Ok, so I really want a new Fatboy, but the wife says NO!

So, since I want a fatboy, and have a softail already, why not make mine a Fatboy, right?

I am going with a custom paintset off ebay for an 00-06 FLSTFi. I have already bought a set of hard bags off a street glide. My original plan was to just use a Fatboy rear fender to match the hard bags and stick with my 21" front wheel and go with a heritage style front fender. Well, since I am now going with a full paint set, I kind of have to use the Fatboy front fender so it matches.

So, my question is does anyone have any pictures of a Fatboy running a 21" front wheel with the stock fender? How about if I go with a 120/70-21? I am afraid this may look kinda funny. I can't really run a 16" front wheel or a solid front wheel since I am running a 17" solid rear wheel. If I change my front wheel I want to go with something as large as possible that will take a tire wide enough to fill the fender. Could I buy a narrowglide 19" front wheel and relace it to a wideglide hub? I really like the profile spoked wheel (which I am running now), and would kind of like to stick with this route. Ohh, and I am running lightning star rotors and sprocket so I kind of have to match that, or atleast keep a 5-spoke style if I go with a mag wheel.

Whats everyones input?

 

The Fatty stock front fender has been done with a 21 on this forum and IMHO doesn't look as good as the normal FL fender. Contact the painter you are buying from and have him use a FL fender instead. Any custom painter will do this. I would also recommend havng the rivets shaved while your doing it. It will look much cleaner.


Actually, now that I think about it, I would just go with Softail Deluxe tins if you are putting on hard bags. I have seen a few Deluxe's slammed with hard bags and they look bad @ss.

 

What softail do you have now?

The Fatboy fender does not look right with a 21 in. wheel. You can get ahold of Anibusss, he has had both (fatboy and heritage) fenders on his bike. With the Fatboy fender, you have to have brackets to raise the fender to fit over the 21 in. tire.

So my input would be to buy all of your tins and bags, get everything mounted up the way you like it. Then take to a local shop for your paint job. This way everything is going to match perfect

Good luck with your project!

 

Thats what I'd like to do, but I am going with an actual Harley paint set. They had done the military paint sets just for the Fatboy back in 05ish. They are available relitively cheap on ebay, so I am just picking one of them up. If I was doing a full custom set then yeah, I would just go with the heritage tins.

 

am I reading this right? you want to put a FatBoy front fender on a Standard? isn't the FatBoy a wider (FL) frontend as opposed to the FX's narrow frontend? will it fit? sounds like you're gonna spend a lot of money and still not have a Fatboy. why don't you sell yours, and buy a used FatBoy? or find someone to trade with?

 

Think the cheapest way would be to get your front fender painted to match the paint set. You can mount the fender use your front rim and tire but looks???? or buy a diff. rim and tire, or go all out and buy a Fatboy front end I picked one up off ebay for $450 powder coated black.

 

The FX (my front end) and FL (fatboy front end) are very simular. The FX has a few degrees of rake in the trees and shorter sliders. The FL front end doesnt have the rake in the trees and longer sliders with shorter tubes. The FL trees also have the mounting tabs for the cowbells and tins. Not really a whole lot of difference. Same width and all. Harley sells kits to mount different height fenders on different models. I have seen these before.

The differences in my softail standard and a Fatboy are pretty minimal. To me, it wouldnt be worth selling my bike, which I have done so much modifying, its not worth selling to buy another bike so simular. Plus the wife says NO NEW BIKE. Plus, what fun is it to buy a bike how you want? You have to make it yours.

 

I guess I learned something new today. I've always heard the FX was a narrow frontend and the FL was a wide frontend. hmmmm.... I'll have to check that out next time I'm around a Standard. Duece or Custom.

thanks for the clarity

 

In a dyna its a not so simple. (although the wide glide uses the same front end as the FX softails). When I converted mine to an 08 FX front end, I think the axle was even the same between the FX and FL bikes. I learned a lot when I did my chrome front end. I also just bought a new upper tree for my wifes Dyna. I learned even more then. Dyna front ends are really complicated.

 

Ok. So I think I have my wheel situation figured out. If I run a 19" wheel (off a rocker, or modified Dyna wheel), I can put a Metzler 110/90 on it which has a width of 4.57". That is wide enough for me up front I think. I know its not huge and meaty, but it will suffice to give me that nice look from the side without spending a fortune on an aftermarket front wheel.

Does anyone have any other sugestions? I want to run either an 18 or 19 up front. Either 5 spoked mag or 40 spoke smoothie like I have now in a 21.