Harley Davidson Fatboy Ride Review: FAT Couture

Handling, Ride Quality and Braking

If you haven’t ridden Harleys before, the Fatboy does appear to be an intimidating prospect at the outset – thanks to its massive proportions. But once you lay your bottom on the couch-like saddle, all apprehensions are put to rest. The Fatboy surprises you with its effortlessness considering it’s still a huge motorcycle. Not that it feels as feathery as your everyday streetbike, but it does feel a lot lighter and rider friendly from the saddle than off it.

Holding the handlebars at first might seem like operating an anti-aircraft gun, but they are extremely rider friendly in operation. Steering a 330 kg motorcycle somehow feels awfully stress-free with that pair in hand. The weight, along with the 1635mm wheelbase shows up for good, rendering terrific straightline stability – numbers on the speedo don’t matter with the Fatboy running with authority of a locomotive on rails. The Harley-specific Dunlop radials provide ample bite into the tarmac. Minor undulations don’t baffle the Fatboy, but rough patches and speed breakers apart from posing underbody grinding threats, do manage to filter through. The Fatboy might be a softail, but the travel of the rear suspension isn’t enough to soak up larger impacts.

From high speed highway runs, it was time to squeeze the Fatboy into the narrow lanes of Goa. To re-iterate, the Fatboy makes light work of its weight and with oodles of torque right from the word go – it was relatively easy to wriggle in and out of slow moving traffic and it does surprise you with its flicking ability. The discomforting factor riding the Fatboy in a stop-go scenario would be the sauna treatment meted out to your right thigh by the second cylinder exhaust pipe – the heat occasionally gets too much to bear. Also the clutch isn’t amongst the lightest in operation and would leave your wrist and fingers aching during extended stop-go runs.

Going around bends isn’t the Fatboy’s forte, not that it cannot- but is rather restricted by the footboards/exhausts that allow no more than (Harley specified) 27 degree left and 26.2 degree right leaning angles. Even with constrained lean angles, torquey long strokers have their own pleasure while going around corners- you may put your left foot and the gear lever to rest and just play around with the throttle to get in and out of twisties. The pleasure of riding the Fatboy around curves doesn’t come from making the footboard kiss the tarmac, but from the effortlessness in which the Fatboy works itself around.

An enormous motorcycle with mindboggling torque figures needs equally good stopping power. The ABS equipped four piston front 292mm single disc and a ditto sized two piston rear disc provides adequate braking ability- but the brakes are left wanting while slowing down or stopping from high speeds. Also the ABS doesn’t feel as efficient at higher clicks as they do at regular speeds. The levers demand a harder squeeze for effective braking. I wish the Fatboy came with twin discs upfront equipping it with that added stopping ability or at least a larger diameter front rotor.

Next page for CONCLUSION & TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS