When the first Sportsters rolled out of the Harley-Davidson factory in 1957, they were powered by the iconic ‘ironhead’ motor—which would remain in production until 1985.
The Sportster is still in production 60 years later, and the ironhead has the longest production history of any Sportster engine. In the early days, the 55ci motor offered a lot of bang for the buck, with a 7.5:1 compression ratio, a 90-degree valve angle and four cams.
In 1972, capacity was bumped up to 61ci and the compression ratio to 9:1. The extra power took the Ironhead Sportster to a heady 110 mph.
Today, there are tens of thousands of Ironhead Sportsters still on the road, and a huge aftermarket parts industry has sprung up around the engine. That makes it easy to build, tune and maintain—and the ideal platform for both budding and experienced custom builders.
Ben Schmitt’s name first appeared on these pages three years ago, when the legendary NYC Norton built him a Norton Commando race bike out of a ratty donor that had been bought from a Tina Turner impersonator (true story). But Ben’s love affair with motorcycles goes way further back than that. “I started with minibikes…
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If you’re a classic watercraft aficionado, this custom Harley-Davidson Sportster should feel familiar to you. That’s because it’s modeled after one of the most exquisite and unique boats ever built: the Lamborghini Riva Aquarama. The storied Italian boat maker Riva started out building ferries, and has since graduated to super yachts. But they’re best known…
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Copper Chopper wowed us earlier this month with an impossibly elegant SR400 bobber, built from scratch and laden with tasty handcrafted bits. It was Alexey and Igor’s first commissioned build since taking their shop from sideline gig to full-time business. Before that, they’d simply build a bike according to their own taste, sell it and…
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You’ll find no shortage of custom Harleys on builder Kento Oketani’s home streets of Long Beach. But you won’t find anything quite like his 1970 Harley-Davidson Sportster XLH. You might not know what to make of it at first glance—but once you understand how this desert sled came to be, the pieces start falling into…
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If pushed to pick a golden age for flat track, most folks would suggest the late 60s to the early 70s. It…
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Harley-Davidson has just rebooted one of the world’s longest-running model lines, with the launch of the new Sportster S. But remarkably, it’s…
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Building a custom bike is often beset with difficulties: there can be unreasonable client demands, unforeseen technical issues, cashflow problems, and in…
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Squeezing two Harley engines into one chassis is a special form of lunacy, most commonly found in the drag bike scene in…
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Trends ebb and flow in the custom world. And with them, the fortunes of bike builders. It might be tough at the…
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Jared Smith has a pretty diverse skill set. He has one foot in the digital world as a user experience and software…
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Harley-Davidson’s new Softail range has set the interwebs alight, which has us thinking: isn’t it about time the Sportster got refreshed too?…
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One of the greatest spectacles in motorcycling is The Race Of Gentlemen, held every summer on the Jersey shore. It’s a recreation…
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