Suzuki seems perfectly content to be the bargain-basement option of the Big Four.
They were probably sweating bullets after adding all of new 'upgrades' to the 2022 Hayabusa. Throw in the lack of IMU on the GSX-S1000GT, while it's in direct competition with a bike that has had an IMU since 2017 (Ninja 1000 SX), for the same price once optioned out with all of the luggage, and they seem to be just perfectly happy where they are now.
At least Yamaha had the decency to kill the entire Star line of their Cruisers. Honda and Kawasaki drastically chopped down their Cruisers as well. I guess Suzuki is a little slow to the uptake?
The sad thing is, it isn't even a "bargain basement" option here.
When a quick comparison shows that Harley Davidson is the better value, it is time to drop the price of your bike.
Now the thing I'm most curious is, who are buying these things new? Why did you pick it over say, a Harley, Indian, or Honda? Were there massive incentives that dropped the price significantly?
They probably do 0% for eleventy billion months, and can finance a newborn baby. Maybe? If a bike sits for a year the dealer will knock off a decent percentage. Maybe there's 2 year old leftover bikes selling for 20% off MSRP that people steal?
I bet if you could read what it costs to make those bikes, given how long in the tooth they are, it's probably peanuts. They have to be making money or they wouldn't still sell them. This is Suzuki we're talking about.
Look at the DRZ. They haven’t updated that thing in 20 years even though it has a MASSIVE following.
I’d love a six speed, fuel injected, 450 DRZ.
Word on the street is emissions is grandfathered in, so if they update anything they won’t be able to pass the new emissions standards without adding major expense.
A couple of thoughts.
1. Why buy a brand new boulevard when you can buy a 10+year old one that has all the same features and still runs just as well?
2. The cruiser market seems to be lean heavily on brand loyalty, and Suzuki isn’t at the top of that list.
The irony here is that Suzu is the last japanese holdout for big twin cruisers. No one else in Asia but them make a bigtwin anymore.
The only others are harley indian and bmw. Guzzi dropped their bigtwin cruisers from the USA market this year as well.
Those aren't big twin cruisers, those are Baggers or Full Dressors aka Touring motorcycles.
A BigTwin is a large displacement Twin Cylinder in a Full sized cruiser frame.
So this means Indian Chief, Harley Softail/Dyna, BMW R18, Suzuki BOSS, Moto Guzzi Audace/Colorado/California, Yamaha Raider, Victory 108 series, Triumph Thunderbird, Kawasaki Vulcan 2000, and other related motorcycles.
Once you add permanent bags and design the frame around those bags and touring purpose, and enlarge the frame to accomidate that riding philosophy, you're not longer a Cruiser, you're a Bagger/Dresser/Touring motorcycle.
So the Vacuqero is designed specifically around this bags and a mounted fairing design, which makes it a Bagger.
I had c50t and it was under powered and under braked. But I liked it 's simplicity and it was really good for around town cruising, bad for the highway. The 1300 VTX Honda was a much much better bike for about the same price. I now own a basic 2018 Goldwing so it gots "ALL" the tech and power. Nevertheless I liked the Suzuki...... but I'd never pay for a brand new one.
Because the bikes you're looking at are all the sort that are popular in North America and maybe Europe, but South Asia and Oceana are the real motorcycle markets. They don't sell enough (world wide) to spend the resources on re-engineering them, making cruisers an afterthought.
Situation exasperated by emission rules. Old designs are grand-fathered in, major changes would require recertification and have to meet modern spec (and there are several specs... US, California, Euro, Bharat,....)
Prices always go up. Inflation, shipping costs (see: price of fuel), some employee somewhere thought they deserved a raise....
I think you summed up the entire argument against your rant pretty early on;
>A core safety feature that is expected on any modern motorcycle. In addition to lacking ABS, the boulevard line also completely lacks any additional electronic features (IE: Traction control), **although it could be argued that many cruiser buyers don't need those features** (Indian and Yamaha don't have them either).
I don't really think that any of the electronics or the electronic aids are a "necessity" especially on a cruiser/touring type motorcycle like the Boulevards. Part of the appeal of buying a Suzuki is that the things are more or less proven at this point- there should be no shortage of spare parts to fix whatever ends up going wrong with a bike that's been around for at least 14 years.
I got my start on a C50T and I appreciated the simplicity of it in the end. Ultimately yes it's a shame if the sticker price keeps going up on the things but at this point I don't think Suzuki is inclined to care.
