Harley Davidsons Fat Bob 114 really does ooze style wrapped in performance with its muscular body lines, brutal performance and Street-Eater stance, or so all the promo sheets allude to.
We have seen the Harley Davidson Fat Bob 114 lurking on the showroom floor at Harley Davidson Mzansi and even got to get acquainted with this Bad Boy over a few kilometres during the Gyppo Work Tuesday we hosted at HD Mzansi a few weeks back. That first little titbit really did whet our appetite for the Fat Bob 114, so when we got back, we set up a date for a decent ride review on the Fat Bob with Muaaz and the team from HD Mzansi.
Let’s start with a quick walkaround the Harley Davidson Fat Bob 114.
It’s low slung at with a seat height around the 110 mm mark and a ground clearance of a mere 120mm.
It’s also fairly long at 2,340mm bumper to bumper and a wheelbase of 1,615 mm with a 150 mm wide front wheel and a 180 mm wide rear wheel, both with a 16 inch diameter, giving it that long, low slung and squat look and feel, with minimalistic type styling making it look even more menacing and aggressive. Nestled under the tank is a hefty 114 cubic inch (1,868cc), Milwaukee-Eight V-Twin power mill producing 160 Nm at a low 3,500 rpm… that’s enough to pull tree stumps out and they claim that it returns a fuel efficiency of 5 liters per 100 kms – if the rule book is adhered to – and in this office we believe rules, like noses, were made to be broken.
We didn’t keep close tabs on fuel consumption but our +/-150km flip through The Cradle did require a refill of the 13.2 litre fuel tank about halfway through and we returned it with about two thirds of a tank, so for all intents and purposes we do seem to have achieved somewhere close to HD’s claimed 5 litres per 100 km’s.
Moving into the cockpit area, it is all quite traditional, clean and minimalist, a really, uncluttered and nice place to be. There is a 4-inch analog tachometer mounted to the fuel tank with a digital speedometer, gear position, odometer, fuel level, clock, trip and range indication. The handlebar switch clusters are big, chunky and very easy to navigate and use. The handlebars themselves are flat and wide with a comfortable rake backwards. The seat is wide and comfy for the rider with a nice contour to keep you in place when you hang on the gas and also offers some nice lower back support for when you are just cruising through the countryside. The standard pillion seat however, does seem to be a bit of an afterthought and really there just for emergencies, like giving a stranded rider a lift to the nearest town or…. if you happen to meet a new “friend”, (nudge, nudge, wink,wink), which isn’t beyond the realms of possibilities, this is one sexy machine and did attract a lot admiring glances – even with our Hard Enduro World family guest, the “Cannon Ball” German cousin onboard.
Truth be told, his almost symmetrical proportions do seem a lot better suited to Harley Davidson Fat Bob 114 dimensions than they do our office Orangutang, who just dwarfed the Fat Bob no matter which way you look at it, this is what they had to say about the Fat Bob 114:
Peter Schlüter, our German cousin a.k.a. “The German Cannonball” had this to say about the Fat Bob 114:
Ja!! It is a splendid machine. I am short and round and find tall bikes, especially when they are quite heavy, not so much fun to ride. But this Fat Bob does fit nicely, I can put both my feet flat on the ground easily when stopped at a traffic light. Then, the footboards are exactly where I need them to be when riding. The seat is comfortable with not too much angle on my hips and my elbow still has a comfortable bend and my shoulders are in a nice position too, “alles gut”.
Ja, ja and the power is fantastisch!
Plenty of acceleration from take off with good, smooth gear change and very good top speed for these roads we were riding. Exzellent brakes too, you South Africans like to put too many speed bumps on nice roads like The Cradle. I was doing a speed run and did not see another speed bump until it was almost too late, so I had to make a notfall braking, (we like the German word for emergency -’notfall’ or noodval/noodgeval in afrikaans), but still had some speed when I hit the speed bump, but the suspension worked very gut, I am very happy for that. This Harley for sure rides very nicely on the mountain roads and even in the verstopfter verkehr in JoBurg, (congested traffic), it is an easy bike for me to ride because I can put my feet down and the Fat Bob has enough power low down.
One word to explain my time on the Harley Davidson Fat Bob 114 – WUNDERBAR!
He eventually conceded to allowing Séan, our office Orangutang ride the HD Fat Bob 114 after being bribed with a pizza and a couple of Creme Soda’s at Bidon Bistro in The Cradle.
Séan says:
As awkward as I may look on the Fat Bob 114, I was actually quite comfortable riding it. The first time I got to ride it was a few weeks back when we did a Gyppo Work Tuesday ride with the team from Harley Davidson Mzansi and was completely enamored with it.
I was on photo and video duty as well as marshalling duty for the ride, so there was a lot of enthusiastic riding involved with quick stops, dismounts, remounts and riding hard to get ahead of the group again and not once did I feel unsafe or that I needed more from the Fat Bob 114.
I didn’t get quite the saddle time I would have liked because of the German Bomber, but the time I did get was well worth it – and just reaffirmed my initial impressions from a couple of weeks ago.
It is a very easy, comfortable bike to ride with a huge amount of torque right off the bottom end and pulls super strong to just over 4,000 rpm with smooth, assertive gear shifts, very reassuring when you are pushing hard.
For such chunky wide wheels, 150/80-16 up front and 180/70B16 out back, it handles pretty well in the high speed sweeps, a lot more nimble than I expected, easily tilting in past 30 degrees of lean angle.
With your ass that close to the deck and the weight at just under 310 kg’s, it sure does make it fun to ride fast, especially with the smooth linear power delivery from the engine.
By the way, did we mention the beefy six speed 114 cu inch V-Twin mill, fed by Electronic Sequential Port Fuel Injection that propels the bike very quickly to speeds well in excess of the national speed limit?
So! I am 2 metres tall and do shake my head bemusedly at the proportions of a lot of bikes. Belying what the photo’s might suggest, the Harley Davidson Fat Bob 114 had great ergonomics for me. The bars are nice and wide with a relaxed shoulder position and comfortable elbow bend. The seat was wide and comfy with nice lower back support and a generous 90 odd degrees at the hips, even the bend at my knees was acceptable with the footpegs and forward control being exactly where I naturally looked for them.
We’ve all really enjoyed riding the Fat Bob 114 on both occasions, it’s a great choice and many votes at our office suggest that this is one of our favourite Harleys….
But as always the proof is in the pudding so, as the saying goes, You need to ride one for yourself.
The folks at Harley Davidson Mzansi have a solid selection of bikes in their demo and rental fleet to choose from.
They assist with finance and insurance, the whole bang shoot and will always consider a trade-in. They also have an amazing accessory and clothing store that does impress.
