Longtime Harley heads will surely be familiar with the Low Rider name. First introduced in 1977, the Low Rider was a rugged bike for the rugged rider. For 2014, after a five-year hiatus, Harley-Davidson is bringing the Low Rider name back. Now with a host of upgrades to ensure riders of all sizes will feel at home. Pricing starts at $14,199 for Vivid Black, jumping to $14,929 for the Brilliant Silver/Vivid Black or Amber Whiskey/Vivid Black two-tone color schemes. 

Triumph is in the middle of hosting its world launch of its two new cruisers for 2014, the Commander and Thunderbird LT. Our boy Evans is on the scene in San Diego, California, where he spent yesterday testing the LT. We kept him mostly out of the bar in the evening to hammer out a quick-ride review in advance of his full test of the LT and Commander, the latter which he’ll be riding today.

Ducati’s Diavel has been an odd Duc since its 2011 inception, going partway down a cruiser path but not fully committing to the segment’s form-ahead-of-function paradigm. The regular Diavels can feel a bit confused – it’s sort of a cruiser but one from a new sub-breed.

A wise man once said, “Speak softly and carry a big, fat stick.” Or something like that.

Setting yourself apart from the 45-degree, air-cooled population inhabiting cruiserdom is a difficult task. Style your V-Twin a bit too liberally and you attract only eccentrics while ostracizing the general cruiser enthusiast. Maintain conventional cruiser fashion and you’re just another dot in a Seurat painting of Harley-Davidson.

Moto Guzzi’s all-new 1400cc cruiser, the California 1400, lifts the legendary Italian marque from a quirky also-ran to a formidable, modernized opponent. The muscular-yet-elegant California combines chic Italian styling with modern technology and pavement-eating power, resulting in a motorcycle that’s so complete and so completely beyond its predecessor that it narrowly missed being our Motorcycle of the Year. Yeah, it’s that good.

In what had to be one of the most anticipated reveals in motorcycle cruiser history, Polaris boldly used the backdrop of the world’s largest motorcycle rally to unleash the latest generation of Indians on the motorcycling community. On the steps of the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum and in the shadow of the Black Hills, notice was served with a loud and clear report: Indian Motorcycle is back.

We’ve now ridden the new Indian Chief and confidently predict that it will make a massive splash in the cruiser market. Our full review will soon follow, but there’s a lot of ground to cover in telling the Chief’s story.

Those are the words of Melisa Ganzon, a long-time friend of Editor Duke. A graduate from the MSF Basic RiderCourse more than 11 years ago, Melisa has three years of riding experience under her belt.

When Harley-Davidson's announcement that it would be scaling back its shipments for the third quarter of 2007, and Victory's modest 2008 retail sales projections were pointed out, Bob Starr (really, that's his name), Yamaha’s General Manager of Corporate Communications, reminded us that the cruiser segment is still the largest part of the industry and that Star "wants to be a big part of that." Derek Brooks, Product Planning Manager for Star Motorcycles, explained that when the Raider project began over two years ago, Star knew then that the growth of the industry wouldn't last, “but that there were still opportunities to be had.”

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The X132 is the third generation of the Hellcat model from boutique manufacturer, Confederate Motorcycles. According to Confederate founder and CEO, Matt Chambers, it’s the most significant Hellcat to date.

Why kilometers? Because the one and only gauge on tha Heist delivered to us predominantly displays the metric measurement. A less legible mph resides below the kph readout, but the gauge’s odometer also records kilometers traveled.

If you’re eager to have a user-friendly ride – specifically in the ever-popular cruiser category – that won’t break the bank and yet still offers reputable performance, quality craftsmanship, appealing styling and is welcoming of new and/or returning riders, then gaze upon the Harley-Davidson Sportster SuperLow and Triumph America.

For decades other motorcycle manufacturers have glommed onto the cruiser theme. Some brands unabashedly produce models that look as much like a Harley as possible – Harley clones – without getting into legal hot water, while others just strafe the notion of a cruiser simply by creating a machine with the general look and feel of a cruiser: a neutral if not relaxed riding position and some chrome in just the right amount.

Beyond the obvious benefit of carrying your crap in the standard saddlebags, many of these light-duty touring Twin-powered boulevard bombers come with luxurious accoutrements to make miles in comfy saddles more pleasurable.

A scenario plays out in our head: “Should I go with affordable and sensible, or shiny and expensive?”

Even if you've never sat on a cruiser in your life, it's actually easy to understand their appeal. They are motorcycles for the dietetically challenged. No thin people need apply. The svelte look silly in the ample tractor-based seat of an American style cruiser. Fat guys own cruisers. It's fair enough: Fat guys look ridiculous in full leathers, especially after shoe-horning their beerguts behind sculpted gas tanks of sportbikes so their arms wave in the air like beetles. And as the keep-fit fad dies among baby boomers (Who can face a two hour workout every day for the rest of their lives?) potential cruiser owners will soon become the majority of the motorcycle riding population.

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Great news! The Rods finally had their second child. They named him 'Street.' Only trouble is, he and his brother 'V' don't get along too well. Such sibling unrest is unusual for the normally tight-knit Harley families. The typical Harley family of bikes is a very similar set of siblings. Despite the cosmetic variances within each model family, be it Dyna, FX Softail, FL Softail, Sportster, or Electra Glide, the riding experience remains quite similar.

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While both machines are shaft driven, the ACE uses the shaft housing as the swingarm. Although this arrangement is effective, it's a bit lacking style-wise. However, the whitewall tires and the classic fenders

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Is bigger better?

Since we're all Americans here, we don't even have to ask that question. Of course it is.

Even the "middleweight" category is getting bigger, not unlike the very consumers they are being sold to. Those of you who suffered through Gabe's V-Star 1300 introduction report may have been as scandalized as he was to find that a bike with a 1.3-liter engine -- the same size as a Geo Metro or Mazda Miata -- is a "middleweight" cruiser, according to Yamaha. Logically, then, the Kawasaki Vulcan 1400, the Suzuki M90 (which is 1,474cc) and Honda's VTX1300 are all middleweights as well. These are machines with heft.

Both can be found in showroom condition, sometimes even still in the crate, for less than ten grand.

Torrance, California, January 7, 2001 --

The latest and most serious threats to the Fat Boy's boulevard-king status come from Kawasaki's 1500 Vulcan Classic FI(which we sampled earlier this year in Daytona), and Yamaha's Road Star. We had a chance to swing a leg over the new Road Star at the Star line Intro in San Diego, California a few months ago and came away impressed with what lead engineer, "Wacky" Macky Makino and his crew of engineers came up with. We knew that these big bruisers from Japan would be serious competition for Harley and had to see how they stacked up.

This announcement, long anticipated in the motorcycle world, brings the number of American motorcycle manufacturers up to four.