Little Boy on a FAT BOY - part 1

My good friend Wendy’s brother in law, who works at the Board of Education in New York, was in town for the Spring Break. He also likes to ride motorcycles. So Wendy and Steve found a place where he can rent a Harley for the weekend. And we all went on a very nice bike ride last Saturday afternoon.

Pat is a pretty big guy. I imagine him to be at least 6’2” and probably 280 Lbs. So, a tiny bike like my Sportster probably wouldn’t suit him very well. Since it’s a rental and he’ll have it for a couple days, he asked us which Harley we most likely would like to take a test-spin. After many rounds of discussion among ourselves, we all agreed that Pat should rent a Fat Boy.

I’ve always been fascinated with this bike. I first saw the bike in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s (I can’t believe I actually spelled his last name) hit movie “Terminator 2”. In the movie, The Terminator (the current governor of California) had just arrived from the future thru Time-Travel. As he walked into a biker bar naked (only life form can go thru time-travel), he “kindly” asked a biker for his clothes and his motorcycle which was parked outside the bar. When the biker laughed at his face, sticking a hot burning cigar to his chest and refused Arnold’s request because The Terminator didn’t say “please”, Arnold broke his arm, threw him over the bar, breaking like 50 glasses, took his clothes and rode away with his motorcycle. And what a beautiful motorcycle it was. That was the Fat Boy’s debut.

When you wrap your eyes on around this bike (if you can), you will notice its big and fat front forks with solid front wheel, a huge head light and a wide handle bar, all chromed and shinny. Generous floorboards on each side of the bike make you feel you can just put your feet down and ride it for hours and hours (no matter what boot size you wear). But don’t let the “beauty” fool you, it’s also got muscles. It’s got an 88 cubic inch Twin Cam engine with your choice of carbureted or easy-no-choke-no-brainer EFI (Electronic Fuel injection). I personally would not want to mess with the carbureted engines again after what I’ve gone through with my Sportster. Last but not least, with a set of shotgun pipes that would even wake up the dead. I immediately fell in love with the bike. Everything about this bike is: big, FAT and big!


(To be continued tomorrow)