So?
Is that supposed to “prove” something?
She asked for opinions.
I gave mine.
You’re welcome to yours but even I, a chick, wouldn’t be caught on a so-called “chick bike” again, even though hubby changed the triple trees, raked the front end to safer degree and put on a wide glide front end before I was even allowed near it.
[he builds motorcycles professionally, obviously, and
is well aware of the shortcomings of the Sportster]
The short, squirrely front end, above average seat height and high center of gravity are, IMO, a recipe for disaster for a beginning rider, *especially* a woman.
I knew several women whose first Harleys were Sportys.
[may they rest in peace]
I knew one woman whose second Harley was an 883 Hugger because the Sporty was too tall and ‘erratic’ for her to handle.
In less than 6 months, she’d sold it and bought a Heritage.
She sold the Sporty to her friend who then lost control of it in a fairly gentle curve and literally exploded herself on the side of an oncoming van.
I had the agony of watching it all happening from behind.
If the front end had more rake and was less “quick” handling, she’d probably still be alive...as would our dear friend riding behind her since he couldn’t avoid her wild careening motorcycle and ended up *under* the van with a broken neck.
I do NOT recommend it for a beginning rider.
You can ride Sportys til the end of time, if you so choose.
I’m concerned about the lady asking about a good starter bike.
That’s awful.
And that’s good advice for the original poster.
Top poster:
Motorcycles are dangerous as can be. I say this as a civilian motorcycle rider (part time). There’s a lot of hard core combat veterans on this board riding, who have certainly been in a lot more danger and really don’t even consider it. But motorcycles can kill people.
And those they don’t, end up in pretty miserable shape.
Start small. Ride like you’re invisible and every driver is a raving idiot. Some are.
And be careful until you figure out how to handle things out of the ordinary. Like that friend of hers, and that van. Even a small bike can be surprisingly heavy once it tips unexpectedly beyond a certain point - and very unexpected things can happen very quickly.
IMHO it’s better as a beginner to have less bike than you really want, than more bike than you can control.
Sorry about your friend Salamander. That’s awful.
Powerful post.
Just so you know, the whole chick bike thing was started by RUB's. No real biker is going to call the Sporty a chic bike. Hell, Sonny Barger rode a Sportster and you just can't get any more biker than Sonny.
Yeah,I take great umbrage at the notion that the Sportster is chic bike, or in some way inferior. It's not. IMHO it's a far superior ride.
As far as the rake being too severe on the Sportster, you're mad. It's not as relaxed as the big twins, but it's still solidly in cruiserville where everything is relaxed. You make it sound dangerously steep, yet it's much more relaxed than any Sport bike, a Goldwing, or any BMW, and somehow folks manage to ride those scoots safely every day.
I knew one woman whose second Harley was an 883 Hugger because the Sporty was too tall and ‘erratic’ for her to handle.
Ummm....Your ignorance is showing. The 883 Hugger is a Sportster, it was just a model in the Sportster line. You slap in a lowering kit on the forks of any Sportster, takes 20 minutes, replace the 13.5" shocks with the 11.75" shocks that came stock on the Hugger, and any Sportster is suddenly geometrically identical to the Sportster Hugger and it took half an hour tops.
You can go lower btw, I'm a fan of the low and lean look so I run the ever popular Progressive 10.5" shoscks in the rear.
And finally, I don't recommend the Sportster (or any 900cc or 1200cc bike) as a beginner bike either. Which I plainly told Suga in post #34.
Btw, Type-O Negative rocks.