G'DAY
ONE of my favourite bikes turns 60 this year. The Harley-Davidson Sportster was released in 1957 as a sports model to tackle the British parallel twins and has never been out of production in all the years since. In a sea of modern bikes pretending to look old, a new Sportster is the real deal. The Sportster is a direct descendent of the famous WLA that mobilised the US infantry during WW2. Like many side-valve Harleys, WLAs ran four gear-driven singlelobe camshafts (one for each valve) which were retained when it was updated with unit construction and a swingarm chassis — both firsts for Harley — in 1952 and renamed the Model K. Overhead valves in cast-iron heads came in 1957 and with them the new Sportster moniker. Changes in…