2011 Bagger Cruiser Shootout

As long as demand for cruisers remains high in the U.S., you’ll keep seeing plenty o’ cruiser reviews on this site. And that’s just fine by us here at Motorcycle.com, especially when it comes to exploring the burgeoning bagger sub-segment. 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 sizeable windscreen – if not a full batwing fairing – protects against windblast, which is often exacerbated by a cruiser’s relaxed fists-in-the-wind seating position. And some manufacturers stuff the bar or frame-mounted fairing full of niceties, like a comprehensive radio tuner/CD player and/or MP3 combo along with switches or switch blanks ready for auxiliary lighting and so on.
The idea, it would seem, is that a bagger cruiser is ready to take you considerable distances in comfort, yet not sacrifice too much of the cruiser appeal, allowing you to cruise casually down the ’strip on Saturday night without looking like you’re ready to ride coast to coast.
In lot of ways baggers makes sense. We get it.