Beginning riders often wonder about the best kind of motorcycle to buy for their first purchase. I frequently end up in a multidimensional discussion on the different styles of bikes. These beginning riders ask about my cruiser motorcycle and the many aspects I use for my riding style.
Cruiser motorcycles feature torquey engines, styling, and comfort. Making the crusier motorcycle good for long rides, styling, towing, and comfortable carry passengers. When set up properly, cruisers are great for touring. A subset of riders say cruisers are great for learning to ride.
As you can see, motorcycle cruisers are good for many things. Similar to an SUV, we can have them set up to do many things. Here is a breakdown of what you might think about as you consider the viability of a cruiser.
Motorcycle Cruisers Are Good For Long Rides
Motorcycle cruisers provide one of the best options for long rides because of their seat, posture, and lower center of gravity.
Seat Position
Anyone who has ridden for an extended period knows motorcycles can become uncomfortable. Heck, if you have ridden a bicycle for any duration of time, you know how uncomfortable they may become. The point is to have you think about the importance of posture and seating.
For those beginning riders, comfort will play a big role in the style of motorcycle you decide for your purchase. Cruiser motorcycles maintain an upright position with your legs placed directly below your knees while sitting or slightly out in front of you.
This makes for comfortable sitting for the many hours we frequently spend in the saddle. In fact, I often tell beginning riders and non cruiser riders that my bike feels like I’m riding a Lazy-boy chair down the road.
Do not take the example too literally as there are downsides to making your motorcycle too comfortable. For example, I have ridden too long without stopping. I became more tired than I realized. When I stopped, it was for a much longer duration than planned. We can talk about riding practices another day.
The point is, you want the bike to be comfortable, but not so comfortable that you could sit there forever.
Motorcycle Cruiser Lower Center Of Gravity
Because of the positioning of a cruiser’s engine, the weight of the motorcycle is lower. The result is a ride where you feel more planted on the road, thus increasing confidence.
Many times when I have ridden sport bikes or standard motorcycles, semis blew the bike all over the highway from the wind turbulence. When I am on my cruiser, this feeling happens less and I’m more comfortable as a rider.
The lower center of gravity keeps the bike “planted.”
Cruiser Motorcycles Are Good For Touring
When set up properly, cruiser motorcycles are great for touring. The rider needs to add a few things to accommodate for the longer trips such as saddlebags, windscreen, and backrest for the passenger.
First though, let’s distinguish between a cruiser and touring motorcycle. Touring motorcycles put more emphasis on function over form. Meaning all the stuff I talked about adding to a cruiser to make good for touring is much bigger. Overall, the more “stuff” you see on a motorcycle, the more likely it is to be a touring bike.
While a cruiser can cover many miles comfortably, it does not have the same comfort as a touring bike. For example, we may put leather saddlebags on a cruiser while on a touring bike, we make them of a composite material such as fiberglass.
The rider and passenger seat will be more plush on a touring bike. The windscreen will better deflect the wind up and around both the rider and passenger. It is easier to make a multi-day trip on a touring bike.
You get the idea on the difference, but what is actually happening in the motorcycle world right now. I took a pole on a social media platform asking actual riders what kind of bike they ride for touring. The results surprised me. I know why:
| What kind of motorcycle do you ride for touring? | Votes |
| Adventure | 661 |
| Sport Touring | 226 |
| Touring Model | 147 |
| Cruiser | 38 |
As I just mentioned, this does not surprise me as adventure riding is the most popular kind of motorcycling at the moment.
Cruisers came in lower on the list than I thought. This again makes sense when you consider the boomer where the driving force behind their sales 10 to 15 years ago. Now fewer boomers are riding.
Cruisers Offer Lots Of Styling
Cruiser motorcycles offer the highest level of customization when compared to any other style of motorcycle. A quick search of the aftermarket scene shows you the number of parts available.
Let’s do a quick rundown of the ways to create or enhance the styling of your cruiser.
Customization
You don’t get more extreme than the all American chopper, completely hacked, cut, re-welded, painted, and long, they set the standard for customization.
Don’t believe me? Then why were shows like American Chopper and Biker Build Off so popular? The custom bikes on these shows were so popular that manufacturers started mimicking the styling cues on their models. Sometimes, completely alternative models were born.
Controls
We all love comfort, but let’s face it, when you can have function and style, you’ll take both.
Again take a quick look at the aftermarket and you see all the different foot and hand controls for your bike.
How many places can you mount a foot peg on a sport bike? Basically one. On a cruiser you can have mids, forwards, and highway pegs. Within each of these mounting points there are more variations.
