Description
Authors: Allan Girdler & Ron Hussey, Softbound, 128 Pages, ISBN: 9781626549357, 1st Edition, 2013
In 1957, The Motor Company, as they call Harley-Davidson in Milwaukee, was in trouble. The big twins were too big, the small two-stroke single was too small, and a surge of imports had taken the sporting market from the underpowered Model K.
It was time for something new and different. It was time for the Sportster.
Never has a motorcycle been more aptly named. The Sportster kept the K's best features, borrowed the improvements of the imports, threw in some homemade hot rodding, and before you could say Superbike—a term invented to describe the XLCH—the Sportster was making history,setting sales and speed records, and introducing people to the sport of motorcycling and the mystique of Harley-Davidson.
The history is still going on.
This book tells how and why, in sequence, from the circumstances and models that preceded the XL through to the 1200 Evo, with its five speeds and belt drive. On the way, there are in-depth looks at the race-ready XLC that began the Superbike era (and took even the factory by surprise), at the radical Café Racer and super-sport Buell, and at the price-buster XLX that taught the imports the value of the dollar.
As soon as the publishers and I agreed there should be an appreciation of the XL series, I drew up a chart/list of the milestones, the Great Leaps Forward (or in one case not so far forward) from 1957 to the present.
Then I asked for help in locating and borrowing the bikes we needed to make this project work. As will be shown in the following pages, what we asked for, we got, for which we are thankful to the owners, whose names appear with their treasures in the appropriate chapters, and to David Edwards of Cycle World, Jack Mangus (formerly) of Cycle News, Brian Hatton at CityBike, and Greg Duray, founder of the Competition Network for Harleys.
About the time I arrived on this planet I somehow was given the choice between being smart or being lucky. I was smart enough to pick lucky. I say that because every time I've done a .book, I've somehow stumbled across guys who (1) know more than I do and (2) will share it.
On this occasion, the donors were Bill Milburn and Glenn Bator. I could have done this book without them; it just wouldn't have been as good.
Far from least, when I was courting Nancy, the ace up my sleeve was having two Harleys, my XLH and my XR-750. There we were one Sunday, her on the XL and me on the XR, when she low-sided on a tricky turn.
Oh, she said, the guilt! The shame! I've damaged your Sportster. How can we make sure I never crasli one of your bikes again?
Marry me, I said, and we'll become a two-Sportster family, which we did and still are and I can only hope you live as happily ever after.
