Electrical connections tended to come adrift, though, so I was sometimes left without lights, indicators or tacho. The Sportster proved to be completely reliable in the sense that it always got me home. I'm sure they're jolly good bikes, as well. Nice bunch of people.Ī good owners club can really enhance the enjoyment of owning a particular make of motorcycle if you can't decide what to buy, check out the club! I've heard that some people buy old Ajays and Matchboxes just so that they can join what I'm told is the best owner's club in Britain. I went to a couple of their rallies and really enjoyed myself. The Harley Riders don't take themselves, or anyone else, too seriously. Not HOG, the official club they're just a bit too official, if you know what I mean. Harleys may not be fast, as in stupidly, blindingly fast, but they don't hang about, either.įirst I got used to the bike then I got to like it. There was a roar and a shudder, and we were well into speed camera territory. Check mirrors, check the blind spot, move out and twist. The vibration wasn't too bad at higher revs, and overtaking was a revelation. Before going, though, I replaced the metric spanners in my tool roll with an old set of AF (American Fine, Across Flats, All Fractions? ) which I found in a box at the back of the shed. Having decided that I could live with the bike, I set off for a long weekend in Wales. The brakes were just about adequate, but I could understand why a lot of riders upgraded them. OK, that was a guess, but 62% of all statistics are made up, anyway. I made 56% fewer gear changes on this bike than on any previous machine. The four speeds in the gearbox were quite enough once in top it was simply a case of using the throttle. It was impossible to stall, possibly because it was designed for Americans more used to vehicles with automatic transmission. The power came in from tickover and was enough to get the bike rolling. This bike really could pull out tree stumps. With the new ones the torque was fantastic. I kept the originals for temporary use at MoT time. I immediately replaced the silencers with a less restrictive pair that I found at a car boot sale. Then, slowly, I started to get the hang of it. And it was quite clear that the engine was being strangled by the standard silencers. I'd anticipated some vibration, but it was far worse than I'd expected. Also the footrests were too high, in relation to the seat. The clutch was heavy, the front brake needed a six-finger grip and I only have four, and the gearbox was straight off a tractor. The key and choke control were down by my left knee, and awkward to get at.
The bike was, not to put too fine a point on it, dreadful. Riding the Sportster home I couldn't believe what I'd done. I paid £3250 for it, which was a fair price, and they made me a good part-exchange offer on the Honda. The bike had 19,000 miles on the clock, which appeared to be genuine, and was in reasonable condition. This was the last year with a four-speed box and chain drive as standard. Well, a blue 1989 Sportster 1200 with belt drive conversion, and a 'large' tank. I justified my interest by using the old maxim 'Don't knock it till you've tried it'. Now, I'd spent the previous twenty years being very rude about Harley-Davidsons, particularly the old Sportster owned by my brother, and here I was looking at one with intent. It wasn't really my sort of bike, but for some reason I kept going back to look at it.
Actually, it's a big shed, but showroom sounds more posh. I'd called in at my favourite local dealer, looking for something to replace my Honda GL1000, when I spotted a Harley-Davidson at the back of the showroom. Jim Peace didn't think too much of Harleys. In the search for a 'modern classic', there's one marque which inspires roughly equal amounts of devotion and detestation.
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