Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128235
into the at mos p he re , and the fu zzy shapes will c ertainly unearth th e conspi ra cy . But t he m irro rs are distorti on-free . You rub them just to m ak e sure that th e im age s you' re seeing in them haven't been ai rbrushed on . It's that good. Am I bei ng ove rly dr am at ic here? I dunno . Have y ou eve r ridden a so lid -mount Sp ortst er be fore? I have. Wi th all th at bad vi bratio n n ow ke pt in check thro ug h the bike's new rubber- mount chas sis ( see Tec h: Chassis) , all of the thing s that m ade the Sp o rt st er good ma k e it bette r. Even though the y 're the same . Another ridd le . It' s like th is: Without the vi b ration you can honestly say that the Sp ort st er makes very snap py , en te rtai ning power without adding the chorus , "i f o nly it didn't vib rate so much. " You can say that th e sh ift ing is a mo ng the s moothes t tha t a H arl e y -D a v i d s o n motorcy cle can offer (n o chorus ). You can say that both the u pright seati ng p o sit io n of t h e 883 and th e Roadster and the m ore slinky , pedal-forward ergos of the 883 Custom and the 1200 Cus t om w ill fi nd fa vor w ith a wide variety of riders (no c ho rus) . It has always rem ember that, for ye ars, th e Sportst er ha s been co nside red in th e cult u re to be a loss leade r , a st ep pi ng ston e, th e r itua l t h ro ug h w hich one pledges his loyalty to the Ha rl ey fra t ern ity th en s te p s up to a m o r e A lpha -esqu e Dyna o r Softail or FL. In li gh t o f t hi s, th e Sp ortster fa mily has remained basically un changed since it first appeared in Ev olut io n form in 1986 . H a vi n g sa mp l e d the 20 0 4 Sp ortste r li neup d uring a recent fac to ry -sponsored rom p i n the h ills o f Bu ell t on , north of Santa Barba ra , Cal ifornia, I can say that the new Sportsters a re some pretty d amn n i c e stones. So good , in fac t, t ha t yo u may not want to step off as quickly as you m ight have in the past. The re are fou r Sp ortster models to ch oose fro m in 2 004; Harley pared th e numb er of m o d el s do w n from sev en in 2003 via an am al g am ation of sorts . Gon e are the XL8 83 H Sportste r H u g g er , XL H 12 0 0 Sporst er (standard model ) and the XL Sporster 883 R. The XL1200S Sportst er Sp ort has been superc eded by a new pe r forman c e m od e l , the fl a gs hi p XL1200R Sp ort st er Roadster. T h e XL883, XL883 Cu st om and XL1 20 0C Custom have al so made the g rade . Save for the more ro bust ap pearance o f the Custom m odels , thanks to their new 4 .5 -gall on fuel tanks and g li tzy c h r o m e , you li kely wou l d n't eve n noti c e t he sig nifican t diffe rences betw een o l d a nd new Sportsters su c h as a new Road st er and an old Sportser 12 0 0 Sport - if they were park ed across t he p a rking lot from each ot her, but you would as soon as yo u clim bed ab oard an d thumbed the New Tubes: The XL 's all-new ch a ssis f eat ure s a lower seating a rea t ha n the previous model. Although rubberm ounted, the new frame is 26 percent stiffer tha n the '0 3 mo d e l's. sta rter button on t he "Roaster." Rig ht off t h e bat , th e b ike fee ls sew in g machin e smooth. It's so sm ooth that y ou need to look down and spy th e Vtwin motor b ip pet y- bo p p et i ng b ack and forth in the c hassis to co n firm t hat , yes, you are o n a Sp ortst er. Th en you sni ck it into gea r an d he ad o ut. Su r el y , onc e y ou 're m o v ing, all t hat butt-rattli ng v ib ratio n will rear its ugly head as yo u go through the gears on you r way up to highway cruisng sp eed. Sti ll nothing , whi ch ca uses yo u to glan ce down q uickly once again j u st to make sure t hat yes , th is is a Sp o rt ster and, no , the motor hasn 't fa ll en out of the chassis. Ahh, the m irrors . the true acid test. Surely , they 're t elepo rt ing t he vibes out of the chassis through the mirrors Frame: (l£I1f~~'1£l~!!.~~!~ro. . Sportster's rigidi ty, but it came at the expense of tremendous vibrat ion. which crept through the bars, seat and pegs to compromise long-term comfort seriously. The solution was to devise a rubber-mount chassis to that found on the Dyna and earlier FXR lines, but it wasn't a simple slam dunk. Simply adding rubber mounts to the existing chassis would have made the Sportster handle like a drunken wiggle worm. The new, robotically welded twin-cradle steel Sportster chassis features an increased backbone diameter, which now specs out at 2 1/8 inches in diameter, as opposed to the old chassis' 1 S/8 -inch diameter. The swingarm has also been strengthened in the bridge area to further increase rigidity. And that still isn't enough, so says Harley, to create the level of rigidity required to give the Sportster a truly sporting chassis. Perhaps the key ingredient in the new chassis stiff ness lies in the three stabilizer links, or dogbanes, that connect the engine to the frame. The link s allow the Sportster's engine to rock and roll within the chassis, but they limit the lateral flex of the frame when the bike is cranked over in a tum. The end result is that the new Sportster chassis is 26-percent stiffer than the previous Sportst er chassis, albeit a shade heavier and at the sacrifice of a degree or two of lean angle. cue I e n e _ S • O C T O B ER 8 , 2003 37