MOTOCYCLER's BBS

It's been a dark and gloomy winter so far, and things were made no cheerier with the news that a liquidation company is holding an auction of the Buell factory assets on January 28th, crushing any lingering hopes of a Buell revival, but at least Harley-Davidson offers a small ray of sunshine in its latest offering in its youth-oriented "Dark Custom" lineup.

Based on the venerable 1200 Sportster platform, the Forty-Eight-so called because of the 1948 S-model, the first H-D with a peanut tank-is sort of a street-fighter version of the Nightster model introduced in 2008. And I thought that just once, I'd get a free pass on typing out a long-winded model name by writing about some model with just two-praise the Lord, two!-characters in its name. But nooooooo: Harley-Davidson has trademarked "Forty-Eight," so now I gotta type it out instead of just hitting '4' and '8.' Thank God for "ctrl-v."

Like the Nightster, it's chopped, low (with a 26.8-inch seat height and shortened rear suspension) and has plenty of black finishes where you'd usually find chrome. It also has the combined stop/turn/tail lamp found on other Dark Custom models, as well as a hip side-mounted license-plate bracket. The Forty-Eight differentiates itself from its older brother (they share the same chassis, fork, shocks and 1200cc fuel-injected V-Twin) with a fat 130/90-16 front tire, lower bars, a smaller, 2.1-gallon peanut tank, a smaller seat, and (horrors!) a headlight bereft of the sacred chrome "eyebrow" that's been on most every Sportster since the mid 19th century. Or is that 20th century?

Other changes to the Forty-Eight are new, wider triple clamps and underslung mirrors for a lower, meaner look. H-D also claims more lean angle for the 48, which should make the ctrl-v, I mean Forty-Eight a little more fun in the twisties, even if the claimed wet weight is five pounds more than the Nightster (probably due to the hefty front tire). The bike will carry an MSRP of $10,499 in black, or $10,789 for the silver or orange options.

There are those of you out there who may only have unpleasant memories of those old Sporties, memories of bone-rattling, part-dropping, oil-leaking, hard-starting nightmare rides, your "friends" jeering as you pulled up last at rest stops. Those days are long, long gone. The current Sportster models, from the bare-bones (but very pleasant) 883 Iron to the surprisingly fast XR1200 are smooth, torquey and...well, maybe "refined" isn't the right word, but "satisfying" does the trick. Ironically, we can thank Erik Buell and his engineering prowess for that: with Buell being confined to the Sportster motor for so many years, improvements were made to the engine's power output and delivery that the Motor Company may never have made on its own. Factor in changes to engine-mounting systems that made it possible to comfortably rev the 45-degree pushrod design to where it had never gone before. Oh, and did you know the Sportster has a cassette-style transmission? And the valves adjust themselves? Or that parts prices are substantially less than Asian brands? H-D has a good test-ride program, and with domestic sales down 25 percent in 2009 (and the Motor Company announcing a yearly loss for the first time in decades), the salesperson will be very happy to see you. H-D is unsure of when the Forty-Eight will be in dealers (more info will be available after the next dealer meeting), so call your local shop before you barge in.