Let's Ride by Sonny Barger

exactly. For a long time the magazines called them “customs,” and later they started identifying them as “cruisers,” which is the term most of the trade press still uses today. Some European magazines call them “soft choppers,” which sounds even more foolish than “cruisers,” so I guess we shouldn’t complain.
    For the most part, cruisers make good motorcycles for beginners. They are relatively light, compared with full-boat touring bikes. At the same time they are full-sized motorcycles with plenty of room for a rider and a passenger. Though they can sometimes put your arms and legs in awkward positions, cruisers are generally comfortable enough for the long haul, especially when fitted with good saddles and windshields. Plus most of them have tractable engines that help newer riders develop smooth throttle control.
    Cruisers usually cost more than dual sports, but for most normal-sized people who do the vast majority of their riding on paved roads, they are more practical. You can get cruisers as small as 250 cc, but the smallest you should probably consider for a first bike is Kawasaki’s 500-cc Vulcan. If you’re a big person, or if you have some riding experience, you might consider getting something as large as the 100-cubic-inch (1634-cc) Victory Vegas. Some of the Japanese companies make cruisers that range up to 2000 cc, and Triumph makes one that displaces 2300 cc, but even a lot of experienced riders find bikes that displace more than 1700 cc to 1800 cc clumsy to ride.
    If you’re just starting out, you’re better off getting a lighter, more manageable bike in the 500-cc to 1300-cc range. You can find a lot of nice cruiser-type motorcycles in this range, including Triumph’s 865-cc America and Harley’s Sportster line.
    Touring Bikes
    Unless you’re an experienced rider, you’ll want to stay away from the type of bike I ride, and have ridden for the past twenty-five-plus years: a touring bike. As I noted earlier, touring bikes—especially Harley-Davidsons—are often called baggers because one of their defining characteristics is the presence of saddlebags. On most touring bikes these are panniers mounted as a pair, one on each side of the rear wheel. Most often these will be made of some sort of plastic or fiberglass, but a lot of cruiser-based touring bikes have saddlebags made of leather or vinyl. The other features you’ll usually find on touring bikes are fairings or windshields, comfortable saddles, and often some type of tail trunk. Most of the high-end touring bikes have all sorts of electronic gadgets, like stereos, CB radios, cruise control, and even heated seats and handgrips.
    I have heated grips and a heated seat on my Victory Vision, but the feature I like best is the six-gallon gas tank, which lets me ride 200 to 250 miles without stopping to refuel. This lets me pile on lots of miles each day.
    Telling you not to start out with a touring bike may sound like do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do type of advice, but touring bikes are extremely large motorcycles and a rider should have at least a few years under his or her belt before taking on one of these beasts. Victory claims a dry weight of 804 pounds for my Vision.
    A lot of touring bikes are as heavy as or even heavier than my Vision. Honda’s Gold Wing weighs 925 pounds wet, Harley’s Electra Glide Ultra Classic weighs 890 pounds wet, and Kawasaki’s Vulcan 2000 Classic weights 884 pounds wet. If you aren’t an experienced rider, keeping these big bikes under control will require so much work on your part that you’ll never develop proper riding skills. Once you’ve been riding awhile, a touring bike will likely be the most practical motorcycle you can buy; but earn your chops as a rider and develop good riding skills before jumping into one.
    Just because your ride isn’t classified as a touring bike doesn’t mean you can’t travel distances on your motorcycle. Any bike can be used for touring. In fact, when set up with