My honest Harley Sportster 1200 review

I stumbled into the garage, always filled with some chaotic project or thing half built. Most things were collecting dust on the shelf, like a collection of aerosol cleaners that appeared to not be accomplishing their goal according to the surrounding conditions. I studied the left side of the garage, focusing on the two bikes that occupied the space. A Ducati 900SS, and a 2009 Harley-Davidson Sportster 1200. The odd one out was the Harley. I’ve always had a collection of European or Japanese motorcycles in the shop, ranging from Italian superbikes to 70’s Yamaha cafe bikes, so to find this in my garage was... worrying.I’ve sat at fuel stations, high and mighty leaning on a BMW, sneering at passing Harley owners as shotgun pipes rattle the windows, joking that if you crash one, it leaves a polished chrome mark on the pavement. I approached the exhaust side, finding Short Shots exhaust covered in chrome. What was I doing with this bike? The bars were not clipped on the forks. The seat had cushion and was comfortable. The pegs were in a central position, allowing my legs to not cramp up. The suspension was soft and had nowhere for me to jam a screwdriver in and adjust. It had a 16 inch rear wheel. It had a 16 inch rear wheel. This was no sport bike. This was a cruiser, suckering people into a midlife crisis with heritage and agreeable interest rates.Still, I put a leg over and pressed the starter, listening to the engine kick over once and then what I can only imagine was a German bombing raid. After a short, spirited two hour ride throughout the Arizona countryside, I pulled off and parked next to the standard affair at your local hipster coffee shop. A BMW 1200 GS with aluminum hard boxes- not a speck of dirt anywhere on the bike, and an older Triumph. The two gentleman sitting at a table eyed me as I walked in, as they had watched me park through the window. I gave a friendly nod, and ordered a Cappuccino. As I sat at the bar waiting for my coffee, I too stared out the window at the collection of bikes in front of me. How different was I from the 1200 GS I was parked next to? Both were 1200’s, Both will do about 130, both have fairly similar rev limiters, both are twins, both spend a lot of time on the highway. Yet one is- at worst- accepted in the motorcycle world and one is ostracized outside of Harley groups.Harleys are seen as “Expensive and underpowered,” yet a street BMW R1200 is only a second faster in the quarter as a stock Sportster, and the Sportster is half the price, and lighter in the corners. Comparing apples and oranges? Maybe. That doesn’t change that the 1200 Sportster is still one of the fastest cruisers around $10,000.The engine in this particular bike is a 73.2 cubic inch variant of the “Evo” engine that really hasn’t changed since Iran-Contra was relevant. Outside of fuel injection, rubber mounts and small upgrades, it is basically the same motor and exactly what you would expect from a Harley. It makes adequate power, an abundance of torque, and, as air cooling requires less tolerances, it rattles and shakes its way up to 6000 RPM. You can pick any gear, open it all the way up, and the motorcycle advances. A 68 Cadillac with 472 cubic inches of Americana isn’t fast. But if you put your foot to the floor, it will advance for eternity. There was no point in my ride that I was worried I was giving too much throttle, but I never thought I was going too slow either. I could go fast without worrying I was going to lift the front wheel off the ground or throw the bike off balance in a corner. It’s relaxing to ride because you don’t have to pay attention to absolutely everything on the bike at every single moment.The brakes... exist. There isn’t enough weight over the back for it to be considered a reliable metric for stopping anything, and the front with its hydraulic, 2 piston caliper and smaller disk brings the stopping distance to the same as most car warranties- 50,000 miles or 5 years, whichever comes first.Years of riding sport bikes and cafe racers have pavloved me into turning my nose up at Harleys. Is it the people that ride Harleys? The leather-clad stereotype of owning at least 3 shirts that have the bar and shield, playing the Easy Rider fantasy of rebellion and anti-establishmentism while flying the American flag, and not understanding the irony? Or is it my own judgement of the same people that spend $100,000 on a Corvette someone already built at Barrett Jackson and drive it to car shows. Just because he spent that instead of building his own, or buying a $40,000 CVO Limited to chase the nostalgia he never experienced, doesn’t make someone wrong, it’s just a different passion. The idea of “Built not bought” is all well and good for the people who like to build, but the person who buys it from you may not.I don’t hate this Harley. That’s why I bought it. Because I like to tinker. I can spend all day building seat pans and chopping frames for cafe bikes, and doing restoration work on a classic Ducati, but if you told me you wanted 15 extra horsepower and you’re leaving tomorrow for a cross country trip, I wouldn’t do that on a CB750. I couldn’t get the power from a V-star. My back would give out around Albuquerque on a R1. I could toss a big bore kit, a decent head and some big cams, tune it for Premium, and do 3 laps around the country in relative comfort, and still have enough fun in the corners. It’s the lego set of bikes. If you want chrome everywhere, a quarter inch between you and the ground, and a 32” front wheel? Do it. Bolt on parts. No cutting required. If you want a Scrambler with tall suspension, knobbys and tracker exhaust? Cool. Do it. It’s a good platform.As I drank my Cappuccino, I wondered why I felt the need to justify that I’m not a “Harley rider,” and tape a sign to my back that says I’m not the stereotype. Is Harley is Nickelback or Apple? It is in vogue to hate them, and there are good reasons to dislike the product, but that doesn’t mean I don’t sing along to Rockstar. Will the LiveWire- the new all-electric offering from the brand- be Harley’s Augustus, or when Steve Carell left The Office? The defining mark between the end of the old Roman Republic and the beginning of the new Roman Empire, paving the way to profitability- Or will it go three more mediocre seasons before becoming a relic of the past.It does look pretty though. via /r/motorcycles https://www.reddit.com/r/motorcycles/comments/atf3a8/my_honest_harley_sportster_1200_review/?utm_source=ifttt