Im looking at an 883 sportster, mostly because thats about my max price range and i want a harley after owning several other brands of bike.

My question is what causes the seat/ride height difference between the 883 low and the 883 iron?

And what contributes to the lean angle difference?

The reason i ask is because although i love the look iron, i prefer the wheels and gas tank size of the low.

If i can do it easily i may be able to raise the height of the low to the same as the iron.

Any input gratefully accepted.

 

http://www.harley-davidson.com/en_US....html#/c/specs

http://www.harley-davidson.com/en_US....html#/c/specs

 

Hi from the UK and welcome to HDF.

You're asking that question on the wrong forum! Most members live in the US and will answer you honestly, but you may find the versions of those bikes you get in NZ are different to US specs. They certainly are in the UK. You need to visit the NZ website and a local dealer. If you are lucky, you may find you can still get an 883R, which was discontinued in the US a few years ago, but is still made for some overseas markets like the UK.

 

Thanks for the links, i have already compared them.

My question is, where is the height difference between to the two bikes?

i.e is it in the shocks, the wheels, where?

is it simply a longer shock on the iron than the low?

 

being such a small country there is not much in the way of a forum here and only 3 dealers in the north island that are some distance away, i cant just pop on in and have a chat.

There are both models available in the usa.

 

The seat height and ground clearance difference between the two bikes (as per the links above) is only 0.1" (about 2.5mm). That's a pretty insignificant difference. As such, I would doubt that is it due to a difference in shocks. Anyhow, it's close enough between the two to call it even for practical purposes.

 

Typically you can raise the rear end with longer shocks. Changing the front height isn't that easy. You either need longer fork tubes or a bigger wheel. Could be pretty costly in the end.

 

You can pick up the phone. And check the H-D NZ website to compare specs with the H-D USA website.

That does not mean they are identical to the ones you get! We get different versions of the same bikes here in the UK, as I wrote earlier. They may look the same, but we get taller suspension than the USA on some Sporty models.

 

I believe the slight difference in height is in the seat itself. They use different seats.

 

The seat height AND the ground clearance for the two bikes (per the specs at the links posted) differ by 0.10". -don't see how the seat affects ground clearance. Even so, that is such a small difference that in real life it won't matter.