Perhaps the latter was inspired by their rivals Indian, whose ‘Thunder Stroke 111’ engine weighs in at a hefty 1,811cc. In old money that’s 1,750cc and 1,870cc respectively.
And now there’s even the four valves per cylinder ‘Milwaukee Eight’ 107 cubic inch engine, which compliments the 114 cubic inch eight valve ‘twin cooled’ motor which is also available. But I do know that the Evo engine in the Sportster, in all its various forms and sizes is completely different to the Twin Cam 103 cubic inch in engine found in the larger Dyna and Tourer models.
#Sportster face for facebook full#
OK, I’m sorry for calling a bike that is either usually an 883 or a 1200 ‘little’ – especially if you’re currently trying to get your full fat, unrestricted motorcycle licence and your current bike is a 125, but the Sportster is – physically – a small motorbike.Īnd I’m not going to pretend I know loads about the various engines – I don’t. So perhaps it’s a good thing that the manufacturers themselves are making the effort, and constantly reinventing this little bike.
Of course, as anyone who attended their local ‘Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride’ in September will attest, the good old Harley Sportster is still very much the ‘hog du jour’ – mainly due to the fact that you can accessorise and customise it almost beyond recognition, either at home in your shed – or as it comes out of the crate at the dealer. A comment I read recently opined that the ‘Battle of the Kings’ was simply H-D trying to ‘put lipstick on a pig’ – anything to keep an old design rolling out of their showrooms.īut even if that’s true it seems to work well enough for Royal Enfield and with R&D and tooling costs being astronomical you’d probably be doing the same if it was your company – if it ain’t broke don’t fix it perhaps? If you check out TRD 193 you’ll see the results of their ‘Battle of the Kings’ – a global competition in which individual Harley dealers each customised an ‘Iron 883’ Sportster in a style that could be replicated and sold on to their customers.Ĭynics might of course argue that while the Sportster remains one of H-D’s most popular models, it is basically a 30-year-old engine in an outdated frame. Harley-Davidson is a motorcycle manufacturer that could never be accused of resting on its laurels.
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