2004 Harley-Davidson Sportsters
lowly . Lots of people have Sportsters,
and they don 't th ink th ey 'r e lo wl y."
Needless to say, a rewrite was in
order, the word " b arg ai n" being the
P.c. substitution for "lowly" wherever
it appeared.
My first Cy cle News editor was just
th e op po site.
"Sport st ers?" he would say , " Even
Ha rley p eople don't th ink the Sportst ers are a legitimate p ar t of t hei r
scene. "
And with that, we return to 200 4,
and t he a ll-new Harl ey - Davi ds o n
Sp ort sters, a qu artet of machin es that
are at the sam e ti m e out -of-this -wo rld
differe nt and surprisingly si m ila r to
th eir pred ecessors. Suffice it t o say
tha t for Sport ster purist s, the li neage
of th e past 47 ye ars rema in s unbro k en , so if you liked th e old Sp ortster,
th en you'll like th is one, to o . If yo u
di dn 't , the n maybe it's ti me t o take
an oth er lo ok . A nd if yo u 're lo oking
fo r a bar gain , then brother, is this the
Harley -Davidson for you .
That much r em ai n s unchanged
either way. Some 70 percent of the
Sportster's buyers are first-time
Ha r l e y -D a v i d so n buyers , and the
Sportst er p latform rep resent s 30 pe rce nt of Harley -D av idson's to tal produ ction. Th at' s a ot of bu y ers, y et
Harley-Davidson XL 1200c"'Sportster Cu stom
Harle~'s
new rubber-mounted XLs offer more of the same... MucH more
B y S COTT R OUSSEAU
P HOTOS B y B RIA N J . N ELSO N
t' s funn y wha t things .will stay with
yo u.
When I was a bright -e yed and
bu sh y -tail ed in tern at Cycle World
ma ga zin e b a c k in the summer of
1992 , I was given , as my se c o nd
assignme nt , the task of writi ng up a
sm all si de bar fea ture on a vintage
Harl e y -D a v i d so n two-stroke lightw eight called the ST165 . With t he
typ ical enthusiasm of one wish ing to
make a m a r k i n m oto -journa lism
without fully underst anding th e target
at wh ic h h e was ai mi n g, I le d t he
pi ece with a sentence that went
something like, "T he Sportster hasn 't
a lways been t h e lo w l ie st H o g i n
Harl ey -D a v id son ' s famil y lin e," fi nis hed the rest and tu rned it in. B ig
m istak e. Th e editor summoned me to
hi s offic e, a sma tte ring of bl ood in hi s
eye . You'd h av e th ought that I j ust
ran ov er his prized agility trials pooch
with a rusty BSA choppe r,
" Wha t m ak es yo u th in k that t he
Harley -Davidson Sportster is low ly?"
he qu estion ed demandingly. " I ha ve a
Sp or t st er , and I don 't think th ey ' re
I
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