Street Bob Vs Fat Bob

Well i've swayed a little, I contemplated trying out the Honda Africa Twin but decided not to, while it would be great to do more serious offload it wouldn't be up to the long haul tarmac I plan on doing.

So I'm back to ol' Milwaukee muscle again.

A Dyna? Most definitely, but I'm not resigned to a Street Bob. Out of the box the Street Bob model does mostly have what I want but several things need changing. Forward Controls for one. And they Don't have dual disk brakes.

Of late i've also been considering the Fat Bob

Out of the box you get forward controls, dual front disks and a larger fuel tank. On paper there is also a smidgen more power and torque tap. I also love the Sand Camo Denim paint. I test rode a few HD models back to back in 2014+ and loved the ride and handling of the fatty.

But there was one problem. Aesthetically, the Fat Bob is down right ugly. Especially in two areas:

1. The Headlights. The twin 4" bug eyes would have to go (for looks and because I have already purchased my 5 3/4 LED it would mean purchasing a 5 3/4 bucket for around $80. Easy fix so no biggy.
2. The Bob Tail Fender. While the 2014 update got the frenched in LED rear tail lights the 'bob tail fender' is perhaps the ugliest part of the bike.

The ugly assed ass end is changeable though. You can fit a 2010 Wide Glide fender or a street bob fender which either work well but the wide glide looks leaps and bounds ahead. But that also means paint, remounting the license plate and also working out a replacement stop light (or integrate it with the turn signals).

And then there is the 21/18 Dilemma

Options for aftermarket 21 inch front wheels that support dual disk brakes and ABS are few and far between. I priced a few sets from the states and at well over 3 grand they became less appealing.

The easiest option is to fit 21 and 18 inch hoops to a set of street bob hubs. But They would need to support ABS and need spacing out to wide glide. All still pretty doable.

The closest I cam in AU for an off the shelf solution was a non-ABS set of fat spoke wheels (21/18) in chrome only. As nice as a chrome 21 looks i'm buggered if i'm cleaning it.

Then that got me thinking that maybe a set of fat 16s wouldn't be so bad.

It still means lacing Rims to Dyna hubs but its much easier (and cheaper) than buying new off the shelf rims. The added bonus is handling will not change at all.

The fat bob is just as customisable as the street bob, here are several tasty fatties all sporting wide glide rear fenders.

This last example which I have posted before here is soooo close to what I want it's scary.

Decisions decisions....