Harley-Davidson Motorcycles for Playing in the Dirt
Until the late 1960's, there was no such thing as a dirt bike. People rode whatever bike they wanted off-road, just with different tires. If you want to keep riding when the pavement ends, even today you can ride a Harley-Davidson.
1. 1970's Small Bore Competition Bikes
Harley’s first attempt at a dedicated dirt bike was the Baja 100 in 1971, aimed right at the heart of Hodaka, Yamaha, and Honda. Unfortunately, a good deal of its powertrain started life as the Aermacchi M50/M65 moped, and the 10 to 12-hp they claimed was likely measured directly at the advertising copywriter’s pen. Even though specially built factory machines managed to win the 100cc class at the Baja 1,000 that year, Harley-Davidson only managed to sell about 5,000 units in the entire five year run.
2. 250cc Motocross Classes
In 1974, new corporate bosses AMF encouraged Harley to try again and build a bike that could compete in the 250cc motocross classes, which had exploded in popularity. Fewer than 100 competition-machines were hand built, but they were never competitive in AMA motocross. In 1978, they made the mass market MX250, which was a major improvement. While power was very competitive at the time, there were still teething issue with the chassis. Harley did score one AMA national MX win that year, though, then promptly disbanded the team, stopped selling the bike, and even sold off the rest of Aermacchi to Cagiva. In all, only about 1,000 of these bikes were ever made.
3. Mass Market Scramblers
Harley made plenty of other bikes in the 1970s that had some dirt focus, but these weren't race bikes. There was a scrambler version of the 350cc 4-stroke single, called the SX350, and there was the 2-stroke dual sport SX250 as well. In the smaller classes, there was the SX175 and SX125, and earlier the Rapido. There were also 90cc play-bikes called the Z90, as well as minibikes, which were called the X90 or Shortster in 90cc or 65cc, similar to the Honda Trail 70 and Minitrail in size.
4. Rotax Powered Military Dirt Bike
It should also be mentioned that from 1987 to 2000 Harley-Davidson also built bike called the MT500, or MT350E, for the military in Europe. Powered by a 4 stroke Rotax single with 350cc or 500cc depending on model and year, it was a very conventional dual sport bike, just not a conventional Harley. You seldom find them in the US, but they do occasionally come up, and the Rotax motor is very similar to that used in a lot of other bikes, like the ATK, so they are not hard to keep running.
5. Home Built Off-Road Sportsters
If you spend time with Harley riders, you know that there is no way they’d consider a Honda, even in the desert or the woods. Many of these diehards, and a few certified crazy people, have converted Sportsters into off-road bikes with varying degrees of success. It does make some kind of sense, the Sportster is the smallest and lightest Harley available, and beat up 883 models are fairly cheap after being ridden hard by first time riders. What does it take to take a Sportster off-road besides bravery? A set of knobby dual sport tires, stock or longer rear shocks, high pipes, mid controls, and a low wide handlebar with a crossbar is all it takes to get started. If you get serious, you may want to convert over to a chain instead of a belt, because the belt can get shredded in the dirt.
6. Dirt Track
Of course, you are never going to be taking a Sportster off a table top, double jump, or whoops, so you might as well make it more of a street tracker. Who really needs all that ground clearance when you just want to have some fun sliding around on fire roads? Again, with a beat up 883 and a weekend in the garage you can have yourself a fun now toy.
For help with service of your bike, check out the how to section of HDForums.com
