The bike is delivered with both a passenger saddle section and the interchangeable seat cowling, and you can quickly attach the one you want for your ride. Suzuki reps were careful to say that the M109R is not really aimed at long tours, so I was happy to find that it was still pretty comfortable at the end of the day (though there were plenty of breaks along the way). The mild clamshell riding position puts your feet up front, which in turn puts most of your weight on your butt. Fortunately, the seat fit me well. It's not deeply padded, but the shape suited me perfectly and gave a little room to squirm.
But that's the only place I found wiggle room. Unlike floorboards, the footpegs don't give much latitude to shift your feet and change your leg position. The passenger pegs are also so high that I couldn't comfortably use them as an alternative to the rider's footrests. By the end of the day, my only real comfort complaint concerned my legs. I had no trouble reaching the ground, but some riders with inseams shorter than my 32 inches said that reaching around the bulk of the pipes made putting a foot on the ground on the right a bit dicey.
Even though the Boulevard M109R has three counter-vibration systems-staggered crankpins, a counterbalancer, and rubber engine mounts-there was still a bit of shudder at low and mid-range rpm on the bike that I rode, but not anything that I'd term uncomfortable. The mirrors blurred a bit though. At higher rpm, however, the bike became glassy smooth.
Though the small fairing-like headlight cover doesn't do much to deflect air away from the rider, my upper body was naturally canted forward to reach the handlebar, which sits atop 8.5-inch blade-style risers. Leaning into the wind that way, I didn't have to apply much force to counter the pressure at highway speeds with the 33.7-inch-wide handlebar.
Two instrument clusters serve up info. A bar-graph-style LCD tachometer tucks in front of the handlebar, behind and above the top of the headlight fairing. It includes an LCD oil-pressure warning icon in its face. Its case also includes the warning-light array, putting them high enough to catch your eye. Below and behind that, an analog speedometer rides at the front of the top of the fuel tank. It has two LCD windows, the left one with a digital clock and bar-type fuel gauge and the right one with a choice of odometer or either of two tripmeters. The speedo's location is easier to take in than some tank-top gauges and all of the functions read easily. The ignition lock is located on the left side of the bike, just below the seat.
The styling of the M109R involves a lot of covers with streamlined, teardrop shapes. With all those rounded edges, the bottom seam of the fuel tank jumps out at you a bit. The chrome section on the trapezoidal multi-reflector headlight's fairing grated a bit on me too. On the other hand, I really liked the flow of the side panel/seat cowl/tail section, which is capped off by a large low-profile LED taillight. Much of the bodywork, including the fenders, tailsection, and most covers, is plastic. Overall, the Boulevard M109R's finish is nothing to be ashamed of, but it isn't up to the standard of the new Yamaha Star Roadliner either. On the other hand, The Suzuki is about $1200 more affordable.
Sportbike crossover riders and power addicts like Elvidge are going to love this bike. I certainly enjoyed my day on it and look forward to getting a full-production model to test (the pre-production bikes sampled by the press were destined for the crusher). I wish it had a bit less weight, a bit more cornering clearance, more rearward footpeg location, and belt final drive, but I'm sure Suzuki had its reasons for the design. If the production bikes are anything like the one I rode, the M109R's handling, brakes, overall ease of use, and willingness to defy cruiser convention should win the biggest Boulevard all sorts of fans. We will post performance figures from the production model as soon as we have them on our web site at www.MotorcycleCruiser.com/road tests/m109update.