Smooth Criminal

Locked And Loaded Isn't What You Expect From A Cruiser. The Vulcan S However, Brings The Boom

- Sherman Nazareth

Pot bellied, leather clad and boisterous. That’s typically the sort of fellow you’d associate with cruisers and the cruiser lifestyle. Conversely, that era (and stereotype) is slowly coming to a rather dreary end. This new batch of young humans care little for the call of the wild or any sort of macho exhibitionism. With the amount of mechanisation and digitisation the world has undergone, actual physical force is a scarcely needed resource. How else do you think gyms stay afloat? Plus, at least in India, there’s hardly any expanses of highway left that can still be afforded the title of open road; there’s humans everywhere! By that I mean traffic, of course. We Indians really do give bunnies a run for their money.

With an increasingly digitally fuelled society, it’s only inevitable that the indoors will soon offer a seemingly richer environment than the actual real world. So it’d be hard to convince this next generation about the bliss of outdoor solitude, or the simple call of the highway. So what step must motorcycle makers take then, to appeal to these city dwelling, technology infused youngsters? There are obviously so many of them. Why urban cruisers of course. But not the relaxed kind, no. Not the chrome clad house boats that need actual muscle power to wrangle into any manoeuvre that doesn’t involve going in an absolutely straight line. The edgy, sporty, futuristic sort that don’t need you to sell any organs to own; that’s apparently the new formula to rope in this millennial crowd. It quite defies the whole concept of cruiser, don’t you think? Cruisers are meant to, well, cruise down vast stretches of lazy highway. While this new breed can do that, there’s always this lingering itch to grab a fistful of throttle and really pick up the pace, and for good reason.