Middleweight Motorcycles - Four For $10,000

The Impression That I Get
Of course, styling is the big topic of conversation with most cruisers, and though the bikes here varied in setup, there were similarities. If you judged them on profile, you had your street rods (the Honda and Suzuki); traditional cruisers (the V Star); and an old-school standard (the Harley). Or you could break them down mechanically: shafties (Honda and Suzy) or belt drives (Harley and V Star). However you sliced it, all the bikes emphasized a fairly clean design aesthetic save for the exhibitionistic, funky Suzuki.

The Harley is arguably the original cruiser, having been around for over 50 years. The classic 45-degree V-twin looks good from any angle and solid detailing imbues the Sportster with more polish than some of its metric counterparts. It's a lot of bike for the sub-$10,000 price point, and an easy entry to owning a Harley, which explains its appeal to some. It also has excellent fit and finish-you can't miss the lipless chrome laced front wheel.

The VTX grabs your eye first with that elongated headlight bucket, a trait it shares with the VTX1800. Other architectural highlights include a tire-hugging front fender and a 19-inch cast aluminum wheel. It reminds you of its price point with a few plastic parts and some faux valve covers. The VTX offers "S" and "R" versions, which vary bodywork and wheel options.

The Star brings perhaps the most traditional styling-a wide saddle, full fenders and the only floorboards and heel-toe shifter here-but with modern swoops. Components are designed to flow together and the integrated detailing features an easily accessed, full-featured instrument pod. Like the VTX, the V Star's engine is styled to resemble an air-cooled design, with a compact radiator between the downtubes. Like the Suzuki, the V Star also brings current technology, with fuel injection, liquid-cooling and four-valves per cylinder.

The M90, in contrast to the other understated bikes here looks almost cartoonish (in a good way), with its brightly colored bodywork. This sport-cruiser has plenty of chrome accoutrements like the air cleaner and swingarm pivot covers. Burly slash-cut mufflers make a strong visual statement. Like its relative the M109, the M90 also gets an ungainly radiator in front of the engine, but there is a sano steering head cover and an attractive view from the saddle. Alas, a tacky flange along the bottom of the fuel tank is quite visible, and the headlight gets the same love-it or hate-it cowl treatment. A distinctive instrument cluster is integrated into the cowl under a chrome cover.

Flip The Switch
Starting 'em up is a different procedure on each one. Thanks to its CV carburetor (the only one in the group) the VTX 1300 is a cold-blooded beast, requiring gobs of choke to get anywhere near normal idle speeds. Is there fuel injection in its future? Based on the fact that Honda's new Fury sports an injected 1300cc mill, we think so. The Star's fuel injection meant it started at the first push of the button every time, with smooth fueling in most situations. The M90 also cranked over easily, and its refined fuel-injection and minimal vibration appealed to all. Our Harley-Davidson too, featured trouble-free starts and good fueling on most mornings.

Settle into each cockpit and you have to figure things out all over again. The Honda brings a wide, flat drag-style bar with a slight pullback that offered excellent leverage and reach for most of our riders. The VTX's forward but not aggressively set footpegs and generic seat appealed to the group also, as did the somewhat minimal look. But while the gunfighter-style saddle may initially be comfortable, some found the soft foam gave way after 30 miles. As it's the lowest saddle here, reach to the ground is a breeze for shorter riders (though it wasn't uncomfortable for taller folk).

The Star's wide, lightly dished pan, on the other hand, was tolerable only to our shortest rider because it offered him a variety of seating positions. The same wide pullback bar that afforded him an easy reach gave taller testers all kinds of grief, as they said it was far too low to be functional and the bend too awkward. That, coupled with unusually high floorboards, made the V Star's riding position untenable for pilots over 6 feet tall, even on short stints.

Suzuki's M90 has the most aggressive cockpit of the group-the forward-mounted, drag-style bars have a moderate bend that stretches the rider in corner-attack mode. The seat, while fairly wide, has a somewhat abrupt rear dish, but it's telling that most testers didn't complain about the M90's perch until we were well into the ride. Still, the Suzuki's forward controls didn't help matters-they prop your feet up and forward. For what it's worth, the M90's ergonomics are more manageable than its big brother's, with a handlebar that's .8 inches closer to the seat. That seat sits 1.1 inches closer to the footrests though, making it cramped on longer stints.

