Is it fast? No. Is it practical? Also no. But is it a fun ride? Absolutely. Buying a Harley-Davidson Sportster is like marrying your crazy ex: You don’t do it for logic, you do it for a story to tell.

If you’ve watched some of my recent videos, you’ve seen me bash my Sportster Iron 1200 pretty hard. So what can you trust, why do I keep buying them, and should you buy a Sportster or not? Let’s find out!

Why I Bought It

Motorcycle reviews on the internet are rife with bias: Manufacturers invite the media or influencers to press launches to test demo units, but the minute they stop publishing glowing endorsements, they stop getting invited to future media events. Sleazy influencers don’t want to upset manufacturers or risk offending potential subscribers, so they also toe the line and tell you every motorcycle is great.

Owner reviews are also rife with personal bias because, people get not just financially invested, but also emotionally invested, and ego invested in their motorcycles. It makes them much more forgiving of things that non-owners might not like about their motorcycles.

Luckily there are a few of us out there, that have owned dozens of motorcycles like me, or maybe just enough to be able to be completely objective, and unattached, and make some no-nonsense reviews.

So, if you want to skip ahead and find out whether the Sportster is right for you, you can skip down to the next section. But if you want to know why I keep buying Sportsters every 5 years or so, just stick with me.

I won’t pretend that I don’t have some bias when it comes to the Harley-Davidson Sportster. Sure, as a motorcycle, the Sportster does kind of sucks, but I’m very emotionally invested in it.

Let’s flash back to Spring of 2011:

I was a broke student just finishing university, my dad’s cancer was in remission. I was just starting my career in the motorcycle business working at a dealership, and that allowed me to move out and do two things I could never do at home:

1. Get a dog. I literally moved out, spent the first night home alone, and adopted Miley the very next day.
2. Get a Harley. I had actually bought my first Sportster months earlier, but my parents said I wasn’t allowed to have a Harley, so I kept it secret from them by shuffling it from one friend’s garage to another, until I got my own place.

Last video I mentioned that I taught myself a lot of how to wrench on a motorcycle by taking my Sportster apart, and then rushing to put it back together so I could ride it to work in the morning. I did that like every night, with my dog Miley by my side.

My dog grew up attached to that bike, and she quickly learned how to tell the sound of it, and the sound of my ex’s Kawasaki Ninja, and get excited when one of us would come home.

I’ll never forget the time my dog decided to jump on the seat of the Sportster, and then she just casually turned to face forward, and sat down, all by herself, like she was going to ride it. I barely had enough time to take this really shitty picture, but it’s one of my favorite pictures and one of my favorite memories of all time.

I’ll never forget being 21 and 22 years old, hanging out with my first dog, in my first garage, working on my first Harley, having a young playful kind of love, thinking my dad had beaten his cancer, and how great it felt that I could just pick up the phone and call him. It was the feeling of a guy who had everything he could want in life. I was so grateful.

Then a year or two later I’d lose my dad and that relationship would end. A dozen years later I’d lose my dog. Then several months later I saw an ad for a Sportster for sale. It was one thing I could still have.

So whether I’m replacing the exhaust system, changing spark plugs, or just riding the bike, it takes me back in time to going through those same motions, reliving those same experiences, remembering those happy moments in my first garage, with my first dog, with my dad just a phone call away.

Should You Buy A Sportster?

So that’s the real reason why I bought the Sportster, the question is, should you buy a Sportster too?

Don’t decide that, before you know these four things first:

1) You need to think of the Sportster as an unfinished motorcycle. The Sportster can be a great motorcycle, but it’s a motorcycle that needs work to make it great, and by work, I mean money.

So if your budget is around $5,000, don’t buy a $5,000 Sportster that’s bone stock. Buy a $4,000 Sportster that’s bone stock, and then spend the $1,000 you put aside towards suspension, ergonomics, and exhaust.

Also, I did a video called “My Sportster is dumb and fun to ride, just like your mom” showing you guys all the mods I did to get my Sportster up to snuff, check that out after this video.

2) You also need to come to terms with the fact that the 883 is really limited on the highways. The 1,200cc only cost me $40 more per year to insure. In my opinion that’s the better buy if you want to be riding your Sportster on bigger highways.

Even with the bigger motor, the Iron 1200 a lot of vibration. It only has five gears. It might feel limited on long touring trips, so, if you’re okay with that, buy a Sportster. If you think you might get tired of it because you plan on taking a lot of long rides, don’t buy a Sportster.

3) You need to also understand that the 1,200 Sportster and even the 883 Sportster aren’t your ideal first motorcycles. Yes, they have a nice low seat height. Yes, you can pick up older ones for real cheap which is a great idea for beginners. Yes, I have a video called “50 Things to Check Before You Buy A Sportster” that will show you everything to look out for… but, these motors make a lot of torque, and a beginner can accidentally roll on the throttle and get more power than they bargained for and get into a scary moment.

The ideal first motorcycle is one that makes you fall in love with motorcycling, rather than one that might scare you out of motorcycling. If you’re a brand new rider, don’t maybe don’t buy a Sportster, but if you’ve already got some experience, go ahead and buy one.

4) Harley’s aren’t cheap, but sometimes you can get lucky. For example, I bought the exhausts and the gel seat on mine second hand, saving me hundreds of dollars on each, but I could do that because I live in a city of three million people and there’s always someone selling Sportster parts.

Depending on where you live, and how much money you have to spend, buy a Sportster, but also, maybe don’t.

5) Finally, if you decide to buy one, it might be worth considering Sportsters that have also had some work done. You probably shouldn’t buy a Sportster from someone who smells like beer and did a 1250 big bore kit install themselves, but it’s hard to screw up installing rear suspension, and that can save you a ton of money. So maybe buy a modded Sportster, but also, maybe don’t.

If you think a Sportster is right for you, I strongly recommend watching my video on 50 Things To Check Before You Buy a Harley-Davidson Sportster, it’s about to hit 100,000 views.

Tell your dog I said Hi and if you think all dogs go to heaven and you like the content, please consider subscribing to YouMotorcycle.

If you made it this far, leave me a comment and let me know what your first dog’s name was, and if it ever got to see you riding motorcycles.

I’m Adrian from YouMotorcycle, thanks for watching. Ride safe, but have fun!