I’m not exactly sure when the “girl’s bike” nomenclature thing actually began, but it stuck for years and years. When I sold Harleys, anytime I suggested a Sporty to a buyer, I always got that same “girl’s bike” crap and had to bit my tongue instead of saying what I was really thinking. It reached a peak when I took a sales call from a deaf person through a relay system where the intermediary typed back and forth with the caller and relayed his message to me. It was his first ever bike and I suggested a Sporty and waited while the message was relayed. The relay person was a woman who said with much trepidation “That’s a f*cking girl’s bike.” She let the guy hang unknowingly for a minute and asked me what that meant and when I told her she said quite pissed off, “That’s an insult to women!” Couldn’t help buy agree with her.
Over a phone call with Sporster lover and owner Jack Cofano, we discussed the whole “girl’s bike” issue and we both miraculously agreed that we haven’t heard that term recently and it was about time. Somehow Sportsters were cool again. I think it had a lot to do with Harley taking the XL series seriously again and not treating it as a gateway bike to “real” Harleys. The rubber-mount models started it with the original Custom model and the Dark series, the Iron 883, the Nightster, the Forty-Eight, and the Seventy-Two kicked that term to the curb where it belongs. Yup, it doesn’t get much hipper for the hipsters to blast around on a Sportster of any vintage these days.
So with that newfound respect, Barnett’s Magazine Online proudly showcases this outrageously yellow Sportster bobber built by Cale Mutter of MCS Customs in Boyertown, Pennsylvania. Besides running his everyday Mutter’s Cycle Supply shop that caters to the parts end of the business, he’s also creating some lovely customs for customers and for himself with his with Lisa. No, they’re not all Sportys by any means with some nice Softails, baggers, and even trikes passing through his shop. What he’s carved out here is a neat bopping around town bike that’s got lots of eyeball presence along with a fun to ride bike.
It’s a stripped-down hardtail now with an always cool springer replacing the telescopics scoring a lot of street cred in just the basic backbone of the bike. Toss on some apes along with some meatier rubber out back and a million spoke front wheel and Cale moved the cool factor needle even higher. A frisco-style Sporty tank and a sprung solo saddle add even more Old School ambiance while the broad swath of yellow paint with some nice pinstriping makes sure anybody and everybody knows when you’re in town. You can’t miss that yellow paint if you tried. And, I think that’s exactly what Cale was going for. It’s a rolling showcase for his shop, show worthy, and looks like a bad ass blast to ride on the road. Even if he’s just putting around, he knows he’s bad ass.
Sportys are back. God bless ‘em each and every one. Next time you hear someone refer to them as a girl’s bike, let them know what you’re really thinking. And if you’re a woman, give ‘em a good kick in the nuts. They deserve it on so many levels.
By the way, about a month after I got another relay call from the same deaf guy who felt he had to inform me for some reason that he bought a Sportster somewhere else “Ha ha” and that I was right and it wasn’t a girl’s bike after all. My reply to the relay person was, “Please tell the caller that I just hung up on him.” And I did.