By PETER THOEMING
14 August 2006

Peter Townshend couldn’t have seen a Suzuki M109R before he wrote The Who’s rock opera ‘Tommy’, but the words are just right.

‘List’ning to you, I get the music

Gazing at you, I get the heat…’

What, I hear you ask, is he on about now? What can a Suzuki cruiser possibly have to do with The Who? And didn’t those guys (or at least their fans) ride motor scooters?

Don’t quibble. This is not a bike to quibble at; it is a bike to goggle at. And don’t take my word for it. As I parked the M (we’re really good friends, so I can call it that) in the parking lot of the shopping mall the other day, a couple of blokes rushed up to eyeball it.

‘Man,’ he said admiringly, ‘you’ve done the job on this one! What’s it set you back?’

When I told him that, on the contrary, the bike was absolutely standard and that the price is a mere $18,990 plus on-road, he blinked.

‘It looked like a 50 or 60 grand job to me,’ he said and his mate nodded. Then they took in the size of the rear wheel, and were completely sold on the M. It took me ages to get away from them, and they nearly ran after me when they heard the growl from the slash cut pipes. Their reaction was not at all unusual.

In case you haven’t seen an M109R yourself - the photo can’t do it justice – let me try to explain what this excitement is all about. With most cruisers, the first thing potential owners do is work out what they’re going to change. In the past there have always been elements of any bike that just cried out for aftermarket replacements – they might have been different things for you and for me, but they were there. On the M109R they’re all done. Nothing I can see, with the possible exception of the blinkers, could really be improved. The big, fat tail end looks a million bucks with its triangular LED taillight, and as for the huge, smooth radiator housing – it’s just poetry in plastic.

That’s why my newfound mates at the mall thought I’d spent big bucks customising the bike. The styling of the M109R is integrated the way a sports bike’s styling is integrated – or the way a high-end Arlen Ness custom design looks.

This stylish styling is of course every impressive (though it could cause problems for Suzuki – cruiser buyers actually want to customise their bikes, and may feel stymied with the M) but it’s not everything the bike has to offer. It’s also ergonomically near-perfect (the reach to the bars is just a little long), it sounds great and it stops exceedingly well. Oh, and did I mention that it goes?

It goes.

Suzuki has taken the unusual path of giving the M109R an extremely short-stroke engine equipped with ‘the largest reciprocating engine pistons of any production passenger car or motorcycle in the world’ according to the company. Apart from getting it into the Guinness Book of Records, that also provides the bike with neck-snapping performance. A few other things help, too.

The bike has dual spark ignition (sensible with such huge pistons) and narrow valve angles plus a lot of other sports bike technology. Not only does the engine have staggered crank pins to smooth out vibration, it has a balancer shaft as well. The engine design has kept the weight very low, making for a highly manoeuvrable bike even at very low speeds.

To get all that to the road, the M runs that truly humungous rear tyre. It’s a 240, and it gets looks even from people who don’t know one end of a bike from the other. The front assembly, both fork and brakes, is essentially from the GSX-R1000 although the fork is not adjustable.

Sit in the M109R (yes, ‘in’) and relax. Enjoy the view of the very custom-style high-set tacho. Fire it up, and listen to the growl and burble of the pipes. Then light blue paper and stand back – well, you can’t stand back of course, but you can try to maintain some common sense. Once it reaches 3000 rpm the bike takes off like a rocket sled and, crunchy gearbox aside (it is possible to learn to make smooth changes, but it takes a while) you are truly power tripping. All right, corners can initially be a scary prospect – after all, that’s a wide tyre there on the back, and a long wheelbase – but practice soon sorts that out, too. Nothing you can do about the scraping, but so what? It’s a cruiser.

Oh, if you want to make it a threesome (you, your M and someone else) you’ll need to replace the tail cover with the (supplied) pillion seat. But I wouldn’t. It just looks so good the way it is.

‘See me, feel me, touch me…’

AT A GLANCE
Model: Suzuki Boulevard M109R
Price: $18,990 (plus on-road charges)
Warranty: Two years, unlimited distance
Power: 92 kW @ 6200 rpm
Torque: 160 Nm @ 3200 rpm
Engine: Liquid cooled 54 degree vee twin, 4 stroke, DOHC, 4 valves per cylinder, fuel injection and digital ignition
Bore x stroke: 112 x 90.5 mm
Displacement: 1783 cc
Compression: 10.5 : 1
Transmission: 5 speed, multi plate wet clutch, final drive by shaft
Suspension: Front, 46 mm inverted telescopic fork, travel 130 mm. Rear, link-type monoshock, preload 7 way adjustable, 118 mm travel.
Dimensions: Seat height 700 mm, dry weight 315 kg, fuel capacity 19 litres, wheelbase 1715 mm
Tyres: Front, 130/70 R 18. Rear, 240/40 R 18
Frame: Double cradle steel tubing
Brakes: Front, twin 310 mm radial mount discs with 4 piston calipers. Rear, 275 mm disc with twin piston caliper.
Colour: Pearl Black