What Sucks Most About My Harley-Davidson Sportster 1200

Owner reviews can be some of the worst motorcycle reviews on the internet because they are drenched with personal bias. People get not just very financially invested in their motorcycles, but also very emotionally and ego invested too, and it stops them from sometimes being able to be critical and to see and tell the whole truth about their motorcycles.

Not me though. I’ve got half a dozen motorcycles and I’ll gladly tell you what sucks about each one of them. I’m Adrian, my channel’s called YouMotorcycle. Here are three things that suck about my Harley-Davidson Sportster 1200 that you should know before you ever consider buying one.

Before any Harley owners get all sensitive and emotional in the comments section, just know, this video isn’t to poo poo on Harley-Davidson or even on my Sportster, because I love this motorcycle. It’s been fifteen years since I bought my first Sportster. I keep coming back to them every five years or so and buying another one. 

I think everyone should own a Sportster at least once in their lives, just, before you go out and buy one, let me tell you about the biggest downsides.

Problem 1: The Suspension is a Bad Joke

The Sportster gives you 3.5” of front end travel. Now, for context, the Bolt, which is Yamaha made to be a direct competitor to the Sportster offers about 4.7” or 30% more travel, making for a much more comfortable ride. But, in the Sportster’s defense, the front end suspension is, sufficient. Not great! But perfectly adequate.

The problem is the disaster going on in the back. The rear shocks are a literal pain in the ass

Until we get to the rear shocks, which are a literal pain in the ass. You get 1.6” of rear travel. Which means, you are bottoming out the suspension, every day, multiple times a day. 

And if you live in most of the United States, you might think I’m exaggerating, but the people up north know what I’m talking about. See, up here, it’s not just what’s above ground that freezes, but what’s below ground too. And all of that freezing and thawing we get every winter literally tears apart our roads prematurely, and riding a Sportster up here is absolutely jarring on your backside. 

So to try to beat this, one of the first mods I did was buy a set of Progressive Suspension rear shocks. Progressive springs aren’t wound evenly, they start off softer and then get stiffer as they compress, which gives you a smoother ride over small bumps while still handling bigger hits without bottoming out. 

The shocks did help a noticeable amount, but I’ll be honest, I got the cheapest model of Progressive Suspension rear shocks and compared to all my other bikes, the Iron 1200 is still a rough ride. 

And I’m harping on the suspension so much because it kind of ruins the whole “cruiser” experience. You want to just sit back, relax, and ride free, and ride carefree, but you can’t do that when you’re perpetually scanning the road ahead of you, because every bump has the potential to feel like a landmine. 

So in conclusion, if you’re going to buy a Sportster, whatever your budget is, subtract about $400 from that, and put it aside for some good suspension, because this bike really needs it, and don’t buy the cheapest you can get. 

Problem 2: Goofy Ergonomics

Okay, so now that you’re no longer compressing your spine into scoliosis, we need to talk about the zero common sense, absolutely goofy ergonomics of this motorcycle. 

First of all, if you haven’t been 5’5” since before you were a teenager, the mid controls that come on this motorcycle are bullshit. They are way too set back and stick out way too far for how skinny the tank is. The stock setup doesn’t let get any kind of leverage around this motorcycle with your lower body. And it’s not even comfortable at 5’10 and up.

Luckily forward control kits are cheap and plentiful online. They aren’t really forward forwards, so even 5’6” riders will have no issues with them, but they are much more comfortable. Kind of counter-intuitive, but in the case of the Sportster, forward controls actually do improve handling a bit on this motorcycle, simply because you’ll now be able to use your lower body to control the motorcycle more.

The downside is that installing Sportster forward controls yourself is a long and tedious job. The exhaust pipes have to come off, which requires removing a bunch of nuts you can’t see, it involves removing often seized or rusted exhaust header nuts, it involves unscrewing O2 sensors that are difficult to reach, and replacing exhaust gaskets that can be finicky to position just right. can’t see, and replacing exhaust gaskets that can sometimes be a pain to position just right. 

Normally I genuinely enjoy working on a Sportster because it’s kind of the motorcycle that I first learned how to wrench on 15 years ago, but, doing forward controls on this motorcycle just sucks.

The other thing that gives goofy ergonomics on this motorcycle is the handlebar. Younger riders might call these Mini Apes, older riders might call these Buckhorns, I think they’re somewhere in between, but whatever you call them, they suck. Here’s why: 

First, you get reduced leverage & reduced control because higher or more swept-back bars move your hands farther from the steering axis, giving you less direct input over the front wheel. You’re literally disconnecting yourself from precise steering feeling, especially with buckhorns, because the inward sweep creates an awkward wrist angle, which makes quick countersteering less effective. When you’re shifting your body’s weight off or away from the front wheel because you have goofy handlebars like these, you’re making the front end feedback of your motorcycle feel vague. 

Your range of motion and control is also less precise when your hands are up high than when they’re down low, that’s why you skin an apple down beneath your elbows, not above them. But Harley knows best, right brother?

So, we’ve covered the spine-compressing suspension, we’ve covered the ergonomics that don’t have an ounce of common sense to them. For any current or former Sportster owners out there, what do you dislike the most about your Sportster? If there were a few things you want to mention, I’d love to hear them to see if I’m alone in this or what else bothers you guys.

Problem 3: The Peanut Tank and Permanent Range Anxiety

Harley-Davidson, in their infinite wisdom, said, let’s keep our liter bike air cooled, so it guzzles all the gas, and then let’s give it a peanut tank so small you’ll have to refill every hundred miles, and so skinny you won’t be able to squeeze it with your knees to help you steer. 

But that wasn’t enough, was it? No, no no. Harley doubled down. See a lot of motorcycles put their gas cap off to the side, so that when the bike is on the sidestand, the gas cap is at the highest part of the tank, so you can fit the most in there. Makes sense right?

Well Harley-Davidson isn’t about making sense business. Harley Davidson is in the making dollars business. So they put the gas cap in the middle, and not even at the highest point, to really limit how much fuel you can put in your tank, and to make you want to buy a bigger tank from them that much sooner.

And all of this is crazy to me, because the Sportster, of all motorcycles, should be the quintessential, barebones, freedom machine. It should be the minimalist easy riding motorcycle. It should be the simplest vehicle to work on. But in a lot of ways, the Sportster gets in it’s own way, and that’s too bad. Harley has made the Sportster for almost 70 years, and they never quite got it right.

If you ride a modern V7, a modern Bonneville, a modern Z900RS, they are pretty much as perfect as we could expect Moto Guzzi, Triumph, or Kawasaki to make them in 2025. 

But the Sportster never got that treatment from Harley-Davidson, and it’s too bad because now, because of emission laws, Harley will never make another Sportster ever again, so they’ll never make a perfect one. 

Luckily though, there are so many options of accessories available, that a perfect is possible. You just have to build it yourself. 

Conclusions

If you’ve had Sportsters before, like I have, I bet none of this surprised you. If you haven’t had Sportsters, and you’re wondering, with all these issues, why does this guy keep buying them? Hit subscribe and check out my next video to find out, and please like this video if you found it interesting. 

I’m Adrian, thanks for watching, ride safe, but have fun!