Hey people. noob here but I just sold my old Yamaha it was cheep and i just bought it to see if I like riding..... and I do haha. So now I'm looking to get into something used and in good shape, you know to be my bike for a few years. I'm drawn to 1200 sportsters because they look sweet and I have test driven one and it fit like a glove. I guess what I'm getting at is there is a lot of hate slung towards Harley's. I don't care about most of it but the thing that has me concerned is I have heard they cost more to maintain than other makes. Is that true? and the parts for them are more expensive that competitors?

Now on my Ol' Lincoln I do almost all the work on it myself, So are H-D's bikes ones you can work on in your garage? or do they need a lot of special tools and crap. (keep in mind that i'm looking for 90's sportys cuz that is in my price range)

and last question once again I am looking at 90's 1200's and I don't think they used rubber mounts till 04 right? I havent had a chance to get out on the freeway on one but the vibration shouldn't kill me? I know it won't be like my 750 4 cylinder but I don't want my teeth to fall out haha

Any other tid-bits you all want to throw in would be great. Thanks in advance for your help

 

harleys cost less to maintain than most other bikes.
you have no main chain to clean, lube and replace. you no radiator, eliminating the need for coolants and anti-freeze.
iv had no mechanical experience before i bought my harley, and iv found it very easy to work on mine out the front of my house.
if you have mechanical experience, i would imagine it was be very simple to work on most stuff.
no specialist tools needed that i can think of.
a good set of metric and sae allen keys. a set of star shaped torx keys. everything else, you probably have lying around your garage.
genuine harley parts can be expensive, but you dont have to use genuine hd parts

as for vibrations, i cant help you, iv only ever ridden a 2011.

good luck in your buying adventure. post back when you get one, with pics of course ;-)

 

Sportsters are great little machines. They last thousands of miles longer than most metric bikes (notice how 15k miles on a GSX-R or something is "a lot"). Harley may have gotten some bad rap in the 70's and 80's but they are decent now with the EVo (which your bike will have) and the TC.

They are EXTREMELY easy to work on in comparison to other bikes of even the same generation. Not much too them. Genuine parts can be spendy, but there are plenty of other options for these bikes.

I have a 03 883 (rigid) and a 05 1200 (rubber. The vibration is not even a concern on either, at least to me. A little bit of vibration reminds you that you are riding some awesome American Iron, and if a lady is on the back, she'll love ya for it too. With that said, no vibration is not intense on these bikes. My 883 has a little in the higher RPMS (probably more with a 1200) but my 1200 (rubber mounted) has more at idle (more compression and bigger cylinders).

 

Sportys rock!

 

Thanks for the Input. if i do get a sportster I will defiantly be a really active member of this forum.


That 72 with that paint scheme would be like my dream bike... If only it had a little bigger gas tank

 

I do not care for that paint scheme on the 72 once-so-ever!

I really liked the Iron/Nightster until I joined this forum and saw thousands of them literally look IDENTICAL to each other. I mean, to the trained eye, you could see hundreds of differences. But a quick glance at those things, and you can not tell them apart.

Remember, "custom" from the factory is not custom at all!

Went with a standard and kept it black and chrome.

 

Bigger tanks? Look at the Dyna Superglides (harleys cheapest full sized bikes) Not that I'm bashing Sportys, they're bitchin' bikes.