Is the Harley-Davidson Sportster Living On Borrowed Time?
No other bike has had as long a life. But nothing lasts forever.
Friends, I don’t know how to break the news to you, but our beloved Sportster may not be long for this Earth. Once one of the fastest production bikes available, and truly sporty, the bloom has been off the rose for decades. For a long time now the smaller Harley has been skating by on goodwill and the need for a low-cost, entry-level bike, and slightly sportier Big Twin. There have been attempts at making it sporty again (XR1200) and some really good-looking factory customs (Seventy-Two), but Harley is at a crossroads, and I don’t think the Sporty is going to make it to the next mile marker.
First, a little history for those with a short memory…
The Harley-Davidson Sportster first appeared in 1957, though it was based on Model K of five years earlier, and that bike evolved out of a pre-war design. Harley was trying to capture some of the magic of the lighter, quicker British bikes, but the cleanest sheet of paper they could come up with for the design already had an old V-twin doodle on it.
At the time though, the Sporty was the most modern bike Harley made, and one of the fastest anyone made. Then, with minor improvements and upgrades here and there, they made it the same for almost 30 years.
In 1986 the Evo motor brought alloy construction, modern cylinder heads, and eventually 1200cc, and 1991 brought five speeds to the unit-constructed gearbox. Fuel injection allowed more power with less pollution in 2007, and the whole electrical system was brought into the modern age just recently.
The Sportster is sportier than any Big Twin Harley is making, but the Street Rod is sportier, and that is just one mark against it.
