Took Blue Angel out for her first official shakedown run of the season on a sunny 56-degree Midwest afternoon. Approximately 75 - 80 miles on an old, but paved country road. Only performance item added over the winter was an S&S 55mm intake manifold via Fuel Moto and a set of NGK plugs. Non-performance was the addition of Defiance floorboards.

 

Looking sharp! How much tq loss do you feel you get with the fishtails?

Ride safe, especially early season.

 

Thanks for the comment, she is a fine little ride. As for torque loss, I suppose it was a little noticeable, but not enough to where I would go back to the Bassani 2-1 long exhaust.
Ran a couple autotune sessions after installing the Bassani fishtails (with mufflers) which helped dial her back in. I have been running the Zippers RS 468 cam for the
past 15,000 of 21,xxx total miles. A nice Stage II set up for my needs.

 

New front tire on my bike today.
It is a 150/70 ZR18 Bridgstone A41 Adventure tire.
You can definitely install a 150/70 (B/R)18inch tires on the front wheel of the bike with some room to spare for high speed/heated expansion.
I will be getting my rear tire installed on Friday. I had to find a harley chopper shop to do it because Cyclegear cant. 240mm tire and rim are way too wide to work on their tire machine.






This is how I got the tire into cyclegear, since I don't own a car and the bike is my only transport. Had to park it, pull the rim off and bring it into cycle gear, and they installed it in about an hour.

 

Curious to hear how you like the Bridgestone A41 Adventure tire. My Fat Bob only has 2000 miles but looking for my next set of tires. I want something with an aggressive look to match the Fat Bob, but maybe with some better on road manners.

 

I put a Mustang Standard tour seat (Part Number: 75832) on the Fat Boy a couple weeks ago.

I just put on some Viking saddle bags (51447). I had to relocate the tail/license lights using the HD relocation kit.

I know its not as cool, but comfort is first at my age of 74.

This pic took today at a roadside park:

 

Comfort is key for me as well.
I think the bike looks great, and the fact that your still in the saddle at 74 is as ‘cool’ as it gets!

 

FranBunny.... what was the reason you went with a differnt tire? Is it close enogh you don't have a speedometer change?

 

Multiple reasons.
1. Had to choose from things that were instock. The tires I wanted the most, The Cobra Chrome tires were perpetually going in and out of stock and never staying in stock long enough for me to pick up a set together, or even order one in and then have the other ordered a few weeks later.

2. Cost. Because of the Stock issue, The only other options I could have potentially gone with were what a harley dealer would have sold me... Which turns out to be incredibly expensive. 330$ for a rear and 310$ for a front, plus fees, taxes and other costs.
The dealership also was not interested in accommodating any atypical tire interests either and would only put on a set of metzlers, or OEM scorchers... all of which were out of stock, and even if they were in stock, 640$ for tires before taxes and other fees wasn't exactly peaking my interest.
Cyclegear put on my front tire on for free, and I paid with RPM credit and my debit card for a total install for the front of 195$ and then ofc, labor was free because I did the wheel removal and install.
The H50 rear will be 250$+ 1hour labor+ taxes, should be about 425$, total of 620ish range for tires.
And I get the tires I want, because the chopper shop doesn't care about silly dealer rules.

3. What was available to stay within manufacturer brand. For the sake of insurance purposes, and other issues, It's strongly recommended to stay within brand if you are going to mix and match tires. So the only 240mm tire that was reliably in stock was the Battlecruise H50, and the only other tires they make that fit the front wheel of a fat boy are the BattlaxT32 and BattlaxA41 Adventure.
These both also have geometric tread patterns, and the A41 is great at water evacuation, so they should, in theory, match up fairly well.

4. I wanted tires that handle water and wet roads better than the scorcher 11s. Pretty much everyone says the OEM tires are *** to begin with and they are even worse in the wet. The A41s are designed to handle wet weather and water. They have a tread pattern that crosses over the centerline of the tire where most tires do not have sipes or tread gaps. This means the tire will be better at evacuating water and finding traction than other tires I could have gotten.
The Battlax T32 as noted above, does have improved water removal tread, but it does not have any tread grooves that cross over the centerline which leaves a width of tread that would have zero water evacuation.
The A41 does not have this problem.
Because I ride in Seattle all year round, and I do not own a car, I have no choice but to ride in wet weather. Both the A41 Adventure and H50 Battlecruise have designs with intentions of improved wet weather performance.

5. Longer lifespan/greater mileage. My bike's stock tires were pretty much done for at 5200miles. They were old and cracking and wearing fast. Especially with how heavy on the throttle I've become. I have consistently been hitting 90+ and fairly often hitting the speed limiter on the bike, and riding fairly aggressively. Even without the age factor they didn't seem to hold up to mileage very well.
I wanted tires that were designed for this harder riding, and still held up mileage wise. H50 Battlecruise tires were essentially designed for this behavior. The A41 150/70 ZR18 is a Z rated tire rated for 168mph, which is faster than the bike could ever reach, its also a rear tire being reversed.
People who Darkside their bike and they want a front tire to match up for mileage, they put a rear motorcycle tire on the front to get extra mileage. They call it Double Darksiding. It's proven to extend lifespan of their tires.
A41's are essentially high speed long range street tires for Heavy bigbore ADV bikes like the PanAmerica and BMW GS1250.
Being put on a big fat cruiser that's being ridden hard, and constantly ridden in the rain, and often ridden on shitty, poorly maintained roads, is not all that different from a bigbore ADV bike that's constantly on pavement.

Essentially for the mileage and wet weather needs, and what was consistently available, Bridgestone had the best option available to me.
These should last way longer than the OEM scorchers, and essentially come in cheaper than the HD dealership options, as well as be better handling in the conditions I ride in.
Even if these tires only last me 8K miles, the end result is still significantly cheaper than the other options I had available to me.
Bridgestone is claiming high mileage especially for the H50, they claim 20k miles, which I don't believe but if they get anywhere near 10K it's well worth it.
Bridgestone also claims the A41's have long lifespan as well.
We'll see if my theorycrafting turns out to see the results I'm expecting and wanting or not in time. But for now it seems like a solid setup.

Also the reason why I couldn't wait for tires to come in-stock was because I found a screw punctured my rear tire and introduced a wobble at higher speeds that I wasn't comfortable with, and the tire rope plug was being sketchy.
I decided to just get the tires I could ASAP, so that all of these issues with old *** stock OEM tires would go away.


To Long; Didn't Read:
Better wet weather grip because Seattle, cheaper than dealership, same brand combination that was actually in stock, and long lifespan.

 

IMO, the Fat Boy is the better-looking bike sans windshield and bags. Once you add those however, the Heritage is the looker.