It arrived at the right time for Harley, and they needed it bad. The infamous Harley Wrecking Crew had dominated the newly formed AMA Grand National dirt track Series during the first 13 years of its existence, starting in 1954, winning the trophy a staggering 12 times, but the late sixties saw hot British competition from BSA and Triumph, and Harley's side-valve KR750 would only gain the trophy once more.

Up against it, in 1969 Harley's engineers produced a 'racing' motorcycle derived from the Sportster streetbike. It was dubbed the XR750 but it wasn't up to the task. It was basically an 883 with a reduced stroke, which retained the iron barrels and heads of the donor bike and apart from an uncharacteristic win in Cal Rayborn's hands in Easter 1972, it proved unreliable and overheated badly. Undaunted they tried again, and 1972 saw the debut of another, quite different XR750 and this one was more than ready.

Visually similar, and borrowing heavily from the iron incarnation, the new machine featured aluminium barrels and heads, as well as a short stroke configuration. Tough, responsive and brutally quick this new "Alloy XR" was an immediate success. That season, Harley factory racer, Mark Brelsford, rode his XR in fifteen dirt-track races, winning three and finishing in the top five no less than eleven times: pretty damn impressive for a brand new motorcycle. By the end of the year, Brelsford had won the Grand National Championship. And it didn't stop there. Oh boy no.

For the next twenty-nine years, 'til last year in fact, Harley XRs have won that series a frankly staggering twenty-two times, while the rest of the world's motorcycle manufacturers shared the other seven trophies between them! There were three successive national victories from 1976 to 1978 for Jay Springsteen and then five in a row for Scott Parker from 1994 to 1998.

In 2000 the trophy was won by an XR750 ridden by Joe Kopp, but in 2001 the rules of the Championship were changed to allow 1000cc motorcycles to compete. Those in the know expected the nimble Harley to still be competitive, and it was. 2001 saw Chris Carr a privateer take the trophy, from the factory's own Rich King in second (nothing to do with American-V so NOT, unfortunately, me!), while the next three runners-up were all Harley mounted too - and that, remember, was taken from some new 1000cc entries, including the likes of Aprilia and Suzuki's TL1000.

Hereabouts, and boldly swiped from the American National Motorcycle Museum's web site, with considerable factual support from the American Motorcyclist Association, is a photo of that first alloy XR to shake the world: Mark Brelsford's 1972 Harley-Davidson XR750. Now owned by Bill Milburn, the motor test assembly card for this engine identifies it as the first alloy XR to win a Grand National race. A number of sources on the Harley team helped Bill restore the correct detail, everything from hand grips to air filters. So now, says Milburn, 'Everything is the way Mark would have ridden it, except the shocks.'

(Photo: Copyright AMA, 1999)

Although Harley-Davidson did manufacture one or two notable variations on a Sportster theme during the 70s (the quite breathtakingly lovely XLCR Café Racer 1000 for a pretty big 'for instance'), it wasn't until the early eighties that Harley took the plunge and launched an XR street bike. It wasn't long after the management buy back from AMF that the company decided to cash in on the success of its racer with a worthy machine, rather than have to point, rather feebly, at the run of the mill Sporties.

The 'limited production' XR1000 was introduced in 1983, sporting distinctive aluminium heads, twin Dell'Orto carbs and twin high level 'pipes exiting from the left hand side, inspired by the free-breathing cans that adorned the 750 competition bikes, but otherwise looking like a stockish Sporty. Looks, however, can be deceptive. For a company that is usually pretty coy about horsepower output, they proudly trumpeted in their 1983 brochure that the stock XR1000 could throw out 70bhp - a fair gob of power and no mistake - on pretty good V-rated Dunlop tyres with, well, fairly dodgy brakes. Whahey - proper animal. But for the truly insane, Harley offered performance kits that took the machine out to a truly awesome 95bhp! For 'closed circuit riding' only of course. Ahem.

So cock-sure were Harley, that they even offered their own extra prize money for riders who did take the XR1000 to the track and slaughter the opposition. It worked too … XR1000s took the Battle of the Twins in Daytona in both 1983 and 1984. And so damn good were the XR1000 motors that Erik Buell used them in his 1000RR - the first proper Buell production bike.

But true to their 'limited production' promise there were never that many XR1000s manufactured and in 1986 the XR1000 was dropped from model line-up.

Fade to grey. Go psychedelic and zip forwards through time. INTO the 21st Century!!!

… '21st Century', Still sounds likes Sci-Fi that.

