{"product_id":"harleydavidson-sportster-isbn-9780760352182","title":"Harley-Davidson Sportster","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eGo on a 60-year ride with Harley-Davidson's Sportster \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\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\/p\u003e\u003cp\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\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eHarley-Davidson Sportster: Sixty Years\u003c\/i\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\/p\u003e","brand":"Motorbooks","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44892465397989,"sku":"NP9780760352182","price":45.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/O_562437bd-0a92-4c84-92e7-c65708a9c7a4.jpg?v=1773102542","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/harleydavidson-sportster-isbn-9780760352182","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}