Harley-Davidson is well aware that the median age of its customer base is rising – and that it needs to extend its appeal beyond the mostly male, baby-boomer demographic that provides most of its income.
Hence the V-Rod, as modern a bike as Milwaukee thought it could get away with, designed to appeal to riders who want an American bike but who consider a “normal” Harley ridiculously out-of-date. But what about riders who want a traditional Harley but for whom the Fat Boy and Dyna are too big and heavy – and too expensive?
Well, there’s the XL 883 L: the L in this case stands for Low – 660mm low; that’s the seat height of the Motor Company’s latest Sportster.
That corresponds to an inside leg length of 26″ in the old language, which means that anyone taller than 5’2″ (1.55m to you, Cyril) should be able to sit on it with their feet flat on the deck.
And it costs R64 000 – cheaper than most 600cc Japanese commuters.
So what does our 1.55m Harley neophyte (note careful avoidance of sexist stereotypes) get for that money?
First: an 883cc, 45-degree V-twin engine that was designed in 1957, with 76.2mm pistons and a 96.8mm stroke. It’s fed by a 40mm Keihin CV carburettor and a T-shaped manifold that, in medical terms, is about as efficient as trying to breathe through a broken nose.
It delivers about 39kW at about 5000rpm; Harley-Davidson doesn’t quote power outputs (embarrassed, probably) but is not shy to tell you the XL motor kicks out 69Nm at 4200rpm.
The engine was revised for 2004 with a lighter-pull clutch and helical-gear, five-speed transmission for quieter shifting, but more importantly is now rubber-mounted to insulate the rider from the worst of the characteristic Milwaukee vibration.
You can still feel that it’s a Harley; it has that distinctive off-beat idle and a certain amount of shake still reaches the rider through bars and pegs, but it’s more a statement than an assault on your fillings and never becomes unpleasant.
It pulls with some authority (enough to make you feel you’re on a serious motorcycle but not enough to intimidate anyone with a couple of years’ riding experience) in the low and mid-range but rapidly runs out of puff as the revs rise.
You find yourself short-shifting through the box (very positive, if still quite vocal) to stay in the strongest part of the torque curve but when you get into top the power flattens out.
Hang on the cables
The XL883 will accelerate quickly up to 120km/h in top but doesn’t want to go over 141km/h, no matter how long you hang on the cables, although it will happily (if noisily) top out at 158km/h in fourth.
On the last day I had the bike I got perfect conditions: cold, dense air, no wind and a smooth, flat road. I wound it out in fourth and hooked top – and the XL just managed to top the old “ton” (100mph, 161km/h), with my not-inconsiderable boep spread out over the 12.5-litre “peanut” tank like a soggy pudding.
During all this rather ineffectual “performance” testing the Sportster returned a fuel consumption of 6.1 litres/100km and it would probably do a little better if you kept it under the national speed limit. The gearbox, however, impressed: it would snick through the gears from second on without benefit of clutch and by the end of the test period I was getting seamless upshifts without even trying.
The familiar belt final drive negates any necessity for a cush drive and soaks up transmission lash; add the engine’s instant response and rubber-mounted smoothness, and you have a remarkably civilised drive train.
How did they get the seat so low?
The engine is mounted in a standard 2004-spec “Evolution” steel-tube frame – so how did Harley-Davidson get the seat so low?
Simple: by shortening the suspension travel and fitting a deeply dished single seat with very little padding. The resultant ride is almost as harsh as a hardtail at the rear, even at the softest of five pre-load settings, and not much better at the front, while the seat impresses the full pedigree of every ripple in the road on the base of your spine.
But the chassis never loses its composure, even through long, wallowy corners, keeping everything in line thanks to a flex-free frame and suspension stiff enough to minimise the changes in geometry induced by its travel – just like a 1970s Italian sports bike.
The bike is remarkably nimble for a 251kg cruiser, partly due to its almost subterranean centre of gravity and partly thanks to its compact (by Milwaukee standards) 1515mm wheelbase and wide handlebars. It can be cornered hard within the limits of its ground clearance without giving the rider any unexpected surprises.
Initial bite
The brakes are also better in operation than their specifications would suggest: it has a 1970’s-style, single-piston floating calliper at each end but thanks to quality hoses and a substantial master cylinder there’s more than enough initial bite to overwhelm the grip of the skinny 100/90 front tyre. In the wet, in fact, it proved embarrassingly easy to lock up the front wheel.
The rest is standard Harley-Davidson issue: chunky switchgear, a plain, very small speedometer with five minuscule warning lights, and the absolutely superlative finishes, whether painted, chromed or polished alloy, for which the Motor Company’s products are justly famed.
It’s a real Harley, Cyril, with a seat height of only 660mm, for R64 000 – and that can’t be bad.
