Posted on 11/25/2021 5:58:27 PM PST by martin_fierro
sportsters have been around for a long time ... my first bike was a 1958 ...
Written by an idiot, he leads off with an 883 Sporty. It doesn’t pretend to be anything but what it is, a 1957 design that delivers a lot of fun and bang for the buck.
He needs to stick with his crotch rockets.
“The Harley Sportster made no sense. There was so much fanfare that happened up to its big reveal and i t turned out to be a disappointment.”
Reveal? It’s been around for decades.
The only one I’d kick out of my garage is the Hyosung. A Chinese knockoff of a Japanese UJM? Why bother?
I regret my roommate’s purchase of a 100 cubic inch Harley softail screamin’ eagle. It is deliberately and unsafely loud. I was yelling at him during a safety issue while he was on the bike on the driveway and he could not hear me.
Sold the Suzuki and got a Kawasaki Concourse. Great and dependable bike. But to heavy. Traded for a Ducati Monster that after 3 months I knew would kill me. Switched to sports cars and got a Honda S2000.
Badass
Early 1960’s, the Sportster was considered a performance bike.
A buddy had one I would swap for using my car 1966 or so. Kick start, magneto ignition, and drum front brake. The weird HD no-return throttle was ridiculous.
Did not really know how to ride other than the HD way; straight ahead. Cornering, braking. You know, motorcycling skills; that waited for a modern bike.
“He needs to stick with his crotch rockets.”
Read to me like he does not comprehend performance bikes.
I’m talking about its redesign—so yes it was a “reveal.”
“complaining about the Yamaha R1 being uncomfortable for long rides?”
Well, he seems to admire the low-perfomanc HD products.
Clearly has no idea what performance bikes or riding are about.
“My second was a Honda 450 4 cylinder. “
Honda made a 450cc DOHC 2 cylinder, not a 4. Much later, they did come out with a 400cc 4 cylinder. Far different bike.
Anyone remember Hodaka? Had one as a kid, wrenched more than I rode.
Guns, cars, trucks, motorcycles, anything and everything is all subject to opinion.
Opinions are like assholes, everybody has one.
The R1 on this list is nuts. People don’t buy those as sport tourers so saying it’s uncomfortable is stupid.
bookmark
My first real motocross bike was a 1973 Honda cr125 Elsinore.
A kid in town had a combat wombat.
He would look at my Honda, and cry.
The Elsinore was light years ahead of everything else.
I was in the motorcycle repair business in the 70s. New Harley’s were AMF and at a nadir in quality. I mostly worked on Hondas and Kawasakis. Fast reliable bikes. The British bikes were leakers at best…..cRap at worse.
The best road bikes were the 750 Hondas and 900 Kawasakis. Then the Honda Gold Wings were smooth powerful rides.
I have no idea of what’s out there today but if I were to ride today it wouldn’t be a sports bike or a backward trike. A big Harley or perhaps a nice looking new Indian (or will it be called a Guardian)
I owned a ‘72 Norton 850 Commando for a few years.
It just didn’t leak oil. On cold start-up, it would shoot a squirt of oil from each muffler so it was not a good idea to stand behind it.
It was just waiting out in our garage for a chance to kill me so I rand an ad in our local paper.
An Australian guy came by in a U-Haul van with two other Limeys in the back. He peeled off 10 $100 bills saying he was taking the Norton home Down Under...
I never had a bad bike - not even the Guzzis - but I did turn around and get rid of a 2006 Dyna Glide sooner than I've ever owned any other bikes. It was a very cool looking bike, and mechanically didn't give me any issues, but at the time I was just too young to do the slow plodding around and scrapping all the bits of in corners and spongy breaks thing, so I went back to Ducatis (but kept a modified Sportster for cruising around town).
Now that I am older, I ride an Indian, and a BMW sport tourer, and keep a little 900 Monster for carving in relative comfort.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.