Harley-Davidson Harley-Davidson Sportster

Now that the old Evo Sportster is well and truly almost completely dead, it’s probably time for us to show it a little respect. Really I suppose we always respected America’s best-selling motorcycle, it’s just that we usually didn’t like riding most of the gruff old things all that much. We’re contrarian that way. This Seventy-Two, though, in Hard Candy Big Red Flake and whitewalls, was pretty hep ten years ago – maybe even more now. Admit it.

The Harley vs Indian rivalry is up there with some of the biggest rivalries in modern pop culture. Think Coke vs Pepsi, Mac vs PC, Army vs Navy, Edison vs Tesla. Then there’s Harley vs Indian. These two titans of motorcycling built a rivalry that lasted for decades, and despite the fact Indian dropped from the scene for 60 years, ever since its resurgence in 2013, it’s as though the rivalry picked right back up where it left off. And we’re all better for it. 
American motorcycling is known for big touring bikes, and the recent Showdown between the Harley Road Glide Limited and Indian Pursuit Limited Premium was as Americana as they come. However, cruisers are also a staple of the American riding experience. Chief among them (Indian pun not intended) the Harley Sportster and Indian Scout. These two lightweights of cruiserdom are anything but light but have historically been the bikes to reach for if simplicity and bare-bones cruising were what you were craving. Low and slow, as they say.

The Sportster hasn’t been all that sporty for some time now – that is aside from the 2021 Sportster S that the Nightster shares more than a handful of tricks with. It’s been 65 years since Harley-Davidson introduced the Sportster as America’s answer to the British invasion of bikes that had begun to increase in popularity Stateside around that time. Back then, folks used their motorcycles for everything – drags, trials, enduros, scrambles, hare and hounds, road runs, and Sunday cruising. You could do it all on a Harley according to the 1958 ad for the Sportster CH and C models below. The market wasn’t so segmented.

After a brief teaser campaign, Harley-Davidson officially revealed the Nightster, a new Sportster model powered by a 975cc version of the liquid-cooled Revolution Max engine. Arriving in dealerships this month, the 2022 Harley-Davidson Sportster is priced at $13,499 for Vivid Black and $13,899 for the Gunship Grey or Redline Red color options.

Harley-Davidson will announce its next Revolution Max-powered Sportster model on April 12. The Motor Company dropped a short music-themed teaser video titled “Instrument of Expression,” to promote the announcement, and offer a few tantalizing glimpses of the new model.

“Easy to ride, measurably comfortable and stylish to boot,” concluded D. Gingerelli’s review of the excitingly overhauled H-D Sportster ten years ago – now with radial tires! To see how far the Motor Company has come in the decade since then, check out the actually new 2021 Sportster S: It’s almost enough to give one hope.

I learned about a new-to-me thing this week in a fun Facebook discussion: Oppositional Defiance Disorder. This affects lots of kids who are so fed up and angry about being criticized for a thing, that they keep on doing that thing just to own the criticizer, even though they know the thing they’re doing is wrong and bad for them. Before psychology, ODD was probably best expressed as cutting off your nose to spite your face.

With the official launch of the 2021 Harley-Davidson Sportster S, we now have an understanding of where The Motor Company is taking the Sportster family. Powered by the liquid-cooled Revolution Max 1250T engine, the Sportster S offers a significant step forward, claiming 121 hp, or nearly twice the horsepower of the air-cooled Evolution engine.

The new 2021 Harley-Davidson Sportster S that was unveiled this morning looks so much like the earlier prototype we dubbed Custom 1250 and already closely examined, most of the conjecture is already over except for the how much and when. And that’s $14,999 and this fall.

Harley-Davidson released information on its first LiveWire-branded model today, but as important as the newly-renamed LiveWire One is, we all know it’s not the most significant model the Motor Company will announce this month.

Several months ago, Harley-Davidson announced plans to reduce its model lineup by 30% as part of its Rewire and Hardwire business strategies. More recently, the company revealed it will announce its 2021 models online in a “ virtual launch experience” on Jan. 19. The question, then, is what current models are on the chopping block, and which models will return?

The California Air Resources Board has released executive orders certifying a number of returning 2020 Harley-Davidson Sportster and Street models, but it’s the models that were not included that has caught our attention.

One decade and four months ago, our fathers Duke, Pete and Fonzie, brought forth upon MO this comparison test to see if Italian and American V-twin sportbikes were created equal. The answer is no. We have come today to dedicate this Church of MO as a final resting place for those who gave up an entire Tuesday and most of a Wednesday to produce this comparo, I mean, it’s the least we could do really. 

Harley-Davidson moves in a mysterious ways, its wonders to perform; it plants its footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm. With the imminent exciting arrival of a brand-new flat-track inspired American motorcycle in January that’s not a Harley-Davidson, it’s fun to remember the tenth anniversary of the last flat-track inspired motorcycle that was. The XR1200 was such a crazy idea, H-D was afraid to bring it home to America for a whole year.

Many of us often dream about leaving our boring desk jobs and taking off on two wheels to pursue some hidden desire buried deep down in our soul. Some seek the exploration of two-wheeled travel, while others take their soul searching inward and reflect on what they really want to do in life. Efraon Triana Lopez is one of those people. At age 38, after starting his own graphic design company in Spain, he decided to leave it all and reinvent himself and his understandings of making a living.

And in MO’s fourth year, Harley-Davidson gave the Sportster piggyback shocks and a fork that was adjustable, along with a hopped-up motor that spat out one more horsepower than before. And on the seventh day Willie G rested. And so it is written, alongside the usual tiny photos.

