A Little Information About The XL Sportster Ironhead...
The Sportster XL was first introduced in '57 as "a modern, up-to-date power plant." It came with an 883cc (55cid), 7.5:1 Compression, 32 horsepower, hemi-spherical style heads, 90 degree valve angle, and 4 cams. It could run the 1/4 mile in 15 seconds right off the show room floor. Within one year of its debut it would become known as the first of the "Superbikes."
Check out the chrome frame as well as the custom paint job, which I designed and painted myself. Star Wars had just previously been the biggest box office hit ever recorded and there were rumors of two more movies to come so I got a little "spacey" with the original art work to say the least.
I was run over again in '82 which bent the front end and handlebars, ripped the seat, and mangled the exhaust pipes. It sat in a friends back yard for about 6 months before I finally got it back up and on the road again. Except for the buckhorn handlebars, the picture below is pretty much what it looked like for the next 10 years. After all the engine mods were completed it was producing over 55hp, and with the stock 19 tooth counter sprocket would run the 1/4 mile in just under 14 seconds. Unfortunately by the time I reached the 95mph mark, the engine was winded out pretty tight. I later opted for highway cruising instead so I changed the stock sprocket over to a 24 tooth one. This allowed me to run up to 110 mph with a little throttle left over, but that's about as fast as I ever had this bike.
I finally sold the bike to a yuppie puppie poser in '92 for $4200. I was asking $4000 and although the guy wanted to buy the bike, he didn't like the space scene paint job. I told him I'd repaint it using any one straight color he wanted for an extra $200. We went down to English Paint and he picked out a Toyota blue color of some sort (pictured below). The guy called me up about a month later and talked me into coming over and showing him how to set the points and what to gap the plugs at. After that I never heard from him or saw the scooter again.
Upgrades & Modifications to my '57 Sportster (at the time I sold it)...
