SuzukiSavage.com - What makes the name Boulevard better than Savage ?

blod Junior Member Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 94	What makes the name Boulevard better than Savage ? 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
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JOG

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Re: What makes the name Boulevard better than Sava
Reply #1 - 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.

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LANCER

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Re: What makes the name Boulevard better than Sava
Reply #2 - 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.

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faffi Senior Member Offline A.S.A.N. Posts: 342 Norway	Re: What makes the name Boulevard better than Sava Reply #3 - 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.
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Re: What makes the name Boulevard better than Sava
Reply #4 - 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.

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LANCER Serious Thumper Alliance Member Offline Savage Beast Performance Parts Posts: 10713 Oklahoma Gender:	Re: What makes the name Boulevard better than Sava Reply #5 - 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.
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Re: What makes the name Boulevard better than Sava
Reply #6 - 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.

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faffi Senior Member Offline A.S.A.N. Posts: 342 Norway	Re: What makes the name Boulevard better than Sava Reply #7 - 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.
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ThumperPaul Serious Thumper Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 1941 Houston, Texas Gender:	Re: What makes the name Boulevard better than Sava Reply #8 - 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…
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Ruttly Serious Thumper Offline Thumpers Rule Posts: 5229 Manteca , CA Gender:	Re: What makes the name Boulevard better than Sava Reply #9 - 12/11/24 at 09:42:54 Bowl of lard.
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Ruttly Serious Thumper Offline Thumpers Rule Posts: 5229 Manteca , CA Gender:	Re: What makes the name Boulevard better than Sava Reply #10 - 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
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Ruttly Serious Thumper Offline Thumpers Rule Posts: 5229 Manteca , CA Gender:	Re: What makes the name Boulevard better than Sava Reply #11 - 12/11/24 at 09:55:02 I vaguely remember the tv commercials for the bowl of lard , they where way beyond dumb !
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LANCER Serious Thumper Alliance Member Offline Savage Beast Performance Parts Posts: 10713 Oklahoma Gender:	Re: What makes the name Boulevard better than Sava Reply #12 - 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.
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ThumperPaul Serious Thumper Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 1941 Houston, Texas Gender:	Re: What makes the name Boulevard better than Sava Reply #13 - 12/11/24 at 11:32:58 $hit and a$$hole are too easy, beeauch!
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blod Junior Member Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 94	Re: What makes the name Boulevard better than Sava Reply #14 - 12/11/24 at 11:59:22 It does not recognize Cupid Stunt or Donald Duck either.
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