Motorbooks

Harley-Davidson Sportster - Sixty Years

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SKU:
9780760352182
UPC:
9780760352182
MPN:
9780760352182
Condition:
New
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Weight:
1.50 KGS
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  • Harley-Davidson Sportster: Sixty Years (9780760352182)
  • Harley-Davidson Sportster: Sixty Years (9780760352182)
  • Harley-Davidson Sportster: Sixty Years (9780760352182)
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Description

Author: Allan Girdler, Hardbound, 176 Pages, ISBN: 9780760352182 - 2017 reprint

Things got a little weird in the American motorcycle industry after World War II. People hungered for new motorcycles, buying just about everything manufacturers could build. But on rare occasions a manufacturer produced a machine that nobody wanted. Such was the case with the Harley-Davidson Model K. The Model K had most of the features buyers wanted in a modern machine, like hand-operated clutches, foot-operated shifters, and cool-running aluminum heads, but it lacked perhaps the most important technological upgrade: a modern overhead-valve valve-train design.

The Model K retained the antiquated side-valve design because of arcane AMA racing rules written when Harley-Davidson and Indian competed head-to-head on American racetracks, but by 1952 Indian was on its last legs. This should have made the Model K a massive sales success. What nobody counted on was the British bike invasion. Thanks to their modern overhead-valve engines, the lightweight British bikes humiliated the side-valve Harleys on the track and on the street. Upgrades to the Model K didn't help; Harley finally relented and introduced a new overhead-valve middleweight for the 1957 model year. Dubbed the Sportster, it was everything the Model K was not. More importantly, it was faster than the British competition. Thus began the Sportster's sixty-year reign.

Harley-Davidson Sportster: Sixty Years tells the complete Sportster story. Noted Sportster expert Allen Girdler covers all the bikes--the XLCH, Café Racer, XR1000, XLX, 883, Iron, Forty-Eight, Seventy-Two, and Nightster--that have made the Sportster one of the most iconic motorcycles on earth.

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Additional Information

Condition Sync Code:
1000
Sync Category Code:
261186
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