2008 Suzuki Boulevard C109/C109RT

King of the Boulevard

On March 9, 1862, the first "modern" naval battle took place off Sewell's Point, Virginia, between the ironclads USS Merrimack and CSS Virginia. On the previous day, the Virginia had pummeled the wooden-hulled ships of the Union fleet until the Merrimack arrived to defend them. The confrontation eventually proved inconclusive because neither ship's guns could penetrate the other's iron-plated wooden hull. The Merrimack and Virginia were two of the first in a class of warships that were to become known as "cruisers."

Cruisers were intended for long-range solo missions independent of a navy's main fleet, and typically combined considerable firepower and armor with endurance and speed. Perhaps the ultimate expressions of the Cruiser concept were the Panzerschiffe "pocket battleship" cruisers of the German Navy: the Deutschland, Admiral Scheer and Graf Spee, all launched between 1931 and 1934. Though smaller and lighter than battleships, they packed as big a punch.

In motorcycling, the term "cruiser" has come to mean (with few exceptions) a vee-twin powered bike with a feet-forward riding position and more regard given to presence than performance. More recently, manufacturers have enhanced power-plant output to produce power cruisers like Kawasaki's Mean Streak and Suzuki's own M109R. At the same time, cruisers have sprouted luggage – "baggers" – to provide better long-distance capability.

Now Suzuki has combined the performance of a power cruiser in a package aimed more at touring – the Boulevard C109R and RT. Endowed with speed and endurance as well as firepower, they just may be the true two-wheeled inheritors of the Cruiser concept. I'm in Borrego Springs, California, to find out....

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