Bikes Under 1000cc - Baby Bagger Beatdown!

Road Trip!
First it was sky-high gas prices, then a faltering economy, but smaller displacement bikes are all the rage these days. In a nutshell: they're lighter, cheaper, and easier to ride. The perfect machines for new riders, small riders (girls, this means you too), and experienced riders feeling the crunch. On the bagger side of the equation, the baby boomers started the shift to touring bikes a couple years back and now baggermania is in full swing, with more and more people young and old looking to get a little more usable space, comfort, and range with their motorcycling experience, at the expense of a little weight. Even around-town riders can benefit from a good touring setup.

So we decided to marry the two categories and get the best of both worlds. We went looking for bikes under 1000cc, under $10,000 (well under in most cases), and suitable for riders new and old, large and small, but most of all bikes that could throw down a 400-mile day without so much as a backward glance. For 2009, there are four bikes that easily slot into this category: Kawasaki's Vulcan 900 Classic LT, Star's V-Star (650) Silverado and V-Star 950 Tourer, and Suzuki's Boulevard C50T. We secured Star's brand-new for '09 V-Star 950 (leaving the smaller 650 out) and the Vulcan 900, but couldn't get a C50T as there wasn't one in the Suzuki fleet (see sidebar).

Lambs To The Slaughter
Curious what they would say, we sent feelers out to the other manufacturers of bikes in this class to see if they would do up their similar models in touring duds and send them along for the ride. After all, aren't all of these bikes just accessorized versions of the stock model? (Well, maybe not, see the other sidebar.) The response was overwhelming. Honda stepped up with a baggerized version of their Shadow Aero 750, while Harley-Davidson and Triumph did likewise with their Sportster 883 Low and America models respectively. Dressed up in the latest touring duds from their respective factories, they were ready to pound the miles.

The bikes are a diverse bunch in some ways, and similar in others. The Star and Kawasaki are virtual twins in many ways and early on some of our testers had trouble distinguishing between the two. It's pretty obvious what bike Star was aiming for when they designed the V-Star 950. They both feature a classic cruiser look, wide bars, and floorboards. The Star has an air-cooled engine while the Vulcan is liquid-cooled, but they both make very similar power. The Aero and Sportster, while differing widely in stance and execution, both mostly cater to an entry-level, short-stature segment. The Triumph America is a bit of an odd duck with the Bonneville platform transformed for cruiser duty, it's bit like the Sportster at its root, but with a high-revving air-cooled parallel twin (all the others are slow-revving v-twins) it stood out from the others.

Surfin SuperSlab
All dressed up and no place to go, we looked to the east to the Coachella Valley home to Palm Springs and about a million golf courses. This issue was produced in November and December, so the low desert was looking pretty good just then. Just in case the weather cooperated (here in our Mediterranean climate we get all of our precipitation in the cooler times of the year), some of the best mountain roads anywhere are directly adjacent to this area as well, and as luck would have it, it did. Our route took us through gridlocked LA traffic, through the San Jacinto Mountains, out around the surreal Salton Sea, and back through different mountains and the same LA traffic. We got a good mix of superslab, twisties and two-lane country roads and were able to throw down enough miles to get a feel for the bikes over time.

From the first gas stop along the interstate the bikes began to show their colors. The bargain bikes of the test, the Aero and 883L were having comfort issues from the start. Ergonomics on the Aero are made for decidedly small people, our one smaller (5'4") tester said it fit him just right, low to the ground and all the controls where they should be, though the seat was decidedly hard. With forward foot controls and a short reach to the bar, it fit all but the tallest in only slightly cramped fashion. The suspension, with a bit of a load (but no passenger) was fine for most sections of superslab, being very soft, long-travel and mostly undamped, it would swim in Cadillac-like fashion. A big shock-bottoming hit would launch a rider right out of the saddle though.

The Harley had comfort issues as well. The very-compact cockpit was a nice fit for a shorter rider, and decidedly small for a larger one. It's the only bike in the test with mid-mounted controls, which turned out to be a good thing, as the lowered suspension of the `L was harsh all of the time and bottomed-out readily; getting up out of the saddle is a good first line of defense against spine compression. The bike is so low-slung that it scrapes its bottom on speed bumps, and forget about loading it up on a truck. The seat that was fitted to our tester (the Sundowner Bucket, necessary, as the Sportster has only a solo seat stock) would have been comfortable if it didn't slope forward from the wide, comfortable rear to the skinny part up front, causing all riders to have to constantly push on the pegs to get to the sweet spot, or just deal with the discomfort. With all these concessions to shorter folk, you'd think they'd be in heaven. actually, shorter folks have to twist to avoid touching the hot rear rocker cover at a stop with feet down, plus there's that whole no-suspension thing.

