Oooh, I didn't realize that skulls all over your bike made it a less of a girl's bike. Sorry about that.

Good luck, ride safe, and get used to people calling your Sportster a girl's bike or Skirtster. Those names have been around longer than you have (since about 1960 when the big bike guys started lumping Pportsters and K models in with the lighter British bikes when they heaped their scorn).

Skirtster's are a relatively inexpensive way to say "I own a Harley". They CAN be made into a respectable hotrod, however. I did it too in the old days (the early 80s, to you Generation Y types). Yup, I rode a girl's bike for a while, while my '49 ULH flathead 80 incher was being rebuilt. I bought a '72 iron-barrel Skirtster for $1200 in 1982, put the motor in a D&D Cycles rigid (Paughco before it was Paughco), AFTER I added lightened and balanced 4 5/8" S&S flywheels, Sifton Minus-Minus cams, Sifton lifters, an S&S Super B carb, a Morris magneto and a 48 tooth rear sprocket on a 18x4" disc alloy rear wheel (less rolling resistance to eat up horsepower and torque), a dual disc 19x3.5" alloy wheeled front end and (wide footprint added stability), with everything drilled and lightened, and I had a 395lb, 77cu.", 10.8 second @ 112mph drag bike with a license plate and headlight that ran on pump gas for less than $4000, the cost of a complete basket-case 74" big-twin back then. Took a couple of pink slips from people who wanted to call it what it was- a GIRL'S BIKE and were certain their 88inch stroker big-twin could take it in the 1/8th mile. It was, too... a girl's bike, that is. Gave it to my ex-wife eventually.

The big downside of this kind of hop-up, even on today's motors, is that they break more easily, and cost more to fix when they do. They also wear out sooner and get crummy gas mileage, compared to stock. It's cheaper in the long run to buy a 5 year old Dyna or Softail. No, they're not "fast" or "quick", but they ARE a helluva lot more fun (AND more substantial on the long road) to ride.

Stock Skirtsters even today, they're too light for long freeway work without IronButt credentials, too heavy in the wrong places to be even a marginal "through the twisties" racer, and too underpowered to be an impressive bar-hopper. Of course, if you start with a 120ph, 1200cc Buell motor, put it in a lightweight rigid frame with the barest of necessities and every fuel-injection, cam, exhaust, and electronics hop-up option you can afford (but NOT adding additional weight with chrome skulls and "live to ride" badges all over), you CAN build a respectable 11-12 second bar hopper....... In the mean time, riding a Skirtster will get you used to the fact that there's a zillion morons out there who do NOT see you or your bike, and teach you how to "ride defensively or perish". They're also cheaper to fix when you crash, since you can often find a complete parts bike for a few thousand dollars.

It's what it is- a STARTER Harley for most people, male OR female, and the biggest bike most of the shorter women I know want to ride. Most of the women I know who do ride (those who don't ride Honda Shadows or whatnot, that is), ride either Dynas or Softails. A few ride baggers, but they're generally 5"9 or taller. So "girl's bike" has no real meaning anymore, except to degrade guys on Sportsters ;-).

If you want to ride a Skirtster that does NOT fit the "girl's bike" nickname, go take a look at the new 2009 XR-1200! It's Harley's European model designed to actually be a respectable contender in the hills (NOT, mind you, in competition with 1200cc Japanese of German bikes, just lightyears better handling and performing than any other Harley to date, except the Buell bikes). Our local service manager was one of the guys to put it through it's test-track torture for Harley's factory development crew, and he LOVES it (he rides a GERMAN dual-sport for his daily rider, by the way). Wanna know what? People will STILL say you're riding a girl's bike. They just won't mean it as deeply with that XR 1200. Hell, the tiny little gal at the local dealer who's riding a Buell Blast calls her bike "HALF a girl's bike", since it's the front cylinder only of a Sportster motor in the Blast!

We now return you to our more meaningful discussions. Ride safe.