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I bought the custom because Harley decided to go cheap on the looks of a basic bike, and the difference in cash was no different than buying the **** for a standard.
My buddy has a 90 fxst, and I called it a custom more than once because the of the finish on the motor and primary, even has the chrome cover over the drive belt.
If you buy a custom, buy it because you like the softail ride, smooth engine, and the wide glide front end. If you ride 2 up, you'll change the seat after the first year, if not sooner.
I drilled out the plug half way into the muffler, added SE AC and a Cobra Fi2000R programmer. With those upgrades just under $400, it runs with my son's VTX1800. Both will do the 1/4 at 12.4 seconds. The VTX1800 is 840 lbs at the curb. The younger guys just don't understand that the two bikes are about the same hp/lb of bike.
I didn't care for the "skinny tire" look either so found a perfect match to my paint set and scored a fat boy front fender and put a 16 inch chrome thunderstar wheel on it. Best of both worlds.
I can't say I notice a difference with the skinny front tire when it comes to tar snakes and road grooves. My last bike was a metric with a fat front tire. If anything, it was worse than the skinny front on the FXSTC.
I rarely see another FXSTC outside of the dealership, which is another plus as far as I'm concerned.
I can't vouch for the factory seat on the FXSTC, but have no complaints about the Retro King/Queen that was on the bike when I bought it.
My wife would say her favorite thing about the FXSTC is that I've finally stopped talking about what my next bike will be.
The only downside for me is a lack of luggage and windshield, which I remedied with a Windvest (which works great, by the way) and strapping bags to the seat... which works great as a back rest on long rides.
I don't ride 2-up very much as the wife rides her own, so I can't speak on positives or negatives in that area.
Like others have said, I like how you can go from stripped down cruiser to fully loaded for a trip in just a few minutes. That's one of the things I was looking for when I made my choice. Also, there's a ton of parts to put on it to make your "own". I think it has the most comfortable seat of any in the h-d line. And of course being a softail it's just waayy to cool.
The Softail Custom's seat is one of the best features about the bike. My wife says it's as comfortable as the one on an Ultra Classic I used to ride.
For me riding solo, I love the seat. My ole lady just wants a real backrest. I ran into the lack of options on a sissy bar for wide rear end. Style vs. comfort, always an issue....
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Slideshow: From the troubled AMF years to modern misfires, these bikes earned reputations for reliability issues, questionable engineering, or disappointing performance.
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Slideshow: A standard cruiser becomes an intricate metal canvas in the hands of a Swiss custom house known for pushing Harley-Davidson platforms far beyond their factory brief.
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