the first opportunity to take it out for a ride…..and I love it!
It is so relaxed to ride with a very comfortable and open riding position. This is the first bike I’ve owned with floorboards and a heel toe shifter and again I really like it, you can slide your feet around to get comfortable, the shifter is super easy to operate and I was immediately at ease with it. The seat is the size of a John Deere tractor seat, you can scootch around on it. The ride and handling were a very pleasant surprise to me. I had worried that a heavier bike ( 616 pounds. ) would feel cumbersome and difficult to manage at low speeds, but it’s just the opposite, the bike sits low and has a low center of gravity, it never felt too heavy or tipsy. I pulled into a church parking lot and was practicing some very low speed circles and tight radius turns and I felt like Jerry Palladino in “Ride like a Pro” . The bike is just really stable and well balanced. And on the street it was more of the same. It tracks like it’s on rails, very confidence inspiring. I haven’t taken it on the freeway yet, I’m still breaking it in and I’m trying to follow the factory guideline’s and not rev it too much. But so far I’m digging it!
I had in my mind, certain parameters that I wanted to meet in a new bike. I wanted it to be easy to own, comfortable to ride, reliable, shaft drive preferably and a valve train that I could adjust myself without special tools or too much drama, and to have good aftermarket support. I also did not want an 800 pound bike, so I was looking at mid size cruisers. For me it really came down to two bikes , the Kawasaki 900 Vulcan ( which really is a great machine ) or the Suzuki Boulevard C50 cruiser. In the end I chose the Suzuki,
for a number of reasons.
It is,
Fuel injected
Shaft drive
screw adjustment tappets
Water cooled
simple to work on, no fancy electronics
It has been made for 20 years , it is a solid, well developed bike, with strong aftermarket support and accessories are cheap as chips!
Comparison road tests against other mid size cruisers are almost always the same, they praise the handling, comfort, smoothness, fit and finish and the pleasant nature of the torquey motor. While they comment that it is down on power compared to the other mid size bikes , they also say that those numbers don’t tell the whole story while riding. The torque peaks at just 3000 rpm and most of that is available from just off idle. It has a lot of grunt when taking off from a stop and acceleration builds smoothly, rather than setting your hair on fire. I’m fine with that, what I wanted was a comfortable riding position and the ability to occasionally take it on the highway without feeling beat up. Today was the first opportunity to take it out for a ride…..and I love it!
It is so relaxed to ride with a very comfortable and open riding position. This is the first bike I’ve owned with floorboards and a heel toe shifter and again I really like it, you can slide your feet around to get comfortable, the shifter is super easy to operate and I was immediately at ease with it. The seat is the size of a John Deere tractor seat, you can scootch around on it. The ride and handling were a very pleasant surprise to me. I had worried that a heavier bike ( 616 pounds. ) would feel cumbersome and difficult to manage at low speeds, but it’s just the opposite, the bike sits low and has a low center of gravity, it never felt too heavy or tipsy. I pulled into a church parking lot and was practicing some very low speed circles and tight radius turns and I felt like Jerry Palladino in “Ride like a Pro” . The bike is just really stable and well balanced. And on the street it was more of the same. It tracks like it’s on rails, very confidence inspiring. I haven’t taken it on the freeway yet, I’m still breaking it in and I’m trying to follow the factory guideline’s and not rev it too much. But so far I’m digging it!
