{"product_id":"harley-davidson-sportster-sixty-years-9780760352182","title":"Harley-Davidson Sportster: Sixty Years","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eGo on a 60-year ride with Harley-Davidson's Sportster\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThings got a little weird in the American motorcycle industry after World War II. People hungered for new motorcycles, buying just about everything manufacturers could build. But on rare occasions a manufacturer produced a machine that nobody wanted. Such was the case with the Harley-Davidson Model K. The Model K had most of the features buyers wanted in a modern machine, like hand-operated clutches, foot-operated shifters, and cool-running aluminum heads, but it lacked perhaps the most important technological upgrade: a modern overhead-valve valve-train design.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Model K retained the antiquated side-valve design because of arcane AMA racing rules written when Harley-Davidson and Indian competed head-to-head on American racetracks, but by 1952 Indian was on its last legs. This should have made the Model K a massive sales success. What nobody counted on was the British bike invasion. Thanks to their modern overhead-valve engines, the lightweight British bikes humiliated the side-valve Harleys on the track and on the street. Upgrades to the Model K didn't help; Harley finally relented and introduced a new overhead-valve middleweight for the 1957 model year. Dubbed the Sportster, it was everything the Model K was not. More importantly, it was faster than the British competition. Thus began the Sportster's sixty-year reign.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eHarley-Davidson Sportster: Sixty Years\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e tells the complete Sportster story. Noted Sportster expert Allen Girdler covers all the bikes--the XLCH, Café Racer, XR1000, XLX, 883, Iron, Forty-Eight, Seventy-Two, and Nightster--that have made the Sportster one of the most iconic motorcycles on earth.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Quarto Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42877649682638,"sku":"9780760352182","price":39.9,"currency_code":"MYR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0601\/0883\/2974\/files\/9780760352182_1_210cdede-1be5-4b7c-9c58-8849cbafad45.jpg?v=1735800808","url":"https:\/\/www.bookxcess.com\/products\/harley-davidson-sportster-sixty-years-9780760352182","provider":"BookXcess","version":"1.0","type":"link"}