Nutte Sportster Ironhead

Ironheads are the first generation of Sportsters. The Harley-Davidson Sportster is a line of motorcycles that has been continuously produced by Harley-Davidson since 1957. And with that production time, it is only comparable to that of the BMW R71, which evolved to the Russian M72 and the Chinese CJ750. But it took sixty years and three countries.

Competition for the British twins

Sportster models are indicated with the letters “XL”. The first Sportster in 1957 had many parts of the KH, including the frame, mudguards, large tank and front suspension.

In 1952 the predecessors of the Sportster, the Model K Sport and Sport Solo motorcycles were introduced. These models K, KK, KH and KHK from 1952 to 1956 had a side valve (flathead) engine, while the later XL Sportster models were head valves.

The Sportsters are of course powered by Harley's characteristic four-stroke, 45 ° V-twin engine, with both connecting rods of the design "fork and knife" running on a common bigend. The original Sportster engine was the Ironhead engine, which was replaced in 1986 by the Evolution engine. The engine was mounted on the frame from 1957 up to and including model year 2003 'steel on steel'. Although that approach saves some weight, it ensures pleasant direct / highly annoying transmission of the motor vibrations to the frame. Athletes from 2004 use blocks mounted in rubbers. The Evo blocks were good. The Ironhead blocks got a bad reputation.

And those Ironheads?

They have been worth nothing twice for a long time. And they had a horrible reputation. They were always cheaper than the BigTwins and so - certainly in the States - came into the hands of people who didn't have the money for a big Harley, but still wanted to drive Harley. Add to that the fact that the Harley world has been terrorized since the year by mentally handicapped people who have declared themselves Harley specialists, tuners or whatever you apparently need a lot of tattoos for. Moreover, the seemingly simple construction of such a Sportster block seduced - after all, is it just a push rod twin? - many owners also do drastic key work without ever having the idea of ​​seeing one of the many good workshop manuals available. Exhaust systems had to be as open as possible. And that the sprinkler occupation had to be considered? Carburetors had to be as large as possible in diameter and they were mounted without doing anything about the heads.

In addition, like the other Harleys, the Ironheads were often rebuilt, adapted to the taste of the owner or the fashion of that year. And that was often done in ways that were far from good taste or craftsmanship.

Quite rare

It is therefore quite rare to find a nice Ironhead. And the prices for that have not been at the croaking level for a while. Think of a euro or 5.000 for a neat, technically good, but not factory original copy. Our friend Nutte Visser has one of these and came into view because Nutte wants to sell him because he needs more time and money for his life's work, the Visser Tijhof company . www.visser-tijhof.nl .This company works in the forces of Internet and social media, but that must change Nutte and Monique. They deliver from stock and tailor-made all types of control cables that you can imagine. From a gas cable for a Solex Flash to tachometer cables for Honda Black Bombers and recently something unclear of more than five meters long in a Sherman tank. And the planned publicity offensive requires money and time. And that's why Nutte's Ironhead is looking for a new home.

A good purchase

Below the line a neat Ironhead is a real Harley, a very nice motorcycle, a true classic and certainly not a bad investment. But prefer not to buy a challenging project. You could easily become a Harley hater. And the brand did not deserve that.

The very real Ironhead from Nutte

The much more original Ironhead from Hans (not for sale)