On the other side of the aisle, the America was beyond roomy. In fact, even six-footers had a bit of a reach to the shift and brake levers. The bike comes stock with footpegs and the floorboards on this example were an executive decision on Triumph's part. We're guessing it was for comfort, but they shouldn't have bothered. The floorboards are fairly flimsy feeling (as are the shifter and brake lever) and ours weren't even mounted up evenly, with one taller than the other. They placed the feet high, too flat, and too far forward to be comfortable. As an added bonus, the kickstand was really hard to reach underneath them. On the upside, the seat to bar relationship was good for most, with a nice neutral bar. And the seat was the best in the test; supportive and plush, good for as long as a tank of gas would take us.

Not surprisingly, the near-twin machines from Star and Kawasaki were pretty similar. Both fit small riders with a slight stretch, and large riders in compact and comfortable fashion. Both seats form a neutral bucket deep in the bike, the Star dropping you a little deeper with its seat slightly more comfortable. Wide bars greet the pilot of both bikes, with the Star's a little wider and the Vulcan's a little more neutral.

Back out on the open highway, we noticed a couple of the bikes had interesting gearing choices. Both the Honda Shadow Aero as well as the Kawasaki Vulcan geared out early, both screaming at high rpm starting around 70. Both would go faster (in the Aero's case not much faster), but the vibration begins to get intrusive. The Sportster and America seemed geared about right, while the V-Star's fifth gear was like an overdrive. The Sportster has very well-spaced gearing for its very vibratey (but rubber-mounted) motor which shook pretty much all the time. The Triumph was the smoothest bike in the test, its parallel twin was less torquey, but churned out power across a wide range and also revved-out well. Needless to say, top gear was just about perfect, purring away the miles. The Star has a very smooth engine for the most part, so it's a bit of a surprise that at fast highway speeds there is a bit of intrusive vibration at the floorboards.

In 60-80 top-gear roll-ons, the short-geared, torquey Honda and Kawasaki were the doggiest, being out of their effective powerband at highway speeds. The higher strung Harley matched its powerband for highway riding perfectly, while the Triumph was actually not revving high enough in top gear and needed a kick down a cog to really move. The V-Star smashed them all on the open road though, with its super-tall top gear matched perfectly to its lazy bottom-heavy engine, getting to 80 a full half second quicker than the nearest competition.

While the Honda gave up a bit to the larger machines in horsepower and road manners, it had no apologies for its windshield. It was full without being too tall, and kept the wind off nicely with zero buffeting, thanks to a nice compound curve. Plus, all of our riders could see over the top of it. If you like big shields that you have to look through, the Kawasaki's shield was king, but most of us resented the over-coverage. The other three were on the small side. Of those, the Star was the best with a short, wide shield that offered good protection without too much height and just a bit of bufetting. The Triumph's shield was not particularly protective, while the Harley-Davidson's shield buffeted like mad to round out a fairly miserable highway existence.

Luckily, the misery (on the 883) doesn't last long. With a mere 3.3 gallon tank, the fuel light comes on before the rest of them, but it also stays on for a long time, as we pushed it past 120 miles once without incident. The Aero had the most inconsistent mileage of the bunch, but as it's the only carbureted bike in the test that's to be expected. The shortest it went before hitting reserve was 80 miles, but there were other times it hadn't gone on the second circuit after 120. There is an asterisk by the Shadow's mileage however, as it both read miles and showed its speed very optimistically, to the tune of about 10%. The Vulcan/V-Star twins were a match in the range department as well, each capable of just shy of 200 miles; the Kawasaki's larger tank making up for its lower mileage. The mile-eating champion was Triumph's America combining 40 mpg efficiency with a whopping 5.1 gallon tank, we never even saw the fuel light when touring with this bunch. When tested with the others it seems that its range may have been even better as its analog speedo and tach was slightly pessimistic.