Harley-Davidson’s Sportster has long been one of their best-selling models, and for 2007 H-D decided to spice-up their entry-level model line with the addition of the new Nightster. Following in the footsteps of the tough-looking Night Rod Special and the current trend toward the matted-out, Stealth Fighter look, H-D took a standard Sportster 1200 and used matte black and grey finishes on the bodywork and engines, lowered the rear end for a custom look, and added chopped front and rear fenders and old-school-style front fork gaiters.
When I first climbed into the saddle of the Nightster, the riding position felt a little strange – the pegs are close enough to the rider that your body position feels like you’re sitting in a chair at your dinner table, with you knees bent at a 90 degree angle, thighs paralell to the ground and shins perpendicular to it. The wide bars are also situated close to the rider, with your hands spread wide and your arms nearly paralell to the ground (at least for a 5’9″ tall rider like me). Most of your body weight rests on the low (25.3″) single seat, and the surprise came from not being as stretched-out as most cruisers, which have your legs and arms reaching WAY forward for the bars and pegs – folding you up into the classic ‘clamshell’ riding position. No clamshelling on the Nightster though – like I said, it’s more like the ‘dinner table’ riding position.
The ergonomics start making sense as soon as you start moving, however, with the low seat height and the overall riding position extremely confidence-inspiring. The wide bars give tons of leverage to throw the bike around, and within minutes of first slinging a leg over the Nightster I was splitting SoCal rush-hour traffic with 100% confidence. The Nightster isn’t exactly light at a claimed 545lb dry weight (claimed 565lbs ready-to-run), but the center of gravity is fairly low, and this combines with the wide bars to make aggressive riding easy, even at around-town speeds. Out of all the cruisers I’ve ridden, the Nightster would be high on my list if my plans involved a lot of city riding – it’s almost like a (really low) standard in terms of how it attacks city traffic. Just be careful of those wide bars while splitting lanes!
Once out of town and onto the open road, I got the chance to really open the throttle on the 73ci air-cooled V-Twin. Harley-Davidson switched to fuel-injection for the entire Sportster range (883s and 1200s) last year, and the addition of a modern fuel system really woke this motor up. A low first-gear ratio makes it easy to pull away from the line aggressively without using too many RPM or too much clutch – and if you want to be dramatic, a heavy right wrist can let you spin the tire through the whole intersection (not that I ever did anything like that)! Even in the higher gears, the plentiful torque makes the Nightster’s motor extremely rider-friendly, with gear selection so unimportant that I soon ceased to be bothered by the fact that H-D failed to include a tachometer (and I never hit the rev limiter except once, on purpose, to find out where it was). I wouldn’t exactly call the Nightster fast – it’s no V-Rod – but its generous helping of torque means there’s always power to do what needs to be done, even fifth gear roll-ons from 70 to 90 on the freeway.
Along with that acceleration comes the trademark Harley-Davidson low-frequency vibration, a thumping and rumbling that I’ve grown to love in the last six months – for those of us who love anything mechanical (especially mechanical things that make you move), the rumble of the air-cooled pushrod twin is a constant reminder that you have two big pistons and a hefty crankshaft, plus assorted other cool things, spinning and swinging and cycling underneath you. At the same time, I never find this low-frequency vibration intrusive, and unlike certain high-frequency vibrations common to many other bikes, it never causes any discomfort or numbness.
To test the Nightster’s handling, I headed for a popular cruising destination at some decidedly non-cruising speeds – the town of Idyllwild, California, situated in the mountains east of our Temecula HQ and accessible by means of a long, extremely twisty road. Considering I was riding with two friends, one mounted on a recent-model Japanese 600 and the other a Suzuki DRZ-400 Supermoto, our group must have looked a tad bit funny, but with my two friends riding a safe and responsible street pace I was able to keep them in sight most of the time on the Nightster – quite an achievement for an air-cooled cruiser! The wide bars helped me quickly transition from side to side in fast sections, and my only complaint regarding the Nightster’s handling was a slightly vague feeling from the front end and some occassional shimmys and shakes when I tried to push really hard – I’m guessing this has to do with the frame not being quite rigid enough for really aggressive riding. Still, the pace I rode was way beyond what 99% of Harley-Davidson buyers will ever run, and the Nightster never once scared me or did anything unexpected. Ground clearance on the left is excellent (well, at least it was after I broke off the peg feeler somehow – it must have caught on something while I was dragging it), but clearance in right-hand turns is limited by the low-hanging forward exhaust pipe. As long as you remember where it is, though, you can throw the Nightster into a corner and stop just short of pipe-dragging, no problem.
I’ve already covered how the ergonomics affect rideability, but what about all-day comfort? The single seat unit has a nice up-turn in the back that provides some amount of lower-back support, and the Nightster was plenty comfortable for 6+ hours in the saddle except for one problem – wind blast. As expected on an unfaired bike where you’re sitting perfectly erect in the saddle, wind blast on the Nightster can become quite fatiguing if you spend a long period of time above 65mph. Oddly enough, attaching my Marsee Products tankbag to the front-most area of the (thankfully steel) gas tank with it’s magnetic attachment system actually made a noticeable difference in how much wind hit my chest – for freeway riding in particular, the tank bag was a big help. I hope Harley-Davidson’s accessories department decides to offer a cool mini-headlight fairing like the one on the Night Rod – there are tons of windshields available for the Sportster line, but all of them are (in my opinion) too big and thus too detrimental to the bike’s tough-guy looks. Anyway, I only wanted a small reduction in wind blast, as it really isn’t that bad.
The only thing I didn’t like about riding the Nightster was the way the rear end handled large bumps, particularly sharp-edged ones. That cool stance comes at the price of shortened rear suspension travel, which makes itself known when you hit a large bump at speed by giving you a good, swift kick in the ass. Fortunately, the pegs are close enough that if you see the bump coming you can stand up slightly to avoid that kick, something that isn’t possible on cruisers with radically forward-set foot controls. In my opinion, the bike looks so cool the way it rides right now that if I had the option to raise the rear and get a better ride, I wouldn’t take it – but that’s just my opinion, and some riders may disagree.
Like most cruisers with a rear-biased stance, slowing the Nightster down quickly requires heavy use of the rear brake – the front brake alone doesn’t pack much power, and has a somewhat wooden feel. Luckily, the rear brake pedal offers plenty of travel and just the right amount of resistance, making modulation easy enough that I never had a problem slowing fast without locking the rear wheel.
As far as looks go, you already know I like the Nightster – the matte black-and-grey paint scheme is understated but tough, and the minimalist design appeals to my taste. Even though the Sportster is H-D’s entry-level model line, nothing on the bike looks low-quality – fit and finish is excellent, and small details like the smooth, glossy-black front brake master cylinder, the black wrinkle finish on the top triple-clamp/speedometer bracket, and the turn signals (both front and rear) made of metal rather than plastic are really impressive. I love how the front turn signals hang under the bars rather than mount to the body of the bike, and the rearview mirrors have a cool tapered shape that looks like it came out of a high-end aftermarket catalog, but still manage to be quite functional! The attention to detail on this bike deserves enough praise that I could write a whole article about it, and that’s something that increases pride of ownership immensely.
The 2007 XL 1200N Nightster should be available at your local H-D dealership now, carrying a suggested US MSRP of $9,595. For more information, check out Harley-Davidson.com.
