The Harley-Davidson Sportster

In 1957 Harley-Davidson bowed to customer pressure and created the Sportster, the most iconoclastic motorcycle model ever produced. The elegant simplicity of the Sportster embodies what Robert Persig calls "the a priori motorcycle." That is, when most people close their eyes and conjure up the image of a motorcycle, it is something very similar to a Sportster that immediately springs to mind. It is this raw, essential nature that propels the Sportster to mythic status. The 50 year history of the Sportster makes for a fascinating book. The book traces the Sportster through its performance years when fierce XLCH Sportsters ruled the streets of America, to the decline of the Sportster in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and then ends with the new-for-2004 Sportster, the biggest update to the series in its nearly-50-year history.