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General Category >> Rubber Side Down! >> What makes the name Boulevard better than Savage ?
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Message started by blod on 12/10/24 at 12:46:09

Title: What makes the name Boulevard better than Savage ?
Post by blod on 12/10/24 at 12:46:09

Whoever decided to ditch the name Savage and rename the bike the Boulevard must have been out of his mind. It must be the worst name possible for a motorcycle. I would be willing to bet he uses pronouns.

I'm glad my bike is a Savage :)

Title: Re: What makes the name Boulevard better than Sava
Post by JOG on 12/10/24 at 15:37:28

My first Suzuki was the 2005 Boulevard. It made calling it Bull easy. Would you call Your bike SAV? Of course not!
I don't have a Klue why they changed the name. IDK what the differences are between the four speed and five speed are. I do know I was forever hunting sixth and never understood the Yuge leap between first and second. I Could make the shift clutchless, but it was just too harsh. One difference I know about is the one piece seat is nowhere near as comfortable as the two piece. And for sure the geezer crowd will be more comfortable with the Buckhorn bars.
Call them what you want,, they are fun.

Title: Re: What makes the name Boulevard better than Sava
Post by LANCER on 12/10/24 at 19:15:48

Back when Suzuki created a seperate cruiser line in their line up of bikes, they pulled the Savage in as the low price leader and in the process changed the bikes name to the Boulevard S40. And yes, I much prefer the Savage name as well. There were very few delivered to dealers, many just got 1 or maybe 2 a year.

Title: Re: What makes the name Boulevard better than Sava
Post by faffi on 12/10/24 at 22:07:31

Here, they were only called the LS650. I very much prefer a designation over a name. As to Savage; there is nothing savage about it.

Title: Re: What makes the name Boulevard better than Sava
Post by SoC on 12/10/24 at 22:13:02

I suspect it has a couple reasons, one like mentioned was to just add a intro bike to the S cruiser line. The other was a PC thing, with the Washington Football team being renamed the Commanders (from the Red Skins) and the Cleveland baseball team being renamed the Guardians (from the Indians) I suspect Suzuki was little ahead on this. The image that sort of represented an Indian headdress on gas tanks with the bike being named the "Savage" was similar to either of the examples just sighted as offensive to Native Americans.

In case of the football team that discussion had been on going for years so that idea of it being considered "inappropriate" was nothing new even back in the early 2000's. I think it had a part of being a "PC" thing even back then. Equating an image of an Indian head dress to a "savage" might have ruffled some feathers.

I will say in my case I did de-badge the tank on my Savage and repaint it to same original color. Not necessarily as political statement, just to provide cleaner look, but I do feel it has been appropriate.

Title: Re: What makes the name Boulevard better than Sava
Post by LANCER on 12/11/24 at 04:22:40

2004 was the last year for the Savage, and 2005 began the use of the Bvld. S40 name. This was before the controversy over team names began, at least to my memory. This was the same year Suzuki made a change in the throttle cable attachment to the hand throttle on the bars.

Title: Re: What makes the name Boulevard better than Sava
Post by ThumperPaul on 12/11/24 at 05:17:14

Marauder, Intruder, Savage. Suzuki wasn’t afraid to give their bikes felon-like bad boy names up until 2005.

Apparently, the marketing folks at Suzuki decided to mellow out and lump all their cruisers into a nice sounding suburban street, Boulevard family.

I kinda like the old naming a little better. Glad the PC culture hasn’t gotten to “Indian” motorcycles.

Title: Re: What makes the name Boulevard better than Sava
Post by faffi on 12/11/24 at 05:39:00

Hustler, Titan, Le Mans, Cobra, Apache - yeah, Suzuki did have names also in the old days that may provoke someone today.

One of my Yamahas was called Virago in USA (XV750SE in Europe), another name describing a sinister individual, despite the bike being all but.

