Welp, I decided to finally cheat on my beloved Savage.

I was looking for a second bike, something a little more highway friendly (without converting to a chain). I'm certainly delighted with how the savage has performed on the interstate, it has more than enough power I just can't bring myself to run my beloved bike at those RPMs for sustained 70 MPH trips.

I knew I wanted something air cooled, ~900 CC, with a skinny versus fat front tire. Needless to say Savage styling was on my mind.

Here's what I found!




An HD 03 XL1200. I got her for 5,000 at 11,XXX miles. I consider the deal fair for both sides. The PO kept excellent care of all of his equipment and was into restoration of trucks and cars. Motorcycles just turned out not to be his thing. I can't speak for the other 2 POs.

I'll admit, I'm a sucker for the loping of the Harley sound. Reminds me of air cooled WW2 aircraft engines. It came with Screamin Eagle II after market exhaust, hi-flow air cleaner, and re-jetted appropriately by the dealer. I add a cone air intake, thunder slide jet kit, and the same fly screen I added on the Savage. She was jetted optimistically rich and had the baffles taken out, so  I order a set of Big City Thunder baffles and some packing as well as a more lean pilot to get where she needs to be.

The bike certainly doesn't corner like the Savage does on the back roads and takes more care to handle at low speed/cornering/working through the gears. However, the handling is a welcome new set of skills to learn after 2 years of Savage riding. I'm very happy with the purchase. Don't worry, there are 0 plans to sell the Savage as I take them out equally depending on what type of riding I like to do. The Savage, surprisingly as I was going to make up my mind to sell it or not after I got the HD home, means even more to me now.

One thing is for sure, the lessons learned from riding and ESPECIALLY working on the Savage have helped me bounds on selecting my second bike. First purchase was a Clymers, and I have since re jetted, fixed an exhaust leak, as well as a few other tweaks with no intentions of pulling into an HD dealer unless something proves absolutely unresolvable.

For those with Sportsters, there is a forum with assimilate support to ours, XLForum.com, that is a great resource and gets you away from the rest of the HD know it all crowd.  

I'll do my best out there. I caved to the silver color scheme. I will say that the forks decompressing with you give a loving throttle twist is a welcome shot of excitement in the race to 60.

What a steal Lancer. And some snazzy V&H short shots you have yourself there.

The F4U is a personal favorite of mine as well. Idk if you've had the pleasure of seeing it fly at an airshow, but that big engine hauls it around the sky effortlessly. It's amazing how much speed that aircraft can pick up in a dive.

Aviation rumor had it that once an F4U pilot ran out of ammo. He was so determined to get his target, that he caught up to the Zero and slowly pulled into the back of the aircraft, using his massive engine and 13 foot Hamilton propeller to incapacitate the tail of the enemy aircraft. I believe the Corsair made it back, needless to say the prop and engine probably weren't in the best of shape!

Two rows of nine in the engine that powered the Corsair. Talk about a pain to re-jet...

I'm 5'8 and it feels like the bike fits like a glove for someone in the 5'8 to 5'10 range.

The bike has a very satisfying pull, have to avoid using Armor All on the seat!

I believe it,  many a turn I could have completed on the Savage by the time I finished the calculations of how much I need to slow down and how much the chrome repairs could cost in event of a lay over on the HD.  

ps. I heard on the Dragon, Old feller, eats 1200 Sportsers for breakfast and craps out 883's for lunch...


Doin't know what makes him like that but ,"Thats just how the OldFeller is !"

I keep up with him on the Savage but when I took my 04 1200 roadster to the mountains he took my lunch whenever he wanted it !  Till the sporterster tore up trying to keep up with em .

What I don't like about the sportster is they are to top heavy.