I've been riding one so long i don't even notice the vibration other than when its sitting there idling. All Sportsters rattle and roll at idle. Just put it in neutral , get off it while its running and look at the bars.

 

^^^

Same here and I have been riding for a year and a half.

Maybe I will feel the vibration on my 48 after I ride a Honda shadow or a Yamaha Bolt

 

Actually, the Harley Big Twins do smooth out above about 1,500-1,600 rpm. The horn on my '86 Evo 'Glide doesn't even wiggle at road speed with the engine running 2,200 rpm or more and there is virtually zero vibration that reaches the rider.

The 45 degree V-twin has a balanced reciprocating and rotating assembly, and it provides a power stroke on every revolution. The power strokes are not evenly spaced, but this really doesn't make any difference. There is a rocking couple introduced when a cylinder fires and imparts motion to the flywheels that is the opposite of the direction of crankshaft rotation. That rocking couple can be cancelled by balance shafts aka the "B" series engines used in Softails. But the balance shafts introduce a secondary imbalance at 2x crank speed that will be felt as more of a "buzz" type vibration because it's higher frequency.

There is also some losses associated with balance shafts, both in friction in their drives, and viscous drag and windage in the crankcase.

Personally, I like the Harley V-twin's "character" if you want to call it that. I rode sewing machine motorcycles for too many years and they tend to get boring. The Sportster always was designed to be the more rugged, no-excuses, bare-bones, it is what it is, in your face, motorcycle. If Harley made one that runs like a sewing machine, which they could easily do, it wouldn't even be any fun to ride. It would be like going to a NHRA Top Fuel event where the dragsters pull up to the tree making a bunch of whirring and whining noises, and when the light turns green it sounds like the wind blowing thru the pine trees instead of shaking the earth.

An old hardcore Harley rider summed it up pretty well once a few years back when my wife and I looked at a 1951 Panhead chopper, built on a hardtail FL frame. He fired it up and my wife asked, "why does it vibrate like that?" The fellow said, "ma'am - it ain't vibratin. It's breathin."

 

Uhhh you do know that HD has both rubber mounted and hard bolted to the frame counter balanced engines don't you?

The Rubber mounted vibrate in a fore and aft plane at idle and generally are very smooth at road speeds.

The counter balanced are smooth across the rpm spectrum.

It just depends on what the rider prefers. That is why HD has bikes for most styles and preferences. Just like they have full jacketed liquid cooled bikes like the Vrod and Street 500 and 750. They have partially liquid cooled with the exhaust valve area only being liquid cooled in the touring family of bikes.

One can not state that one thing is defining an HD product. HD covers the spectrum. Big bikes, little bikes, slow bikes, fast bikes, nostalgia bikes and up to current style bikes.

And may come out with an all electric bike.

I have a 03 883R that is bolted to the frame and not rubber mounted nor counterbalanced. The 04 and up Sportsters are rubber mounted. From idle to high speed highway riding I have not found any objectionable vibration at all.

Different strokes for different folks. Don't like a particular bike. Don't buy it. Very simple.

 

Explain vibranators please...
My 2014 Custom buzz is so bad above 60 it feels like you have a hold of an electric fence. No way it could be rode on the highway at 70 for very long.
I've installed new $80 grips and wear gel gloves to dampen things a little bit. Seeing in the mirrors at about any speed is a joke... Love the bike for beating around town and making noise but for the main road no way.
Already been to the doctor with hand problems so I might have to trade for something else this spring. Only Harley I've ever been on so I can't compare with other Sportsters. Wish I knew someone here local that I could trust to take it for a ride for a more experienced opinion.

 

same with my spring seat, it jumps half an inch high at idle, engine at temp, when I'm not sitting on it...

 

The question is about an Iron, to which the answer is that they don't vibrate, they shake. But that is the engineer in me coming out! All engines generate two basic types of 'vibration', the obvious one being at engine speed. The Sporty's mounting system smoothes them out very successfully, by allowing the engine to move, or shake. The other type of vibration is caused by harmonics of the engine speed, in other words twice crank speed, etc, which the rubber parts of the mounting system smooth out.

What I have observed on HDF is that we occasionally come across someone who rides their bike at engine speeds that are too slow, meaning the 'vibration' they experience is due to not running the engine in it's correct operating rev range. It could be that chap was doing that.

I recently overheard an angry discussion between a couple, while we were at a local Harley dealer. He was riding an RK, she had a Sporty. He criticised her for changing down to overtake another vehicle, instead of letting her poor bike slog it's way past in a high gear. While we have owners and users with that mentality we will have Harley that 'vibrate'!

 

I had an 08 883 that buzzed real bad between 70-75, smooth everywhere else. Its RPM dependent not speed. I could feel it in lower gears but never spend much time at any speed in lower gears so it wasnt a big deal. I avoid interstates like the plague (freakin boring), back road I only have short bursts at 70+ so the buzz in general was never a big deal to me. You could move the buzz to a different speed by re-gearing.

My 1200 has no buzz at any speed.

 

Vibranators are damping devices that go inside the ends of the handlebars, to dampen handlebar vibration. They have their own website.

I find your experience a puzzle, I have to admit. My Sporty is fine and I ride it (as does Mrs B) at speeds up to around 90mph without any problems. We use it more for trips than short rides and have a fork-mounted windshield, which takes the wind blast, so we don't need to grip the bars tight. So one possibility is just that, perhaps you hold the grips tight when riding at higher speeds? Try a set of ear plugs - best tuning aid known to man - which should allow you to ride faster and stay relaxed.

 

You might need to check your engine mounts to see if they are torqued correctly. My bike cruising at 70 is dead smooth.

http://www.vibranator.com/default.asp