Me and a bud were stand there looking at some unknown parties scooter, and discussing the look of it. It was a sportster, which was obvious. During the course of this conversation, bud says, yeah, but this is just an 883. I asked him how he could tell and he says he can tell by looking at it.
My question to the board is, can you just look at the outside of a sportster mill and be able to discern an 883 from a 1200?

 

did it say it on the AC?

 

If the Bike has been modded and has no identifing givaways,
I pretty much doubt it....If i recall i even saw a post a while back of someone who bought a 883 and it had been converted to a 1200 and he's question was how would he be able to tell.

 

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/sport...onversion.html

 

No, there is no way to tell an 883 from a 1200 by a simple external glance. You could look up the engine serial number, but that will only tell you what it was when stock, it may have been converted.

 

sometimes it can be very obvious, sometimes it can be darn near impossible. I can see a stock 1200 vs a stock 883 having some obvious differences if you know your sh*t. If you are talking about a 883-1200 conversion, only if they changed the heads. and that is only to the experienced eye.

 

You can't tell. If you have a well trained ear, you can sometimes tell from the exhaust sound.

 

I know when I bought mine new in 1992 an 883 came with just a speedo and 1200's came with speedo and tach.

 

I never paid attention to what years these bikes were but everytime I noticed that the engine cases were not chrome it was always an 883.

 

+1....It all depends on if any mods have been done. Plus it's all in the little things and even specific models too. 883 custom's have the aluminum engine covers, and 1200 customs have the chrome. Iron's have the black engine, and Nightsters have the grey. Etc, etc.