It's Finally Happened

As the title of this post suggests, it has finally happened: I've fallen ass over tea kettle for a Harley-Davidson.

The cold breeze that just blew past was not from the winter storm but it was from Hell as it freezes over.  Don't let my Triumph know or it may disown me.

The Harley I've embraced is the new XR1200X.  It's an updated version of the Sportster-based XR1200 released in Europe in 2009 and in the U.S. in 2010.


What remains on the 2011 model is the pumped-up twin pushing out 90 horsepower and the flat track inspired styling.  The typical cruiser-esque styling of the regular Sportster was chucked in favor of a more aggressive standard riding position with flat track-style bars and rear mounted foot pegs.  In all, it's the closest Harley has ventured into sport bike territory since the look-fast-go-slow XLCR of 1977.
 
Black is the order of the day on the X.  The twin exhaust is now menacing black, replacing the silver of the regular XR.  All of the sliver bits on the engine are now black, too.  The seat is black, the gauges are black, the bars are black, the wheels are black; everything is black.

The only color you can add to the bike is the option of white paint.  Frankly, I think that's the best option because the blackness of the bike consumes it.  Everything is the same color so you lose a lot of the details.  It's a bit monotonous.

I can live with monotonous black, though.  After all, my Triumph is the Black model and it is really only two colors - black and chrome.

Where the X really wins in my book is the suspension.  The XR1200 used twin shocks in the rear and an upside-down fork up front, all made by Showa.  While they were a momentous improvement over the standard Sportster suspension, the drawback was their lack of adjustability.  Adjustable units were available in the Screamin' Eagle catalog at a hefty price on top of the hefty price for the XR.

With the X, Harley equipped it with the adjustable Showa units as standard and lowered the price.  That's a pretty good deal.  The rear shocks now have that oh-so-cool-and-functional remote reservoir and the front fork is the straight-from-the-track Showa Big Piston Fork.  This fork works wonders on the liter superbikes from Japan, so imagine what it'll do for the Sportster.

From a pure sport bike angle, the XR1200 is a bit of a miss.  With 90 horsepower, it's really not that fast and at 573 pounds wet, not very light, either.  It's a bit of mish-mash of styles, too.  It goes for the flat track look but the exhausts are way too low and the flat track bars look very uncomfortable.  It's abilities as a back road burner can be questioned as well because of the low exhaust.  I can just imagine having an easy time grinding those massive cans on tight right-hand curves.

In spite of all that, I was really impressed with the XR1200 when it debuted in 2009.  I thought it would be perfect for Harley and it would allow them to broaden their customer base here in the U.S.  It's nice to see Harley put their engineering ability to work on something other than the same old thing they've been building since time began.  We know that Harley can build a great bike to get you to the bar and back or allow you to lazily chuff along the interstate; now they've shown they can build a sporty bike, as well.

The sales of the bike here, however, really weren't that good and I've only seen one on the road.  Time will tell how the XR1200 gets on but I'll keep my eye out for a used one in the future, that's for sure.  Like I've said, the XR is far from perfect but that makes it perfect for me.  I like bikes with character and character flaws.  It makes them more realistic and more human in my mind.  There are numerous superbikes from Italy and Japan that will get you close to engineering perfection, all the while being as realistically useful as having your own pet dinosaur.  I don't want perfection, I want fun and that's what the XR provides.

Now, how do I mount the sissy bar and the fringe?