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- You can argue the relative merits of conventional motorcycles over those of cruisers in much the same way you’d support the superior dynamics of normal sedans against SUVs, but you can’t stop people buying them. More than half of the annual motorcycle sales in the U.S. are in the cruiser segment.
It used to be that cruisers carried a premium price tag. Many still do, but take a look at this Boulevard M50 from Suzuki; it’s a high-performance, mid-sized bike (803cc), with fuel injection, liquid cooling, an inverted fork, and shaft drive, for a suggested retail price under seven grand. In fact, if you’re prepared to accept Henry Ford’s old option (black paint only), the tag reflects a figure of just $6,749. Blue or red models ask for a hundred bucks more.
Okay, if you’re looking for a big full-dress cruiser with acres of chrome, go take that second job. But if you want a well-engineered ride with the requisite look and riding position, this would be a good place to start. Especially since Suzuki supports the model with an extensive range of accessories, including a windshield, leather saddlebags, rear backrests, floorboards, billet add-ons and car-bon-fiber decorative panels.
You might also consider Suzuki's Boulevard C50T (for Touring, formerly known as the Intruder and the mechanical basis for the M50), which comes fully equipped with many of the items mentioned above for about $7799.
With a very low seat height, and most of its engine mass slung low to the ground, the M50 is pretty unintimidating to sling a leg over, even at 544 pounds dry. The ignition switch is mounted just ahead of the fuel tank very conveniently for right-handed riders. Tough luck, lefties, we had to use left-mounted keys on motorcycles for years before they were moved to the top triple clamp or elsewhere.
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- A brief jab of the starter button brings this 45-degree V-twin rumbling to life, where automatic idle-speed control keeps it burbling away when cold. The M50 uses the same 32-bit processor and injector technology as Suzuki’s GSX-R sport bikes (which controls considerably more ignition events in a given time), so throttle response is clean and immediate.
Tuned more for torque than outright power, the 50 cubic inch V-twin lofts the bike away from rest at low revs and just a whiff of throttle, then pulls strongly as you turn it on, the exhaust note hardening to a flat growl as the engine spins through its range. Like most cruisers, there’s no need for a tachometer, since engine response softens as it spins beyond the power peak, and you soon learn to judge where the optimal gearshift points are. Whatever the engine speed, vibration doesn’t appear to be a problem on this M50.
The Suzuki shifts very smoothly, too, with little driveline slop to deal with when matching revs—another one of the benefits of shaft drive. The basic M50 comes with foot pegs rather than boards, and a shifter with toe-controlled up and downshift functions. There’s no heel lever for upshifts on this baby. That just makes it more like a normal motorcycle to me, and the control relationships soon felt completely natural. However, it will take more time before I can instinctively find the forward positioned foot pegs without looking for them.
The M50 is suspended by a sturdy Kayaba inverted fork in front and the usual “soft-tail” spring/shock system operated via an articulated linkage in the rear, and the ride is set up somewhat on the firm side. In turn, the bike’s ride motions are pretty well controlled, with not much pitching even under heavy braking or acceleration.
Ground clearance is moderately good on the M50, but it would be better if the soft rubber footpegs touched down first. As it is, something hard and metallic (the sidestand perhaps) often sounded the first alarm on twisty roads. But once you learn how far you can lean, it’s easy to set up a rhythm through a series of bends, swinging this way, then that as the road winds. Given the typical cruiser ground-clearance constraints, the M50 handles nicely. What it lacks in cornering angle it makes up for with pleasing accuracy and response.
As cruisers go, the M50’s riding position isn’t bad. The handlebars aren’t long enough to force you far rearward, and the rider’s seat has both a good shape and decent depth to the padding. I wish I could say the same for the pillion perch, which looks (and feels) like a rather cruel place to spend any length of time.
While cruiser styling may look somewhat traditional, the instrumentation on the M50 is utterly modern, with a stepper-motor type speedometer and digital trip, odometer and clock display. The headlight is a multi-reflector unit, and the taillight is made up of ten bright LEDs.
While the M50’s inexpensive na-ture reveals itself in the single front disc, the drum rear brake, and some minor cosmetic detailing, it is a basically sound product, promising excellent durability along with the minimal maintenance requirements associated with all-electronic injection and ignition, a sealed shaft-drive system, and hydraulically adjusted valve clearances.
Essentially, the only work you need do is cleaning the bike and riding it. Like the M50’s price tag, that’s not too much to ask.
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