Harley-Davidson Softail Fat Boy reviews

I have owned mine now for a year. I have had no probs out of the bike. Love the 200 rear tire looks great. I ride to work to and grocery store, and been on the dragon deals gap with it. GREAT BIKE! RIDE WITH PRIDE, RIDE AMERICAN!! Show less

I bought this bike August 12th and absolutely love it. I have put a little over 2000 trouble-free miles on it. I love the counter balanced 96 motor on it; it runs so smooth. And the six speed tranny is just so great. It shifts in so easily. This is my 4th Harley; the others being a 1200 Sportster, Electra Glide standard and a FXDL Low Rider. But this bike by far has them beat. With the big fat rear tire it holds the road just awesomely. And honestly, I love the ride on this bike better than the Electra Glide. Go test ride one. You'll be glad you did. Show less

This is one sweet, sweet ride. I had a Yamaha V-star 1100 before this and while I have nothing against the Yamaha there is a world of difference between the two. When I had the Yamaha I enjoyed riding, but if I got the chance to ride okay and if I didn't well that was okay too. My first day on the Fat Boy and I am hooked on the Harley brand. I only have a hundred miles after owning it just one day, but I actually can't wait until tomorrow to put another hundred or more miles on it. The Fat Boy is comfortable, stable and so very smooth. I cannot say enough how enjoyable it is to ride the Fat Boy. Of course, I could have bought two Yamahas for what I paied for the Fat Boy, but it was worth every penny of it. I didn't have to pay over the MSRP like some other Harley places make you do. Not only did I get the best deal - even though I had to drive about a 100 miles from the house - They beat every other Harley dealer in price and customer service and there are a half dozen Halrey dealers closer. Show less

Fresh out of the crate last Thursday, I got to watch them building my dream bike on the stand. Picked it up this last Saturday. First time I've ridden in over 10 years. A couple of figure 8's around the parking lot and I was good to go. Dark Green on Light Green with gold leaf lettering - enough stock chrome to blind on lookers - fattest stock rear wheel to date - and the amazing Twin Cam 96 engine making its Fat Boy debut (along with the 6 speed tranny) - everything I'd read and obsessed about before taking the plunge has all lived up to the hype. It's only been a few days - so still taking it easy on the engine for the break-in period - getting ready for my first long distance trip this weekend. The bike handles great - wet or dry - traffic or interstates. If you're a big guy like I am and you want a big bike built for you - then the Fat Boy is where it's at. Show less

I bought my o7 Fat Boy in Nov. and have got 2200 miles on it and don't have any complaints about the tranny or engine. I will admit that this is the first street bike I've had. But I am concerned about my fuel mileage. I have read that a lot of these new 96 inchers are getting around 45-50 mph on the highway I am getting around 36 and that seems low. I hope after about 5k the mph will go up. But I still love my Fat Boy. Show less

Just bought this bad boy and can't say enough. Looks, power, handling, plus it's the The Wild Hogs Limited Edition! Really like the 6th speed. Ride on Baby! Show less

From reading ....exactly what I was... review, I would almost say that I had wrote that review. From past motorcycle experience on I would have to agree. I was less than impressed with the look of the stock pipes(and the added weight). The style is OK but concealed almost all of the rear wheel. I changed the exhaust to Vance and Hines Big Radius and EFI mod and wow, a great look, a great sound and lots of added pow. I have just stored my bike for the long Canadian winter a couple days ago and am already missing it. Big bucks but you only live once. At least I'm enjoying the ride. Show less

Bought the Fat a few weeks ago. Traded my 1200R Sportster with the goal of more comfortable two-up distance cruising. Much more stable and comfortable at speed than the 1200, but I miss the agility of the smaller bike. Willie Dixon must've had the Fat Boy in mind when he sang, I'm built for comfort, I ain't built for speed. With the new 6 speed and TC96 this ride can highway with the best of them, but quick and agile it ain't! I was apprehensive about the engine heat and tranny noise some baggers have complained about, but no issues with mine. And the EFI is a huge plus! I agree with one reviewer about the lame graphics. AMF holdover's! It's a shame the designers couldn't come up with equally cool tank logos for the Fat Boy as on the Softail Custom or the elegance of the Super Glide Custom and 1200L. The Fat Boy's frankly suck. Anyway, if you just want a quality heavy cruiser, you can save a lot of samolians with a metric and be just as happy. If, on the other hand, you gotta have a Harley (with a 140 front tubeless tire), then The Boy is a great bike to remortgage your house for. Show less

