Used Sportster Buyers Guide

Hey, it's Mike Roen, Fix My Hog. We're gonna be doing a buyer's guide today on the Harley Davidson Sportster. Now, the Sportster, obviously, it's been around seems like forever, but it was introduced in 1957, and they ran that Iron Barrel platform all the way to 1985. Everybody thinks Sportster, they kinda think, beginner bike, you know? Which it kinda always usually is, just 'cause of the price usually kinda dictates that. And it's usually the younger, you know, people that's what gravitates towards that 'cause its cost. But really, I mean, now, you can actually get a Sportster actually very inexpensive, that's, you know, pretty much running and good to go. And it makes a great little second bike. It's a pretty universal little motorcycle. I mean, we got a great little video on a cafe project we did. People turn them into bobbers, They chop them up, make them little choppers. So it's just a cool little motorcycle that you can have very little money into, and still have a good time. It's probably not the motorcycle you want to go zigzagging across America on. It's just the physical size, and when you go to rev that thing, you know, you get that vibration. But especially the Iron Barrel. I mean, 30 years ago, I had a '74 Iron Barrel 1000cc, kickstart only. And when I got done with the motorcycle, I went on my first road trip and I realized, wow, this thing is not made to be rode at highway speeds. Your rear view mirrors become virtually worthless. And the other problem with the '85 and earlier Iron Barrel is, you're very limited as to the gearing changes you can do. The rear sprocket is tied to the rear brake hub, so you can't do much there. Your front Sprocket, you're limited by the size and the area there, so. It's really, when it comes down to a Sportster, I look at that whole era as that's just kind of your in town, little bar hopping, rip around cool bike. And the other thing with the '85 and earlier Iron Barrel is, it really is kind of labor intensive. I mean, there's so much going on there. It's kind like a Shovelhead on steroids when it comes to maintenance. So you gotta look at it and go, "Is this a bike that that's gonna have sentimental value? I'm gonna wanna spend a lot of money on it, a lot of time?" 'Cause in 1986, the Sportster got the evolution platform and it became much easier to work on, a little more desirable, it just made much more sense to go that direction '86 and later. So we're gonna start there. So starting with 1986, Harley finally updated it to the Evolution style. Much like the Evo in 1984, the Sportster gets the aluminum cylinders, aluminum heads. 'Cause if you imagine, '85 and earlier, you're riding around, cast iron heads, cast iron cylinders, it's a huge heat sink. And that thing would just, tremendous amount of heat. Just a much older design. It was a way better upgrade. So '86 and later, you have Evolution top end, it was still a four speed, still chain drive, still fun little bike if you're getting into it. It's always price, usually, is what dictates it. Rolling along, 1988, they finally update the carburetor to a constant velocity, CV carb, much better carburetor. It's not like a deal breaker, but it is a nice little upgrade. They still offered it in an 883, 1100 CC and, you know, a nice little platform. And the common tuneup on the Sportster has always been, you buy an 883, you can bore out to, well in this case, you'd bore it to a 1200. Which brings me to my next topic of 1991. That was a big year, because then they made the bike a five speed. And that's huge in terms of, you know, when you're riding the motorcycle at highway speeds or whatever, if you're really shopping, you're probably thinking '91 and later, just because of that aspect of having a five speed is so much better. So actually back in the 1990s, early 1990s, the AMA had a 883 Sportster racing class for road racing. And it was fiercely competitive, because you had all these expert racers riding these super slow motorcycles, and they were just overriding the wheels off the things. And probably something you might wanna look up. And speaking of racing, if you want, look up Gene Church and Lucifer's Hammer. Back in the early 1980s, he was riding a Don Tilley prepared Harley XR 750, and they won numerous titles in the Battle of the Twins, which was a pretty huge accomplishment for Harley, 'cause you're dealing with Moto Guzzi, Ducati, Cagiva, BMW, you know, Laverda, all these big twin motorcycles, and here Harley comes out and kicks their butt for a couple years in a row, it was, it's pretty incredible. Just Google Gene Church and Lucifer's Hammer and look that up, some great road racing in those days. But anyway, getting back to the five speed, big difference. They went to belt drive, got rid of the chain. So no mess, you know, no maintenance for the most part, really nice upgrade. And there again, if you're shopping, you gotta kind of pick and choose the motorcycle you want to babysit. Okay, once again, in 1994, they did have a couple of more improvements. They improved the electrical system, trying to make it all waterproof. They improved the oil tank location, battery tray, the clutch, a couple other nice little upgrades. '95 they got rid of the speedometer cable, they went to an electronic speedometer. Next big change was in 2000. The bike got different brakes, better brakes and sealed wheel bearings. So the braking thing there again, it's kind of a big deal. If you look at the older brakes, they're kind of archaic. 2000 and later they got the better design. 