With its primal motorcycle form, the Harley adopts a standard seating position. The small saddle and narrow bars set you upright with an easy reach, but the forward set footpegs splay feet out front and center, almost straight-legged-somewhat of a stretch for shorter pilots. The saddle is on hard side, and with limited fore and aft movement, it didn't please any of our riders on longer runs. In this group, it also felt like the smallest cockpit.

Hot In The City
It didn't take long for pilots to develop ergonomic preferences on the first leg of our journey-slow-speed city streets. (We'd follow the urban grind with a high-speed drone on the Superslab, winding things up with a twisty secondary road). The first day's weather ranged from cloudy and dry to light rain showers. In between, we swapped bikes and formed opinions.

Threading the bikes through rush-hour traffic is a smoother deal than with full-size bikes, but these babies aren't light by any means-the heaviest one, the M90, tips the scales at 725 lbs. The Harley, at 583 pounds, is the lightest of the bunch, though it carries its weight higher. With its peppy motor and light weight, it's a breeze in slow speed stuff. The skinny, 21-inch front tire can be unwieldy at walking speeds, but reasonable steering geometry and an easily accessed handlebar keep things in hand. After some time on the Custom though, every single tester indicted the Harley's narrow, ill-shaped seat and pitifully short dish. The taller riders couldn't stomach it for more than 20 minutes, calling it something straight out of Abu Ghraib, and even the shorter man was crying "Uncle" by the first gas stop. Thankfully the Harley shifts well, with positive engagement and easy clutch actuation.

Once under way, the Honda almost out-rumbles the Harley-the VTX (like the V Star) has a single-crankpin design. It pulls nicely off the line, but our testers also agreed it was the most underpowered of the bunch, with one rider commenting that it had a "fluffy throttle". It also holds the dubious distinction of having the biggest dead spot right off idle, which is a real eye-opener in traffic. To make matters worse, Tech Editor Zimmerman told us that Honda may have leaned out the '09 models even more than previous versions, making them more finicky. And the VTX continues to give us the shaft-getting on and off the throttle results in a lurching effect from the shaft drive. It's not as bad as the bigger VTX, but the surge is noticeable. Good thing the cable-actuated clutch is effortless to work, engaging positively with a solid clunk. Despite all those glitches, most testers liked the Honda's engine quality, and the neutral ergonomics of the VTX seemed to fit most of the riders best.

The M90's layout sits you more in the bike, and there's noticeably better protection from wind blast up to 80 mph, but faster than that means grasping the drag bars and pressing on the way-forward pegs. Turn-in effort is minimal, but when it comes to parking lot speeds the M90's weight can be felt. The motor uses a single counter-balancer and two dampers to keep things smooth. There's slight jacking from the shaft drive, but Suzuki does a better job of minimizing the effect with its double shock absorbers than Honda. The M90's five-speed gearbox is matched pretty well to its power and torque, but the bike does inherit some of the S83's less attractive qualities-namely, the clutch. Every tester lamented the grabby hydraulic unit, especially when in first gear-the friction zone is short, with the engagement point coming abruptly at the very end of lever travel. Testers were disappointed to see it on a bike at this price point (especially since the issue has haunted Suzuki cruisers for years).

The Star may look substantial, but it managed not to feel heavy under power, with a relatively well-balanced package. There is a bit of a power deficiency and some abruptness right off idle-the engine is strong but not impressive at lower revs. Fortunately, the short-stroke v-twin is a mid-range monster. With tall gearing, the mill really shines once you hit the highway. A few testers though found low-speed maneuvers challenging, saying the V Star "was like a brick" on U-turns. The combination of low bar and high floor boards proved especially problematic for taller riders when initiating full lock turns, as the bar would sometimes contact their knees. Good thing the V Star's clutch was easy to modulate, with a light pull for the cable-actuated unit. And we all got clean shifts from the five-speed 'box and heel-toe shifter.