2013 Suzuki C90T B.O.S.S.: FIRST RIDE
Kit Palmer | April 24, 2013
When Suzuki announced it was dismantling its automotive business in the U.S. and filing for bankruptcy late last year, the news seemed pretty grim. But, in reality, for us motorcycle nuts at least, the news could be construed as being, well…good. Since Suzuki doesn’t have to worry about selling cars in the U.S. anymore, it can now devote all of its attention on designing, building and selling better motorcycles.
To get the train back on the right track again, Suzuki says its going to ramp up its production line big time and return to its roots of simply being basically a motorcycle-only company, just like it was when it first started out 50 years ago. On the heels of its startling announcement, which happened just days before the company’s annual dealer meeting in Las Vegas, Suzuki wanted to prove its legitimacy to its dealers and the media by unveiling a handful of new and not-so-new models, bikes that it feels will help jump-start the company’s reincarnation. And one of those models is the re-introduction of the C90T Boulevard cruiser. When the economy tanked in 2008, the C90T was one of the first to go. Suzuki halted production of the C90T a year later, but it’s now back in the lineup as a 2013 model.
To mark the C90T’s return, Suzuki is offering two versions of the C90T Boulevard – a standard two-tone paint job and a spiced up, all-black version dubbed B.O.S.S., which stands for Blacked Out Special Suzuki.
The C90T relies on the same basic platform as Suzuki’s M90 Boulevard. The two rides share the same liquid-cooled, SOHC 54-degree V-twin engine, five-speed transmission, triangular steel-tube frame, swingarm and final drive system. While the M90 is designed more for the muscle-bike crowd, the C90T is tailored more toward the rider who wants that classic cruiser look but wants to ride the bike longer than just down the boulevard and back, hence the letter “T” (which stands for “tour”) at the end of its moniker. If you’re looking for something a bit more “edgy,” however, that’s why Suzuki came up with the all-black B.O.S.S.
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