Cruiser ( English cruiser ) - a kind of motorcycle. The name comes from the English word cruise, which, in this context , means "travel." It is characterized by a low seat, upright landing, often stretched far ahead footboards, an abundance of chromium and considerable weight. The cruiser is not designed for fast driving or cross-country driving; its engine usually does not have high power, but it has light and convenient handling, high torque at low revs and the corresponding "formidable" sound.
The wings, seats, etc. of today's cruisers resemble motorcycles of the 1950s and 1960s, but only externally, since the engines, gearboxes, and disc brakes are modern.
Sometimes chopper style motorcycles are confused with cruisers, although the latter have many distinctive features: a large fuel tank, large wings, extra lights, a lower and more comfortable steering wheel; the cruiser’s front fork has a shorter length and tilt than the chopper (for which the longest fork is one of the most characteristic features). A similar feature is the custom (“ custom- made”): owners of cruisers and choppers widely use all kinds of additions and accessories to give individuality to their motorcycles.
The history of cruisers began in the 1980s with Harley-Davidson motorcycles , most of which are of this type. At present, cruisers are also produced by other manufacturers, for example, Suzuki Intruder and Suzuki Marauder, Honda Shadow, Honda Steed and Honda Magna , Yamaha Virago . There are cruisers of Italian and Korean firms. To a certain extent, Russian motorcycles Ural are also cruisers.
Most often, cruisers are equipped with a V-twin “V-twin” engine of significant volume (750-2000 cm³), although they can have a single-cylinder or in-line two-, three-cylinder engine: for example, a single-cylinder Suzuki GZ250, in-line two-cylinder Kawasaki EN500 and Triumph Thunderbird —1700 cm³), in-line three-cylinder Triumph Rocket (2300 cm³). The engines of large-volume cruisers are usually designed to obtain maximum torque at a relatively low specific power, and with an increase in engine volume, not so much power increases as torque, which can be seen, for example, on the Kawasaki Vulcan model range:
| Model | Engine displacement, cm ³ | Maximum power, l. with. | Maximum torque, kg · m |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kawasaki Vulcan EN500 | 500 | 50 | 4.6 |
| Kawasaki Vulcan VN900 | 900 | 54 | 8.4 |
| Kawasaki Vulcan VN1600 | 1600 | 67 | 13.1 |
A type of cruiser is a “power cruiser”, “muscle cruiser” or “high performance cruisers”, that is, a cruiser whose engine has high power at high speeds and, accordingly, is able to achieve high speeds due to some reduction in torque at low speeds. Representatives of this subclass are Triumph Rocket , Suzuki Intruder M1800R , Kawasaki VN 1600 Mean Streak , Harley-Davidson VRSCF V-ROD Muscle.