Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

RIDING IMPRESSION. 1996 Harley-Davidson FXSTSB Bad Boy (Left) The custom for the '90s: Introduced in 1995, HarleyDavidson's FXSTSB Bad Boy combines the herltage-look Springer front fork with more contemporary styling. (Below) More at home on the boulevard than the highway, the Bed Boy Is nonetheless a fairly capable, comfortable day tourer. open too long. Now perhaps this modest power output isn't Harley-Davidson's fault. We suspect, as do most HarleyDavidson owners, that lurking inside that 80 cubic-inch lies the heart of a champion which has been chained down by Big Brother, what with his stringent noise and emissions standards. By the time the factory leans out the carb, slaps· in an EPA-friendly camshaft and plugs up the loose ends with restrictive mufflers, most of the bike's brawn has been effe~tively stifled. Fortunately, in the land of the free and the home of the brave it doesn't have to be that way (see "Wake-up call", page XX). But in stock form, effective use of the Evo's stumppulli!1g torque at low revs and a judi- By Scott RousseauIPhotos by Kinney Jones and Rousseau !though the good folks at Harley-Davidson could never be accused of ignoring the Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based company's heritage, neither do its styling designers wantonly wax nostalgic and design a throwback motorcycle that will never see the outside of a showroom floor. Nostalgia, yes. But it had better sell. FortunatelY, Willie G. Davidson and company have not had much to worry about. Whether new or old-new, every model that rolls off H-D's York, Pennsylvania, assembly line is sold long before it even makes it to the dealer. It has been that way for the past several model years and the. trend shows no sign of reversal. In the meantime, the styling crew continues to fortify the Big Twin lineup with carefully planned and executed new models to fill the gaps in the lineup. Introduced in 1995, the Harley-Davidson FXSTSB Bad Boy is one of those motorcycles. Based upon the same Softail platform as Harley-Davidson's hot-selling Heritage Softail models, and featuring the added twist of the nostalgic fork that resides upon the equally successful .FXSTS Springer, the FXSTSB presumably is Milwaukee's answer to the question, 'Just how bad can we build one of these things?" But Harley-Davidson did not answer that question without consulting the experts first - namely its customers, the people who ride Ha,ley-Davidsons faithfully. The Bad Boy is a reflection of their thoughts on how a "bad" bike should carry itself, and how ironic that this "reflection" features rather sparse quantities of the glitzy chrome found on most of the company's other offerings. Billed as a custom-styled motorcycle of the '90s, the Bad Boy seeks to combine old, new and evil all in one package. Take a walk around the machine and all the elements appear to be in place. The "old" comes in the form of the Bad Boy's Softail frame, which feigns the look of a hardtail motorcycle from the company's earlier days combined with the added feature of working suspension, the motorcycle's twin rear shocks cleverly hidden underneath the transmission. The machine's externally sprung front fork is another such throwback. The girder-style·arrangement relies on two coil-over springs and one telescoping shock absorber which dampen road irregularities that meet the machine's chromed, spoked 21-inch front through a series of pivot arms. Defintely a retro item. A chromed, bullet-style headlight further complements the machine's nostalgia custom theme. The "new" accoutrements that highlight the Bad Boy include many items that have stood the test of time in the fum's second-eoming, along with a few truly new - though not groundbreaking bits and pieces. Solidly mounted in the Softail frame is one of Milwaukee's reliable, 45-degree Evolution V-Twins, punched out to 80 cubic inches just as on the rest of the Big Twins, along with the accompanying five-speed transmission. A uniquely styled low handlebar is fitted and is a far cry from the pull-back styIe buckhorns that grace the rest of the Softails. Also found on the machine are floating disc brakes with slotted rotors. Out back, a slotted 16-inch rear wheel is held off the road by a meaty Duhlop Elite MT90B16 tire; the perfect match to the MH9D-21 that graces the front wheel. The bad comes in the execution and application of it all, and it is here that Harley-Davidson borrowed a styling cue from the late' Henry Ford, who said, "They can have it in any color they want as long as it's black." The Bad Boy purveys that theme in spades, with the blacked-out frame, fork, fuel and oil tanks, and bobbed fenders topped off in a pinstriped, scalloped motif that is intended to make the motorcycle just plain "bad" in the good sense of the word, and the machine's black leather seat has benefitted from the tasteful use of black studding and the addition of silver conchos on each side of the passenger pillion. It should be mentioned that the buyer does have a choice of secondary colors. The machine can be delivered with either blue or magenta scallops. To top it off, the fi!UI1e of America's oldest surviving motorcycle manufacturer is proudly displayed on the 4.2- gallon fuel tank via a rather trick-looking cloisonne emblem. This may all add up to a hot-looking motorcycle, but form is only half the equation, and the Bad Boy could be the nicest-looking machine in the stable, but if that's where it .always resides, then what's the point? Fortunately for Harley fans, this one can be ridden as hard as any other Milwaukee Marvel. Firing the machine when cold is as simple as pulling the choke on its 40mm Keihin CV carburetor. Simply rap the throttle open one time and then thumb the starter butto", and the massive twin chugs to life with that familar, classic (but rather muted) rumble emanating from its chromed dual exhausts. As with all other Big Twins choked and caged by EPA emissions standards, the Bad Boy's jean carburetor settings require .that an inordinate amount of time is spent on the choke before you're ready to roll. It's easy enough to get rolling, however. Simply pull in the smooth-operating clutch, clunk the Bad Boy into gear, and you're off. The tractor-like power output of the Bad Boy's 1340cc Evo engine offers few surprises for those who have straddled a Harley-Davidson before. The torquey mill spits out most of its usable force fairly low in the powerband and then signs off somewhere in the lower midrange before doing little else but shake and bake if the throttle is held cious short-rowing of the bike's five- _ speed transmission is the best course to take, whether between stoplights or state lines. At least the transmission is up to the task, featuring fairly evenly spaced gear ratios that maximize the Bad Boy's torque producing capability during acceleration or cruise mode. The shift quality felt as though it was much improved over previous H-Dmodels we have tested as Harley-Davidson has seen fit to improve the five-speed box with new high-contact-ratio gears in order to make it smoother and quieter. We think they succeeded. One of our staff .testers described Harley shift quality during his ride aboard a 1995 Dyna Wide Glide for a previous test as "a sledgehammer hitting an anvil," while he was much more kind with his remarks after his stint on the 1996 Bad Boy, saying that the gear changes felt more like a "rubber mallet hitting an anvil." At least we nel1er missed a shift or found any false neutr

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