2021 Harley-Davidson Sportster S | First Ride

We ride the new Harley-Davidson Sportster S. It’s 6 a.m. in downtown Los Angeles. A dozen or so groggy motorcycle journalists clamber aboard a row of Harley-Davidson Sportster S ($14,999) motorcycles parked outside our hotel. Out front, there’s a guy pressure washing the sidewalk, flooding the street in iridescent runoff. As I maneuver my test bike onto the road, the Sportster’s 180/70 rear Dunlop gets filmed in the stuff. I bring the bike near upright and snap the throttle to spool it up maybe 2,000 rpm; the back tire briefly steps out before going smoothly back in line with the help of some imperceptible electronic intervention. I haven’t traveled ten yards, but it’s already obvious the 2021 Harley-Davidson Sportster S is far more than the mere symbol its predecessor morphed into during its 64-year production run. For some, the legendary Sportster family is meaningful precisely because it’s a symbol. A 45-degree air-cooled pushrod engine, classic cruiser styling, that Milwaukee sound: They’re real, valuable, and necessary, because they’re the soul of Harley-Davidson. To some, they’re even symbols of an idealized American spirit, equal parts blue-collar grit and simpler times. If the symbol vanishes, the bar bends and the shield cracks. Killing the soul kills the symbol. For others, the old Sportster is not meaningful precisely because it’s a symbol. To them, it’s a symbol of old technology, old ways of thinking, and a culture better left in the past. The Sportster—as a...