The less young will remember how in the decades at the turn of the century the catalog of custom models was bustling with a great crop of models in the medium displacement segment. Those emblematic Virago from Yamaha, Vulcan from Kawasaki, the Intruder and Savage from Suzuki, the Drag Star and Shadow from Honda and even the Venox from Kymco, the Aquila from Hyosung or, how can we forget, the Excalibur from Moto Morini, dressed biker dreams of a generation.
And they were all in the ring with the Sportster 883 from Harley-Davidson (HD) when these were the access door to the brand’s universe, but the sector decided to put a stop to it, pressured so much by the push to lower the price of these HD mounts – true aspirational motorcycles within the segment and that experienced surprising sales exercises – as if due to a change in consumer tastes… And the segment was practically deserted.
With the abandonment of this concept of the Sportster’s access motorcycle by HD after not being able (wanting) to face the arrival of the Euro5 in its engines and relaunching it on a higher level in every sense, the rest of the brands, some of the usual ones and other new ones, have seen the opportunity to recover and capillarize this unmistakable style of understanding the motorcycle… And life.
Brands like Honda, with its CMX 500 or Kawasaki, with its Vulcan, have been embers in this custom forge. Furthermore, taking into account that the two American brands have their first step at a price much higher than the rest of their rivals – the Harley-Davidson Nightster starts at 16,550 euros and the Indian FTR starts at 14,490 euros -, and with the BMW R18 at almost 23,000 euros, the land is vacant to plant another crop and the custom is finally back with force in the displacements between 300 cc and 700 cc.
The first to mark territory was Royal Enfield with its Super Meteor 650, a mount that draws on the most classic cruiser concept, and Geely brands such as QJ Motors with its SRV300, Keeway with 302C or Benelli with its 502C are also blowing strongly from Asia. Zontes, for its part, does so with the V350 and CF Moto, which has presented its CL-C 450 at EICMA.
The fan also grows from Spain. With national DNA we find the Six Sixty 600 Custom from MITT and the Rockster 410 from Macbor, the Barcelona brand of the Bordoy brothers that does not stop growing. Both will arrive in a few months.
But the movements continue and Kawasaki itself already has the return of the Eliminator in its catalog, in this case in the half-liter. The only thing left would be Suzuki to make a move, not to have them, which they have, but so that we can see them in Europe. Will we get any of their Boulevards?
