The Fatboy - What To Know Before Buying.

hey folks how are you today welcome back to the channel and so you want to buy a fat boy that's what this video is about today I'm going to go through a few things about the fat boy you might want to know going into getting one uh I'd like to think I have a good idea about the fat boy seeing as how I've owned four so far I had an EVO fat boy couple of twin cam fat boys an M8 fat boy but let's get to it we're going to try and stick to more model specific things about the bike so let's get to her so the fat boy came out in 1990 it's been around for 33 years it is a iconic member of the soft tail family it was in Terminator 2 it got a lot of popularity out of that and it started off with an 80 cubic inch Evo engine we moved into the twin cam s come the turn of the Millennium and we got the 88 twin cam the 96 the 103 and then we went into the m8s where we started at a 107 and now a 114 we also had a few interations of the Fatboy we had the CVO Fatboy we had the Fatboy s with the 110 Screaming Eagle engine as well as we had the fat boy low and of course the 30th annivers fat boy that came out in 2020 and that's the all blacked out model now one of the first things I've been asked was is this a bike for beginners should I get this bike for my first bike and my answer would be no if you want my opinion you should start off on something much lighter much smaller possibly a sportser that's what I started with anyway uh but that being said if you have the money and you really want to go out and do it you know go for it I'm not going to tell you what to do another thing about this bike is the weight it is a fairly Heavy Cruiser it comes in around 700 lb wet weight that means full of gas full of oil and ready to roll the good thing about this bike I guess being heavy is it has a lower center of gravity so it actually is not that hard to lift off the kickstand so one of the things that makes a fat boy a fat boy is the fat tires this bike no matter which model you're looking at always had the fat tires as well as the solid wheels for the most part anyway um right now the bike comes with a 160 front tire and a 240 back tire now these big fat tires are a definite reason why this bike is not something I would recommend for a new Rider because this bike will go very well in a straight line but it's not going to be good for very tight turns now while we're on the subject of tires uh the fat boy these days comes out with the Michelin Scorchers and these tires I have not been impressed with um if you live somewhere like Canada where you're you have a riding season about 6 seven months you can pretty much expect to go through a set of tires every second season if you live somewhere like the southern states and you're riding year round I would expect to go through a set of tires every year if you do any decent amount of riding um the other thing about these tires that I found strange is that they seem to wear out in the front before the rear now other Fat Boys I've had with other tires they've always wore out in the rear long before the front and that would be because the torque is to the rear tire the front tire just rolls another thing about the tires especially on this fat boy is they wear unevenly or on mine they did and I've heard from a lot of different people that it's seems to be a common issue the front tire seems to have uneven tire wear and you can expect to have that possibly uh if you go with a fat boy now of course one of the problems with replacing tires and having uneven wear on tires is that they are going to cost these big fat tires are not cheap you can expect to spend at least at least around here easily a th000 or more if you are getting new tires and having the dealership replace them for you now let's get into Comfort Fatboy comes with footboards and forward controls so for a guy like me who's around 6 ft tall it's quite comfortable for my legs as far as the seating position goes now the same comfort-wise cannot be said about the seat I have never ever been on a stock Harley Fat Boy seat anyway where my ass was not sore within 20 to 30 minutes the seat does not look bad um however uh it really leaves a lot to be desired in the comfort area um I can say that compared to my low rider there under the cover that seat is incredibly comfortable compared to the Fatboy seat and you would think that the fat boy being supposedly a more premium model would have a better seat but it does not so you may want to leave a little money in your budget for a much better more comfortable seat now depending on your height uh like I said I am around 6 ft tall you may find The Handlebar height a little too low I found myself kind of hunched over too much with the regular stock bars so I would I would advise possibly getting a little bit higher bars maybe higher risers uh maybe some mini apes uh I'm a fan of ape hangers I just like the way they look but the other thing about them is they really help my posture Ure so that I'm sitting up at a in a more straight position and takes a little bit of the U pressure off my lower back now the suspension on the new Fat Boys is way better than the previous to 2018 models with the Monoshock it is much better in the rear than the older fat boys that being said I still think the front suspension could use some work it is still feels pretty pretty stiff to me um it's it's obviously not something that has inverted forks uh but they could do way better on the front suspension if you ask me the one good thing about the fat boy is that it does come with an external dial you can dial in uh that rear Monoshock on the fly now the fat booy is basically a stripped down Cruiser it doesn't come with a lot of bells and whistles there's no saddle bags there's no windshield and these are some things that you might want to buy or consider getting if you're planning on taking this bike on trips and I have been asked in the past also is this a bike you can Tour on as far as I'm concerned you can Tire tour pardon me on any bike if you put your mind to it look at what people were riding around the country on back in like the 60s and 70s any bike from nowadays is good to tour on um I have taken uh fat boys through the Rocky Mountains to the West Coast through the Canadian Shield to the east you can Tour on any bike and you can especially Tour on a properly set up fat boy now I said I wanted to stay model specific uh in this video however there are a few things I will just say that aren't necessarily um you know specific to the fat boy but they are to older models so if you are looking at uh a fat boy with an evolution engine um have a look at The Rocker Box covers I have never had an Evol ution engine that did not have Rocker Box cover leaks however that's pretty easy to repair it's just a set of gaskets so but just something to look at another thing um if you have a bike especially the evil ones that is over 30,000 uh miles you might want to uh you might want to have a look at the primary chain tensioner shoe now obviously you're not going to be able to see that when you're going to look at the bike but I'm assuming you're going to test R it and you will know if something's wrong with that primary chain um I've had them where they have split after mileage that high so it's just a matter of pulling off the cover it's just a plastic shoe that would be one of the first things I would check when I got the bike home uh another thing is the early twin cams up to around 2006 they had some issues with the camchain tensioner it had uh a tendency to wear out come apart and you don't want to be screwing up your engine so if you're buying a bike of that vintage ask the owner if he has done the camchain tensioner if he has not that is definitely something you're going to want to do as soon as possible just to be on the safe side again if you're test riding it you're obviously going to know if something's you know totally wrong with it but these are a few things I would have a look at if you're looking at buying an older model now when you're buying a fat boy or really any Harley for that matter you've also got to take into consideration of course your taxes your sech charge uh the first service but you're going to have to look at probably some accessories some add-ons at least with the new bikes you're usually going to go for that most people do and it's going to cost for example on my bike I had uh windshield ape hangers uh mustache engine guard with highway pegs I had a high flow air cleaner uh tun um Vance and Hind slipons and a swing arm bag all that stuff is going to add up big time so make sure you've got money in your budget if you are looking to do those things so I've looked at a few things in this video that you should be thinking about when you buy a fat boy um I'm sure there there are many others that are even more model specific to the different models of the fat boy but we don't have three or four hours to go through this and I'm not going to bore you with all that but I didn't do this video to dissuade anybody from buying a fat boy the fat boy is my favorite motorcycle it's my favorite Harley model and I wish I still had one and I hey may get one in the future um so if you got the money and you want to do it you go for it because you will not be disappointed uh for now I just got to stick with the old Low Rider s and the little leaky Pete the old Sportster there uh but I'll use that till I get another fat boy but anyway that's it for today if I left anything out if anybody can think of things that other people need to know about buying a fat boy leave them in the comments and we'll catch you in the next one

Channel: CANADIAN SA1NT

Views: 72,899

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Id: OK1wxv-m7PI

Length: 11min 16sec (676 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 02 2023