Oh sh*t! Look what I've gone and bought...
Visordown's news man rediscovers the joys of feet-forward motorcycling
LIKE MANY of my infamous impulse purchases, I'm still not quite sure how or why I went for this 1996 Harley Davidson 1200 Sportster.
Some would say it's a mid-life crisis. Balls, I say. I'm only 41. It'll be at least another decade before I start thinking about a pony tail, dying my hair and importing a bride from Belarus. Others might say every biker should own a Harley at some point in their life; well that ain't the case either, as I've already owned one and I hated it. So what on earth exactly did prompt me to buy this lump of American metal?
It was a bargain. Plain and simple. Now you may think that £3,400 for a 14-year-old small-capacity H-D is hardly a give-away but the previous owner's thrown money at this baby like a lunatic in a coconut shy. What's more, the bike's covered just 1800 miles from new. Yes, that's right, eighteen hundred.
A Revtech Supertrapp exhaust (£900), an S&S carb and airfilter (£400), a pair of S&S hi-performance cylinder heads (£600), Screaming Eagle ignition (£150), Lockhart oil cooler (£110), custom paint job and enough genuine Harley accessories to resurrect the company's flagging financial situation meant that, for once, this particular impulse buy was well worth the cash.
And all the bolt-on gubbins isn't just a load of glitzy tat. The 1200 goes pretty bloody quick for an old air-cooled iron, especially compared to the piss-poor Sportster 883 I once owned in my early 20s. Thankfully, the bike's free-flowing exhausts aren't too noisy, so I won't need to push the bike to the end of the road before starting it. Don't you just hate Harleys fitted with those bloody ludicrously loud slash-cut pipes?
So what's to do? New tyres are my first port of call, as the originals have about as much grip as Gordon Brown's got on the UK economy (well, it is Election Day). The fully adjustable suspension needs looking at, too, as the rear's on minimum preload, making the bike feel like it's dragging its arse.
I'm looking forward to a few trips away on the Harley; you can keep posted on our progress by following me on Twitter @TimSkilton, or checking back here for pictures of our upcoming adventures.
Right. Time to sign off. I'm going to drink some beer, watch Easy Rider then grow a beard.
Discuss this story
>So what on earth exactly did prompt me to buy this lump of American metal?
It was a bargain. Plain and simple. Now you may think that £3,400 for a 14-year-old small-capacity H-D is hardly a give-away but the previous owner's thrown money at this baby like a lunatic in a coconut shy. What's more, the bike's covered just 1800 miles from new. Yes, that's right, eighteen hundred. Right. Time to sign off. I'm going to drink some beer, watch Easy Rider then grow a beard.< Let's see here... Harley... 14 years old... 1800 miles... thrown money at it like a lunatic... drink beer and watch Easy Rider.... Yep... you've got the American "biker culture" down pat... I see it all the time "over here"... Thank God I prefer being a motorcyclist and not a "biker"... I've put 65,000 miles on two Triumph Bonnevilles in the last 6 1/2 year... that includes taking nearly a year off to recover from burying my '02 into the side of a pickup truck... overcooked a corner... what can I say... You want a cool air cooled twin... get a Bonnie and do a couple of the cheap and easy mods that let them breathe properly.... and go harley hunting... it's fun... cheap as chips compared to the "Hardly Dangerous" crap... runs rings around them too.... Some things never change... I'm glad that I'm a confirmed HD H8R.... =
Posted: 06/05/2010 at 23:14
Whats the hardest thing about owning a Harley? Telling your parents that you're gay. Seriousl though, bikes are bikes, cruiser, sports or naked. Your HD looks the business. People think my X11 is hideous, but its all in the eye of the beholder. No matter what you ride, beards rule!
Posted: 07/05/2010 at 12:46
>So what on earth exactly did prompt me to buy this lump of American metal?