And here we are, 2001-2002 model range and Harley-Davidson introduce the coyly named Sportster XL883R. Conceived - or at least marketed as a 'tribute' to the stonky XR750, the 883R is strident and purposeful in its Harley Racing colours of orange, orange, orange and black … and orange, and the 883R is only available in racing colours. Well, they are so far. I mean, well. Green Night Trains? What were they thinking? I don't care how dark a dark green it is. It's still green.

Back to the plot: The XL883R certainly looks the business - though not too much like either XR it has to be said - the back-to-basics, wide bars and FU stance twanging plenty of 'proper bike' strings with just about everybody who's seen it in the flesh.

So the XL 883R talks the talk, can it walk the walk?

Irritatingly, like most of life's questions, 'Yes' and 'No'.

Putting aside any pretence of XR performance credentials, the 883R does look very well and settling into the seat and grabbing hold of the wide handlebars I was very surprised to find that I was sitting on the most comfortable stock Sportster there has ever been. Ever. And most customised ones too. Despite the aggressive stance, someone in ergonomics has really done their homework. I'm one inch over six foot and have never been described as a string bean, yet riding the machine 140 miles non-stop - except for a quick fuel stop - I wasn't massively uncomfortable. I stiffened up a tad towards the end of the ride but, to be fair, I didn't mind: I was having too much fun. I gave my girlfriend a lift though, and the fast-back rear of the gorgeous looking seat is definitely not comfy. Never mind though eh, she's got her own bike!

The not-so-new petrol tank that's filled the gap from headstock to seat since the late nineties allowed me to travel 120 miles from full without stopping: a novel and very welcome experience after reacquainting myself with the much-maligned, smaller item fitted to Mandie's '91 example. While I'm getting used to the elongated shape of the new tank, if ever such an item begged to be fitted with a flush filler here it is. Hell, Harley were generous enough to fit it with nice black bars like the Dyna Sport, and stick a pretty new pipe on it, how much better would it have been with a lovely alloy aircraft style cap? "Loads", is the answer if you're wondering.

Blatting down A-roads at speeds up to 70mph, the riding position is nothing short of perfect, just as it is around town. It feels, surprisingly, as light as a feather (in Harley terms it is as light as a feather, even though its second disk adds another 10kg over an XLH883), which must be almost entirely down to the wide 'bars, but at any speed, it handles like a dream. There are discrepancies in the specs that suggest the 883R has less ground clearance than the standard XLH, but then they suggests the XLH has the same as the 1200S which is patently wrong. Which is wrong, and by how much is something we may never know, but the suspension set-up looks to be identical, and Harley don't go out of their way to suggest any reasons for the differences. It's all rather arbitrary anyway because its only the Hugger and Custom that'll run out of ground clearance with their shorter shocks, there is no such danger with the confidence-inspiring "R".

And the machine inspires confidence in gobbets. The twin front brakes are staggeringly good: if anything the 883R is over-braked and who thought you'd ever hear that in a stock hog write-up? The rear brake is superb too and that, combined with the on-top-of-it-all riding position, allows the rider to relax about the machine and concentrate on the important things like hitting the right line on an open roundabout or through a series of twisties, for maximum enjoyment. Not once while I had it was the 883R overtaken, or even caught by any other motorcycle. The set-up is perfect for normal and spirited riding. Sure, if the sports machines I overtook or left in my mirrors had been ridden to their limit the Sporty may have been found wanting, but realistically, in the real world, on real roads the 883R held its head high.

The engine feels faster than any other stock 883 I've experienced, it seems to accelerate faster and rev higher, but after extensive research I really can't find much difference between the bikes there either. Yes the delicious two-into-one exhaust is different but otherwise the engines seem exactly the same. The 883R produces a single Newton Metre of torque more than the XLH, and does so a mere 400revs lower down the range (68 NM @ 4000 rpm to 67 NM @ 4400 rpm). Again Harley do not make any claim to have modified the motor and the exhaust change could easily be enough to change the torque figure such a small amount. Again, I'd have to guess that the reason the 883R feels faster is simply because the rider is tempted to ride the machine with loads more spirit.

The 883R is certainly not blisteringly fast. Ninety-five miles-an-hour, as with an XLH883, is more or less it: it's just more fun getting there. It's not enough though, and going through the performances stages with the 883R is so much more of a requirement because here is a motorcycle that begs to be so much faster. Unusually for many a Harley, the stock set up will take the increase in power with no problems at all and so that's an awful lot of money straight away saved that can be spent on go-faster gubbins!

