No puny 1700s here. We're playing with the big boys. If you aren't packing more than 1700cc in your V-twin, you don't need to show up. Only four bikes qualify at this rarified displacement level. Kawasaki's Vulcan 2000, the biggest of the big, brings 2053cc to bear. Yamaha's new Star Roadliner weighs in at second with 1854cc. It's followed by the original MegaTwin, the Honda VTX1800, boasting 1795cc. And the final and most recent entry into this elite group is the 1783cc Suzuki Boulevard M109R.
It may be that the drive for ever-bigger V-twins has finally stalled and that we have found what's big enough. Even before the Vulcan 2000 arrived in 2004, we had heard some misgivings about excess at the top of the cruiser world. Some riders had discovered that there is such a thing as too much displacement-or at least too much motorcycle wrapped around it. Big might be OK; heavy isn't.
Back in 2001, when it broke the 100-cubic-inch-displacement mark with the first VTX, the 1800C, Honda said that it viewed the bike's displacement as the practical maximum for a motorcycle V-twin. When Yamaha introduced the Roadliner earlier this year, it admitted that it had initially experimented with a bike that was even bigger than the Vulcan 2000, but that the machine was simply too big. Suzuki said much the same thing when it rolled out the 2006 M109R.
Riders had additional issues with the first wave of supersized twins. Some felt that these flagship cruisers should offer new levels of elegance, comfort, quality and convenience and apparently didn't find what they had expected. Others expected head-turning style or other visual features that would have made the maximum twins distinctive.
Then there was the matter of power. Face it, when you've been boasting about the massive V-twin in your garage, it's a big letdown when a Harley V-Rod-a V-twin with barely more than half the displacement-dusts you.
So when the second wave of MegaTwins showed up this year, we were interested to see if these issues had been addressed, and if so, how they had been approached. The newcomers also had the advantage of learning from the mistakes of those who jumped in first.
Obviously, both Yamaha and Suzuki chose to back away from the 2-liter mark. Yamaha went a step further in addressing the "too-big" complaint by fitting the new Star flagship with an aluminum frame and swingarm riding on a single rear shock. The Roadliner also stretched styling boundaries with an early-20th-century-inspired styling theme that's reflected in almost every detail of the bike. The engine is a classic American-style air-cooled pushrod V-twin, driven by a belt.
Suzuki played the performance card, and not subtly. The M prefix on one of its Boulevard cruisers designates a musclebike, but you don't need to know that to get the message. From the little cowl over the headlight to the fat 240/40-18 radial rear tire, the M109R flaunts its muscularity and backs it up with the only double-overhead camshaft in the group.
Honda has been busy since it christened this class five years ago. There are now five versions of the VTX1800, all powered by the same single-overhead-camshaft 52-degree fuel-injected V-twin on the same basic chassis. The muscular C was the 2001 original, followed in 2002 by the classically styled R and S, which are virtually identical to each other except for their wheels-cast on the R and wire spoke on the S. In 2004, Honda added the neo-retro VTX1800N, which won our maximum-twins test that year. In 2005, the VTX1800F, the bike tested here, added a sort of dragbike influence to the line with its cut-down fenders, low, flat handlebar, competition-style saddle and 18-inch radial tires.
Kawasaki's new Vulcan 2000 Classic doesn't stray too far from the original, with the same liquid-cooled, 52-degree pushrod V-twin powering an identical long, single-shock frame. A conventional cruiser headlight treatment, a different handlebar shape and a more commodious passenger saddle distinguish the Classic from the original.