Phil Clayton's Sportster 48 Demo Ride

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Two inches of suspension travel. A gallon and a half of fuel. Virtually no seat padding or ground clearance. Welcome to the current custom bike scene. Except this is a production bike. The Sportster Forty Eight to be precise. For this machine Harley tore up the rule book and ate it. It shouldn’t work at all but actually it’s brilliant…

The blacked narrow bars, low profile clock and underslung mirrors give it a minimalist cockpit like no other machine. It’s just you and the road ahead.

With ‘slammed’ suspension essential for the bar-hopper look, you might expect a harsh ride. Actually, so long as you avoid the worst excesses of Highways Agency neglect, it’s useful and lively. At speed on bumpy B-roads and lanes it moves between entertainingly precise and only-just-in-control-hilarious. The big front tyre gives complete confidence, even with the steel tips of the pegs gouging holes in the tarmac, something that happens easily and with a very pleasing noise.

Where you would normally find a saddle there is a tiny upholstered biscuit. It does nothing to hold you in place when accelerating hard, but somehow that just adds to the raucous, unruly fun to be had on the Forty Eight. And that’s the key to it’s appeal. Harley’s fundamentalist approach to this machine’s design rewards you with a pure riding experience. The sense of speed, the feel of the road, the unencumbered view . Ride one now, because sooner or later someone will force Harley’s Forty Eight to grow up and be sensible…

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