FX vs FL
Man has been asking this question since the beginning of time.

 

<-------track junkie as well. If you can do your own car track prep then you can work on the bike. Buy the service manual. Best $40 you'll spend. As long as you maintain it, you shouldn't have any issues. My 02 as been problem free it's whole life.

 

I became instantly color-blind when I saw my dealer's first Anniversay bike arrival. My FATBOY was a perfect match.

I started-off looking at both the Custom & Fatboy, each on sale for their '07 status as the '08s were showing up. I could have saved money off the stickers, get a better interest rate, etc.

I have come to love the Trains,and now I have a complete soft-spot for the Cross Bones. I am still not ready to surrender to a bagger, but I like the Street Glides too.

Each week I keep hoping that the ping-pong ***** will line up my way, but until then, I am totally enjoying my Fatboy.

You have lots of choices, miles of road, and Harley has every angle covered to yank at your desires. On that note, I'm not sure I would last 7 years on any one bike. Save your money on the extended warranty. You'll need every penny during your wanderlust of chrome and accessery purchases; no matter which bike you end up taking home.

 

Trade your Nightrain?! How could you DARE! Yours looks so good...
;-)

 

I have owned a XL, FL and a FX. I would always recomend the FL. The front ends are just much heavier and stronger for runningserious miles. The bigger front tire is a lifesaver in panic stops and riding in the rain.You can get 20K-30K miles outof the biggerfront tires.The FLs turn and handle just as well as the FXs.

 

comfortis what is mainly important. you wouldn't buy pants that were too small. if the custom is what you feel the most comfortable on, thats the bike to buy. you and your machine should feel like one unit when you're out on the road,be it 5 minuts of 5 hours. you should be enjoying the ride and not thinking about what to change to make it feel better. just my opinion, i could be wrong.


05 softail std.

 

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the Fatboy/Heritage/Deluxe all the same bike with different wheels,seats,and trim?
I had some fun today and went to a local dealers demo ride day. Got a change to ride a Deluxe, Nighster, Nightrod, Streetglide, Rocker, and Dyna. Of them all I liked the Deluxe the best. It rode well accelerated well, handled nicely. I just felt very comfortable on it. Though the seat isn't as nice as my Customs. None of the bikes had decent seats compared to me Custom.
The Streetglide was nice but I could hear every noise it made. Must be the fairing blocking out the wind noise and funneling the engine and tranny noise up to you,it sounded like the tranny wasbroken every time I changed gears otherwise it wasn't a bad bike.
The Nightrod is just flat out spooky, not very loud or much torque down low, but get it up above 3,000 RPM and the power starts to really go up andnever seems to run out of RPM's or power. The more you twist the throttle and the higher the RPM's the harder it wants to run. Get it above 6 or 7,000 RPM's it can get downright scary. Good thing it has really big brakes and sticky tires. Just too bad its too big/long for a short guy like me to ever get comfortable on. I had a lot of trouble keeping my feet on the forward controls and the horn hits the side of my knee in a tender spot every time I shifted. Bet its great fun for teaching the rice rocket owners that the Japanese are not the only people around who know how to make fast bikes.
The Nightster was a big disappointment. I was expecting something that was light, easy to handle and quick, but its none of those things. After my Custom if felt cramped, the mid controls made me feel like my knees were in my ears and I'm a short ****. Its hard to throw into turns, too top heavy, I'll never call this thing a "girls" bike ever again. And doesn'thave the raw power/torque of my 96" big twin. Even the grips felt way too small after the big ones I'm used to. The brakes weren't fairly decent, but that's to be expected on a bike as light (compared to a Softail) as it is.
The Rocker wasn't a bad riding bike at all. Reminds me a lot of my Custom. The bigger 240mm rear tire doesn't seem to have any effect on the handling at all. But the seat (like all the rest) needs a bit of work. Just wish the oil tank and rear fender were not so damn ugly.

 

The great thing about the Fatboys are their versatility. Almost every accessory is available for the fatboy. You can make it a weekend bagger if you want to do some two wheel touring. You can strip it down for weekday barhopping.

I have hard saddlebags, a tourpak and a windshield for my Fatboy. I can cruise with the best Baggers out their for a full trip and I can strip everything off within 10mins and look Bitchin' for the bar hop.

The Fatboy will turn with the custom easily it is up to the rider how far they will push it. That is why we can the footboards feelers. I think the footboards give you better body position than the forward controls for twisties but I am a short Guy so that could just be me.

 

thanks for the help folks,

i went with the FXSTC. emptied my pockets yesterday at the dealership(good thing we don't have kids, or I probably would have spent their college money too!) I have looked at HD's on at least 20 occasions over the past 3 weeks. Every time I would gravitate to the Custom with the Duracell color scheme. Quite possibly the most comfortable stock seat ever created on a bike. It's just jaw dropping how gorgeous that bike is in person. Will have her in the garage in a couple of weeks. I will be out of town till then, plus the dealer has some work to do per my sig

It's funny, the dealer was offering $2k in store merchandise, that had to be spent at time of purchase. sounded like a lot of money until I started reading about Stage II performance upgrades on this forum! turns out, the $2k was just a down payment on mods........

I decided against the extended warranty for now. I will wait until the 23rd month or so of the factory warranty and see how my reliability is. If some naggling things have to be fixed under warranty, I will go ahead a pay the extra $300 or so and get the 5 year extension.

I am a little concerned about the Stage II/SE head work they are doing. I know it's backed by the factory, but will it be as reliable as the stock motor? that could push me to the extended warranty when the time comes.

Jeff....