But I was initially attracted to Fatty's slammed stance, not its seat height. I literally plop my 31-inch inseam down to meet the Fat Boy Lo's saddle, and its approachable proportions are more novelty than selling point-- for me, at least. But putting the miles on Fatty has revealed some of the drawbacks inherent to its hunkered-down layout. The "Lo" model experiences a .7 inch reduction in rear suspension travel-- from 4.3 to 3.6 inches-- which produces a bumpier ride (which I can live with), but more crucially, reduced ground clearance (from 5.1 inches to 4.8 inches.)
Though it's certainly apparent during city riding, I especially notice the side effect when I hit canyon roads like Angeles Crest Highway, a 66 mile-long twisting mecca for motorcyclists. Scraaape, scraaape, scraaape, go Fatty's floorboards, as I traverse the road's twisting stretches. The bottom rubbing became so predictable on one ride, I started playing a little game with myself: how far could I lean without making contact with pavement? I got into a nice little rhythm, adjusting the banking angle just so in order to negotiate each hairpin turn without touching down... but towards the tighter back sections of the Crest, the challenge re-emerged: Fatty wanted to scrape, which invariably forced me to slow down.
On the positive, I was less paranoid about law enforcement (the only speeding ticket I've ever gotten on a bike was while riding a Suzuki Gladius on the Crest, go figure.) But Fatty was cramping my style more than the average cruiser-- an unfortunate tradeoff for its cool custom looks.
Picking accessories for Fatty offered what is perhaps the ultimate reminder of the Fat Boy Lo's ground-hugging architecture. Tempted to replace Fatty's floorboards with footpegs for more clearance, I asked the experts at Harley-Davidson what they thought of the idea. They replied that the gain would be so minimal, and they don't recommend it-- which, at the end of the day, I thought was fine. After all, there's only so much fiddling with something's (or, for that matter, somebody's) innate personality before you start to change its overall character.
So while I'll probably never make peace with Fatty's floorboard scraping tendencies, I certainly will chalk it up to the bike's overall custom cruiser persona and enjoy the slower pace.
Mileage Log
- Total Miles Ridden: 683
- Total Odometer Miles: 2,235
- Average Fuel Economy: 38.8 mpg
