While trying to wrestle the dress onto the pig that is my Honda, I've been thinking of future projects. I've heard iron head Sportsters are cheap right now and while I'm about 99.85% sure I'll never own a V-twin H-D
it's not because they aren't cool. You see, the way my little pea brain works is I look at a motorcycle and I picture it with bigger brakes, low bars, a steering damper, etc...... So in my head I was thinking of what could be done to make an iron head Sporty into a cool bike that will be light, stop, turn, and if not accelerate at least make cool noises. I could build some sort of
Lucifers Hammer type deal. Like I said, probably never happen. The Motor Company has had a long history in racing with some glory days and some pretty orange and black Ford sponsored superbikes that just didn't work out. I remember going to the Indy Twin Mile and seeing guys like Springer and Carr race against the Hondas of Shobert and well, Bubba pretty much eclipsed all the other non-Harley guys. Before you could pop down to the Buell dealer and plunk down a pile of cash on an XB and be able to have bigger brakes, low bars, a steering damper etc..... there was a racing series for Sportys. It was called Harley Davidson Twinsports. You could buy an 883 Sportster, a pile of Screamin' Eagle accesories, some tires and go out to Road America or Mid-Ohio and get your doors blown off by Scott Zampach. It was cool, I saw it. Harley's with rear-sets and clip-ons is a beautiful thing. I'm biting my tounge here and I'm not even going to get in to my rant about forward controls and chaps. I will however, state that anyone who says Sportsters are girls bikes should be
slapped. By a girl. When was the last time you saw something from any of those idot TV builders that could turn a friggin corner? Sorry folks the road from here to well.....anywhere, has corners in it. Harley Davidson just intoduced the
VRXSE Screamin Eagle V-Rod Destroyer, a straight up dragbike claiming to run in the tens. That's cool. Of course it's 31 thousand dollars, not street legal, and still doesn't turn corners. Just for comparison a ZX-10 will do all that for $11,199 including the quarter mile times. I'm not slagging the V-Rod dragbike here, I'm just sayin is all. Now that you
can go out and buy a Buell the Sportster class has been relegated to the history books. Who am I kidding? No one remembers that class of
racing save for the guys who were racing, me, and Scott Zampach's mom. There were Harley's at Daytona this year. Well, Buells anyway. I know it's the same thing but we all know it's not the same thing. Remember the last time H-D was at Daytona? They paid Mr.Daytona Scott Russell a bazillion dollars to ride the V-twin Ford and he got into a fistfight the night before the race and could not get his helmet on his fool-ass head. Probably the only guy who could have made that thing win goes and makes the Factory and Pascal Picotte look like dumbasses. Thanks Scott. Once again, I digress. Buell, despite a ton of controversy and a handfull of DNF's had a real racebike and a rider without a swollen head. I think it's great that they are making a
real attempt at racing again and I think they will go far.
Erik Buell is an amazing man who believes in the American spirit of motorcycling and racing. He too, looked at an iron head Sportster and pictured it with bigger brakes, low bars, a steering damper, etc.....
it's not because they aren't cool. You see, the way my little pea brain works is I look at a motorcycle and I picture it with bigger brakes, low bars, a steering damper, etc...... So in my head I was thinking of what could be done to make an iron head Sporty into a cool bike that will be light, stop, turn, and if not accelerate at least make cool noises. I could build some sort of Lucifers Hammer type deal. Like I said, probably never happen. The Motor Company has had a long history in racing with some glory days and some pretty orange and black Ford sponsored superbikes that just didn't work out. I remember going to the Indy Twin Mile and seeing guys like Springer and Carr race against the Hondas of Shobert and well, Bubba pretty much eclipsed all the other non-Harley guys. Before you could pop down to the Buell dealer and plunk down a pile of cash on an XB and be able to have bigger brakes, low bars, a steering damper etc..... there was a racing series for Sportys. It was called Harley Davidson Twinsports. You could buy an 883 Sportster, a pile of Screamin' Eagle accesories, some tires and go out to Road America or Mid-Ohio and get your doors blown off by Scott Zampach. It was cool, I saw it. Harley's with rear-sets and clip-ons is a beautiful thing. I'm biting my tounge here and I'm not even going to get in to my rant about forward controls and chaps. I will however, state that anyone who says Sportsters are girls bikes should be slapped. By a girl. When was the last time you saw something from any of those idot TV builders that could turn a friggin corner? Sorry folks the road from here to well.....anywhere, has corners in it. Harley Davidson just intoduced the VRXSE Screamin Eagle V-Rod Destroyer, a straight up dragbike claiming to run in the tens. That's cool. Of course it's 31 thousand dollars, not street legal, and still doesn't turn corners. Just for comparison a ZX-10 will do all that for $11,199 including the quarter mile times. I'm not slagging the V-Rod dragbike here, I'm just sayin is all. Now that you can go out and buy a Buell the Sportster class has been relegated to the history books. Who am I kidding? No one remembers that class of 
racing save for the guys who were racing, me, and Scott Zampach's mom. There were Harley's at Daytona this year. Well, Buells anyway. I know it's the same thing but we all know it's not the same thing. Remember the last time H-D was at Daytona? They paid Mr.Daytona Scott Russell a bazillion dollars to ride the V-twin Ford and he got into a fistfight the night before the race and could not get his helmet on his fool-ass head. Probably the only guy who could have made that thing win goes and makes the Factory and Pascal Picotte look like dumbasses. Thanks Scott. Once again, I digress. Buell, despite a ton of controversy and a handfull of DNF's had a real racebike and a rider without a swollen head. I think it's great that they are making a real attempt at racing again and I think they will go far. Erik Buell is an amazing man who believes in the American spirit of motorcycling and racing. He too, looked at an iron head Sportster and pictured it with bigger brakes, low bars, a steering damper, etc.....
2 comments:
I think you already know how I feel about Sportys' It is one of the few bikes that you can buy new nowadays and set up in almost any style you want. From cafe' to chopper the Sporty is a great place to start.
I used to have an XLCH with a few goodies from Drag Specialties on it. It was fairly quick off the line and knimble to boot. The problem was it was a tad top heavy and the pegs liked to spot pavement when leaned to hard. I didn't ride it like that to often.
My thoughts on forward controls on a Sporty is if the stock frame has been replaced with a longer one...or chopped. On long rides, my knees would get the urge to stretch out so I'd just stretch out my legs and rest them on top of the pegs.
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