Sorry for the long post, but I want to get as much detail as possible and need some advice. My son is almost 18 and has been riding for a year or so, many years of experience on dirt bikes. We bought him a Suzuki Intruder 800 for his first bike and it fit him very well. It's a fast little bike too. He is a very good rider (sticks to me like glue and is responsible and seems to have a healthy respect for the dangers). He has grown about 3 inches this past year and the intruder is starting to get a little cramped. He's about 5'9" now, really don't expect him to reach 6'. As an incentive for finishing strong in school the wife and I are bribing him with a promise to get him a Harley. I'll probably have about 5 grand to spend, so if I want to go fairly new it would have to be a sportster. I have been doing some research, and if we can get the grandparents on board, which is very likely we may be able to add a couple of grand to that, which makes 7g's a possibility. In that price range I could possibly find an older softtail, Dyna or maybe even a touring if we get lucky.

Ok, now the question:
Would you go with a newer sporty, which I think he would enjoy for a couple of years, then when we felt he was ready for passengers would be too small is the way to go, or would you go for a bigger bike? He hasn't ever ridden my EG Classic, but he can straddle it with both feet on the ground without issues.

 

get him an unmolested dyna or softail

 

Your son's progression almost matches my own exactly, the first Harley I rode was a sportster and loved it although it did seem a little cramped for me at 5'11" and 200lbs. I recently purchased a Dyna Superglide and the bike fits me like a glove and although heavier then the sportster seems to have a lower center of gravity making it easy to handle.

That was just a seat of the pants feeling about either bikes, which I'm sure others could either confirm or deny.

I plan on enjoying my Dyna for years to come.

 

With a $7,000 budget I'd suggest looking hard for a lightly used Dyna or softtail. I found a pristine FXDS, (Dyna Convertible) showroom condition, with 3,600 miles on it last Feb. and paid just that. These bikes are out there is your willing to travel a little. I found mine on ebay. Sportsters are nice, but chances are he'll out grow it and that's money down the drain. Good luck.

 

I recommend maybe an older fatboy or maybe a vrod. Fatboy has a nice low center of gravity classic looks without being on the geezer side.

 

your story is very very similar to mine with my son. he rode dirt bikes with me from a very early age until i broke my back on a jump way too big for my age (thats another story). anyway, when he turned 16 he got his road license and i picked up a 98 fxdl - mostly stock - and we've had some fun tooling around together. last year, when he turned 18, we toured canada for 7 days. was memorable. he also has ridden my limited and a road king for a little while, but liked the low rider the best. no windshield of course. tonight, we won a ducati monster on ebay that we are picking up this weekend. our whole family has harleys, but he wanted a ducati for a while. i'm kinda stoked to ride it too. i know he will be back to harley when he gets older, but for now he's off to ducati land. make sure he knows what he wants and have a blast riding with him. it's priceless.

tin

 

I loved my sporty until the gas pump boy said....gee I thought sportsters were bigger than this......next bike was a fat boy. Inside of 3 months...lol. He was right. It was too small.

 

Have you let him right your touring (or will you ever)? If he likes riding the "geezer glide" then id keep an eye out for a good deal on an old evo bagger becasue he'll never grow out of it. If hes not a fan then maybe a fatboy. If hes getting cramped on his current bike then he'll probably outgrow a sporty too fast. After renting different Harleys and riding my dads road glide a few times i made the jump from my GSXR straight to an electra glide, but i have very different taste in motorcycles than most 21 year old guys. Riding and renting different bikes really helped me find what i liked best.

 

I'm bias, get him the softail or dyna.

 

Find the best deal you can on a carbed 88 or Evo. Buy a manual,some tools along with a gift certificate from fatbook. Give him the opportunity to learn how to wrench and create his own ride.