Hi guys, my next purchase will be one of these two bikes....

I was wondering about the differences in handling between the wider tire of the Fatboy and the skinny tire of the Heritage? Any real difference?

Thanks.

 

I've heard that handling if just fine up to and including a 200 rear.

 

I have rode both i couldnt tell any difference

 

The most often heard story is that bikes don't handle well if the rear goes much past a 180. Then again, Ducati makes a fire breather with a 240 and it supposedly handles like a dream. Go figure. I love my 200 Metzler 880.

 

I got a 200 it handles great as far as I'm concerned. I did not buy a Harley to race, pretty sure there are better bikes out there for that, I took 1 look at that 200 and just had to have it. Not a fan of that fat boy front fender but those can be changed pretty easy.

 

I can't complain about the 200, I love it. But I would say once you go over that width, then you start to lose the handling.

 

No problem with the 200mm rear... mine handles the twisties really nicely.

Roger

 

Well from my experiance I have owned harleys with the following rear widths:

200 Cross Bones
180 Fat Bob

And now own a 144 (Blackline). They all hanlde well, but out of the 3 I like the handling of the Blackline especially for really sharp turns. I have also ridden my friends 150 (Heritage) and a 240 Rocker - C. The Rocker - C I found a tad bit of a strugle for sharp turns, but I guess you just get use to it after a while.

Looks wise a lot will vote for the 200's 240's and 250's, saying that it looks like 144 - 150 is back in with the new bikes being produced by HD.

I would say go with the bike that feels right for you, cause at the end of the day it's a Harley and you can custom build it as you go along. I have seen some really nice Harleys here in the foums that really look sick, so my advice would be choose the bike and welcome onboard to the world of Custom building your Harley.

 

Bottom line is that these are big, heavy cruisers, not sport bikes, so they're definitely not designed to be carving up the twisties. Ride within the limits of the bike and the 200 won't be an issue, and looks much better IMHO.

Roger

 

biggest issue with the 200 tire that I kept reading about in here is the 200 is only good for about 5k miles while the 150's last 10-11k miles. So U'll be changing out the rear a lot more often.