WEE SHALL OVERCOME

I just got home from painting my friend Paul's Ford Focus and it's time for bed. However, I wanted to let my faithful readers know that I recently returned from Idaho where I witnessed my middle daughter being sealed in marriage to her husband in the Boise Mormon temple. That same weekend my oldest daughter informed us that she is having another baby girl and my youngest daughter announced her engagement. All that, AND I scoured the area for a Harley-Davidson Sportster.

It's not that my daughters' lives aren't dynamic enough to keep my attention, it's just that my capacity is so expansive. While in Boise I located a couple of good possibilities. My brother Luis in Spain is interested in trying to market an original, old school chopper in Europe. I'm going to build it for him. I want to do something along the lines of the Triumph shown above. I have a frame jig in the shop and I should be able to make it just the way I want it.

It'll have a rigid frame and solo seating and the front end will be a modest length. I plan to dress it in chrome and beautiful paint and I want to use a Sportster. Why not a Big Twin you ask? I've had plenty of them, about 19 or 20 through the years. I gave it some thought and decided a Sportster is about right. 

In the past, the Sportster has been the wee brother to the full size Harley, and looked down upon by many riders. It had a mere 900cc engine, sat high up in the air and the engine and transmission were a unit construction instead of the non-unit configuration like the big twin. The seating position of the rider was awkward and not very "manly", although it seems that today's custom rider is grossly overcompensating with the choices of handlebars and foot peg positioning. 

Maybe the Harley factory assumes that all the riders on FLH twins put their "old ladies" on Sportsters to keep them off their own bikes. If done right, the custom Sportster can overcome all the negatives it has been struggling with over the decades. 

• These days the Sportster is available with a 1200cc engine from factory, although some are still sold with a 883cc size (I don't know why).
• With a properly set up rigid frame a rider can be comfortable and look as manly as they come.
• The ride height is also corrected with a rigid frame and a properly coordinated neck rake and fork length. 

Why the factory insists on putting the seat height so high on the Sportster is a mystery to me. Perhaps they think owners will be doing hill climbing with them or perhaps they assume that we rural riders are bouncing along on dirt roads. 

I have to retire for the night, but I want to elaborate on the Harley project later. If any of you have a Sportster engine that you would sell, please contact me. Here's my email address: Doug@BarnesBrothers.net. Thanks!

Doug