M8 Fatboy Twist

I’m not going to pretend that the new Harley-Davidson M8 Fat Boy is some kind of ugly duckling that requires a few pints to take her out. Far from it, they are beautiful bikes, well built and finished to a high standard.

The only problem with this one was, it was exactly like all the rest, and her owner, a larger than life character who likes to stand out from the crowd. But unlike most, he decided not to bolt on the bells and whistles, and instead came to us with a very clear vision of how he wanted his Fatboy to look.

Dark, mean, long and low… Initially the client wanted the bike entirely blacked out, but I managed to talk him into keeping some of the brushed alloy accent pieces, while darkening down some of the brighter parts. The elephant in the room is the huge ‘duck bill’ rear fender, which is required to pass conformity legislation, however once registered, it can and should be consigned to the bin!

We were keeping the standard suspension so the new rear fender had to be low enough to give a neat look and show off the huge rear tyre, but it also had to operate while bobbing up and down under load. We hand fabricated a new rear fender and fender struts, that we were able to bolt onto the original mounting points.

We didn’t have to cut the frame, which means, if someone wants to put the bike back to standard, they can… but why would they! The original fender and lights came off as one convenient piece, so we got to work fabricating the new mounts and getting it all pieced together. Tiny led indicators sit just beneath the seat, almost out of sight until you hit the button. The standard seat was reshaped and clad with a red diamond stitch finish.

Due to the fact that the new rear fender ran at a much lower profile, there was a little gap between the back of the seat and the top of the fender, so we took the opportunity to add in a pair of springs, partly to fill the gap and also to give a bit of support to the back part of the seat.

Handlebars and a few forward pieced were blacked out, keeping the riser mounts as high gloss chrome. A couple of red pinstripes on the air cleaner housing pick up the red in the seat.

Finally we painted the black insert in the front and rear wheels, just to add a little definition to the wheels. Subtle but effective little mods, which just goes to prove, you don’t need to go mad, just to be a little bit different.

ML...