Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Harley quits making Sportsters - sad but true.

For more’n forty years now there’s been bikes on the market that by the numbers were better/faster/cheaper than Harleys.

People bought a Harley because it’s a Harley, including Sportsters.

As of now, the entry-level “Nightster” is $13,500.

https://www.harley-davidson.com/us/en/motorcycles/sport.html

I gotta give Harley credit, for less than a grand more you can get a base model Softail, which given Bidenflation is a deal.

In all seriousness, Ihadn't been on the HD site in a couple years. Just looked, & it was a sad sight IMO. The models prices etc. Was a fan for a decade or 3, but they seem to be in another world, or I am.

Unbelievable prices on some of them. But to be fair, I haven't looked at other brands lately. Whew!

I bought an '86 Sporty Evolution 1100 in '88. Enjoyed it for a couple years, buy grew weary of the low gearing and peanut tank, and traded it off for a 21 foot IO boat. Some say the new Indian Scout is better. Dunno never tried one. There are plenty of cheap used Sportsters around,

Jackmountain the best bike I ever had was a FXR..... Put a ton of miles on it. Divorce cost me one bike, I let her take the road king I kept the FXLR.

The guys riding Honda with there plastic Chrome are the wanna-bees .....Funny chit right there...How many 30 year old junk ass Hondas do you see on the road....I see lots of 25 30 year old Harleys on the road...

Worked a powerhouse construction job, and one of the safety guys was a young east coast guy who, deservedly or not, was called Larry the Fairy. He struggled to project his manliness amongst a boomer crowd of boilermakers and pipefitters. He just wanted to be accepted.

Not quite a year into construction we had a series of safety incidents, and the contractor was coming down hard on stuff. Larry convinced them to offer a safety incentive, and put those who worked without safety violations for 90 days into a drawing.
I well remember the day he came up to top iron, near the end of shift, and announced his safety giveaway. "Work 90 days with no violations, and win a motorcycle!" he proclaimed...

There was a fair few bikers on the crews. Somebody asked him if it was a real motorcycle, or a die cast replica toy. Larry said, "NO... It's a real motorcycle. It's a Harley Sportster."
Rough looking old boilermaker Ben spit and said, "Sportster's a bitch bike."
Well... Larry turned red. His chest puffed up and he had fists at his side. He was so mad he was shaking. He growled at Ben and said, "I'll have you know I RIDE A SPORTSTER!!!"

I'da loved to had a pic of old Ben's face. Everbody fell out laughing. Thought maybe I'd have to carry them off the iron to go home

honda sold alot of bikes going against the Harley crowd in the late 60's/70's


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I've found Harley's to be well made, with great finish quality. They are not the fastest thing on 2 wheels, but nothing is, for long. What they are, is pretty darn good for real life riding on public roads. Very entertaining. I had a lot of bikes, and most were essentially race bikes. The last three were far better for every day use. A BMW R100RS, an 05 Sportster, and an 09 Dyna Low Rider.

I recall the Shovelhead guys. Lots of straight pipes and kick starters, and knowing when you needed a rebuild (about every 25,000 miles) by running a finger in the pipes to check the soot 🙂. A time when that tool kit hanging on the forks really was necessary. When a friend died the practice was to take a part off of his bike and put it on your own. People LOVED their Harleys like they loved their dogs; members of the family.

The flip side was, well into the Evo era at least, you couldn’t let a Harley out of your sight, ever. The Outlaw clubs would steal them left and right. I was at one event at a rural bar in Texas that went on into the night. The parking lot got full so bikes were parked along the roadside in the dark. Three Harleys stolen.

Towards the end it got so bad that one method was for a bunch of guys in a van to intentionally rear end a Harley at a stoplight, jump out and load it into the van. By that time I believe stolen Harleys were being shipped out to Germany.

Anyways, the Evo motor saved Harley-Davidson as a company despite the “Die Yuppie Scum” t-shirts that became popular among the Harley faithful, and even those guys switched to Evos.

Ain’t followed it closely but it’s my understanding that the various incarnations of the big V twins since then became progressively less rebuildable (most all the owners never needed to).

Ironically, IIRC the longest old school, continually-produced, simple to rebuild motors on road bikes today are the single-cylinder Honda and Suzuki 650cc dual sports. Them and maybe Urals and Royal Enfields.

I can actually think for myself and use my brain to compare products to determine which is the best... I am also confident enough to not to buy something just because other people are and I want to be part of the crowd... obviously you cannot say the same.

They were too small anyway...at least the on I sat on.

I personally know of around a dozen goldwings with well over 100k miles still going stong... The main reason you see so many old harleys is most the riders cannot afford a new one at the prices they are... especially when they all have to go buy the HD shirts and accessories so they can make sure everyone know they ride a harley... seems the more wanna bees are the ones that have to make sure everyone knows they ride a motorcycle and ride a HD... If someone was not a wanna bee they would not be so concerned about what other people think and know.

The only Harley Sportster I owned and commuted on was an '09 XR1200.

Great brakes, nice handling. Not really a Sportster and not a lounge chair tour bike.

It ran out of breath at 90

I sold it and got another Kawasaki ZRX 1200R for 1/2 the money and twice the performance.

I haven’t seen hatred, just informed opinions , mostly from guys who owned ‘em.

The question is when did Harley themselves move to “wannabe” status?

Showa forks, Mikuni carbs, Arai wheels, Nippon Denso wiring and that was 25 years ago already. There was a guy on here retired from the York H-D plant, he wrote about entire component assemblies being brung in from China.

And forget about all the Willie G. accessories 🙄; Honduras and China. Most egregious to me was HOG leathers from S. Korea, completely overlooking the American made outfits.

But Harley Davidson coffee (“Panhead Valdez” ) was excellent, ain’t tried it in 20 years tho.

Lol 🤣

How many Hondas do you see sitting on the side of the road and how many Harleys do you see on the side of the road?

I am a Harley fan but they have their issues. Just tear a new one down and you will start finding those issues.

Chinese sub sportster LOL

I was never a biker, did way too may bike wrecks as an EMT many years ago, most of my buddies from the service rode them, but the coolest thing about the Harleys living in the high country many years ago, was the hotties that rode them! Nothing sexier than a good looking woman in leathers getting off a bike!