Heavy Story

I am in the middle of a commando rebuild. I have always thought that an 883 Sportster would make a nice ride. Big twin, rubber mounted engine, and carbs that I can fix (kinda Nortonish). In 2004 they started the rubber mounts, 2006 they went to fuel injection. So the 04 or 05 seemed to be my target. 883's are real slugs. The kitted ones are not. A 1200 kit from S & S is under a grand and the kit with some cams around $1,600.00. I can do the swap by myself. The base model 883 comes with a 19" front wheel. Not the silly 21". Sporty's can be had in the 3 grand neighborhood. So today I went to see one. It has been many years since I sat on a Harley. Holy crap! It is heavy. I sat on it and tried to stand it up. It felt like someone had screwed the side stand to the ground. I have a showroom condition 81 XS 650 on display in my office that I have been trying to sell to help finance the Sportster. It may have to become my fall back bike for a while.

Id still go for it. I hopped up 1200 Sporter will be a fun ride, the weight is low, so you don’t notice it that much... when you’ve gotten used to it!

Gotta be more fun than a Yam !

Food for thought, most of the modern Harley’s post XL750 cannot be cornered hard, so if you are used to a Norton you will find yourself scraping the under carriage along the deck long before the tyre runs out of grip-they were made for posers after all.

You’re correct in some regards Bernhard, I rode a ‘48’ a little while ago (factory bobber) and that scraped its pegs leaving the forecourt!

But not all, some Sporties are ok. I’m not a Harley expert, so can’t remember all of the names n numbers, but some of the sportster are more ‘roadster’ than ‘bobber’ and have a reasonable bicycle wrapped around the engine.

Use one of those as a base, add some hop up bits, and you got an inexpensive fun bike IMHO.

I have also thought about Harley Sportsters. The XR750TT that Don Emde brought to Australia in the 70s ran the timing side main bearing, so could not race when it mattered. I was actually riding in a practice session when he was on the Harley and it was quite quick . However I believe the bearing problem was fixed in the more modern Sportster motors. What interests me is there are now five speed boxes fitted to them, but I believe fifth gear is an overdrive. Getting a close ratio gear set for a Sporster might not be cheap ? Do you meed more than first gear ?

https://www.thegoodoldmotorcyclepar...er-5-Speed-2.61-Close-Ratio-1st-Gear-Set-2188

An S1 Buell might be good.

I brought a new 91 1200 sportster the first of the 5 speed and belt drive and it handled pretty good not as good as a British bike but good anyway it had a bit of grunt once I opened the mufflers up and jetted I put my Norton Koni's on it which helped, it did good burn outs and use to lift the front wheel off the road easy using its power, I ended up getting new exhaust made for it which made it better, but it just wasn't me and sold it after 3 years, I had wide handle bars and was easy to throw around, it was a fun bike and clocked up a lot of miles I mounted a 5 gallon tank on it which gave me lots of miles without stopping every 110ks and the tank suited the bike don't know why Harley put such small tanks on them from the factory, the tank was a one peice fat bob tank and all I had to do was weld the front mounts for it and drill a hole through the front frame gusset with 2 spacers one on each side to mount it.

Ashley

I rode my buddy's XR1200-nice suspension and brakes, but relatively slow and heavy. The Buell-tuned engine felt rather breathless and didn't make much oomph until I wrung it's neck a bit, unlike standard Harleys where all the grunt is at the bottom. Having ridden tube-framed Sportster-powered Buells as well as the Rotax-engined alloy framers, I can say all my Harley urges have been satisfied.

A fella in the next town to the one in which I live, had a fairly well-developed sportster which wasn't too bad. Getting the motor to go is not difficult, as long as you have got the gearbox - but building a bike to suit it which handles, is not so easy. An S1 Buell looks right, if that means anything. A MK3 Seeley frame might be better.

If the motor is all bottom end, you simply change the overall gearing to suit the way you want to use it. But a close ratio gearbox will get any bike accelerating faster.

Six months ago I spent a day in the canyons on a Buell SB9.
Great bike. Cornering fool. Me on the Buell could easily run away from me on my Commando.
While its comfortable, it's not a touring bike, steering too quick for the highway.

Some bikes are set up so they steer better when being powered. The trouble is that you cannot keep accelerating forever. I think the S1 Buell looks OK, the rest look pretty horrible. In the 1950s many cars were also designed to look like space ships. The later Buell frames did not look the part.