I've ridden a 1200C for 60 miles and could have done 500 on it. 1200R - 150, max. Dunno about the others. Mine is a 200 Mile round trip bike only - the seat sucks and they don't make an aftermarket one for it. Most of the others have lots of options though, you can easily turn a L/C into a mini bagger, and if you fit on the Nightster, it can be done as well - they'll be almost as good as the big twins for it then. As long as you're not looking for the R, I'd say you can do just about anything you'd want to.

 

I have a 2002 1200 sportster. It is the most comfortable one i have owned. I had two 2006 sporters also and my 02 is by far more cofortable. I did have to make some changes to it though but after i did the whole bike changed. I have done rides in the 4hr time frame and was perfictly fine. Granted a pair of foward controls would be nice but other than that i was very comfortable. Now i may be being alittle bias but i love the sporty the best out of all the other models. Maybe its because of the history of the sportster or the fact that you can do anything to them and make them look how ever you want them too. All in all my sporty is very comfortable.

 

I rode the Iron Butt 1000 miles past friday in 22.5 hours with a 883C, just to see what would happen, and couldnt find any difficulties. Whenever I felt like it (100-130 miles) I took a short break and a walk around the bike. It has forward controls and a stock seat. I guess you can ride any bike any distance if you have some attitude.

 

On my stock seat, I'm good for 18 hours or 1250 miles in single day.

It's all in how you approach it. If you start whining and complaining at the first sign of discomfort, you'll focus on it and it will only get worse. If you ignore a little pressure or numbness, it will soon go away. My *** really hurts after about 60 to 90 miles, but if I man up and push through it, that goes away before 150 miles and I'm golden the rest of the day. If you get off the bike and cry every time your butt hurts, you'll never get anywhere in life.

 

COngrats on the ride! Now get it certified and get the license plate frame!

 

I could do 400 miles on the stock seat, no problem. i've never thought it was uncomfortable. Then again, I'm so friggen' excited when I can ride that I probably wouldn't notice...

1200 Nightster/stock '09

 

Well, I'm good for 250 in a day on the stock seat. I could do more, and have. But usually, I think, "Why would I want to?"

I also think it's an issue of the bike being a Sporty. It ain't really a distance bike. I'm not that young but I'm not that old either (mathematically middle aged, but not mentally )....to me there is just a lot of vibration and other issues with the Sporty that keep it from being a real distance bike. Yes, there are mods.....but they don;t take care of it all.

Good for me that 90% isn't multi-day long-distance touring. If I want to do more of that, I'll buy a Road King.

 

I started with a 05 sportster 883 and it was alright except when riding two up we bottomed out alot! So I bought Progressive 412 rear shocks and Progressive fork springs a mustang seat and forward controls, It drasticaly improved the ride and also reduced my wallet, however it still was not what I wanted so after one month of the upgrades I traded it in on a 09' Street bob the differance in comfort was night and day I can ride my Bob as long as I want with absolutly no uncomfort. I wish I would have bought the Bob to begin with being I only had the Sportster 3 months before trading up. Luckly Jp cycles let me return and exchange almost all the parts I bought for the Sportster for a full refund and parts for the Bob. I guess being a clean freak paid off since the parts were still in good enough condition for the return thank god cause I had 2600$ in aftermarket parts in 3months tring to make the sporty ride like a bigger bike and it just did not work. Just my .02$ Dont get me wrong though I wish I could have kept the sporty for intown messin round it was a sharp lil bike and looked darn good with all the mods I had on specialy that Hypercharger air cleaner

 

Congratulations! I hope you kept all your receipts.
There is going to be another saddlesore 1000 record attempt next May from the same people who put on the one last year and I'm gonna try and ride that one too. Can't wait as it was a lot of fun.

I think that may have to be the quote of the year.

 

12 hours +