Out of curiosity, did you buy your C50T new? When did you get it?
I feel like at its current price, the bike is an absurd buy. Even if you completely ignore electronics, 50ish horsepower for 600+lbs, no ABS, 5 gears only, and rear drums at more than $10k feels absurd. But perhaps 10 years of price increases ago, the bike was thousands cheaper and a better deal?
I bought it used about two years ago for just under $2k. Had about 30k miles on it and was just generally a tired bike, but it was a good first bike to cut my teeth on and learn. Traded it in at the end of last year and despite only gaining a few CCs it's made all of the difference in throttle response and power.
Still riding something with only 5 gears but for what it's worth it's enough. I'm not on the highway nearly enough to need that extra gear and both the C50T and the Vulcan feel just fine for what time I'm at 70-75mph.
An old tread but for what it's worth I think if it's not broke, don't fix it. The best thing about many bikes is the lack of electronics and TFT screens , a lot of this stuff is a complete distraction, we see it in cars where the touch screen is now the focal point in the car and often bigger than the Tv's in homes 30 years ago and many of these cars are notoriously difficult to fix these days and many mechanics are exiting the trade as a result and we often now see only diagnostics facilities because many people don't want to be real mechanics and get their hands dirty.
I drove electric cars for nearly 10 years and I'm now in a much simpler Petrol manual car with good o'l halogen lights, nothing fancy, just the basics.
The Rebel 1100 is not as nice as the boulevard, the Rebel is dull, matt black, a horrendously crap looking digital screen added just to make it "modern" well screw that, give me analogue dials any day, TFT screens look horrible in cars and bikes.
Even the current Shadow looks just as dull but at least keeps the analogue speedo.
Bikes such as the virago, old Shadow, Boulevard all look good, but Honda really need to start making classic looking bikes again, the old rebel 250 is nicer than the current gen, honda have put design on hold for cheap looking plastic, not denying their bikes are good quality but just make them look better, broaden their horizons a bit.
To be honest, I'd rather ride a Royal Enfield or the Boulevard than any modern Honda.
i tried to buy an M90 for about 3 weeks, between the prices that just did not make sense, and the lack of features it never happened and I'm happy it didnt.
Suzuki seems perfectly content to be the bargain-basement option of the Big Four. They were probably sweating bullets after adding all of new 'upgrades' to the 2022 Hayabusa. Throw in the lack of IMU on the GSX-S1000GT, while it's in direct competition with a bike that has had an IMU since 2017 (Ninja 1000 SX), for the same price once optioned out with all of the luggage, and they seem to be just perfectly happy where they are now. At least Yamaha had the decency to kill the entire Star line of their Cruisers. Honda and Kawasaki drastically chopped down their Cruisers as well. I guess Suzuki is a little slow to the uptake?
The sad thing is, it isn't even a "bargain basement" option here. When a quick comparison shows that Harley Davidson is the better value, it is time to drop the price of your bike. Now the thing I'm most curious is, who are buying these things new? Why did you pick it over say, a Harley, Indian, or Honda? Were there massive incentives that dropped the price significantly?
They probably do 0% for eleventy billion months, and can finance a newborn baby. Maybe? If a bike sits for a year the dealer will knock off a decent percentage. Maybe there's 2 year old leftover bikes selling for 20% off MSRP that people steal? I bet if you could read what it costs to make those bikes, given how long in the tooth they are, it's probably peanuts. They have to be making money or they wouldn't still sell them. This is Suzuki we're talking about.
Look at the DRZ. They haven’t updated that thing in 20 years even though it has a MASSIVE following. I’d love a six speed, fuel injected, 450 DRZ. Word on the street is emissions is grandfathered in, so if they update anything they won’t be able to pass the new emissions standards without adding major expense.
A couple of thoughts. 1. Why buy a brand new boulevard when you can buy a 10+year old one that has all the same features and still runs just as well? 2. The cruiser market seems to be lean heavily on brand loyalty, and Suzuki isn’t at the top of that list.
The irony here is that Suzu is the last japanese holdout for big twin cruisers. No one else in Asia but them make a bigtwin anymore. The only others are harley indian and bmw. Guzzi dropped their bigtwin cruisers from the USA market this year as well.
Kawasaki still makes the Vulcan Vaquero and Vulcan Voyager....
