From: paulb@harley.tti.com (Paul Blumstein)
Subject: Re: sportster questions
Organization: Programmers Who Say Ni
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 21:28:33 GMT

In article <1992Aug26.233410.11490@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> ron@etch-eshop.Berkeley.EDU (Ronald Viegelahn) writes:
+
+
+ Hello fellow net readers....
+
+ I've been riding **rice-burners** for about 25 years now.

I've been drink saki for about $25 years.  That qualifies me as a 
rice burner.

+I'm thinking about buying a newer Evolution engine,1200 sportster.

Hey. I've had one of those!

+ The newer one's with the belt drive appeal to me. Models a year or
+two old seem to be going for $6-7k, sound resonable? Does anyone know
+of things to watch out for?

Oil slicks, dogs running into the road, deer, etc.

The only problem that I can think of is that the 1200 is relatively rare.
So, you may want to get an 883 (belt, of course, & 5 speed) and convert
it to 1200 cc.  You lose some of the standard features like black wrinkle
engine, etc., but it is cheaper & your insurance will be less.

+ And one more question to those who have been Harley riders for a good
+while. Could someone explain the alphabet code used in model names,
+like what does FLH, FXST etc mean. 

I'll be brief.  someone with more time may want to supply details.  
The current engine is based on the E type engine from circa 1930.
It changed it name to F when it gain displacement, but kept F
despite later displacement increrases.  (There is only a little
consistency).  So, all Big Twins start with an F.  Sporties all
start with an X; they are different engines.  The X engine was
a big improvement over the original Sporty angine which was a
K engine.  

On Sporties, I do not remember where the L came from, but the 
H meant highway.  At one time, they had an XL & XLH version.
The 2 versions now are XLH 883 and XLH 1200.

Back to the Big TWins.  They all start with FL or FX.  The FL all
have the big fat front forks.  (The springer is an exception).
The FX came about cause it used to be popular to bolt a Sporty
front end (notice the X) onto an FL.  The factory followed this
chopper custom & called it an FX.

All FX's are currently either of the FXR family or the Dyna Glide
Family.  They put a D in there for The latter.  The FXR family
includes the super Glide (fxr), Low rider (FXRS), Low Rider SPort
(FXRS-Sp), Low Rider Custom (FXLR) or Low Rider Convertible
(FXRS-conv).  I think they dropped the Sport Glide (FXRT) this year.
Oh, yeah, I lied.  There is the FXSTC, a softail custom.

The FL's have different families (like Woody Allen):
FLSTF is the Fat Boy. This is really part of the softail family,
along with FXSTC (above), FXSTS (Springer softail), and FLSTC
(Seritage softail).

Then there is the FLH family,  they are the electraglides.
That includes the FLHTC (Electra Glide Classic), the FLHS 
(Electraglide sport) and the ultra glid version.

The tour glide family is FLTC, classic & ultra glide versions.

the main difference is that the electra glide has a handle bar
mounted fairing and more classic lines; while the tour glide
has a frame mounted fairing and more modern lines.

____________________________________________________________________________
		You're never too old to become younger
			-- Mae West
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Paul Blumstein, paulb@harley.tti.com, DoD #36, ABATE, AMA, HOG, KD6LAA
            Transaction Technology, Inc., Santa Monica, CA

Newsgroups: rec.motorcycles.harley