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2003 Harley Davidson Sportster Sport |
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Sunday, 08 September 2002 |
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Page 2 of 3
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A fair comparison between this bike and others? Think of it in terms of a beach cruiser bicycle vs. the latest mountain bike. Outside of its natural habitat, the Beach Cruiser kind of sucks. It has that nasty minimalist brake (singular) and a too wide a sweep of handlebar, let's not even mention that silly banana seating arrangement.
In comparison to a modern suspended zoot suit mountain bike, it's very archaic. However, at the beach or on a boardwalk setting though, it's perfect - it's the epitome of cool - same with this 1200SS. It excels in its field, and that field is not as narrow as one would first think. It's got equal portions of cruise-ness and sporty-ness |
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For starters, it's a great around-town bike with lots of torque for squirting away from traffic and traffic lights. It's way narrow and a breeze to maneuver, be it traffic or paved back streets. It's a slow revver too and finds it's cruising sweet spot at a nice low 3500 RPM, which sees a decent 75mph "cruise" speed on the clock. The revs can be manhandled further up the rev-range but it's not worth the effort, especially no wind protection and the corresponding vibes to go with it.
The engine is, as previously mentioned, air-cooled with twin plug heads. Compression is 10.0:1, the same as the 90-BHP Buell's. If you're a latent fiddler there's lots to do to this motor if you want to go digging around. |
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The seat is a pretty decent semi-bucket style and is comfortable enough to run a full tank of gas through without any major pains (make sure you use the good stuff tho' Bro: 90+ octane 'cause this sucker likes to ping). The passenger seat is a little small, but I love small-bottomed ladies - so it's all good for me. The Harley-D catalog features a fair few options in this department for both operator and/or passenger.
The pegs are forward without being too far forward, they didn't drag all the time I rode which is sometimes too easy on other cruiser styles.
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The switchgear is a good looking and chunky albeit a little funky, featuring the left and right turn signal buttons on each respective bar side. Quite a few times I found a turn signal whilst looking for the starter. It's no biggie though; some extended ownership time will cure that. The clocks are old school with analog style tach and speedo and they're ideally situated for casual observance as too are the row of idiot lights.
The bars too are ergonomically perfect (for me) they are a cross between a superbike bar and a dirt track version, not too wide and perfectly situated for my 6 foot-and-a-bit frame. The clutch is a tad stiff, but bearable especially as you're not breaking at the wrists like those other type of new fangled sportbikes.
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