Handlebars
The handlebars on a cruiser give another styling cue. You may have age hangers, beach bars, straight bars, drag bars, and the list goes on and on.
Other styles of motorcycles do not have as many kinds of handle bars.
Paint and Chrome
The cruiser rider will be more likely to get a one off, radical paint job. This comes from the influence of extreme from the shows mentioned earlier.
Not that other styles of motorcycles do not have custom paint jobs, there are just not as many of them.
Oh, MY GOSH! The chrome! It is everywhere!! I know my bike is full of it. I bought it that way. In all fairness though, this trend seems to go away and for good reason.
Keeping up with the chrome takes a lot of time and frequently makes me wonder if it’s even worth it. Mostly, it is still a popular trend to have your bike chromed out.
Motorcycle Cruisers Can Be Good For Beginner Riders
I took a poll on a popular social media platform to see if cruiser motorcycles make good beginner rides.
Most of the poll participants suggest cruiser motorcycles to make good beginner riders. The low seat height, low center of gravity, and comfortable riding position increase rider confidence and comfort in helping the beginner motorcycle rider.
| Are cruisers good beginner motorcycles? | % |
| Yes | 73 |
| No | 27 |
These were a few of the more popular features of a cruiser that some participants mentioned. However, I started peeling the onion back on this topic a bit and digging into it a bit found some interesting bits for consideration.
First, many of the riders who made the comments about seat height, center of gravity, and riding position have been riding for a few decades. I only know by reviewing many of the profiles of people who left comments.
In other posts on this platform, they made comments about how long they had been riding. The point is, they may have become so used to cruisers, there may be a disconnect with beginner riders.
Second, someone pointed out that a cruiser needs to be defined from the start. As motorcycles passed through the decades, they blurred lines between the different styles.
Third, the poll participants made many comments about cruisers being good beginner motorcycles also mentioned learning to ride on a dirt bike in the same comment
In order to round out the picture on the topic, here is another article on whether cruisers make good beginner motorcycles.
Motorcycle Cruisers Are Good For Towing
The torquey motors and heavy nature of motorcycle cruisers make them great for towing trailers when you need extra space on those longer trips. When you load the trailer properly, they are barely noticeable to the rider.
You need to be careful about how much you tow though. The activity puts a lot of additional wear and tear on your motorcycle. We need extra care and diligence on bike maintenance to keep it in tip-top shape and good riding condition.
If you plan on setting your bike up for towing, know ahead of time that most manufacturers recommend not towing anything behind a motorcycle.
That being said, you can go to aftermarket distributors RevZilla and JP Cycles to get hitches ranging in price from $180 to $380.
Are you wondering what percent of a biker’s miles are spent pulling a trailer? Look at the results of another poll taken on social media.
| Mile Percentage Pulling A Trailer With A Motorcycle | Percent |
| Less than 10% of miles ridden | 16 |
| 10% to 40% of miles ridden | 48 |
| 41% to 60% of miles ridden | 27 |
| 61% to 80% of miles ridden | 7 |
| 80% plus of miles ridden | 2 |
From the looks of the data, most riders use a trailer for the longer trips to carry additional items.
There is a group of riders who go so far as hauling small pop-up campers behind their motorcycle.
Some new riders out there will try to pull a trailer without the proper experience. If you are this rider, wait. Gain a few seasons of experience and talk to the towing veterans before you jump on this bandwagon.
Motorcycle Cruisers Are Good Caring Passengers
Cruiser motorcycles equipped with a thick gel foam seat, wind screen, large backrest, platform passenger pegs and silent exhaust make a great environment to carry passengers. Not only does this provide a better experience for the passenger, but improves safety by preventing unwanted movement because of discomfort.
The idea here is to make the experience as good for the non-passenger as it is for the rider. This means as the rider you need to give all the same considerations to your passenger.
Start by making sure you understand what options you are working with for your bike. If you’re lucky like I was and buying a used machine, much of the equipment may already come on the bike.
You should have your passenger get on the bike and go for short to medium length rides. Take notes on the comments they make afterwards. Start making some adjustments to improve the situation or buy additional parts. A point that every biker hates!
Here are a couple of places to start your observations. Were comments made about wind buffering around your head? How about placement of the passenger pegs? Is your passenger’s back hurting?
If the passenger is completely new to riding, then it just maybe they need to build up their tolerance for being on the bike. Otherwise, start looking for a way to make adjustments to improve their experience of riding with you. After all, riding with companions is a great way to spend time together.
Enough about what cruisers are good for, get out there and spin those wheels.