2003, now that actually is the last year of being able to service the transmission through a trap door. Which is to me a huge deal, because now on '04, the bike became rubber mounted, and the engine cases were, you'd have to split the cases to access the tranny. And that really became a deal breaker between the bike totaling out and the bike being repaired, 'cause now you're at the threshold. If you're bringing it to a Harley dealer or a shop, and you've got a transmission problem, this could exceed the value of the bike. Now you at home, you see one, it's got a hurt tranny, you can get it super cheap. Now it's your time, you know, that's gonna go in and do it and take it apart, and labor's free. It's not gonna be that big of a deal, it's gonna be parts, which aren't gonna be that expensive. It's time. So you gotta pick and choose your battles. So if you like the rigid mount, the old school feel, I love that platform. I mean, you can do so many things with that '03 and earlier bike and still be able to access the tranny like that. It's just, it's just a fun little bike. And you know really you're not just tied to running around town there. It seems like this younger generation is really buying these Sportsters up and they're ripping all over America on them. You go online and you see these people going down Mexico on them, and they're going all over, so. It's kinda nice to be young. I remember I never had a windshield on my motorcycle, and then one day I got older and I put a windshield on, and I never took it off. So, you know, it's part of living in Minnesota when the sun goes down it gets cold. So you pick and choose your battles, I guess, on what you wanna ride. Also 2004, they got fuel injection, it was an option. So that was kind of nice for a lot of people, not having to deal with choke or clean a carburetor or whatever, EFI. Okay, so 2005, they actually updated the rear axle to a one inch axle, kind of a nice little upgrade, give the bike a little more rigidity, a little more reliability. Not having to deal with the, all the previous axles were 3/4 inch. So 7500, just a smaller hole, not a big deal, but nice little upgrade. 2006, they did put helical cut gears in the gear box, and it was the last year for a carburetor option. I've kind of said this in other videos, I like carburetors just 'cause of the fact that as time goes on, it's really easy to babysit a carburetor motorcycle. You know, you've only got so many components can fail. You got a crank sensor, you got the ignition box, you've got a coil, wire harness, key shutoff switch, pretty simple. If the fire goes out, you're like, boom, boom, boom. You can fix it all relatively cheap. The labor's very easy. Now with fuel injected bike, you know, it gets to be a little more complicated to where you're gonna have to do some more troubleshooting. You've got a couple more electronic components you gotta deal with, you know, and as time goes on, parts might dry up for that. So something to consider if you're thinking about a second bike. 2008, they updated the front axle to a one inch, not a big deal. And kind of throughout these years now, Harley is starting to add other models, the Nightster and stuff like that. So you kind of gotta keep looking at year groups and the models they're coming out with. 2010, they ended up relocating the ECU just to improve the variety of aftermarket seats that are optional, just a nice little change. Throughout the years, 2012, they came up with the 72, it was kind of a throwback to the retro bike, kind of a cool looking thing. 'Cause there again, you know, if you need a second bike and you want something just to peel around town, there you go. It's a nice option. 2014, new electronics, new wire harness, larger brakes, and you could actually even get ABS on your Sportster then, which, kind of nice for, like I said if you're a new time buyer, you go out and dynamite the brakes in a situation, and that rear wheel doesn't lock up on you and step out it's, so ABS is actually a really good thing for new, inexperienced riders. So 2014 and beyond the platform pretty much stays the same. Still a nice little package. And really, you know, it's gonna come down to, you gotta look at what you're gonna do with this motorcycle, what your intentions are, how much you wanna spend. So for me, it would be, "Okay, do I want a rubber mounted '04 and later? Do I want the rigid mount?" You know, which direction do you want to go? What are you gonna do with the bike? And more importantly, when you're shopping, 'cause the market is so good on the Sportster right now, you can get such a good deal on them, for a low mileage bike, that's what I would look for. I would look for something that's stock, you know, depending on what's, the mods have been done to the bike. Probably avoid basket cases just because the fact, you can pick up a decent bike for three grand that's pretty much good to go. Check it over general maintenance. And of course, Fix My Hog, we've got plenty of videos out there on the Sportster. We've got our cafe project, we've got maintenance videos, we've got performance videos, a lot of detailed stuff on the XL. Harley is always continuing to evolve on that, now they're transforming that thing into a Revolution style motorcycle, where they're always upgrading, always making it better. So you know, the Sportster, it seems like it has been such a huge part of the Harley's history. And when I think back, I always think of it as, you know, it's just a cool little nostalgic thing. And just because I think, when you're younger that's the bike you gravitate to, because price dictates that. And that's kind of what it did to me, it drew me to that. So really, like I said, take your time. Don't rush into it. There's plenty of deals out there. You don't really wanna buy something online, you want to go, you know, have your eyes on it, try and get as much paperwork, maintenance records, a little history of the bike. If it's a one owner, two owner, what's been done to the bike. Look at all the modifications. You know, just take your time. Anyway, hope you found this video informative, and as always, wrench safe.