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Burtonsville Bridge - Oct. 9, 2011
Oct. 2011- Jan. 18, 2016
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How I got this bike: I'd owned the 96 LowRider for just 4 weeks in the summer of 2011 when I traded it for this bike. On a Sunday ride, just by chance, John saw an old Honda on a trailer at the Stewarts in Stillwater. We stopped and while I was getting gas he bought the early 70’s CB350 for $150. We went to the owner’s house to get the title and I saw this big white Harley in his driveway and casually asked about it. He fired it up for me to show it off and in the next minute swooned over my Lowrider. He said my bike was the bike he had really wanted and it was his wife who picked the Fatboy because of the color. He also said it was too big for him. He was so wildly enthusiastic about my bike that John said we should swap bikes and go for a ride. I'm more atuned to Harleys after owning the 85 Softtail and now this Dyna Low rider, so a ride on this bike is appealing even if I didn't embrace the deal right away. |
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The Fatboy and the LowRider– Stillwater |
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| I could see in my mirrors that the guy was really enjoying the Dyna and looked just right on it. It made me think of Dennis Hopper in Easy Rider, his arms stretched out towards the flat bars. And I did like riding the Fatboy. It was big and comfortable. A softer ride than the Lowrider and it had good power with the 88 cubic inch engine (even compared to the performance-oriented Lowrider). The fuel injection was a big plus. The bars did seem too high and wide and the levers were rotated down too far but it was a fine ride; stable, heavy, lots of grunt. | |
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At the Stewarts in Stillwater the day we traded bikes |
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soon as we got back he offered to trade; wanted me to take his bike
right away and
return it in a week if I didn't like it. And John is motioning
that I'd be nuts to pass on this deal. (This bike was an '03 with 10k miles and mine was a '96 with
24k). He kept saying how much he wanted the LowRider
and that the Fatboy was more my style. I was not ready for this
since I was just getting started with the LowRider. |
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| I needed some time to consider this and didn’t make the deal that day. The guys I trusted at PCWRacing, Broadway Choppers, M&S Cycle and Scott in Elmira all said the Fatboy was the better bike and certainly worth more. How could I resist a trade for this newer, bigger bike? | |
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Burtonsville - Oct. 9, 2011 |
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| I called the guy the next day to make the deal, but he called me back and said that his friend wouldn’t let him do the trade since the deal wasn't good for him but he still insisted that he wanted my bike. He said he was going to a dealer to see what he could get in a trade his bike for. So now the deal is off and I'm disappointed, having told everyone what an amazing deal I'd stumbled into. I offered him $500 hoping this would make my trade better than anything he could get from a dealer. | |
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called me yet again to say he traded the Fatboy for a V-Rod from Brunswick HD
but his wife hated it. Then, when he went back to the dealer, it
was an unpleasant scene getting his bike and title back. He then
asked if we could do the trade for $800 from me and I was ok with
that. It took him another week to get a replacement title since
the dealer had signed the back of his with him calling me every day to
complain about the delay. |
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Scotch Ridge Road |
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The Fatboy has an 88 ci (1450 cc) Twin Cam
88 B motor with fuel injection. This one has driver and passenger
floor boards, higher bars, back rest and V&H dual exhausts (very
loud). The original low/wide bars came with it but I am getting
used to and actually like the high bars (after adjusting the angle and the levers to
suit me). Tires;
Dunlop Harley-Davidson Series |
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| I bought a Memphis Shades windshield the first week I had it. 22 inches high and easy enough to install (quick release like the back rest). | |
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Riverview Orchard |
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| The loud Vance and Hines straight pipes were
replaced with a stock exhaust system from Craigslist for $50.
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Schodack Island State Park June 2012 |
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2013 The bike fires up easily in the spring. By the end of April there's 12,500 miles on it. Oil and filter changed at 12,867 mi. Full synthetic 20-50 (June 2013).
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BBQ USA (Route 9 Malta) May 2013 |
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2014 First ride is May 7th. with 13,800 miles on the odometer. New front tire from last fall. New spark plugs at 14, 897 mi. (Gapped at .040"). End of season miles, 15,030. Battery out Nov. 3. |
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Lake Road Mariaville, Aug. 2015 |
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2015 First ride is Mariaville Lake, June 13. End of season at 15,577 miles. Battery out Nov. 6. 2016 While meeting the shipper who was picking up the green 1981 GPz 1100 being sold to a collector in Florida (a bike I never restored), I had a guy doing roof work for me check out the Fatboy (Jan. 18, 2016). He said it was exactly what he was looking for. Model, color, fuel injection and high bars. Perfect deal for the both of us. He picked it up on April 2 right after the roof work was completed. He helped me put the battery in that day and it started right up so he could ride it home. He got the Vance and Hines exhaust, two keys, Chilton's manual and the leather bags I never used.
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2018
(January) Two years later, I see the bike listed on Craigslist for $5500. 18,000 miles, and with the windshield removed and the loud pipes back on. For a moment, I'm tempted to buy it back.
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Edited Jan. 16, 2018
