Sporty Questions

[chopper]

contemplating getting rid of my (only 7 week old) XT660x to get another sporty, the XT is my work bike, use it to commute into the city daily 13 miles each way, in every kind of weather, not had a day yet in 10 years that i havent ridden in due to the weather so i need something thats gonna run ok in the rain and cold.

Had a XL883R a couple of years back which i promptly chopped up to make a custom and loved it so thats what i would go with, also the black motor will help to hide the weather i would have thought.

Question is will it last?

anyone use their sporty for all year round commuting?
I dont have the time to come home and rinse my bike off when its a bit salty or dirty out so it will only get the ocasional wash etc etc etc

i really love the motard for work its great fun, and i dont really want to get rid of it to be honest, i just dont get the time to ride the softail as much as i want to so thinking down the lines of this may give me the fix i need

this is what i have now





this is what i want (i think)

[HOG maniac]

Basically it wont last. Sorry. I used mine daily through two winters washing it everyday and it took a beating.

The main areas of concern will be the front forks and yolks.

However if you wash it down daily and put it away. Takes around 25 mins it will be fine

[badnamemike]

Just satin black it Neil, it will be fine! (Daz posting as Mike)

[Mel]

Anyone tried commuting a winter after plastering the bike with ACF-50? I put some on for the latter part of last winter and it was quite impressive.

I'm interested to know about the durability of the sportster, as I'm thinking of buying a 2nd bike myself for winter use to keep sportster looking good.

[chopper]

that would be my plan mate! get them fork legs black asap! and anything else for that matter,

Will wait and see i guess at the moment, have a complete 03 sporty frame and swingarm sitting in the garage so may just have to basterdize that a bit ad make something instead!

[bond]

Just bought a sportster for my daily work commute (30 mile each way) last winter I used a CCM flat tracker, I was a little worried that the CCM would fall apart with the road salt so gave it a very heavy dosing of FS365 (Scottoiler protector spray) and have to say that it came through the winter with hardly a blemish.

My sportster (2002, 1200s) has very little chrome on it , so I’m hopping that the lack of chrome bits and the protector spray should see it survive the British winter ok. Painting the fork legs sounds like good advice, mine are already a bit of a mess.

[chopper]

if youre not a polishing person then its the first thing you should do to any harley! the stock fork legs go crap really quickly, doesnt take long to do, couple of hours, some grey primer and then whatever colour you wnat on the top, you could obviously paint them silver if you wanted to.

Did my softail legs in satin black a few months back now, best thing i ever did.

[llew]

Originally Posted by HOG maniac

Basically it wont last. Sorry. I used mine daily through two winters washing it everyday and it took a beating.

The main areas of concern will be the front forks and yolks.

However if you wash it down daily and put it away. Takes around 25 mins it will be fine

I'd agree with this, especialy the yokes, mine are nicely pitted. The chrome on my wheels were not that good at the start and have got no better with winter ridding.

Then again I did by it to ride, not to look at to comb my hair

[Hobbit]

sprayed mine with S100 and it lasted thru last winter with only 2 washes and the only thing that went bad was the bottom yoke and mine was the Custom version with no black parts.
I agree if its not protected or not black it will go furry very very quickly, a cold rinse after riding staves off most, but he s100/ACF/Scottoiler all help

[HOG maniac]

How can you do that. At least it should be gloss black so you can polish it.