I think this bike runs great. The stock exhaust is even fine with me. Better sound than previous years. The motor will lug if you don't wind the gears out a little. The manual is about 10 mph off with their suggested shifting speeds. I have read lots of complaints on the internet about transmission noises, but I don't have any. Show less

While this is my first Harley Davidson, it's far from my first bike. I've been riding since age 9 working my way up from dirt bike to the street with progressively bigger bikes each time. I've wanted a Harley pretty badly since about 1991 but could never either afford it or bring myself to spend this much money on a motorcycle. Until now, a motorcycle has always been a 3-$6000 toy, this is an investment that will be kept for many years. Let's start out with the styling of the bike. It has remained essentially unchanged styling wise with only a few exceptions. The upgrade to chrome on the new front fork nacelle is a nice feature and the studded seat and tank strap are fairly pleasing to the eye. The color selection available is varied as always on the Fat Boy including some odd two-tone color selections this year. I chose the Pacific Blue Pearl after seeing it on a Softail standard but the White-Gold and Fire Red are equally nice. Now for the bad news. Whoever designed the "custom graphics package" should be fired along with the person who hired them to do that. The "graphics" are gaudy, ugly and clash with the overall appearance of the bike. I was seriously considering a 2006 Heritage Softail but was struggling with the goofy baseball-pennant-looking tank graphic. When I decided to make the jump to the Fat Boy and wait to see what 2007 had to offer, the graphic on the heritage didn't seem quite as ugly anymore. These two "graphics" were probably the brainchild of the same guy at HD. This in my opinion was a very bad call. It's on the top of my priority list to somehow be able to afford a new paint-job or paint set. Mechanically speaking, the bike is a wonder so far, and that is why you actually look past 1st year graphic art student new hires at HD and buy a bike. While I never had to suffer through the lack of a 6 speed gearbox or an under-powered TC88 struggling with roll-on at highway speeds, I can tell you this engine/tranny combination is pretty solid. My last bike had 130 rear wheel HP so there is no comparison there, but this bike has all the torque and power anyone would really need. I did a 300+ mile highway ride the week before last and you really will never see 6th gear until you hit 70+ miles an hour and at 70 the RPMS are way low. The roll-on power for passing trucks etc was very sufficient as well. The only power train complaint I could think of was the chatter of 5th gear which has subsided quite a bit since break-in. I'm told it's due to the actual gear being made of a different material than the others and it's normal. Either way, you get used to it and it lets you know what gear your in. The 6th gear LED indicator on the console is awful nice too. Smoothness on the road is unmatched by any bike I've ever been on. This is due in part to the nice big FL front end and oversize tires on front and rear. The look and feel of the new 200mm rear is very pleasing. You can also thank the incredibly comfortable stock saddle for the ride quality. You can go for miles and miles without pain or soreness in your backside. The only serious issue with the bike to date has been regarding the offset of the front fender. For some reason, when the front forks are bottomed out, or compressed for shipping like in my case, the fork collides with one side of the fender causing a dime sized dent and effectively removing the paint from the dent. Since it's not a real safety issue and Harley has promised to replace the fender and fix the problem it's not a big deal. In fact, you can't see the fender ding unless your looking for it as it's behind the fork. Overall, I've been incredibly impressed with this machine and that's saying a lot. I have trouble wanting to get off the bike and I keep finding excuses to make my ride last just a little longer. The bike costs a lot so you had better be happy with it. I can say with confidence that I am very pleased with my purchase and look forward to the many miles ahead. One side note though, if your a bike trailering, dime-store guy in designer leathers: It's hard to look tough riding with a big grin on your face so consider a different bike. Show less