# What is the rationale for a 3/4 ton cruiser motorcycle with a 5.7 liter engine?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-rationale-for-a-3-4-ton-cruiser-motorcycle-with-a-5-7-liter-engine/495864
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [May 9, 2009, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-rationale-for-a-3-4-ton-cruiser-motorcycle-with-a-5-7-liter-engine/495864 "2009-05-09T17:40:07Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2009, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-rationale-for-a-3-4-ton-cruiser-motorcycle-with-a-5-7-liter-engine/495864/1 "2009-05-09T17:40:07Z")
[Boss Hoss Cycles -](http://www.bosshoss.com/view_bike.asp?x=BHC3ZZ4)
> [@](#):
>
> BHC-3 ZZ4
> Specs | Features
>
> Engine
> TypeLiquid Cooled V-8
> Horsepower355 @ 5250 rpm
> Torque405 Ft.Lbs @ 3500 rpm
> BlockCast Iron - 4 bolt main
> CylindersAluminum (58cc)
> Valvetrain1.94"Int / 1.5"Exh.
> Size350 c.i. (5700cc)
> Compression10:1
> Fuel InjectionHolly 680 cfm Throttle Body
> Exhaust2.5" with dual mufflers
> Transmission2-speed semi-auto w/rev.
> Final DriveBelt, Gates- Polychain
>
> Dimensions
> Overall Length106"
> Wheel Base80.0"
> Seat Height28.0"
> Rake33.0 degrees
> Grd. Dlearance4.5"
> Frame Width28.0"
> GVWR1675 lbs
---
### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2009, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-rationale-for-a-3-4-ton-cruiser-motorcycle-with-a-5-7-liter-engine/495864/2 "2009-05-09T17:46:47Z")
It shows how big your penis is.
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### Author:  [@PatriotGrrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotGrrrl)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2009, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-rationale-for-a-3-4-ton-cruiser-motorcycle-with-a-5-7-liter-engine/495864/3 "2009-05-09T19:02:40Z")
Because you can.
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### Author:  [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2009, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-rationale-for-a-3-4-ton-cruiser-motorcycle-with-a-5-7-liter-engine/495864/4 "2009-05-09T20:06:22Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#):
>
> It shows how big your penis is.
Or small. Somebody’s compensating.
---
### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2009, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-rationale-for-a-3-4-ton-cruiser-motorcycle-with-a-5-7-liter-engine/495864/5 "2009-05-09T20:42:42Z")
What part of “This is America; we’ll build a 250% oversized version of anything you care to name” don’t you recognize? The USA has always been this way.
I wouldn’t be surprised to find somebody somewhere breeding 75 lb Chihuahua’s. Why? Because they can.
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### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2009, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-rationale-for-a-3-4-ton-cruiser-motorcycle-with-a-5-7-liter-engine/495864/6 "2009-05-09T21:27:58Z")
> [@](#):
>
> What is the rationale for a 3/4 ton cruiser motorcycle with a 5.7 liter engine?
I think the only fully correct answer for this question would have to be expressed as a series of grunts and howl-like noises which would not translate well into this medium.
Are you familiar with the works of a man named Tim Allen?
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### Author:  [@Tenebras](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tenebras)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2009, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-rationale-for-a-3-4-ton-cruiser-motorcycle-with-a-5-7-liter-engine/495864/7 "2009-05-09T21:55:39Z")
Some of the [options](http://www.bosshoss.com/view_options.asp) are nice.
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### Author:  [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2009, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-rationale-for-a-3-4-ton-cruiser-motorcycle-with-a-5-7-liter-engine/495864/8 "2009-05-09T22:11:28Z")
> [@Tenebras](#):
>
> Some of the [options](http://www.bosshoss.com/view_options.asp) are nice.
Yeah, but the expense…
One of my heroes, Glenn Hammond Curtiss, the real father of flight, built a V8 motorcycle and set a world record of 136.36 mph - [in 1907](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_Curtiss#Birth_and_early_career).
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### Author:  [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2009, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-rationale-for-a-3-4-ton-cruiser-motorcycle-with-a-5-7-liter-engine/495864/9 "2009-05-09T22:21:16Z")
Unless the guy in the picture is like 6’10, it really doesn’t look _that_ huge to me. What’s the big deal?
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2009, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-rationale-for-a-3-4-ton-cruiser-motorcycle-with-a-5-7-liter-engine/495864/10 "2009-05-09T23:50:13Z")
> [@Cisco](#):
>
> Unless the guy in the picture is like 6’10, it really doesn’t look _that_ huge to me. What’s the big deal?
Profile shot doesn’t show it. Page through the photo gallery and various pics on site. The bike is almost twice as wide a normal motorcycle. It’s as wide as a washing machine. You sit on it with your legs practically akimbo.
[Here’s one shot](http://asware.net/serendipity/uploads/mirror/BossHoss.jpg)
[Here’s another](http://www.transportspecs.com/images/old/boss_hoss_502_big_block.jpg)
---
### Author:  [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2009, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-rationale-for-a-3-4-ton-cruiser-motorcycle-with-a-5-7-liter-engine/495864/11 "2009-05-10T00:04:42Z")
> [@astro](#):
>
> [Here’s one shot](http://asware.net/serendipity/uploads/mirror/BossHoss.jpg)
Oh. Fuck.
Thanks.
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### Author:  [@Tenebras](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tenebras)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2009, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-rationale-for-a-3-4-ton-cruiser-motorcycle-with-a-5-7-liter-engine/495864/12 "2009-05-10T00:52:20Z")
> [@astro](#):
>
> Profile shot doesn’t show it. Page through the photo gallery and various pics on site. The bike is almost twice as wide a normal motorcycle. It’s as wide as a washing machine. You sit on it with your legs practically akimbo.
