2010 Fat Boy Lo Ride Review, or How Harley Built the Baddest MoFo on the Floor
I’ll be honest here – Harley very rarely blows me away with their styling.
Do they build the best mass-produced cruiser motorcycle in the world? Yes. Is their quality second to none? Yes. Do the rest of the world’s major manufactures continue to trip over each other, scratching and clawing to get just a whiff of the Bar and Shield’s proverbial tailpipe? Yep, that’s true too.
All that being said though, I’ve always seen Harleys when they come out of the box as a pristine blank canvas – nowhere near finished and in need of some serious personalization, at least for my taste. Now before every cat in the world rolling a stock Street Glide with a set of Rineharts and a high flow writes in to tell me just how wrong I am and how perfect their bike is just the way it is, let’s look at the facts.
Harley didn’t sponsor the custom Harley class at this year’s AMD World Championships of Custom Bike Building in Sturgis for no reason. Nor do they print that two-inch-thick parts and accessories catalog year in and year out so you can leave good enough alone. They want you to trick them out, and more importantly Harley wants to see them when you’re done so they can steer the mother ship’s styling based on what the average Joe is doing to his bike once it leaves the factory.
Imagine my surprise then at seeing the new 2010 Fat Boy Lo in the flesh for the first time. For me, it’s as close to finished as Harley has come with a bike in a long, long time. Its blacked-out industrial styling is as subtle as a shotgun at the company Christmas party. Wisely, Harley refrained from dipping in black tip to tip and added just enough bits in their new “Satin Chrome” finish to give the bike some contrast against the choice of Vivid Black or Black Denim tins and a Harley first Black Denim frame.
It’s a symphony of simplicity that gives the Fat Boy Lo its finished look. What could you add to it? Does it need pipes and an air cleaner? Of course, what Harley doesn’t? Outside of that though I would be tempted to leave it the heck alone – Wiley G and the boys actually got it right.
But how does it ride you ask? Thankfully for those that were (or will be) lured in by this girl’s stunning appearance, she rides as good as she looks. Ergonomically, the Lo varies quite a bit from its standard Fat Boy brethren. With a lowered suspension and thin cut seat, it sits lower than any other big twin Harley has ever build at just 24.25” – good news for short legged bikers like myself. It’s a combination that will find more people flatfooted than any bike that’s come before it.
The handlebars lean more toward a drag persuasion, and get you leaning/rocking forward into a more aggressive posture than most. Coupled with the low “down-in-the-bike” seating, the Lo had me feeling confident to throw it deep into some turns, which I got a chance to do recently before all this freezing cold weather set in.
Rolling around town on the Lo was a blast. She’s a looker, as more than a few double-taking and rubbernecking cage drivers quickly confirmed. For a bike that looks so right because of its subtleties, it’s hard to imagine how you could not get noticed riding it.
The wide, low handlebars were an easy reach and the seat was comfortable for the duration, as the balanced Twin Cam 96 B made quick work of getting me up to speed and down the road. Remembering back to the buzz-prone 1996 Heritage I used to ride, it’s hard to fathom how much of an improvement Harley made with their balanced engine. Glassy smooth, with ample torque always waiting at the ready, it’s simply a pleasure to ride. Couple this engine with H-D’s six-speed Cruise Drive transmission, and you’ve got a package that feels at home puttin’ down the main drag, or blazing down the interstate.
The lowered chassis has the added benefit of giving the bike an even lower center of gravity than before, making switchbacks an effortless task and giving the bike a very light in-hand feel. If there’s a gripe to be had at all it would be the low floorboard height and the compromise that creates in hard cornering, but it’s not adverse and will probably only be noticed by the most aggressive of riders.
On the whole, the Lo impressed me more than most anything the factory has rolled out in forever with a winning combination of ride and looks that is hard to deny. It won’t be for those who still believe the chrome is going to get them home, but for everyone else you owe it to yourself to demo ride this machine and see what all the buzz is about.
See you on the road,
Justin “Two-Bit” Schilling
So, in the interest of introducing myself without making this sound like a personals ad, I’ll refrain from telling you that I like watching sunsets and long walks on the beach, and do my best to stick to the facts. My name is Justin Schilling and I work as a salesman on the floor here at Thunder Mountain Harley-Davidson. If you’ve been into our store in the last year I may have had the pleasure of making your acquaintance, or you might at least recognize my ugly mug from seeing me around.
When I landed at Thunder Mountain almost a year ago now I had quite a few of my more loyal customers follow me North, adopting a new home dealership to keep doing business with yours truly. You know who you are, and I can’t thank you all enough. In the process of calling all my old customers upon arrival I got several variations of the old, “Why should I buy from Thunder Mountain?” and it got me thinking.