I’ve typed a lot of words and rearranged them in a zillion different ways but I’ve never coined a phrase. Those days are over now and you heard it here first: The Sportster LC. It’s all mine and don’t forget who came up with it because I may never do another.
Harley’s quantum leap forward takes the Sportster from 1950s technology all the way into the 1990s and beyond. The new Sportster features fuel injection, liquid cooling, a claimed 120 horsepower and a passing resemblance to Sportsters of old. That’s all good stuff, man.
I’ve always liked Sportsters. Until the V-Rod came along they were the most advanced American-built Harleys you could buy and with the addition of electronic ignition they were the most reliable Harleys to boot. I owned a Sportster and loved how it looked parked, which it did a lot because the old 1968 XLH shook itself to pieces every 200 miles. Nevertheless it was an easy motorcycle to fix and my old Sporty never left me stranded.
The Sportster LC is a completely new model that has been the worst kept secret since the Pan American, which uses the same engine. With a bore of 4.13 inches and a shortish stroke of only 2.85 inches the new two-cylinder Sportster displaces 76.4 cubic inches in total, or ½ a bushel. We never converted to metric in the USA. Each head contains two cams pushing on four valves. With a 12:1 compression ratio you’ll be running high-test unless you’re under 50 years old in which case you’ll be stuck using premium. Harley’s combustion chambers have forced owners to buy high-test for years so nothing has changed except the power output. None of these design features is new thinking: it’s a well-trod path to modern performance numbers.
Harley claims 120 horsepower; that’s probably measured at the wrist pin so I expect 105-108-ish at the wheel, plenty for street riding. The Sportster LC puts out a claimed 94 ft-lbs of torque so taking off from a stoplight should be drama free. A claimed wet weight of 502 pounds is positively sprightly and undercuts the base model Pan American by 32 pounds. 32 pounds is a lot of weight. I’ve ridden 500-pound motorcycles in the dirt and it’s the absolute limit I would consider safe. The LC should be fun on graded county roads.
Styling on the LC is squashed and compact, almost like the bike fell into a car crusher but was retrieved before becoming a cube. There are no air gaps and the big, fat tires on both ends give the LC an overstuffed living room couch look. I’m not sold on the looks but it’s passable even if it seems to copy the Indian Scout. There are only so many ways to configure a crushed V-twin so the plagiarism is probably unintended. I like the upswept pipes, they give the LC a flat-track racer vibe and that’s a good vibe to have.
Things get a little nasty on the left side of the LC. Without the big upswept exhaust covering the mess all the complexity of a modern motorcycle is exposed. Let’s face it: The thing looks like a commercial air conditioning system from the left side. Still, I wouldn’t let the LC’s looks stop me from buying one assuming I would ever spend $15,000 on a damn motorcycle.
The looks won’t stop me from buying one but the seat-to-foot peg layout might. I can’t stand forward controls. I get that with the ultra low seat there would be no way to fold your legs tight enough for a more normal foot peg placement. Maybe Harley will come out with a Sportster LC Sport with more suspension, a higher seat and controls situated in such a way that you can ride the bike.
The LC comes with Bluetooth connectivity, cornering rider safety enhancements, ABS, traction control, selectable riding modes and cruise control. All stuff I hate except for cruise control. You may like dick-dogging with that electronic chaff but I’d rather ride a motorcycle than play digital commander. Hopefully pulling a few fuses and a warning light or two will disarm all that junk.
With only one disc stopping 120 horsepower and 650 pounds of bike and lightweight rider I sense the front brake may not be up to the modern standards of the engine and electronics package. I hope I’m wrong. Big fat tires usually make for a ponderous ride, but again, I hope I’m wrong. I seem to be doing a lot of hoping I’m wrong with this Harley Davidson.
What’s it like to ride? How would I know? I never get invited to Harley press junkets so you’ll have to get to one of H-D’s test ride events to find that out. My impression of the bike is that it’s a big improvement over the old Sportster but without the old Sporty’s provenance the LC has a long way to go before it reaches the beloved status the 1957 and up models achieved.
I guess what I liked about the old model was the tactile feel of sitting atop explosions propelling you down the highway. You never forgot you were riding a motorcycle. The Sportster didn’t become a legend by accident. Years of competition, countless race victories, heroic rides, and a fairly solid bottom end crank assembly and gearbox has made the Sportster a motorcycle everyone wants to buy used. I still want a XR1200R Sportster bad and have since I first saw one. Only time will tell if the new Sportster LC will be able to burrow into my heart the same bad-like way.
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Nice write up, I agree on about everything.
I’ll take your “LC” one step further and call it LuCy.
The Sportster Lucy.
I’d ride it.
Kinda like the idea of fat knobbies and gravel roads.
I hear the tires are fat , I can see the tires are fat. How fat are they? And why in the heck call this new creation with no shared parts a Sportster? And most Sportster riders were young guys , young guys want to meet young women and if the young women are agreeable haul them off to a place to have privacy. How is the Nuevo Sportster rider supposed to convince young women to sit on steel while have their fannies burned by the high exhausts ? Is this a new form of population control ? So many questions.
LC? Does that stand for Lard somethingorother? ( I can’t think right now).
502 pounds is a lot of weight these days. And with a single disc up front I see HD is going with “form over function” once again. Anyways, here’s my phrase that I’M coining, remember where you heard it…”The Fatster”.
So why are you calling it “LC”? Light Cruiser”?
Does it have the PanAm crank, or a standard H-D crank? If it has the PA crank it won’t sound like a Harley!
LC is for liquid-cooled. The old Yamaha RD was called the RD350LC when it went to liquid cooling. It’s as traumatic as when Dylan went electric.
Good read on this new model. As long time Sporty owner, I don’t think the new bike is aimed at me… or maybe the me as a 20 something year old… It is lighter that the present 883 Sporty a 2004 vs 565 lbs. for the 2004 and 505lbs for new one. The new one is much more powerful and looks like a young dudes bike. If it runs well enough on the street in real life, then this puppy should sell. At 15K it is a little steep and maybe they will have another version, cheaper, a little less power and be the true replacement of the old Sporty.
A Sportster should be cheap (Relativity), fast and have good street cred… my thoughts.
Joe – Yep. Agree with you on this. But I’ll never give up my 95 XL 1200. To me its the ultimate bike. Just perfect for me.
Nailed it!
I’ll wait to be a used one. I hear used Sportsters are a good deal.
Used Sportsters compare favorably with brand new bikes price-wise. It’s as if age makes them cheaper which I’ve never seen before.
Joe who?
Nobody has mentioned the pitiful gas tank capacity, why any manufacturer would build and sell a bike with only 3 gallon capacity is beyond me. I owned one of the original v-rods and it was a great bike but I had to stop and get gas every 100 miles, that’s not acceptable! I thought Sportsters were supposed to be entry level Harleys, $15,000 doesn’t seem like an entry level price.