>
> [Here’s one shot](http://asware.net/serendipity/uploads/mirror/BossHoss.jpg)
>
> [Here’s another](http://www.transportspecs.com/images/old/boss_hoss_502_big_block.jpg)
I don’t think the first bike you linked to is even ridable. That rear wheel looks like something off a car.
While it’s big, I don’t think it’s the same bike even as the one linked in the OP. There’s a 360 degree picture, and you can see in the pictures that the rear wheel is a regular motorcycle tire. The thing is stupid big, but not as bad as your picture. Browsing around on their site, I don’t see pictures anything like what you linked to, and there are several pictures of people riding or sitting on the thing.
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### Author:  [@Tenebras](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tenebras)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2009, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-rationale-for-a-3-4-ton-cruiser-motorcycle-with-a-5-7-liter-engine/495864/13 "2009-05-10T01:03:02Z")
Also, you can look at the tires to get an idea of scale. The stock rear tire is a 230/60. So it’s only 9 inches across. Looking at the front view, the front tire is 130mm across, so you can get an idea of how wide the bike it. The seating position looks uncomfortable to me, but no more so than what a bunch of Harley riders consider to be bog standard.
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### Author:  [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2009, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-rationale-for-a-3-4-ton-cruiser-motorcycle-with-a-5-7-liter-engine/495864/14 "2009-05-10T01:12:02Z")
Short answer. The same reason the average person would have a Hummer or a 100k+ sports car.
Conspicuous consumption.
Long answer, I’ve wanted one for years and will have no trouble at all dealing with the comments about compensating and questions about what on Earth I could possibly want one for. Because I can.
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2009, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-rationale-for-a-3-4-ton-cruiser-motorcycle-with-a-5-7-liter-engine/495864/15 "2009-05-10T01:36:16Z")
> [@Tenebras](#):
>
> I don’t think the first bike you linked to is even ridable. That rear wheel looks like something off a car.
>
> While it’s big, I don’t think it’s the same bike even as the one linked in the OP. There’s a 360 degree picture, and you can see in the pictures that the rear wheel is a regular motorcycle tire. The thing is stupid big, but not as bad as your picture. Browsing around on their site, I don’t see pictures anything like what you linked to, and there are several pictures of people riding or sitting on the thing.
[Some do.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boss_Hoss)
> [@](#):
>
> Tires
> For many years, Boss Hoss sold their bikes with a motorcycle front tire and an automotive rear tire. This is one area where the motorcycle aftermarket has come closer to the muscle car market, and Boss Hoss is now able to offer properly rounded, and still sufficiently large, motorcycle tires for the rear end. The only tire that has been certified to be used on a Boss Hoss is the Avon 230.
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### Author:  [@Tenebras](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tenebras)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2009, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-rationale-for-a-3-4-ton-cruiser-motorcycle-with-a-5-7-liter-engine/495864/16 "2009-05-10T02:01:39Z")
I think you’ve been whooshed. Here’s a review of the bike from back when they still came with the car tire in the back.
[Review](http://www.motorcyclecruiser.com/roadtests/boss_hoss_v8/index.html).
[Picture](http://www.motorcyclecruiser.com/roadtests/boss_hoss_v8/photo_03.html).
The thing that you linked to isn’t meant to be ridden as a motorcycle. It’s either a publicity stunt or a drag bike. Well, to be honest it’s probably both. When you read “automotive tire” on the wiki page, you should think “something off my family car” and not “something I nicked from the Ferrari F-1 team when they were busy whining about not being able to spend so much money next year.” Putting something that wide on the back of a bike that’s meant to be able to turn is counterproductive.
While the engine and tank are very wide, you’re not sitting on top of them. If you have to sit with your “legs akimbo” to ride this thing, then you have to do that with every forward controlled Harley, too. The only difference in this case is the automatic transmission and the V-8 between your knees, instead of a V-twin rattling your dentures out. My favorite feature are the chromed up heat shields on the headers. They’re so space-age!
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2009, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-rationale-for-a-3-4-ton-cruiser-motorcycle-with-a-5-7-liter-engine/495864/17 "2009-05-10T02:12:21Z")
[quote=“Tenebras, post:16, topic:495864”]
I think you’ve been whooshed. Here’s a review of the bike from back when they still came with the car tire in the back.
[Review](http://www.motorcyclecruiser.com/roadtests/boss_hoss_v8/index.html).
[Here’s a better pic.](http://image.motorcyclecruiser.com/f/8540813/xl+1998_boss_hoss_v8+rear_side_view.jpg)Per you note the one I linked to was apparently some modifed specimen. Still a wide ride.
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### Author:  [@The\_Surb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Surb)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2009, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-rationale-for-a-3-4-ton-cruiser-motorcycle-with-a-5-7-liter-engine/495864/18 "2009-05-10T02:56:12Z")
We went to a cycle show in NW Ohio. Some guy had stuffed a 500 ci engine into a cycle frame.
It was a sight to behold. The bike was not nice looking, but all that engine packed in there, wow.
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### Author:  [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2009, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-rationale-for-a-3-4-ton-cruiser-motorcycle-with-a-5-7-liter-engine/495864/19 "2009-05-10T07:14:59Z")
Come on **Astro** , Have you copmletely lost touch with the kid in you that says “Wow! That’s just too f’n cool!”…?
I’d never own one, but the sight of it does make me want to beat my chest and club some woman over the head with my beat’n stick.
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2009, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-rationale-for-a-3-4-ton-cruiser-motorcycle-with-a-5-7-liter-engine/495864/20 "2009-05-10T07:59:24Z")
> [@astro](#):
>
> [Here’s one shot](http://asware.net/serendipity/uploads/mirror/BossHoss.jpg)
Some of the options are very nice, indeed.
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