Seen it bandied about a few times that the Harley Davidson sportster was once the fastest standard production bike in the world? Is that true? Anyone know what era if it was?

 

Stock? I doubt it. When it was the prime "superbike" in the '60s there was always something from Italy, England or Japan with some more top speed. Didn't matter, however. The Sportster always was the coolest of the bunch.

 

An early '50's Vincent Black Shadow was faster, but like the others mentioned, they were pretty scarce, even in Britain. The Sportster was the fastest bike you were likely to encounter until Honda brought out the CB-750 four in 1969.

 

Well, I do know that my 1968 XLCH ran like a bat out of Hell, in between times it lunched itself.

 

Back in the 60's the Sportster was the fastest American made production bike available.
It was no slouch and could easily beat or match any of the muscle cars of the day.
Sure there was the HRD/Vincent but few had the funds to afford one.
(I have to add that the Vincent motor is still to this day the best looking motor ever put between two wheels.)

 

Prior to the Japanese invasion in 1969 (i.e.Honda CB750), the Sportster was the fastest American production motorcycle.
Attachment 524981

 

More than one Sportster fell prey to my '62 Triumph 120R.

 

Fastest "American Made" as mentioned above.

...yeah...because that list of American Made was so long...the competition from other US made highway legal motorcycles was stiff! Hah!

 

Likely to encounter depends on your location I suppose. There were a bunch of Norton's and BSA's where I was. I'm surprised that there were no Japanese 2 strokes on this list.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...on_motorcycles

 

Also surprised not to see the Kawasaki 2-stroke Triples (Mach III 500cc or Mach IV 750cc)....