97-03 xl1200S

watchman

watchman

Club Member
ANY ONE IN HERE RUNNING THE TWIN COIL MODEL WATCHING A COUPLE ON SALE ANYTHING TO WATCH FOR ? ARE THEY MUTCH MORE LIVELY THAN A STANDARD 1200 SPORTY INPUT APPRECIATED :thank_you:
 
watchman said:
ANY ONE IN HERE RUNNING THE TWIN COIL MODEL WATCHING A COUPLE ON SALE ANYTHING TO WATCH FOR ? ARE THEY MUTCH MORE LIVELY THAN A STANDARD 1200 SPORTY INPUT APPRECIATED :thank_you:
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Message Cab on here, he’s got a lot of user experience with these Sporty models. He’ll be happy to chat about them. He works long hours so might not respond straight away.
 
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Ahh.. I’ve owned a ‘93 XL which I traded for an ‘03 XLS and they are two different beasts, the Sport was the loudest bike I’ve owned! Fitted with cycle shack drags and a thunderslider kit it was a bit ‘woolly’ up to about 3000 rpm then went like a rocket. The biggest difference was the suspension, fully adjustable thus you could tune it to your riding style , I could get a proper wriggle on . 4 sparkies=more money I loved it only trading in for an ‘04 dyna sport
 
Umm , maybe .he makes no mention of the adjustable suspension and I can’t tell by the pic’s. Also my old one had grey wrinkle powder coat engine and original exhaust was black but hey it’s 23! Just try an check that it IS a sportster sport! And if the money’s right then it’s worth a punt
 
When i bring it up the shocks are hagons type the ebay number on the bottom right into ebay search it brings up the listing and opens all the pic better sorry i dont know how to put a link up guys
 
Dug my workshop manual out to check stuff and the motor’s got higher compression. the cams and the carb are ‘more!’ , ‘‘twas a different dynojett kit for the ‘S’
 
Nice one mate will bear that in mind its gaining interest powder coated wheels look good too were they any smoother being twin plug with single fire ? thinking long runs europe ect
 
I'm not sure that is a 1200S. I had one and it had gas rear shocks and adjustable forks as well as the engine tweaks listed above. They also tend to go for more money than that, so if it is, it's a bargain. Great bikes - much quicker than the usual 1200 and better handling to cope with it. Mine was stage II and fantastic for A and B roads but tedious (with good old Sportster vibes) on the motorway.
 
Depends, a road trip from Santander to Andorra, up and down the mountains was good-easy-smooth thou I did refit the standard exhaust with the balance pipe fitted. I put the best petrol in her and got great mileage outta the tank , 135 before hitting reserve!
 
Looking at it on eBay, the forks are right. Hagons are good shocks but not as fancy as the original remote reservoir units. (I'm happy with my Hagons). It's got the twin plug heads & the right coils and airbox, but a lot of parts aren't original and the spare parts aren't 1200S parts, apart from the speedo & rev counter which it's hard to determine the condition of.
If it runs good and handles well, that might be more important than total originality. A lot could change in 18 Hrs but it could still be a bargain.
 
Nice one cheers for the keen eye and input i seem to remember it should have a speedo rev counter as stock but this ones showing a speedo only and what looks like a broken one on the floor ?!
 
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Those twin plug heads are nothing special - they flow exactly the same and suffer the same turbulant ports as the 91-03 1200 heads. The only difference is a smaller chamber which gives about 10:1 static compression with the stock flat top piston. The heads actually have a 10 degree squish band cast into them which does nothing as the MoCo went with a flat top. They benefit from some material removal just above the seat as the valves are shrouded as they come.
 
So with a bit of your magic i would gain a bit ? Is the stock ignition system able to be adjusted to cope if i went down this road
 
watchman said:
So with a bit of your magic i would gain a bit ? Is the stock ignition system able to be adjusted to cope if i went down this road
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You would, but not as much as starting with a stock pair of 883 heads. There's much more material in them to work with and an open chamber which really helps with lower lift flow just as the valve comes off of the seat. Those 91-03 1200 castings have very turbulent ports. I've never tried to adjust the stock ignition, I use an Ultima adjustable ignition unit on most of my performance built Sportsters as they have four preset curves to choose from. Just moving the stock plate around is guesswork ..
 
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