Classy cruisers that pack some extra punch
When it comes to performance cruisers, there are quite a few options out there. If you want Harley kudos, you could opt for the more naked bike liquid-cooled Sportster S (£14,595) which has stacks of modern tech, or the air-cooled Sport Glide (£17,295) or Low Rider S (£18,495), which has the bigger 117 Milwaukee-Eight motor, where the Low Rider has the 107. Indian offer a range of Scouts including the Bobber (£12,995) and Twenty (£13,695) with the main differences from the Rogue being handlebars, wheels and styling as they are all based around the same Scout platform, although the Rogue gets a small fairing which the others don’t. If you want an air-cooled Indian, there is the Thunder-Strokepowered Chief Dark Horse (£16,195) or the Chief Bobber Dark Horse (£18,095).
Moving to Italy, Ducati’s Diavel (£18,495) or XDiavel Dark (£18,495) are very much performance-orientated with their superbike-derived chassis, toprate electronics and impressive V-twin engines, especially in topspec S versions – but you pay for this as the Diavel S (£21,795) and XDiavel S (£22,695) are certainly premium products. Even more so the new XDiavel Nera (£25,895).
If Japanese-built is your thing, most brands have abandoned their cruiser ranges but Honda have the CMX1100 Rebel in standard gearbox (£9599) or with a clever DCT format (£10,499) – and it’s a remarkably good package at a great price. You can’t really class the Kawasaki Vulcan S (£7249) as a performance cruiser and Yamaha no longer make their unsuccessful XV950 and XV950R.