What did you do to Your Sportster Today?
05-09-2020, 08:44 PM
Seasoned HDF Member
A car just barely clipped the front rim, no damage to the stantions I can see but the fork tubes are bent, and the front rim/tire/rotor are damaged too. Also it slammed the forks hard enough to break the stop off the lower fork clamp/steering stem. That's what allowed the bars to hit the tank, and it also pulled hard enough to break the threaded part off the end of the clutch cable where it screws into the primary cover. I got that out and ordered a new cable today.
He had short shots and an Arlen Ness air cleaner on it, no damage to the air cleaner but it scraped the pipes up, so I just put the stock airbox and pipes back on it and reflashed it back to the stock MAP.
05-09-2020, 08:49 PM
I've only spilled my bike once in my total of 56 years of motorcycling and I was going less than 20 mph in a tight turn. Unexpected fine gravel had washed into the middle of the road from an overnight rainstorm and caught me off guard. It's like riding on ball-bearings. For me it was a reality check and I've ridden far safer ever since. I cracked a rib when I took off the right side mirror as I was doing my "end-over". Fortunately, my years of snow skiing taught me to ball up instead of sticking out my arms to catch myself. I rolled like an armadillo for about 40 yards before I stopped. No road rash of any kind but my pride was hurt far worse than my cracked rib. I couldn't laugh, hiccup, cough or sneeze in comfort for about 6 weeks. I'm still riding though. I just go into blind turns slower now. As a matter of fact, I do a lot of things slower now, on and off the bike.
05-09-2020, 08:57 PM
05-10-2020, 07:05 AM
Road Captain
Got the kid out on the Sportie for a first time.
Good clutch control and made a loop in the parking lot much to my surprise. Being raked out a little, I didn't expect she would try the loop in the first 5 minutes of her first time on it.
Nice to see it happen as it lays to groundwork for getting her off the Rebel 250 and moving into something substantial. Rebel is fine for her going to work on other side of town, putzing around town and back roads, but not highways. When next to the Sportser, the Rebel looks like a BMX bike.
Now to get her some serious saddle time in it.. And to ponder how to present this info to the overly protective wife.
Good clutch control and made a loop in the parking lot much to my surprise. Being raked out a little, I didn't expect she would try the loop in the first 5 minutes of her first time on it.Nice to see it happen as it lays to groundwork for getting her off the Rebel 250 and moving into something substantial. Rebel is fine for her going to work on other side of town, putzing around town and back roads, but not highways. When next to the Sportser, the Rebel looks like a BMX bike.
Now to get her some serious saddle time in it.. And to ponder how to present this info to the overly protective wife.
05-10-2020, 07:19 AM
Stellar HDF Member
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05-10-2020, 10:04 AM
HDF Community Team
05-10-2020, 11:25 AM
Road Warrior
Join Date: Apr 2012
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05-10-2020, 12:28 PM
HDF Community Team
They are very slick when cold. I live in so. California so when I say cold I mean tire cold not outside cold as it is still usually in the 60's when I go to work. I slide a bit on the first corner on my way to work very regularly. It hasn't put me down but it wakes me up if I haven't had my coffee yet. I come from riding supermoto at the track so at least I have some tracker experience.
Last edited by OCSpringer; 05-10-2020 at 12:29 PM.