The new "48", in my humble opinion, looks great, but isn't made for the type of riding I enjoy. The shortened suspension means scraping in any kind of spirited cornering. That's why, when I decided to buy another Sportster (I do work in a Harley-Davidson dealership after all) I chose a nice used 2006 XL883 standard model.This was the last year for carberated Sportsters and this bike has the mid controls and full length suspension.I purposely did not want a fuel injected model, and actually would have liked a pre-2004 model due to those years being much lighter in weight, and having the trap door transmission. My bike doesn't scrape (yet) going around corners pushing things a bit, and it doesn't have all that crap shoved up into the gas tank for the FI system.
The smaller gas tank on the 48 will mean considerably lees cruising range between fill ups. But HD is going to sell a bunch of these I think, just like the Nightster and the Iron model.
jon