Harley-Davidson Nightster
HARLEY-DAVIDSON NIGHTSTER
The Sportster moves over to the dark side
MARK HOYER
BACK IN '69, THE Sportster was a monster, a mega-motored superbike that was the quickest machine Cycle magazine had ever tested. Its very nature gave the bike an edgy, tough stance and made it a serious machine for serious riders. But sometime between then and now, the Sportster got soft, the edge was lost and it became a "nice" bike, sort of a Harley for beginners.
The late-release 2007 XL1200N Nightster is meant to get back some of that lost edge. Okay, the superbike/quarter-mile-king aspirations may not be part of the modern Sportster equation, but there is no denying this cut-down, retromod bob-job plays it way cooler than any Sporty of recent times. It was more than a year ago when styling options were initiated for a new, edgy and minimalist Sportster. These explorations took place in the Willie G. Davidson Product Development Center
CW EXCLUSIVE
in Wauwatosa, just outside of Milwaukee proper, about a 10-minute ride from the Juneau Ave. corporate HQ. This is “Willie World,” where all the small but epically important riffs on the various styling themes are brought to life.
And while Willie himself definitely had a hand in the Nightster’s styling, it was 27-year-old Richard Christoph who is credited with designing the bike. “He’s truly an up-and-comer in the styling department,” said H-D Communication Manager Paul James. “To a large extent, this bike looks the way it looks because of him. He and Willie G. worked closely together and fed off of each other’s energy. But it’s really been Richard’s baby.”
Christoph is part of the “young energy” Harley is trying
to harness, no doubt in search of a buyer who isn’t the traditional Boomer-with-cash upon which its current empire has been built. For Christoph’s part, he just wanted to make a cool Sportster with a retro bent that, quite simply, appealed to him.
“I just wanted the bike to be authentic, to strip it down and take parts off,” says Christoph, youngest designer in the PDC. “The Sportster is our smallest bike and I wanted to make it smaller still and put some of the ‘sport’ back into it. I even tried for kickstart but couldn’t get it pushed through.”
The bobber ethic is one of minimalism, which would make a production version of a bob-job a bit difficult, if only for the fact that the government usually requires things that need parts to be added. But Harley-Davidson has an army of people dedicated to fulfilling what it perceives as the customer’s subtle wishes regarding cosmetic execution. So parts came off.
At the very least, you must note that the taillight, as such, has been removed. The two red-lens turnsignals at the rear do double duty, as on a car. The license plate, meanwhile, is mounted on a hinge that allows the plate to be folded
rearward flush with the fender rails, with a detent to hold it in the “display” position for the local authorities. (The plate was accidentally flipped to the side one night on a local, camera-equipped toll road, with excellent results-oh, we are so badass...) A kit is available to center-mount the plate on the rear fender if you insist.
Other retro twists? Accordion fork gaiters and “lightening” holes drilled in the belt guard and front fender bracket.
And you can’t call a bike “Nightster” without celebrating the shades of the night. There is plenty of black and dark gray (engine cases and cylinders), very little of it glossy in finish. Chrome is minimal, limited on major components to the dual slash-cut exhausts and the wheel spokes. Don’t
believe details matter to Harley designers? A single front disc was chosen so that on the right side you could see the chromed spoke buttons contrast with the black hub.
Styling is cool, but motorcycles are all about layin’ a rubber road to freedom, man. Like the western-movie hero with a dark past, the Nightster rider will travel alone-the seat is solo.
How does it run? As Contributing Editor Allan Girdler said in our exclusive first test of the new rubber-mount Sportster back in October, 2003, “No one will ever push the starter button when the engine’s already running.” This is to say the engine remains alive with 45-degree Vee personality, minus the previous super-shaker punishment that required the rubber-mounted handlebars and fat grips of the old bike.
So, no, the engine may not be in modern terms a sophisticated, tire-torching monster, but it runs beautifully with its now-standard electronic fuel-injection. The system has an oxygen sensor for each pipe and is closed-loop, meaning it is ever adjusting itself for the optimum setting. It also means that modifications can take place and the system
will compensate with air/fuel ratio. Want pipes? Bolt them on, no messing around on the intake side is likely required. Stock output on the Cycle World dyno was 62.4 horsepower,
2 more than our carbureted 2004 Roadster. Torque measured about 2 foot-pounds lower at 67.4, delivered at the 3500-rpm peak. Power is strong off the bottom and fuel delivery is perfect. With EFI on the job, fast-idle and “choke” are handled on the electron level.
Shifts are thwackish, a procedurally satisfying operation of up or down cog-changing that is definitive in nature, yet light in execution. Neutral is found easily, and only when you want it. Clutchand brake-lever effort were reduced for all ’07 XL models, further easing rider-bike interface.
The very nature of the Nightster, however, means there are
compromises to rider comfort. The seat height is just 26.3 inches. The Sportster Low, by comparison, has a 28-inch seat. For my near-Sasquatchian, 6-foot-1 stature, the riding position is too close-coupled. The preload-adjustable shocks are mere stubs at 11 inches eye-to-eye with the bike unladen. This sets the rear end low enough that the swingarm travels uphill from the pivot to the axle. Rear travel is just 2.4 inches, while the 39mm conventional fork offers 4.6 inches.
I thought it was just my 210-pound “wet burrito” weight that bottomed the front and rear suspension so easily, but Road Test Ed. Canet, a 160-pounder, complained, too. It is the price you pay for the slammed look. Suck it up, biotch. You think this is a girl’s bike?
Fuel capacity is 3.3 gallons. Our pre-pre-production rider
turned in 35 mpg on the one tank before H-D swapped it out for a later “production-intent” bike. Given that mpg figure, you are looking at 90 miles before you get to the .8-gallon reserve. Efficiency will likely improve with increased breakin miles-there were just over 200 clicks on the clock and only 50 miles on Bike 2, which burned a similar amount of fuel.
The leaned-back and low-down stance means this is a bike for sub-70-mph cruises. Find a winding road, pick whatever gear keeps the engine in its sweet spot and let the bike swing through the bends between 40 and 60 mph. Then, riding is that free and easy experience about which we dream. The engine sounds great and the rider can relax his grip on the bars and soak up the pleasures of the road.
The Nightster, in concert with the concept XR1200 streettracker (Streetster? Trackster?), definitely ups the cool quotient of the Sportster line. For now, though, the $9595 Black or $9990 Two Tone Nightster is USA-only, while the XR1200 was, oddly, conceived for Europe. Come on, Harley, let’s tear down that wall and share the two meanest Sportsters in decades. □
