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About lunch today my wifes cousin shows up on her bike and asks if we want to ride down to colorado with her. Apparantly one of the harley dealers down there was doing a demo day.

So I break out my bike and my wife hops on the back of her cousins Harley and we ride down there.

I got to take a sportster 1200 C out for a test ride. First thing I notice is this this has WAYYY more power than my CX500. I loved the power of the bike but I most definately HATE forward controls. I would definately consider the sportster 1200R for my next bike thoguh (I find the R comfortable)

Forward controls can kinda grow on ya. I hated my wife's Marauder at first, compared to the Bonneville it felt like clumsy piece of farm equipment. Now I'm getting used to it, and I'll admit it has a certain style. Low speed handling is clumsy, but cruisin' down the road is comfortable.... guess that's why they call 'em cruisers, duh!!

I'd like to try a Harley some day, just to see what it's about. Can't ever see myself paying Harley prices though.

The harley definately vibrates a lot at idle, but once your going it smoothes right out. the thing is a powerhouse compared to my CX500, I had it up to 55mph on the test ride and didn't even hit 5th gear, it was just loping along in 4th

I would also NOT recommend a sportster 1200 to a new rider. It is not an easy bike to manuver at low speed, and it takes off QUICK even with only a little throttle