Last weekend my 07 Street Bob went in the shop but luckily Father-In- Law has two bikes so we were still able to do a weekend ride. I borrowed his 03 Fat Boy slammed low with 16 inch apes. I normally ride a stock height Dyna with stock mini apes and a quarter fairing. Before riding, I thought I'd be constantly blown back and torn away from the bars but to my surprise, it felt no worse than my bike with a fairing. How could this be?

I remember before my fairing I had a constant pull back from the wind, I would imagine 16 inch apes would open you up to the wind a lot more than 10 inch minis. Do Dynas deflect the wind in some way that Softails don't? All I can figure is bigger headlight, bigger fender, floorboards, solid wheels- maybe there's some weird wind vortex caused by the spokes? I'd love to see some footage of these bikes in a wind tunnel.

This all kind of threw me for a loop because I've been backing those quarter fairings for a while, then one ride on an aped out Softail and I felt exactly the same. Kind of makes me wonder about going to the dark side....

 

The only difference I feel between the apes and tbars was I don't feel like a sail anymore riding into the wind. When I get a bagger I will be installing apes

 

you sit lower in the bike on a softtail , so bike deflects more air

 

True, good point. More "in" the Softail rather than "on" the Dyna.

 

For some reason I get less wind pressure on me with the 14" apes and Lepera bare Bones seat than I did with the 10" stock apes and the stock seat. The lower seat may have something to do with it but I was really surprised how much more comfortable it was overall.

 

Granted it was a really tricked out bike so I'm sure a stock Fat Boy is a whole different ball game, but the Softails (the Fat Boy especially) get a really bad wrap as the yuppie bike or a Harley for weekend warriors. I felt almost no difference in wind resistance, ride quality or handling. In fact, handling felt almost better with that big grippy tire up front. I didn't have to corner any slower than I do on my Dyna.

I've spent all this money on a fairing, T-bars, ignition relocation, lower seat blah blah blah. Makes me wonder, why not just get a stock Fat Boy, throw some apes on and be done. Dynas are just so much cooler and are the perfect California lane splitter for now.