2003 Harley-Davidson Fat Boy - Not So Mellow Yellow

My bike kind of displays what a good magazine will do to a fellow. I am 45 and a 27-year double certified master auto mechanic. I have been riding and tinkering with motorcycles since I was 6-years-old due impart to my uncle owning a Honda shop since the late '60s. This is about my 25th motorcycle, I bought my first Harley in 1987, and this is my fourth H-D. This story starts with the purchase of a black '03 H-D 100th Anniversary Fat Boy I bought box stock from Stafford Harley in Houston, Texas, in April 2003. I started the normal process of adding a few pieces of chrome here and there, eventually adding a 42mm Mikuni carb, air cleaner, and Vance and Hines Short Shots. The winter of 2004/05 I pulled the motor and built it into a 103 with all Screamin' Eagle components, and had Todd Thompson spray some tiger graphics. In November of 05, I hit a large piece of lumber that flew off of an 18-wheeler and had a bad crash. I contemplated just junking the remains but decided after some careful thought to rebuild the bike.

After six months of healing, in May of 2006 I took the bike down to the bare frame and started over. I cut off the rear frame fender horns and had the frame powdercoated black. I installed a H-D six-speed trans, a Legend Air Ride, and dropped the front 2 inches, and installed 3-degree raked triple trees from Covington Cycles. I also added Pro-One Sinister wheel, a 18x3.5 front and 18x5.5 rear with a 200mm rear tire in a chromed stock swingarm. I did a nice PM rear brake setup with a chrome H-D caliper up front. Then I bought a stretched tank and a set of B-Cool's Skintite fenders and sent them to Todd of The Kustom Paint Shop. I asked for approximately 70 percent of the tins covered in real fire with skulls mixed throughout and a crazy rocker skull sprayed on the rear fender with an H-D emblem on his top hat. I set the top side up with 36-inch Carlini 1 1/4-inch Drag style bars with chrome controls and switches, and a set of Eurocomponents Bullet grips with built-in turn signals. I installed all H-D braided cables and hoses and an H-D tachometer. Did I mention every bolt on the bike is chromed?

Now we get to the fun part-the monster motor! Some might say it can't be done, but I assure you it is possible. I built a fire breathing 131ci engine in H-D cases! Jimmy Doyle of Houston Custom Cycles had his machinist stroke a SE 4 3/8 crank into a 4 5/8 crank and retrued the crank. The cases were bored and a set of JE 4 1/4-inch pistons, titanium wrist pins, Millennium Jugs, and Screamin' Eagle CNC ported heads were used, but not just any heads. I sent the heads, jugs, and intake manifold to Wes of Cycle-Rama in Florida where the heads were fitted with bronze alloy valve guides, 2.100-inch Hi-Flow stainless intake and 1.615 Hi-flow nitrate coated exhaust valves. Wes put a multi angle on the intake and a radiused angle on the exhaust valves, and heavily ported and polished and cc'd the chambers and milled to specs. Heavy duty valve springs with Viton seals were also added. The heads and cylinders were both diamond cut for that extra bling. The S&S intake was ported to match the heads. Back home, I installed a Fueling oil pump and cam plate, a gear-drive cam setup with S&S gears and a set of custom ground Cycle-Rama cams-I can't give up those specs, it's top secret! I installed a Screamin' Eagle adjustable race ignition, a SE 51mm CV carb with a Ness big sucker air filter, and a Pingel petcock. My SE race clutch slipped after a month so I installed a Barnett Scorpion billet clutch. There's a few other mods that I am not going to reveal, but it's running a 10.8:1 compression ratio and is a very streetable torque monster. The almost identical setup of internals on another 131 from Cycle-Rama was on the dyno and pulled 153.1hp and 160.3 lb-ft of torque. The greatest thing is when crotch rockets pull up beside me and rev the motor. The looks of astonishment on their faces three to four gears later is classic. "WTF?" is the common expression I see.

Amongst the true fire, the painter laid down 16 skulls including the Slash-esque character on the rear fender.

Amongst the true fire, the painter laid down 16 skulls including the Slash-esque character

The most recent and hopefully final piece is a custom built seat by Stoney Paul of Thunderhead Designs. Paul custom made a seat pan then laid the seat in leather and stingray and matched the yellow and orange stitching to the paint. It is the most comfortable seat I have ever owned.

Yes I am quite proud of my build. I ought to be, $55,000 in parts, paint and a little labor for sublet. All was built in my garage in Humble, Texas, minus the sublet machine work, powdercoating, and paint. I can't stay out of your magazine and all the new products. I am about ready to build something new. I already lost a wife. She said two years ago it was her or the Harley... Damn, I don't even miss her!