CYCLE NEWS CRUISER BUYERS GUIDE
2019 SUZUKI
FIRST REVIEW
AHEAD OF ITS TIME SUZUKI'S
TAKE ON POWER CRUISING
Story and Photos by Billy Bartels
Sometimes being ahead of your time
is a good thing. Back in 2006, Suzuki's
M109R seemed off base. In a market
that only rarely produced a hit vehicle
that hinted at performance, here was
this big, moderately expensive bike
(with spacey lines) that oozed Suzuki
racing heritage. Sitting here, 13 years
later, it seems like a good idea. Still
the same as it ever was, while trends
have come and gone, and technology
marches on, it seems Suzuki's for-
ward-facing view of cruisers paid off. In
the intervening years, the only M109R
still produced is the B.O.S.S. version,
which features a blacked out motor and
painted wheels.
In the quest to merge Suzuki's knack
for extreme performance machines like
the GSX-R1000 and Hayabusa with a
cruiser, some choices were made that
seemed odd at the time, but prescient
nowadays. The big M had a 240-section
rear tire when they were still an oddity,
the motor revved freely while also
putting out good bottom end, and the
suspension was well beyond what most
cruisers can claim.
The M109R is a muscle bike with a
109 c.i. (1800cc) motor, and we'd like
to assume the "R" is for racy. On that it
delivers. Its 54-degree V-twin is spread
out past the de rigueur 45 degrees
to house straighter intake ports.
Rejecting the notion that a big-inch
V-twin with overhead cams is too tall,
Suzuki designed the motor to be more
oversquare (and thus shorter) than
most cruisers, with 112mm pistons
going through a 90.5mm stroke. This
also moves the powerband up the rev
range, relative to Suzuki's other cruisers.
By the way, thanks to those gigantic,
forged 4.4" aluminum pistons, the 109
has some of the biggest stock pistons
on the planet (auto or motorcycle).
