Comparing an 883 to a 1200?,... or a 1200 to a Savage?  

This is more of a Cafe type question,...
I'll move you.

Serow

Not sure there is a real comparison. Sportsters are much heavier than the Suzuki. They along with all Harleys don’t carry their weight well. Difficult to maneuver slow speed. Once moving they are okay but still don’t handle great. The tractor comparison is an accurate one.

Having ridden an owned many different bikes, including the Suzuki Savage/S40, Harley’s in my opinion are more for show than enjoyable riding. The Suzuki is a fun, light, small bike. Much more enjoyable to ride than a Harley.

Power wise the Harley has more overall power.

If your building a chopper, the choice really doesn’t mean much because what you will end up with won’t handle well anyway. Not that I’m against choppers, but they are show no go...except for in a straight line.

Some years ago I went to the Barber Vintage Festival. Saw a bunch of cool builds. Decided to make a cafe racer. Thought about the donor bike. Narrowed it down to a 1200 Sportster. Specifically. an XL1200S. Thats the one with adjustable suspension, high compression, twin plugs, and bumpy cams. Up til '03, Sporties were rigid mounted. Weighed about 500 pounds. Ran around with a girl with an '89 4 speed 883. Did a ton of work on it. Prob dropped 75 pounds. And picked up a few ponies. Nice bike. Made me think a 5 speed, 1200 would be a good starting point.
In '04, they went rubber mount motor. Had to add (literally) 60 pounds to the frame to make up for the chassis rigidity lost to isolating the motor. The later bikes picked up a few ponies, but not enough to make up for 60 lbs of extra mass.
So, I almost bought an '03 XL1200S. Found one for only $3K or so. Thought long and hard about how hard (time and money) it'd be to drop 100 lbs off the beast.
Figured I'd be at $10K for the project (including the price of the bike) in no time. Hmmmm....
Always thought the Savage was a good starting point. Big air-cooled single, belt drive, 4 valve, single carb and exhaust. Did some reading and saw that you could get them down to 300 lbs. Jesus Christ on a bet couldn't get a Sporty to even 350 lbs. Sure, the Sporty would have more HP and torque (a lot more), but it'd be moving a lot more msss.
And what did I want? A bike that'd go 20-80 MPH quickly and easily. And be flickable. Seemed the counterbalanced 300 lb Savage would be able to do the smoothly and easily. A lot less money and effort than the Sporty. Figured I didn't owe HD anything, didn't need to be their R+D team showing what their bikes could be. And there are lots of trick Sportsters out there.
One day a kid I work with tells me he has a Savage in boxes and buckets that he took apart (used to run) in his garage. Says he has to move out of the garage, and now that he has an HD that works, he isn't likely to ever get the Savage back in one piece.
Do I want it for free? And he'll deliver it.
Tough decision, yes?
Not at all

Thanks, how would you compare the different weights and their effects?

By in large do you like the Volt?  I checked one out and I was interested till I sat down on it.  I had to reach to get to the handlebars, it was really uncomfortable for me.  

Best regards,

Dennisgb wrote on 03/01/20 at 19:37:09:


I am guessing that a lot of you guys are too young to remember when California tried to outlaw choppers, claiming that they handled too bad to be safe. So a group of bikers proposed a test of their choppers against the most popular Japanese and British bikes available at the time. They took the bikes to a track with the cops riding the stock bikes and the bikers on their choppers. The choppers outperformed the stock bikes on the track. If a rigid frame, raked and extended chopper handles better than the 750 Hondas, Kawasakis, and Triumphs of the day did, they can't handle that bad.

d3adrock

I have never lost a SLOW-RACE to a Harley while on my S-40.  I've been  to the CMAUSA State rally every year for the past 10 years.   Seven out of 10 years I've took the S-40 , and never lost.   The other 3 years , One of them was the Guzzi (came in second to a Harley) Two of them were Sportsters came in 2nd with the Harleys .

I've ridden the Dragon more than 100 times and never been passed by a Harley of any kind , but have never not passed a Harley on a dragon run.   I have passed Sport-bikes on the Dragon too but that is rare and the sports-biker has to make a mistake for it to happen (and ya have to be ready to jump) .     The Harleys are just always in the way !   I couldn't make either of my Harleys keep-up with the Savage guys on the BlueRidge or any of them twisities type roads.