Unlike most Harleys I've taken to my local, the handsome XL883R met with universal approval - every biker there liked it and, taking more than passing interest, most were surprised when they discovered that it could be theirs for £5,795. Not cheap, but a hell of a lot cheaper than most were expecting. As other manufacturer's prices have consistently risen - in particular the Japanese - Harley have held back to the extent that there is near parity between competing models and prices. The bikers in my pub, particularly the 'Harley sceptics', have no problem shelling out five or six grand for a new Japanese mid-range vee and losing a grand as soon as they put the registration plate on, so were shocked to discover that the 883R - good looking, reliable, tried and trusted technology with unlimited custom potential and with a reputation of holding its value to boot - could be had within their pocket.

So the 883R is a bike that attracts praise and respect. But is it an XR?

No. Definitely no.

So is the XL 883R a fitting 'tribute' to a motorcycle that hasn't even gone away and still kicks ass?

Definitely no again. You'd be better off getting your paws on the real thing - either 750 or 1000cc.

Harley would be much better off marketing the 883R as a stand-alone alternative to the rest of the Sportster range. Forget any pretension towards 'sporting heritage' and just point at it and say 'Look at this, we just made it, innit great!' And yeah it is. On its own the XL883R is absolutely the best ever stock 883 I have ever been lucky enough to ride, bar none. With stage 1, 2 even stage 3 performance mods and perhaps a 1200 kit - all fairly inexpensive - this motorcycle would be just awesome. Just stop pretending the 883R is something it isn't.

Second Opinion:
Words: Andy

I really don't know where to go with this one. I'm not the biggest fan of Sportsters, and certainly not the 883 variety from my experience of them, so when I heard that Harley were making a tribute to their fire-breathing XR750s using the 883 I was … er … looking forward to seeing how they'd made their docile baby Sportster fit the role: that's probably the most polite way I can put it.

So, how did they?

They painted it orange and black, painted the whole engine black (shiny fins suggests a cosmetic job, don't they?), and stuck a two-into-one pipe on it.

Okay, more than that they painted the stock, now stretched, Sporty tank, stuck a really comfy seat on it atop the stock mudguard. No attempt to mimic the style of the abbreviated seat unit, or stunning tank at all. What's going on?

But they made it go, yes? Oh, yes, they added a whole new Newton-Metre of torque to the liberating 67@4400rpm of the stocker, and produced it some 400rpm lower down the rev range with the effect of … well, frankly, a power boost that would only be evident to someone who was familiar with the stock bike. I can only assume that those people I've spoken to who rate the bike - and there have been more of them than detractors like myself - are more familiar with that bike, or have one eye on the potential of a cheap unmolested Sportster.

Should I mention the extra disk on the front? I s'pose so, if only to mention that it is so equipped … it just doesn't need it in stock trim: it barely needs one.

Cruel?

No, I don't think so: it is a travesty to put it forward as a tribute to a motorcycle that won championships. It's like Fiat offering a red-painted Punto "S" as a tribute to Schumacher's Ferrari (not his team mate's, obviously, as that appears to have a strange braking problem) - and while mentioning Puntos, I was appalled to note that I couldn't keep up with one on either acceleration or top-end on our last journey together.

My first association was no better, and I wasn't even riding it. I was trailing Rich, as the nominated pace-setter on the slower bike, after we first picked both the 883R and an FXDX SuperGlide Sport. A leisurely run, without doubt, but it was only after travelling forty miles or more that I realised I hadn't yet shifted in top gear on the DX. I wouldn't have minded so much if the nimbler Sporty had whisked round bends that left the Super Glide Sport dragging its undercarriage on the tarmac, but a single scuffed exhaust heat-shield clip was the only price I paid for the heavier bike's comparatively limited ground clearance.

There must be something good to say about it, surely? Of course there is. It's a Harley after all, and a Harley is nothing if not flexible. The 883R is the natural home for a massive range of parts and accessories, starting with the 1200 big bore kit, and finishing with a rev counter, with all manner of breathing exercises and spark timing transformations in between. We know of at least three dealers who are planning just that, and we look forward to trying one of those in the near future, but it does beg the question as to what the difference will then be between the XL1200S and a then reinvented XL1200R? Well, it won't have the cartridge forks, even if it has got the twin disks; and it won't have the piggy-back remote reservoir shocks, although that will give you better incentive to try the aftermarket ranges. It also won't have the twin-plug heads, but then neither has the Buell. Could it be the budget beginnings for you to create your ideal sporting Sportster?

