VOL. 54 ISSUE 39 OCTOBER 3, 2017 P105
III FAT BOY IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Some call the Fat Boy one of H-D's original fac-
tory customs. Battleship Grey, with yellow rocker
cover inserts and solid wheels, the 1990 Fat Boy
set the stage for what a cruiser would look like in
the 1990s. The modern remodel does a good job
of recapturing that magic. Unlike most of the new
Softails, which are trying to retain the look and
feel of the prior model (while building on a new
chassis), the Fat Boy does what the original did:
look like nothing else on the road.
Nods to the original include the solid wheels
front and back, the iconic tank logo, and a
brushed aluminum and chrome aesthetic. Art
deco headlight tins, drilled metal pieces and
an outrageous 240mm rear tire are nods to the
original's groundbreaking style, in a 21st century
execution. The Fat Boy was the second 114 I tried,
and it was overkill in this bike, the most uneven
handling of the bunch.
Turn-in is easy, but once you get it over, you
have to fight to get it to full lean, which comes
fairly quickly; a side effect of all that rubber out
back. You can get used to it, but after the superb
manners of most of these bikes it was a surprise.
Sometimes bikes with really heavy wheels/tires
like this one will lose some suspension quality, but
that doesn't seem the case here. The Fat Boy fit
me well enough, with neutral bars and a moder-
ately supportive seat.
