The Harley-Davidson Fat Boy S Project
“Having this bike has opened up a lot of avenues. It’s a conversation piece when I pull up. Friendships are made talking about bikes.”
MY OLDER brothers always had bikes; my grandfather, uncles were in the Historic Motorcycle Club, all classic Nortons and Triumphs. From a young age my brothers would throw me on the back of a bike and take me to school; that’s what planted the seed. It was certainly in my blood.
My first bike as a kid was a Honda Z50 which was a phenomenal dirt bike. My first road bike was a Honda 250. Lated I bought a Victory which I had for two years. I thought the Victory was the bee’s knees but when I upgraded to a Harley, it came with a complete new lifestyle; new good friends; opened up a lot of doors I guess.
I bought the Harley-Davidson Fat Boy S because I always liked the Fat Boy wheels.
The first time it went to Jason’s Garage was for the under-perch blinkers and rear strut blinkers, and yeah, I remember saying to Jason, “I’m not doing anything to this; just a little tidy up.”
Jason texted me a couple of nights later, talking about air-ride suspension. We did the rear SAS suspension and then he sent me some info on the Ridewright Fat 50 wheels so we ordered them, and it kind of grew from there over six or seven months.
I was a bit concerned about going too high with the handlebars but the wife and kids actually bought me a pair of 14-inch Highball Burleigh Bars for Christmas. One of the biggest comments I get is, “Where are your cables.”
The front suspension is a combination Jason has come up with an in-industry relationship with Bagger Tricks in WA. It rides beautiful up the highway, nice and smooth; although, we did have to modify the side-stand so it will lean over when the suspension is fully dropped front and back.
Originally with the wheels I ordered a wrap-around front guard but when the boys put it on, they decided to modify the brackets on the stock guard instead so we could use that.
The H-D Badlander seat was custom trimmed and modified by East Side Custom Trim in Maitland.
The 110 cubic inch motor was fitted with Screamin’ Eagle 259e cams, Perfect Fit pushrods and custom tubes to liven it up a bit. It now produces 110 hp and 117 ft/lb of torque with the Vance & Hines Longshots exhaust.
Other modifications include HogLights Australia Daymaker LED headlight, Freight Train nacelle, Hot Toppers to black out all the bolts, Arlen Ness horn and coil cover, 10-Gauge engine covers, H-D Tribal grips and floorboards, and Performance Machine front calipers with matching rotors.
Having this bike has opened up a lot of avenues. It’s a conversation piece when I pull up. Friendships are made talking about bikes.
It was a long time dream to have a bike that looks like this, and Jason and Geoff at Jason’s Garage made the dream come true.
My wife loves getting on the back of the bike; my kids love getting on the back too. Because I’ve done so much work on the Fat Boy S, I couldn’t justify turning it into a two-up bike so I bought a Softail Deluxe recently so I can take the kids to school, and pick them up, on the bike. Motorbikes are definitely in my family, that’s for sure.
words by Chad; photos by Robin Hood