Having been fortunate enough to have put a hundred and odd miles on Big Rock's XL1200SS last year, I just wonder whether it might not provide a good blank canvas to follow their lead. Bin the heads: stick a pair of Thunderstorms on, bin the barrels, stick the Buell items on, stick some Buell pistons in while you're about and, most importantly, balance the bloody things together with the rest of the crank assembly while you're at it. Sort the carb, air filter and can to make sure it breathes properly, and then it might actually rev high enough to warrant putting an ignition module on it to let it rev higher. Then it would be a fitting tribute to an XR750 … but it would still end up being a 1200. Is it just me, or is it inconceivable that the advances in technology cannot be used to create a motorcycle in 2002 that is vaguely comparable to a competition bike that was conceived thirty years before without increasing its displacement by two-thirds?

So what can you do? Well, you could start with looking at why the 883 doesn't go in the first place, and I suspect it is because it is too long a stroke, and too heavy a flywheel to rev happily - even if it wasn't strangled. The twelve hundred big-bore changes the proportions of the engine significantly and while it is still a long stroke, it is better suited to free revving: Buell go one stage further and lighten the crank too. If it is specifically down to the nature of the long stroke, you have two choices: bore it out or shorten the stroke. Either will do, and oddly, decreasing the stroke to 3.219 inches would bring the 883 down to a 750 and should make it rev more easily - it will also make it internally the same as the first, unsuccessful Iron XRs, and closer to the XR's short stroke motor - if not to its 90hp output.

They could have gone the whole hog, destroked it further, then bored it out some and matched the dimensions of the XR, and then seen what happened. Rumours about the future of the Sportster are rife - although it remains to be seen whether they have any foundation - and I suspect Harley are reluctant to spend too much on a model that is at best a rose-tinted view of an idealised world, and at worst anachronistic. I'm surprised they didn't make more of the Firebolt's development, but that would be to admit too close a heritage between the new great white hope of the East Troy concern, and it would appear, sadly, that they have enough problems of their own already, in sales terms.

But any motorbike is not just about its engine. Thank God. The frame is wonderful, and it should be because, suspension apart, it is the same trellis as the 1200S: masses of ground clearance, nimble in the corners, tight and rigid enough to hold the line of your choosing way beyond your expectations, although a world away from a Buell tube frame. The rear shocks are a bit bouncy for spirited riding, but "spirited riding" is almost beyond the scope of the overall bike unless you put your faith in the bottom end's ability to hold together as you know it must, and rev it to the point where you feel you are pouring more fuel into the chambers than the limited supply of already saturated air can possibly hope to contain. Open it up, wide open, and it feels as though someone has pulled the choke out. Coax it slowly and you'll get more out of it but it demands patience. You first discover that a little more power is there when you roll off the throttle a little and feel it pulling away in its modest way, but it is little more than an annoyance in that it isn't more readily available.

Other plus points? Well, it is without any doubt, the most comfortable Sportster I've ridden yet, and a hundred mile non-stop blast is not out of the question - a trick it manages to pull off without a single fuel stop, and that was in spite of desperately trying to get it to perform, not cosseting it for the benefit of economy. It is also, for my money, quite the prettiest modern Sportster, and that seems to provide the raison d'etre for the model. Y'see, the XR750 that provided the inspiration was a damn good looking bike. In fact, if it wasn't for the fact that Harley successfully campaigned them for so many years, you could be forgiven to think it was a styling exercise. It is astonishing that they didn't produce road-going versions of them - unless you count the 1983/4 XR1000 which looked nothing like it except a common passion for twin carbs, huge air-filters and putting the exhaust on the "wrong" side.

The cosmetic aspect of the XR is alluded to, if not actually copied, but then it goes awry. The XR was not known for a really comfortable seat, or practical fuel-tank range. In fact the seat would have been little more than a slim slab of foam atop a fibreglass base, while the tank was an abbreviated version of the stretched item fitted to this that looked like it had been hacked in half, horizontally. Additional styling cues are not so easy to reproduce on a road bike: strictly adhering to the XR theme would have meant no front brakes at all - and the DoT take a dim view of that sort of behaviour almost everywhere in the world - and while the single clock above the handlebars is cosmetically right, it would have been a tacho rather than a speedo - you really don't want me to go off on one about the benefits of a tacho on a Sportier bike do you? No, thought not. Still, with the chosen engine fitted, a tacho is superfluous as the poor little sod is unlikely to trouble the rev limiter that keeps you from burying a missing needle into the similarly absent - and miserably distant - red line.