No motorcycle in Harley-Davidson’s 115-year history has been as successful or versatile as the Sportster. The Sportster line has been in production now for over 60 years and has left its mark on just about every genre of motorcycling you could possibly imagine. From dirt tracking to road racing, hill climbing to commuting, chopping to touring and everywhere in between – there is very little the Sportster can’t do.

As we expected, Harley-Davidson is expanding its Sportster lineup with the introduction of the new Iron 1200 and Forty-Eight Special. The two models join the Forty-Eight, 1200 Custom and Roadster in using Harley-Davidson’s 1202cc Evolution V-Twin Sportster engine.

An updated list of motorcycles certified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lists two new Harley-Davidson Sportster variants for 2018.

Maybe it’s human nature, but motorcycle publications are constantly trying to determine which bike can lap the fastest, jump the highest, or travel the farthest. Competition is what feeds the beast. Motorcycle.com’s as guilty of it as anyone, and it’s easy to see why: motorcycling has become so segmented these days, with machines designed to satisfy one particular niche. They do it very well, too; sportbikes are insanely advanced, adventure bikes are capable of traversing nearly any terrain, and both cruisers and sport-tourers can pound out miles in two very different, yet also very satisfying, ways. And we haven’t even mentioned streetfighters, nakeds, and standards…

What this country needs is a great $9,000 motorcycle made in America by Americans, a bike that will be great, trust me on this, a bike that’ll be huuge. Not a loser. Look at the size of my hands…

What happens when Harley-Davidson upgrades the suspension and beefs up the brakes of its iconic and much-customized 1200 Sportster? You get the 2016 Roadster. While the powerplant remains the same 1202cc air-cooled 45° V-Twin Evolution engine, the character of the Sportster gets an attitude adjustment for people who like to go around corners. By increasing the rear suspension travel and altering the angle of the frame relative to the road, H-D has created a Sportster that doesn’t shy away from winding roads. The addition of a second 300mm front disc adds braking power to the Roadster’s street cred – all wrapped in a minimalist styling package inspired by home garage customizers.

A freight train of 20 motorcycles works its way through the rolling hills of southern France on a roller-coaster of silky smooth but undulating pavement, cresting hills, strafing banked turns, and dancing side-to-side through endless esses. Entering the mostly second-gear corners, bikes largely nose-to-tail, the riders take a variety of lines, occasionally scrubbing off a little speed mid-corner – or sometimes more than a little in the case of a sneaky decreasing-radius – with a judicious application of brakes while leaned over, peg feelers just skimming the pavement. Other times, if the situation requires, they adjust their lines, sometimes slightly overlapping wheels as people who are comfortable on the track often do (even if it doesn’t really allow enough margin for error on the street). Then the corner ends, and the throttles twist, widening the gaps slightly, only to accordion back together in the next braking zone.

Until today, Harley-Davidson’s Dark Custom line contained eight models. However, Dark Customs are more than just a selection of motorcycles. At the introduction of the Dark Custom Iron 883 and Forty-Eight, Marketing Manager Jen Hoyer positioned the line, thusly: “The Dark Custom, for us, it’s not just about the motorcycle. It’s about growing the sport of motorcycling.” With the unveiling of the 2016 Harley-Davidson Roadster the Dark Custom line gains a new member to tempt riders and potential riders, alike, into becoming members of the H-D fold.

Sportsters have always been the rawest, most bare-knuckled of Harley-Davidson’s motorcycle models, delivering an ultra-minimalist rendition of the famous marque. Every one, save the 1200 Custom with its dual saddle and the Superlow 1200T (dual saddle, saddlebags, and windshield), are essentially an Evolution engine, a basic, often abbreviated chassis, and a solo saddle. Call it back-to-basics motorcycling that’s been a force for pulling both newbies and experienced riders into the H-D fold.

When Indian unveiled the Scout at Sturgis last month, it sent ripples through the motorcycle world. How would it compare with other cruisers in its class? What exactly were the other cruisers in its class? Obviously, Indian is hoping to improve its bona fides by taking on that other American brand’s most ubiquitous V-Twin in its displacement class, but what others? So, the lists began.

It’s like Woody Allen says, 90-percent of success is showing up. And the Sportster’s been showing up since 1957. However you feel about it or the Motor Company or post-WW2 America, you have to respect it like you have to respect the `57 Chevy profile or Tony Bennett leaving his heart in San Francisco. Whether TB has gotten better with age is a topic for some late night over a tumbler of fine Scotch, but there’s no question the Sportster’s now about as refined as a motorcycle can get.

Indian Motorcycles made a big splash in Sturgis this year with the introduction of its new Scout. The revival of a historic model is newsworthy on its own, but the larger take-away from the emergence of the Scout is that it doesn’t directly compare to any other cruiser.

News flash: Women are physically different from men. Women also constitute one of the fastest growing segments in motorcycling. Consequently, motorcycle manufacturers want to find a way for their products to appeal to more members of the matched chromosome set. Since the average height for an American woman over the age of 20 is 5’4” (a good 5.5 in. less than the average American man), designing a bike that acquits itself to a woman’s shorter stature would certainly make it more appealing – and probably sell more to that up-and-coming market.

Harley-Davidson revealed the new SuperLow 1200T, adding a light-touring Sportster model to its already impressively growing 2014 product lineup. Equipped with a detachable windscreen and quick-detach saddlebags and a price starting at $11,799, the SuperLow 1200T becomes the smallest and most affordable touring model among Harley-Davidson’s current offerings.

If we told you that you could purchase a brand-new urban performance bobber with a blacked out V-Twin engine and components, a stripped neo-industrial appearance and a low seat height that’s ideal for new-ish, female or those “short of leg,” all for under eight grand, would you bite? There are two motorcycle manufacturers producing such a bike. Your choice is between the proven machine with a few well-documented idiosyncrasies, or the upstart contender that’s eager to take on the champ.