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2003 Harley Davidson Sportster Sport |
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Sunday, 08 September 2002 |
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Page 1 of 3
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Cruising for a Bruising by Mike Emery ~ What photographer?
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| The Harley clan look down at me, barely giving me a wave, "it's not a real Harley" Said one wag, "my wife wants one of those so bad" Said the other. "Your Momma wears combat boots" I hear, as I scurry away - The Japanese sportbike crowd won't even look at me... |
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Well my bearded and bum in the air friends, this is a 2003 Harley Davidson Sportster Sport. It features fully adjustable Showa suspension front and rear, has dual brake rotors up front, Dunlop sport compound tires and it runs pretty decent for an air-cooled V-Twin. I'll be riding around long after your fillings have been shaken out or you're on the chiropractors bed having your back realigned - so there!
So what's the problem? OK, so it's not heart attack serious in the twisties, although I could hustle it around at a fair clip, and it's not an up-to-the-minute styling exercise - but you're missing the point here. This is part of the American dream. It's as American as apple pie and as iconic a status as any muscle car. This is one bike from the history books that never went away. |
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And what a history, 100 years this year (Happy Birthday) of H-D and nearly 50 years of it spent refining the sporty sport - at the time it was Harley's most technologically advance mo'cycle and over the years is responsible for much of their racing success mostly on dirt tracks around the country.
One of the coolest (and probably the most famous) bikes in the world today is the famed XR750 flat-tracker campaigned by some pretty famous racing peeps' like Scott Parker (9-Grand national Championships), Chris Carr and others. What about that Evel Knievel stunt chappie? He was cooler than cool, heck, even those fast-as-you-like brothers Bostrom were bought up road racing on these style bikes.
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Harleys' current build quality is exceptional and reliability a non-issue. I personally thrashed the absolute pantaloons off of one of these for 3000 miles back in 96' when the new (then) big-braked and suspended Sportster Sport was originally released. It took all I could dish out (and more) and did everything I asked, including stop and start at the relevant command.
In those hard 3000 miles I didn't even look at the rear belt drive, yet alone adjust it - it's no maintenance hawg. I think I even sold the sucker for a profit too - Go Figure? As an evolutionary standard, this one is even better still. I don't think it's a bike that could or should be knocked until you owned, rented or ridden one. |
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