95% cosmetic. At your height, I doubt you'd hardly notice the seat difference. The ride "may" be a little more noticeably smother on the FB. Unless you go 2-up or ride 100+ miles a day regularly, you may not even notice this either.

I'm an old-skool chromed out kind of guy. It was an easy choice for me. Whatever floats your boat.

 

This should be a pretty easy decision for you, the Lo is just like the Fatboy only 1/2" lower. Now, your choice should come down to do you want shiny with chrome? If yes, go with the Fatboy. Do you like Denim or a little less chrome? If yes, then go with the Lo; both are great bikes, your choice will be purely cosmetic. For what it's woth, I LOVE my Lo, and I love the denim black look. Good luck with your choice.

 

Rented a LoBoy last year for a weekend in Florida. Felt like I had less room to get comfortable than I do on my '11 Fatboy.

 

As of 2012 Other then cosmetics and the Lo being slightly lower in the suspension and half moon floorboards they are I identical bikes. Same seat,bars,riser and everything else. I have had enough chrome bikes to clean and shine. I choose the LO because to me it is so much easier to clean up.

 

I have a 2013 Lo and rode them both before i bought the Lo. I could not tell any real difference between the two, at least enough to steer me from one to the other. I just felt more comfortable on the Lo. I don't think you can go wrong with either one. Ride them both and choose the one that feels the best to you. Good luck with your choice and ride safe!

 

I came from a Street Bob to the Fat Boy Lo. I sat on every model Harley has. To me, the Fat Boy Lo seemed right. Went to one of the Harley rides and took one for a rip.
Not only did it feel right. I fell in love with the custom Daytona Blue.
Either way, I was going to mod the hell out of it to make it mine, so the blacked out parts were no big deal.

I knew my Dyna well, now I do have a lot to learn about the Softail!

 

'11 FatBoy Lo...some like the blacked out look. This was taken at Yellowstone last summer.

 

Thank You ! guys for all your great comments. I decided to go with the standard FB. It will be a lot easier and cheaper for me to tone down the chrome than trying to make the FB Lo the way I wanted it. Dont get me wrong, I like the chrome but I would tone it down with some black covers, I think it would look really nice. I noticed that one of the things I did not like about the FB Lo was the aluminum finish on the exhaust, it does not look right in my opinion. Think about this, the Lo has 4 different colors : shinny black, flat black, aluminum finish and chrome, WOA that is a lot my friend, it gets confusing in my opinion. One thing though the FatBoy Lo felt more comfortable, just a tiny bit so now that I know how it feels, I can ride the standard FB now and if it becomes an issue for me I can definitely lower it and done with it and I dont have to spend hundreds of dollars. I think I will in the future anyways. The dealer Im dealing with has no problem switching bike even though they did not have either in stock.
Two weeks they said the bike should be ready, I cant way.

 

Congrats. on the up coming purchase! What color did you decide on?

 

Thanks, Vivid Black.