HARLEY HISTORY
resurrection with the lightweight 21in
front wheel and tiny front guard worked
extremely well and I know this having done
150,000kms on mine.
However, this was not the case when
Harley decided to bring back the old style
look with a front-end design resembling the
classic Harleys of bygone days. I’m talking
here about the 1997 Harley-Davidson
FXSTS Heritage Springer, which looked
absolutely stunning and for a while I existed
in a lather of lust and yearning to own one.
Then Harley-Davidson loaned me one for
the week of Sturgis. Which disappointed
me considerably.
You see to get that nostalgic look meant
using a fat 16in wheel and tyre and a big
heavy front mudguard. To make it all work
they also had to change the rake and trail
and this bumped its weight up from the
625lbs (283kg ) of the standard Springer to
690lbs (312kg).
To quote from a review of this model
written in 1997, “The Heritage Springer’s
fancy new front-end is damn heavy, feeling
like all the weight of the bike is resting
on that front wheel. Simple parking lot
manoeuvres are minor tests of strength.
Stopping and starting two-up in the city are
not to be taken lightly either. You have to
stay alert and establish solid footing with
each and every stop. This is not a bike for
most women or smaller men. Neither the
standard Springer nor the Heritage Softail
share this super-heavy feel.”
The Bad Boy and Cross Bones are recent
models that ran a Springer front-end.
Both looked cool in their own way but
were dropped from the line up either
due to insufficient sales or cost of
manufacturing. HDHarley ran advertisements for this Bad Boy, with photographs
of it outside a major high security prison, just waiting for
those incarcerated bad boys to get out.1997 Heritage SpringerThe 2008 Cross Bones revives the old
school look authentically with the styling
cues of a fat front wheel, a chopped front
guard and sprung solo seat.Often practical,
sometimes fugly.