Shame on me. It's only an 883 after all. How could I pick on a poor cute little 883? - and I'll grant you, it is cute. I can because my 1972 Triumph TR6P 650 would have demolished it in the race to the ton, if only because it would have seen the magical three figure on its vibrating Veglia clock. Too anglophile? Okay, a 1971 883cc ironhead Sportster certainly would have had beaten it too. What price development?

I am on the record as opting for function over form where there is a balance to be drawn, and it perhaps this that causes me to be most offended by the 883R. It could have been so much more. It should have been so much more. The designers held dominion over the engineers, from the look of things, and it was an opportunity lost.

As I say, it is probably too late in the Sportster's evolution to get involved in serious retooling costs but I can't help wonder what a short-stroke 750 would have been like - they must still have the potential to throw a short-stroke XR crank together and bore the barrels accordingly - or even just reproduce the iron XR dimensions: it would surely struggle to be any worse. Yes, I know that 883 is the classic size for the Sportster, but remember that this is a tribute to the Sportster that never was ... and anyway, Harley have a long history of making 45s.

In the hope that someone with authority at the Motor Company reads this, I'm obliged to repeat an often made request - by me if no-one else - that if they want to produce a sporty Sportster, the time is right, and market more ready than ever to embrace the XLCR. It's not as though the bits aren't there: the frame is more than up to the job of a modern incarnation of the Café Racer, the XL1200S engine is already tweaked to provide the motive force - or a Thunderstorm engine bearing Erik's signature would be better still - with twin disks up front in cartridge-type forks or upside-downies, remote reservoir shocks, speedo and rev-counter. Be brave and stick the wheels from a Buell in it, with their low profile radial tyres on them, or lace similar-sized rims to a stock hub for the more traditional look. Okay, so the tank and seat haven't been made for a while, but even if it means chatting up the aftermarket sector to flog them a couple of hundred at trade to see how they go. Screw the social niceties: stick a single seat and rear-sets on it, and paint it black. The worst that can happen is that it will be a collectors item, but the best would be a re-emergence of a classic. It's not for nothing that the Guggenheim has an XLCR on display beneath ... oh look, an XR750.

(Photo: Copyright Guggenheim Museum)

Meantime, if you must pay tribute to Harley-Davidson's most successful competition bike of all time - and one of the most successful competition bikes ever - at least have decency to match the good looks with a kick in the pants, performance-wise. If not you'll have the prettiest, but slowest sportsbike on the block, and will be passed by any road-going Japanese 250 from 1980 onwards - with the possible exception of the XS250 twin, and that will be a close-run thing.

Shame.

Specifications        

Engine:	OHV V2 Evolution. Air-cooled 45° V-twin.
Displacement:	883cc
Compression Ratio:	9.0:1
Bore & Stroke:	76.2 x 96.8
Torque:	68.0 @ 4000rpm
Fuel System:	Single Keihin Carburettor.
Exhaust System:	2-into-1 chrome
Oil Capacity:	2.8 litres
Fuel Capacity:	12.5 litres (includes reserve)
Primary Drive:	Triple-row (triplex) chain
Final Drive:	Kevlar belt
Overall Length:	2235mm
Seat Height:	711mm
Ground clearance:	154mm
Wheelbase:	1510mm
Rake/Trail:	29.6 / 116.8mm
Brakes: Front: Rear:	2 x 292 x 5.08mm with 4-pot calliper 292 x 5.84mm with 4-pot calliper
Wheels: Front: Rear:	T19 x 2.50 TLA Laced Wheel. T16 x 3.00 D DOT Laced Wheel
Tyres: Front: Rear:	100/90-19 57H 130/90 B16 73H
Wheelbase:	1510mm
Dry Weight:	245kg
Lean Angles:	37° left / 37° right
Instruments:	Electronic Speedo with odometer and re-settable trip meter. Oil pressure light.
Colour Options:	Racing orange and black.
Price:	£5,795 Prices include usual otr inc. PDI, full tank of fuel, 12-months tax, first service, 12 months membership of Harley Owners Group (HOG) including their European roadside recovery
Test bike kindly supplied by:	Harley-Davidson UK. Oxford Business Park, 6000 Garsington Road, Oxford England OX4 2DQ Tel: 0870 850 1903 (UK)