It was a bargain. Plain and simple. Now you may think that £3,400 for a 14-year-old small-capacity H-D is hardly a give-away but the previous owner's thrown money at this baby like a lunatic in a coconut shy. What's more, the bike's covered just 1800 miles from new. Yes, that's right, eighteen hundred. Right. Time to sign off. I'm going to drink some beer, watch Easy Rider then grow a beard.< Let's see here... Harley... 14 years old... 1800 miles... thrown money at it like a lunatic... drink beer and watch Easy Rider.... Yep... you've got the American "biker culture" down pat... I see it all the time "over here"... Thank God I prefer being a motorcyclist and not a "biker"... I've put 65,000 miles on two Triumph Bonnevilles in the last 6 1/2 year... that includes taking nearly a year off to recover from burying my '02 into the side of a pickup truck... overcooked a corner... what can I say... You want a cool air cooled twin... get a Bonnie and do a couple of the cheap and easy mods that let them breathe properly.... and go harley hunting... it's fun... cheap as chips compared to the "Hardly Dangerous" crap... runs rings around them too.... Some things never change... I'm glad that I'm a confirmed HD H8R.... =
OR, go even cheaper, get a used Japanese IL4, do absolutely nothing to it, and go Bonneville hunting. Cheap as chips compared to that British crap...runs rings around them too... I'm sure a lot of Duke Sport 1000 owners don't understand why you ride a Bonneville when you could have far better performance, and a lot of Honda Hornet riders don't understand why you ride retro bikes at all when you could have up to date styling, up to date performance and better build quality for less money. What exactly does the Bonneville have over a modern naked 600, other than retro styling? You're missing the point entirely. A Harley has a riding position that suits some people and a sound that many love, not to mention the looks. People don't ride Harleys because they want to 'ride rings' round people...lots of people buy Harley's when they've grown up and stopped riding like a demented kid. If you want to'ride rings' around people I could point you in the direction of many bikes in a similar or cheaper price bracket to Bonnevilles that could indeed 'ride rings' round you! At one end of the retro spectrum there's stuff like Ducati's Sport 1000 with very high performance, and at the other end there're Harley's...Bonneville's are a halfway house...none of the performance of the Dukes and non of the easy, comfortable, sit back and cruise appeal of Harley's. The Bonneville's riding position is too cramped and sporty for some, yet the bike is too slow and old fashioned for others. That's one way to look at it...the other is that the Bonneville is a vesatile, easy to ride, great looking retro bike. I really like Bonnevilles, but if you don't understand why people choose Harley's over them then you're just missing the point...same as lots of people completely miss the point when they question why you have a Bonneville instead of a modern, fast, cheap Japanese IL4.
Posted: 08/05/2010 at 11:06
SCBonneville, stop criticizing someone else's purchasing choice when you are clearly a crap rider (you "buried" your bike into a pickup truck). And, LondonMUnn, Brilliant post! I fully agree! I'm on contract in Ireland at the moment and ride my Blade like its on fire (hehe), because here in great old Eire, there are no police as far as I'm concerned. When I go back to Canada tho, I'll live in a land where our brand of speed enforcement fascism makes Britain look like, well you get the point. Over there, If you go > 30mph over the limit, you get an automatic ban, AND they take your vehicle and impound it for 7 days, and you have to pay the impound fees as well (usually 1000s of dollars). So I was thinking of getting a Harley because its fun to just cruise about on, in the sun on warm days (obviously less fun to filter on though and on cold days). Anyone who slags off Harlies, automatically should examine their own bike choice, and makes themselves freely open to, the usually very easy criticism that can be lobbed at anyone about their bike (eg., re: myself, what do I want a 1000cc bike for, not like I can actually ride the thing properly, i'm not Dovizioso, Pedrosa, et al., etc., etc.). Personally I wish i had the self-control to slow down, and I admire those who can, but hey, I'm not yet 30 and I'll do it when im 50
Posted: 08/05/2010 at 21:26
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