A day with the Intruder: Eye-Dandy

The Suzuki Intruder was parked inside the office underground parking. While walking down the stairs, I could hear some murmurs and giggles. As I entered the parking I saw a large group of our office staff circled around the bike and discussing things like its size, price and even the name. I could see the chrome bits on the Intruder sparkle once in a while through the crowd in the dim underground lighting, like a girl teasing and winking at me. I put the key into the ignition, clutched it and thumbed the starter motor. The motor came to life with a large thump and almost everyone gathered around stepped back with awe, fear, excitement and admiration, at once.

The security dude opening the gate had a big grin on his face as I passed him and it lasted till the point I lost him in my rear view mirror. I'm sure it lasted for a while. Riding around town, the first thing that hit me was unlike superbikes where people find you friendly and approachable, astride the Intruder, everyone around me at the traffic junctions and parking lots was always in two minds to come ahead and enquire about this beast. Maybe it gave them the feeling of me being a really arrogant owner, who would not appreciate questions like "Boss, mileage kitna deta hai?" or "Kitna power hai?"
       

Which wasn't entirely untrue, but hey c'mon, I would not mow them down for asking these questions. I must confess, the Suzuki Intruder gave my ego a nitrous boost. It behaved like it was on crack - doing its own thing, throwing attitude, grinning inside the helmet and feeling like a rockstar performing live on stage. And all of this was bestowed upon me simply because of this motorcycle (err...monster-cycle would be the right word) and the attention I got from the passersby without having to do any effort apart from riding it around at 40km/h so that everyone gets a eyeful of this 1800cc behemoth.

Eyeful would be an understatement, since most people would literally start following me. I could see the same vehicles in the rear view mirror and then a few new additions as well. Age no bar. Pretty young things, newly wed couples, retired army personnel, business barons in their luxury sedans to middle-aged women walking their dogs, everyone would turn their neck around almost until it snapped. Never have I seen so many camera phones at work- and never trained at me for sure! I could see people hastily searching their pockets for their mobile phones, continuous flashing in my rear view mirrors and some over enthusiastic kids recording the exhaust note so that they can use it as their ringtone.

All this attention still isn't enough to justify the Intruder's enormous street presence and colossal size. The effort put in by the Suzuki designers into detailing of this aesthetically carved masterpiece on two wheels has given the world of motorcycles a creation that defines the expression 'showstopper' in every sense of the word. Staying honest to its name 'Intruder', the bike shamelessly encroaches into everyone's personal space. Like breaching the newly-wed couple's mushy-talk or halting the career-deciding discussion between the father and the son. Everywhere you go, you ride or park this gorgeously styled artwork of chrome, mobs WILL throng you and make you feel nothing less than a demigod.