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Vintage sportsters

clay

Member
Hello. I'm looking to get myself a vintage sportster. now after looking for Sportsters made from the year 1975-1987 i have noticed that there are 2 kinds of engines the Iron head and the EVO. i was just wondering which engine was better more reliable. and most important easy to fix and to learn how to fix. and just any other knowledge a person could pass on to me about Sportsters in this year range.

Clay
 
Stay away from the AMF years they made me swear I would ride metric forever.I was only lying to myself
 
well as far as the AMF years im not that scared about them. i was talking to my uncles and all of them are metric riders because of AMF but all the problems they mentioned were all quality control problems. and any AMF harley bought now would have been rebuilt one or two times by now. but im wondering what it takes to keep one of these bikes running an on the road. im kinda lookiung for more of a turn key bike. but moeny prevents me from buying anything new. plus i love vintage bikes. and these bikes are going for arounf 2 grand on ebay for nice ones
 
I had a 77 sporty up till 2 years ago.. It is still in the family. I rode it up till I gave it to a nephew. Bought it in 79 for 1,000.00$ from a friend. It was reliable till I decided to go stump jumping with it. Along with the alchol factor. Was forced to rebuild the uppper & lower ends. Punched out .06 added cams, S&S E shorty, Along with aftermarket exhust. That was in 84 with the rebuild. It is still running today. It was a blast to ride. It would outrun most of the big twins. I was thinking about finding another one just for fun.....:newsmile108:
 
I believe AMF got a bad rap, if not for them we'd all be riding metric...while they did put out an inferior product they actually saved HD...besides you'd be hard pressed to find an AMF HD that hasn't been rebuilt

Gary is correct. During AMF years, do you really think they were immediately able to change the design and everything? HD was going down due to lack of QA/QC and staying with old technology-metallurgy & lethargic mis-manage-ment. Many would disagree, but the fact that AMF infused dollars and established QA-QC Departments, Advanced R & D and HARLEY MARKETING?!! (remember the ill fated 1000/1200 racer, "boat tailed designs" and other attempts to establish new vertical markets?), enabling company to resurrect itself, so that later the same HD management could afford to buy itself back, is actually a testament that AMF did something right! :bigsmiley12:
 
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