Slim-Fast 109
SLIM-FAST 109
Boulevard
Berg
NO MASS-PRODUCED MUSCLE-CRUISER RIVALS THE BRUTE force of Suzuki’s Boulevard M109. But while a showroom-stock “'Busa-cruza” is capable of rolling over its competition like a Pro Bowl lineman crashing a high-school scrimmage, you can’t help but wonder what a healthy diet could do for Suzuki’s 720-pound behemoth.
Leave it to the collaboration of custom-builder Denny Berg and Cobra USA to bring that very concept to fruition. This Berg-built M109 is the latest in a long line of showstopping metric customs he has crafted over the past 15 years for Cobra’s Special Projects Division. While Cobra co-founder Ken Boyko had a say in the bike’s basic design, the finer details and fabrication were for Berg to work out in his Palm Springs, California, skunkworks of a shop.
Transforming a standard Ml09 into a bike Berg describes as a “street-legal dragbike-meets-hillclimber type of thing”
took three months. “I wanted to use as many stock parts as 1 could,” says Berg, “modifying stock bodywork, fenders, tank-things like that-rather than make all new stuff.”
A crowning example of this philosophy is the bike’s resculpted fuel tank. A large hammer and lots of patience went into dishing the sides for a 6-inch reduction in overall width. Berg then decked and peaked the top where the stock instrument console had been, added a flush-mount gas cap and smoothed the bottom-edge seam for a superfinished look.
A one-off fiberglass seat section was made by taking a splash mold off the stock body part, laying up a replica piece, then cutting out a 5-inch-wide centerline swath and splicing the halves together. The Boulevard’s slim ’n’ trim new bootie sports a GSX-R taillight that’s been inverted and flush-mounted. Supporting Berg’s hand-made tailsection is a lightweight subframe fabbed of steel tubing.
Additional frame mods include lightening holes added below the swingarm pivot and a smoothing of casting surfaces and welds before a silky coating of Cloud Silver Soft Touch paint was applied. The custom-appearing swingarm is actually the standard aluminum unit stripped of the factory black paint, polished and given a 3M Scotch-Brite rubdown to achieve a purposefully dulled works-racer finish.
Another clever alteration of standard M109 equipment is the solid-look rear wheel. Berg covered the spokes with a pair of discs hand-cut out of aluminum sheet using a jigsaw, then bonded in place and finished with good of Scotch-
Brite and elbow grease. A Performance Machine Sport Mach 5 wheel rides up front, shod with a 110/70-17 Avon AM45 Venom radial and covered by a shortened/lowered stock fender that maintains a proper appearance with the smaller-diameter wheel assembly.
While a standard Ml09 has dual discs up front, Berg’s bike utilizes a single GSX-R rotor grasped by a stout, radial-mount, four-piston PM caliper. Footrests and controls are Gixxer rearsets lifted straight from the spares kit of the factory Superbike ridden by Mat Mladin. PM Profile-series switchgear, grips, throttle, brake master cylinder, levers and mirrors are hung on a Drag Specialties 35-degree dragbar clamped to a Harley-Davidson Deuce riser atop an adapted stock triple-clamp with a V-Rod headlight leading the way.
Besides the incredibly loud, shotgun-style Cobra SPD prototype pipes, additional engine mods consist of a Cobra FI2000 fuel-mapping module, Uni-Filters and hammertonepainted sidecovers. But don’t think the exercise was all for show; having shed some 110 pounds in the process, it’s safe to say this Cobra concept bike looks good to go!
Don Canet