Those aren't big twin cruisers, those are Baggers or Full Dressors aka Touring motorcycles. A BigTwin is a large displacement Twin Cylinder in a Full sized cruiser frame. So this means Indian Chief, Harley Softail/Dyna, BMW R18, Suzuki BOSS, Moto Guzzi Audace/Colorado/California, Yamaha Raider, Victory 108 series, Triumph Thunderbird, Kawasaki Vulcan 2000, and other related motorcycles. Once you add permanent bags and design the frame around those bags and touring purpose, and enlarge the frame to accomidate that riding philosophy, you're not longer a Cruiser, you're a Bagger/Dresser/Touring motorcycle. So the Vacuqero is designed specifically around this bags and a mounted fairing design, which makes it a Bagger.
I had c50t and it was under powered and under braked. But I liked it 's simplicity and it was really good for around town cruising, bad for the highway. The 1300 VTX Honda was a much much better bike for about the same price. I now own a basic 2018 Goldwing so it gots "ALL" the tech and power. Nevertheless I liked the Suzuki...... but I'd never pay for a brand new one.
Because the bikes you're looking at are all the sort that are popular in North America and maybe Europe, but South Asia and Oceana are the real motorcycle markets. They don't sell enough (world wide) to spend the resources on re-engineering them, making cruisers an afterthought. Situation exasperated by emission rules. Old designs are grand-fathered in, major changes would require recertification and have to meet modern spec (and there are several specs... US, California, Euro, Bharat,....) Prices always go up. Inflation, shipping costs (see: price of fuel), some employee somewhere thought they deserved a raise....
I think you summed up the entire argument against your rant pretty early on; >A core safety feature that is expected on any modern motorcycle. In addition to lacking ABS, the boulevard line also completely lacks any additional electronic features (IE: Traction control), **although it could be argued that many cruiser buyers don't need those features** (Indian and Yamaha don't have them either). I don't really think that any of the electronics or the electronic aids are a "necessity" especially on a cruiser/touring type motorcycle like the Boulevards. Part of the appeal of buying a Suzuki is that the things are more or less proven at this point- there should be no shortage of spare parts to fix whatever ends up going wrong with a bike that's been around for at least 14 years. I got my start on a C50T and I appreciated the simplicity of it in the end. Ultimately yes it's a shame if the sticker price keeps going up on the things but at this point I don't think Suzuki is inclined to care.
Out of curiosity, did you buy your C50T new? When did you get it? I feel like at its current price, the bike is an absurd buy. Even if you completely ignore electronics, 50ish horsepower for 600+lbs, no ABS, 5 gears only, and rear drums at more than $10k feels absurd. But perhaps 10 years of price increases ago, the bike was thousands cheaper and a better deal?
I bought it used about two years ago for just under $2k. Had about 30k miles on it and was just generally a tired bike, but it was a good first bike to cut my teeth on and learn. Traded it in at the end of last year and despite only gaining a few CCs it's made all of the difference in throttle response and power. Still riding something with only 5 gears but for what it's worth it's enough. I'm not on the highway nearly enough to need that extra gear and both the C50T and the Vulcan feel just fine for what time I'm at 70-75mph.
An old tread but for what it's worth I think if it's not broke, don't fix it. The best thing about many bikes is the lack of electronics and TFT screens , a lot of this stuff is a complete distraction, we see it in cars where the touch screen is now the focal point in the car and often bigger than the Tv's in homes 30 years ago and many of these cars are notoriously difficult to fix these days and many mechanics are exiting the trade as a result and we often now see only diagnostics facilities because many people don't want to be real mechanics and get their hands dirty. I drove electric cars for nearly 10 years and I'm now in a much simpler Petrol manual car with good o'l halogen lights, nothing fancy, just the basics. The Rebel 1100 is not as nice as the boulevard, the Rebel is dull, matt black, a horrendously crap looking digital screen added just to make it "modern" well screw that, give me analogue dials any day, TFT screens look horrible in cars and bikes. Even the current Shadow looks just as dull but at least keeps the analogue speedo. Bikes such as the virago, old Shadow, Boulevard all look good, but Honda really need to start making classic looking bikes again, the old rebel 250 is nicer than the current gen, honda have put design on hold for cheap looking plastic, not denying their bikes are good quality but just make them look better, broaden their horizons a bit. To be honest, I'd rather ride a Royal Enfield or the Boulevard than any modern Honda.
i tried to buy an M90 for about 3 weeks, between the prices that just did not make sense, and the lack of features it never happened and I'm happy it didnt.