For my 150 pounds, the low, slim saddle made for an amazingly user-friendly ride, despite the bike’s rather imposing 567-pound weight. Easy to manoeuvre at low speeds and on the road, the Forty-Eight is an excellent machine for short riders or newbies. The taller (over 5’6”) and heftier (say the 220 well-padded pounds of our own Marc Cantin) will feel a bit cramped, maybe too much so. According to their level of suffering, they have the option of installing more generous seating and, especially, a shock/spring combo that would lift the rear end a bit, thus extending travel and ensuring better damping in back.

Sportster 883 SuperLow

The 883 SuperLow’s raison d’être is simply to cruise around cheerfully, to the tune of a delightful, impossible-to-miss exhaust not, part of this bike’s appeal. (Photo: Philippe Champoux/Moto123.com)

The Sportster 883 SuperLow, powered by The Motor Company’s smallest engine and featuring a low-slung seat, perched at just 648 mm, is accessible to everyone under 5’9” and 175 lbs. The higher and wider will be comfortable, though not perfectly so.

The little liquid-cooled, pushrod-operated V-Twin displaces some 883 cubic centimetres, and thankfully electronic injection lends a helping hand. It delivers a decent, though short-lived, amount of torque at low and medium engine speeds, enough to achieve an almost satisfying rhythm in town as well as on secondary roads. It distinctly runs out of steam near the 120-m/h mark though, which is beyond its job description. On the contrary, the 883 SuperLow’s raison d’être is simply to cruise around cheerfully, to the tune of a delightful, impossible-to-miss exhaust not, part of this bike’s appeal. And if you keep the engine within the torque band, you’ll get some great corner exits too.

The pair of shocks/springs are pre-load adjustable and have a shorter travel than that of the other Sportsters in order to lower the seat here as well. You can guess at the results: it bottoms out too easily over bumps and dampens too sharply, precisely in order to limit compression over said bumps – can’t work any magic there.

On the other hand, the well-moulded and padded saddle absorbs a large part of those shocks. Around front, the well-calibrated fork works hard to cushion blows and maintain a firm grip on the road, no matter its condition. During aggressive braking manoeuvres – always use both brakes for optimal braking – the fork offers decent compression resistance while keeping a bit of leeway to continue to absorb bumps.

Strange at first, the riding position (back straight, arms outstretched, legs folded) reminds you of a kitchen stool that’s just a little too low, and still requires some getting used to. Once you have, though, the 90-degree fold in your legs allows you to throw your way around some – if you’re thin and in shape – to better tackle corners. This configuration also allows you to rise up a bit in the saddle to deal with bumps and potholes, not as much as a standard but still enough to keep back torture in check.

The pair of shocks/springs are pre-load adjustable and have a shorter travel than that of the other Sportsters. (Photo: Philippe Champoux/Moto123.com)