Why We Love the 2018 Sportsters
For fans of Harley-Davidson’s evergreen small cruiser, there’s a lot to be excited about this year.
We’ve written before about what we think Harley-Davidson could do to attract millennials, and it looks like they listened. Namely, they’ve made some changes to the Sportster lineup that younger riders are sure to love.
It seems that the Motorclothes and marketing divisions have been dipping their toes in the 1970s AMF era to find an aesthetic that appeals to younger riders. Finding success there, they’ve decided to go all out and apply that look to the tank graphics of some of the new Sportsters.
One of those new Sportsters, the Iron 1200, follows the successful recipe of the Iron 883 — stripped-diwn, bare-bones, no-chrome style — to attract new riders. It’s an amazing blank canvas for customizers, and with an MSRP of $9,999, it’s the cheapest way to get a 1200 between the frame tubes of your Sportster.
We love the simplified, AMF-era Helvetica font for the Harley-Davidson logo, and the gradient stripe patterns look phenomenal. We can’t wait to see some of these bikes in the wild, and we can be pretty sure most of the people riding them will be under 35. While older riders who remember the 1970s Harleys in a less-idealized way may roll their eyes, it’s sure to get fresh blood in the showroom.
Our personal favorite Sportster, the Roadster, has no major changes, but we love the new paint color options. The available bright yellow, metallic blue, and chocolate brown — Corona Yellow, Electric Blue, and Sumatra Brown in Harley-Speak — are the most dynamic colors yet offered on the Roadster.
It’s plain to us that Harley is aiming squarely at Ducati and Triumph with these options, and we say, bring it on. While the Ducati Scrambler and Triumph Street lineups are both impressive, we think that the Sportster Roadster stands toe-to-toe with the best hip European standard bikes.
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