My personality and riding style are more crotch rocket type, but alas, I'm a lard ***. I would look like an elephant on a skateboard on a Ninja or a Ducati 1098 (my dream bike). On a Sportster I can still engage in spirited riding on occation. I sometimes think I would like a big twin but I'd hate to ride that big, heavy, expensive thing around town, and that's were 80% of my riding is done. Some of the big twin guys tell me "I can lean my bagger as much as you can your Sportster" Maybe so, but I don't drog body parts doing it.

 

I'm a newbie and its my bike of choice cuz its F'N HOT!!!!! [sm=badbadbad.gif]

 

I put close to 300 Kmiles, maybe more, on my old Ironhead sportster. It had a tall sissybar with a toolbag hanging on the back and I had a pair of cheap throwover saddlebags for long trips. In all those miles, it only failed to get me home a couple of times, one of which was my own fault when I was showing off my new S&S carb and stripped the rivets out of the rear sprocket.

The Sportster wasn't intended to suit everyone, but it does what it was designed for just fine. The original engineering spec was to keep up with a Triumph twin redlight to redlight and bar to bar. It did that pretty well and, if the OL's 1200L is any example, it still does. Fortunately, the frame and suspension were built using standard HD design practices so, like the big twins, you can do things the engineers never dreamed of without causing any serious problems.

Want some more convincing? A lot of Evil Knievels jumps were made on Sportsters and Superglides (pretty much a Sportster with a big twin engine) because nothing else was tough enough.