Hah...funny how a 1200cc motorcycle can instill such love and hatred from within and without the H-D ranks. Had a Harley rider wreck his bike and saw me riding the Sportster and made the comment about a "--girls bike"? Well funny how I'm riding my bike and his "manly bike is a pile in the garage"...it was a springer and he had a 5mph drop...insurance company TOTALED IT. Wouldn't want to have a "dainty bike" like that...(joking). Honestly, an 800cc or greater displacement bike can be a handful no matter what age, gender or experience level. How you manage and use your "tool" separates the "real" riders from the "pretenders or sideliners"...JMO.
Was just at the local H-D dealer and saw a "girls' bike"...how do I know? 'cause I saw her ride up in it and I was admiring the bike....a heavily modified Street Glide looking more like an Ultra with custom H-D paint job (it was numbered 265 out of 10,000 or something), matching bags and top box, brimming with alloy billet and carbon fiber trim. She was shipping out for a deployment to Afghanistan, so she had to sell it at a heavy discount...wish I had collected enough "male jewels" to buy it, so I guess I won't trade up from my Sportster...LOL! :s
Some riders don't know that there is a lot of tradition behind the Sportster, in the early days it was a "monster" on the dirt track all over the U.S., going head to head with British twins and others, rough around the edges, a little top heavy for more ground clearance are characteristic of this old beast...but it works with aing a nice balance of 600 lbs weight, fully gassed and almost 1200cc's worth of torque and power. and me at 130 lbs am quite happy.:laugh