THE HARLEY-Davidson Sportster was introduced in 1957, but I didn’t get a chance to ride it then.
My excuse? I was only one year old, and was too busy lowering the suspension and painting go-faster stripes on my Silver Cross pram. Boy, did that mother go. Mine, that is. Mad, that is.
As for Sportsters, they became the starting point for many legendary choppers of the 1960s, in between being used for championship dirt racing and dare devil stunt riding in the 1970s.
Just ask Evel Knievel, who used them to fling himself over every chasm in sight, often successfully.
Sadly, when Harley-Davidson brought out the Sportster 883 in 2002 as a base model to attract Harley riders who thought that they couldn’t afford to be Harley riders, it didn’t so much have the result of building on that legacy as losing it down the back of the workshop.
It vibrated so much that dentists made a good living setting up stalls all along the route of Harley rallies to replace fillings, the suspension was clunky, the performance sluggish and the brakes poor.
Rather than creating fans for life, it probably had the opposite effect, particularly when they turned up on their pride and joy at Harley-Davidson Owner Group rallies, looked around at the assembled V-Rods and Road Kings, and felt like seven-stone weaklings who had accidentally wandered into the showers at a Mr Universe contest.
Thankfully, in 2004, Harley wised up with a new range, the single-seat 883, the 883 Custom, the 1200R with twin front discs and the 1200 Custom.
It kept the appealingly low price, but got rid of the horrendous vibration by rubber-mounting the engine.
And now Harley has made it even better still, with the new Iron 883 – more responsive handling, a smoother clutch and a carbon-reinforced drive belt for seamless acceleration.
Not that you notice much of these as you walk up to it. What you notice is that someone in Harley has used up all the factory’s black paint in one go, for so stygian is the Iron that you would be well advised not to park it in a dark alley – you’ll never find it again.
And it works. The effect is mean and brooding – just the look to attract would-be Harley riders on a budget, particularly when they climb aboard and realise this is one of those bikes on which you feel instantly at home, helped by those drag-style handlebars and mid-bike footrests and controls.
The result is an upright but alert riding position that makes you both comfortable and aggressive as a rider: powering smoothly away from lights to the song of that glorious V-twin, changing gear by just thinking about it, thanks to a clutch that is light years away from the agricultural Harley devices of old, and hurling yourself into corners with gay abandon and ever-increasing confidence.
In fact, so much was I enjoying it that, although I was only planning to take the bike out for an hour before the forecast heavy rain, five hours later I was still heading down roads just because they looked interesting, or following signposts to places I had never been – like Tildarg and Buckna: places that seemed to have a population of two and a church for each, and which, to paraphrase Dr Johnson, were worth going to see, but not worth seeing.
In the end, I was having so much fun that I stayed out half an hour too long, and got soaked when the downpour finally came.
But with a bike like this, who cares? It is – and I speak as a long-time fan of the Road King – possibly the best Harley yet.
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