Whether you like Harleys or not it's a sad day for anyone who likes a 'traditional' 4 stroke, air cooled engine...New Euro 5 emissions rules have lead Harley Davidson to withdraw the Sportster permanently from the European market...
I ran a Sportster for a few years and generally I enjoyed the experience...Personally, I'll miss the lovely V Twin sound burbling around the streets from now on...
Somehow a future powered by glorified washing machine motors just won't be the same....Ian
This day is coming for all air cooled motorcycles because of crazy regulations. Last year I bought a 2013 Xl1200C with 3000 miles on the speedo. It ran ok, but I knew it needed a richer mixture. I picked a couple of XIED computer trickers, a huge air intake and rerouted the breather away from the intake. Plus a put a set of 2” baffle Rush Pipes.
Pipes were bless, $100, XIED for $9, and the Hammer Performance Air cleaner.
Man this brought the bike alive. I had redden the bike for around a thousand miles stock. My first damn ride near had me crashing. When around a familiar turn, hit the gas and the back broke loose.
It became a tire burning machine.
Please tell those days are NOT over.
Fear not, HD has been building literally hundreds of thousands of motorcycles annually during the boom years as they have continued to chase their aging customer base to the grave. In theory all these machines will be out there irritating the populous for decades to come.
The bigger question is how much longer will any of our horribly polluting monsters be allowed to operate at all!
Fear not, HD has been building literally hundreds of thousands of motorcycles annually during the boom years as they have continued to chase their aging customer base to the grave. In theory all these machines will be out there irritating the populous for decades to come.
The bigger question is how much longer will any of our horribly polluting monsters be allowed to operate at all!
John my bet is my old KM20 pollutes way more than either of my big bad HD’s. I think you need to learn about what pollutes and what does not.
Oh by the way the Sportster has a nice set of neighbor haters that will vibrate you windows as I tool bye. Oh one more thing the HD do not leak a drop of oil. My USSR DNEPR and the KM20 don’t drip oil they bleed oil.
I bought new a 2010 883 which I think is a lovely bike. I've seen it described as a '60s bike that works & doesn't leak oil. I look at a big Sportster online forum & there's some consternation there as to Harley's general direction, or lack of it.
There are people out there who'd like to see all these machines melted down & turned into nice little urban people movers.