New-Age SportstersHarley’s XL line gets rubber-mounted
Photo: Brian J. Nelson The asphalt ahead is so fresh it isn’t even striped yet. I’m on California Route 229, headed into the brown hills of the La Panza Range, just north of San Luis Obispo. And after 70 miles of congestion on U.S. 101, this empty, twisting stretch of asphalt seems like heaven. The bike I’m on, a 2004 Harley-Davidson XL1200R Sportster, is a willing co-conspirator in my quest for back-road fun. It practically begs me to drop a gear, get the revs up and power through another corner. A rev-happy 1200 Sportster? Yep, that’s right. But this isn’t the paint-shaker of years past. This is the redesigned 2004 Sporty. The XL1200R I’m on is one of four new Sportsters about to hit the showroom floor. These new editions—the 883, 883C, 1200C and 1200R—replace the seven variants currently in the Harley lineup.
Foremost among those is the new rubber mounting system for the engine. Using technology pioneered in the Dyna Glide series, Harley engineers were able to slash vibration felt by the rider to a fraction of its former level. And at the same time, they’ve built a new frame that’s 26 percent stiffer than the old design. Those improvements do come at a price. Thanks to an increase in frame tube thickness and backbone diameter, the ’04 models weigh 50 pounds more than the bikes they replace. But boy, do they work. At idle, the XL1200 still lets you know there’s a 45-degree V-twin potato-potatoing down there. Once under way, though, the vibes all but disappear until around 4,500 rpm. And by then, you’re having too much fun to care. That’s in stark contrast to previous 1200 Sportsters, which got the shakes so bad many riders never took them above 3,000 rpm. Knowing that they were opening up the higher end of the powerband, Harley engineers spent a good deal of time reworking the motor to suit. Bore and stroke dimensions remain unchanged for both the 883 and the 1200 versions, but lighter pistons and rods help the 1200 rev to 6,000 rpm. For added grunt, the larger mill also receives the high-flow cylinder heads from the Buell XB line and hot cams from the 1200 Sport. Other changes include larger fins on the cylinders, a new shifter mechanism, and a reworked breather and oil drain system to reduce oil carryover. So much was changed, in fact, that only a handful of parts are shared with the previous generation motor. And although there aren’t as many choices as in the past, there’s still a Sportster for almost every taste. The basic XL883 comes with a 19-inch cast front wheel and carries its fuel in a traditional peanut-style 3.3-gallon tank, while the racier XL1200R Roadster gets all that plus the bigger motor, twin front discs, a tachometer and a wider, dirt-track-inspired handlebar. The XL883C and XL1200C Custom models get larger 4.5-gallon tanks, two-tone paint, single front discs, forward controls, pulled-back bars and 21-inch laced front wheels. All bikes also get wider 150mm rear tires for a more aggressive look. Pricing? That hadn’t been released yet, although your local dealer should have the numbers by the end of August. So has Harley-Davidson transformed the venerable Sportster? In a word, yes. But not radically. This isn’t a sportbike (After all, that’s what the Buell lineup is for.), but it is a narrow, fun machine that can be ridden hard in the hills or taken on the highway without shaking loose a single filling. |
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© 2003, American Motorcyclist Association |
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The ’04s may look like their predecessors, but as my
jaunt in the hills shows, the Motor Company has made improvements to
nearly every aspect of the XL line, which stretches all the way back to
1957.
