Suzuki VL1500 Intruder (1998-2002)

My 2002 was much better than competition at the time and this site just isn't really very fair to the bike at all. Hind Sight is 20/20 so you should use some and update this review... Quality and Reliability have been nothing short of a 5 for most LC VL 1500 and C90 owners and easily on par with that of the Fatboy. I really don't understand why so many bike Mags favor Harley over their competition at all... Do you realize these bikes are consistently over 100,000 miles without a single engine repair? Think about that, you gave the fatboy 1 more star in this area and I guarantee they're not crossing 100,000 miles without rebuilds on most occassions. Seriously, by your records, it Takes 1584cc Engine in the Fatboy or Road King to match that of the 1464cc Intruder and yet you noted the weight of the intruder as an issue... Well, get this, the weight of the fatboy is 665 so even that is a disadvantage from this same year. So Harley needed a considerably larger engine with Fuel Injection to match the performance of a now 8 year old Intruder with a smaller, carbuerated, engine. Oh and by the way, again this 1464cc engine was the top performer in its class back in 1998 to 2004. Oh and for the record, your stats are wrong, the Fatboy and the Road King were 1450cc 8 years ago so to say they're 1584 since 1989 is inaccurate... Also, the Intruder is incredibly well balanced, has a very low center of Gravity and a higher ground clearance than anything that it competed against back in the early 2000's. As for the Name Intruder, I would absolutely ride a bike with that name on it given the fact that it happens to be one of the smoothest riding bikes on the market and I can squeeze another 10 horse or 10 ftlbs of Torque with a Stage 3 Jet Kit, Air Filter and Some Pipes. Oh and one last thing, you never mentioned all the goodies you got on this bike that you didn't get on some of the others... Like the Hydraulic Clutch and the Fuel Sensor with Warning Light (these weren't standard on some of the competitors as they might have one of these features but not both).

Does 120 MPH according to GPS. Range on that small tank 150-160 miles Two-up and full luggage. Gearshift is heavy. We do not have British winters so keeping the shine is probably about the same as other similar bikes, gee funny about that. I have ridden many many other bikes, and own a number of different styles from a dirt bike through to a duke, a speed triple to the VL1500 and I also love my Z900's, and for what it is the VL handles O.K. and looks the part. Mine is actually a company vehicle, and as such, is my hack to travel to the many building jobs that my company, performs, and it just does not let me down. In OZ with 25,000 miles they still in 2009 still fetch approximately 9-10 thousand dollars,and considering that mine is a 2002 model that's not to bad. Your tester is right they are rather bare when new, and buying them second hand is the way to go as mine had the whole catastrophe, OEM extras screen, rack, sissy bar, customised guards, spotlights, twin discs, saddle bags etc. Also suspension can be adjusted to quite a hard setting. New price was about $15,000.oo