Title: Re: What makes the name Boulevard better than Sava
Post by ThumperPaul on 12/11/24 at 06:19:46

Virago - a domineering, violent, or bad-tempered woman. I guess they couldn’t name it, “The pregnant dog”.

EDIT: Auto-correct for naughty words on this forum crack me up. “the pregnant dog” is not what I wrote… :o ;D

Title: Re: What makes the name Boulevard better than Sava
Post by Ruttly on 12/11/24 at 09:42:54

Bowl of lard. ;D

Title: Re: What makes the name Boulevard better than Sava
Post by Ruttly on 12/11/24 at 09:49:07

Easy to avoid autocorrect , $hit
Gotta be smarter than the programmer and it’s not smart like AI
AI would recognize all variations , then adjust , kinda scary

Title: Re: What makes the name Boulevard better than Sava
Post by Ruttly on 12/11/24 at 09:55:02

I vaguely remember the tv commercials for the bowl of lard , they where way beyond dumb !

Title: Re: What makes the name Boulevard better than Sava
Post by LANCER on 12/11/24 at 10:06:55

I don’t remember a bowl, but I do remember a block of lard, 30 lbs. worth, and it was used to show what that looks like for a person loosing weight.
It was quite dramatic.

Title: Re: What makes the name Boulevard better than Sava
Post by ThumperPaul on 12/11/24 at 11:32:58

$hit and a$$hole are too easy, beeauch!

Title: Re: What makes the name Boulevard better than Sava
Post by blod on 12/11/24 at 11:59:22

It does not recognize Cupid Stunt or Donald Duck either.

Title: Re: What makes the name Boulevard better than Sava
Post by ThumperPaul on 12/11/24 at 13:14:28

JOG has it down to an art! You just need an East Texas dictionary to duhsifer it!

Title: Re: What makes the name Boulevard better than Sava
Post by blod on 12/12/24 at 03:02:51

383F3838375E0 wrote:

Here, they were only called the LS650. I very much prefer a designation over a name. As to Savage; there is nothing savage about it.

Define Savage.

Title: Re: What makes the name Boulevard better than Sava
Post by faffi on 12/12/24 at 13:45:03

adjective
1.
(of an animal or force of nature) fierce, violent, and uncontrolled.
"packs of savage dogs roamed the streets"
Similar:
ferocious
fierce
wild
untamed
undomesticated
feral
predatory
ravening

2.
(of something bad or negative) very great; severe.
"the decision was a savage blow for the town"
Similar:
severe
crushing
devastating
crippling
terrible
awful
dreadful
dire
catastrophic
calamitous
ruinous
mortal
lethal
fatal

noun
1.
a brutal or vicious person.
"the mother of one of the victims has described his assailants as savages"
Similar:
brute
beast
monster
barbarian
ogre
demon
sadist
animal

verb
1.
(especially of a dog or wild animal) attack ferociously and maul.
"police are rounding up dogs after a girl was savaged"
Similar:
maul
attack
tear to pieces
lacerate
claw
bite
mutilate

Title: Re: What makes the name Boulevard better than Sava
Post by LANCER on 12/12/24 at 13:45:36

LS650 is the model designator chosen by Suzuki, I think LS means “Lazy Single”, when compared with the DR650. [ch128526]

Title: Re: What makes the name Boulevard better than Sava
Post by ThumperPaul on 12/12/24 at 14:25:17

7A77787573642421160 wrote:

LS650 is the model designator chosen by Suzuki, I think LS means “Lazy Single”, when compared with the DR650. [ch128526]

GOOD ANSWER!! And DR is "Dirt Racing"?

The definition of savage is savage!

Title: Re: What makes the name Boulevard better than Sava
Post by blod on 12/12/24 at 14:40:34

In this instance I take the word Savage to mean the term for a native Indian of North America, the headdress on the tank of the Savage branded bikes confirms that.

I think name Suzuki Savage was chosen because it rolls nicely off the tongue, much nicer than than the gay sounding Suzuki Boulevard ;)