Harley Davidson Sportster 883R

[Smoothice]

Now I'm not bashing a sportster. As I said I had one and really enjoyed it.

This is the problem with asking this question on AO.

Most people on AO are from the U.S.A

We feel that bigger is better with pretty much everything.

Bigger cars, bigger meals, bigger boobs, in some states bigger hats and bigger belt buckles.

This includes motorcycles.

Now look at europe. Most guys ride around on little vespas and eat french fries with mayonnaise.

Each country has its own accepted standards.

It seems in Brazil a sportster sized bike is the norm.

The only person you should be asking this question to is your wife/girlfriend. And here is the question- Which bike will cause you to tear off your clothes and make sweet love to me?

Cause in the end that is all that matter.

[RA1N1ER]

it's cool smooth....no offense taken regarding the comment....

and you can't be more CORRECT on that question -- which one does she like ?


for me -- she likes both, but I only let her ride the Sporty with me as a driver of course

[Bolter]

Now look at europe. Most guys ride around on little vespas and eat french fries with mayonnaise.

Woah there steady on! Little Vespas? French fries?

What small part of Europe did you visit? A Vespa convention in Belgium?

[Ole Unka Phil]

I have a few Vespa's and a 05 - 883L...

Most people that talk shiot about someone else's bikes has a small penis and brain to go with it!

The 883R is a fine bike. An excellent commuter bike and a great handling bike. Not a long distance cruiser. It was never intended to be. Well built and good quality with a great resale value too. I like Jap bikes but the HD Sportster certainly lives up them and surpasses many of them these days. HD has it together on quality now a days. You'll be very pleased with it.

Here's your Vespa



And a Sporty

[mpsd]

Each country has its own accepted standards.

It seems in Brazil a sportster sized bike is the norm.

The only person you should be asking this question to is your wife/girlfriend. And here is the question- Which bike will cause you to tear off your clothes and make sweet love to me?

Cause in the end that is all that matter.

LOL. Great comment and absolutelly no offense taken. I know about the cultural/standards differences and I wanted to ask it here because I also know that in US, most people start driving bigger bikes. I mean, for you guys, the Sportster seems to be a small bike. For the brazilian standards, that's a HUGE bike.

Here in Sao Paulo there's a profession called motoboy, which is a kind of a courier that work delivering envelopes and small packages. They benefit from driving a bike in a town with something like 8 million cars and 3 million bikes on the streets, with over 1000 miles of traffic jams every day. The bikes are usually pretty small (think about 125cc mostly, but a lot of 100cc, 200cc and 250cc). A Sportster 883R costs around R$ 31,000.00, which means almost US$ 20,000.00, in a country where the average earnings are like US$ 6,000.00 per year.

So, getting back to my original question, which I believe is already answered, I was asking if a Sportster, with it's 300 pounds and 900cc engine would be an easy bike for someone who never drove any kind of motorized bike before.

Thanks for all of you guys for helping me with this. I just came back from the HD dealer and I've made my mind. I'll go with it. May take a couple of months still, since I have to get my license and I have a two week travel to US comming. I'll show you what I chose when I get it.

[Smoothice]

Woah there steady on! Little Vespas? French fries?

What small part of Europe did you visit? A Vespa convention in Belgium?

The only parts i've ever seen were in movies

[Smoothice]

Most people that talk shiot about someone else's bikes has a small penis and brain to go with it!

The others are just bored

[Smoothice]

sportster is the perfect bike to learn on and get good on.

Here's a little story.

When I got my motorcycle license at 15 1/2 I took the test on my sporster. Passed with flying colors. Light and easy to turn.

Fast forward 10 years. Moved to a different state and needed to retake the test. Decided to take it on my dads Harley Davidson Full Dresser. With c.d player and surround sound speakers to boot.

Been riding for 10 years by now. And I BARELY passed the test. The full dresser was so big I could hardly do the tight radius turns they wanted me to do. I had to the course 2x.

[Bolter]

The only parts i've ever seen were in movies

Exactly my point.

[bofh]

So, getting back to my original question, which I believe is already answered, I was asking if a Sportster, with it's 300 pounds and 900cc engine would be an easy bike for someone who never drove any kind of motorized bike before.

The sporty may be a fine beginners bike, but it's now where close to 300 lbs. It's over 550lbs.

[Ole Unka Phil]

Bofh is right. Its really a bit beyond a beginners bike. A light 250cc bike is a beginners bike. Something like a Virago 250 or a Honda Rebel are good beginners bikes.

[rawbutter]

As far as "beginners" bikes go, I don't think the bike is as important as the driver.

I learned to drive motorcycles while borrowing my friend's Honda CB 200 (a tiny little 90-lbs. thing) once or twice.

Then, I went out and bought an '83 Honda Goldwing (cause it was the only thing I could afford at the time), which is a 600 lbs. bike with 1100ccs.... definitely not your typical "starter" bike. But I was careful with it and took my time getting used to it, and I've never had any problems.

I would definitely agree with buying used for your first bike, though. I don't know anyone who hasn't dropped his bike on its side once or twice when they were starting out. You don't want to do that to something brand new. Once you've passed your motorcyle test.... then you're ready for a new bike.