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Custom Vehicle Discussions => Screamin’ Eagle® Dyna® Fat Bob => Topic started by: happyman on November 07, 2011, 09:57:56 AM
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Curious how the fatbob rides and handles on the stock shocks? like the looks of the bike but not sure if i care for the forward controls, for comfort. may be ok maybe not..
Thanks
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I love the way it handels corners great very stable at high speeds .The forwad controls are comfortable (I dont like mid controls)The best handeling bike harley builds.
mike
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The suspension and handling are excellent on the CVO Fat Bob. Best handling bike Harley makes. Forward controls only way to go.
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I changed mine out to mid controls and I have never been happier. The bike has a better balance and I feel more in the bike than on top of it. It was more than worth the expense to change. My next update will be 18 inch wheels. I will send pictures when it is completed.
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How much did the change to mid controls cost? More or less clearance when cornering?
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I chased down the pegs, brake lever, etc from eBay. They were take offs from another Dyna. The biggest expense was replacing the inner and outer primary since the shifter mechanism goes through them. The shift lever can be used with this new set up. My bike is almost done and I will post pictures soon. Good luck.
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I have since completed the upgrades to 18 inch wheels, works dual rate shocks and a complete redo of the front forks with race tech springs and gold valves. What a difference. Worth the work and money. The rear shocks are 5/8 of an inch taller which provides more ground clearance. I have posted pictures of the bike under FXDF-SE transformation. Good luck with yours.
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Really? I think it is one of the worst handling.....
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yea...I've seen your complaints about the handling of your '09 FXDFSE and I'm still scratching my head because your bike and mine don't appear to ride anything alike. Rear tire's grip is great. Cornering is great. Draggin the foot pegs all the time but I can replace them. I've ridden a lot of rice grinders street and trail over the years and have pushed the corners. I never expected the SE Fat Bob to handle as well as it does and it surpassed my expectations. Really weird how bad yours is.
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I was on bad tires until recently. I am not saying that it is awful, it is not what other Harley s since the foot pegs drag. Here is what I posted about trying to find help. For a Dyna, it clearly is the best handling of any of them made...but have you compared it with something else? I did and I was really disappointed to learn the hard way.
Is it not what the other harleys are in the least. When the factory lowered the frame the foot pegs remained in the same position. My friends sportster and road king both have the boards and pegs at 11 inches or higher. The police cruisers are mounted more forward on the frame and are at 12.5 inches. I could not outrun him without seriously dragging the pegs and he looked like he was on a sunday drive following me. This topic did save me a ticket since he was laughing pretty hard the entire time. (not to mention that is how I got the measurement) - Thank you cool cop and I am glad I was entertaining for ya
The 09 Dyna SE are about 9 inches with stock tires and the Michelin Commander II's lowered that by another half an inch. (Just got them today) I am scraping the pegs all of the time to the point I am really starting to trash them. Has anyone found a way around this without having to redo and relocate the brakes, shifter and such?
To give an idea, I borrowed a sportster, road king, full dressor and my 09 Dyna SE on a very sharp wrong way banked 30 MPH curve to compare. The road king (w/ foot boards) took it at 50 (brand new tires), sportster (w/ foot boards) at 45 (not the best tires) and the dressor about 40....the 09 SE...sad to say 25 and I just could not take the pegs being trashed more for the test. I guess the height of the pegs are more significant than I thought.
When I did this test I was literally standing on the pegs to get it around the corner. Thoughts?
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Raising the height of the lowered bike will help. The change to 18 inch wheels also helps with the ground clearance also helps.
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My complaint is compared to other Harleys. It is the best handling Dyna hands down. I grew up in Colorado so I love the twisties. A friend laughed about this claim and saw my posts so he had to see for himself. We switched bikes the other day and he could not catch me when I was riding his road king (minor mods). We switched back and same result occurred. I guess he did not read that I tried cornering with another friends RK. He was surprised just as much as I was about the pegs really limiting the angle for cornering. I am trashing the pegs which I truly do not mind, until they catch too much road one day. ;) It is a good handling bike but not great. I guess I expected more from it, but that is just my expectations.
I had a old '57 that I recently parted with, I literally grew up on it in the mountains. I did make the old girl a serious racer and it was an awesome bike. Raced it until about five years ago when someone told me what is was worth.(Harleys going up in value was a new lesson for me as well) Maybe that is why I expected more. It took me literally ten years to dial that bike in. The weather and altitude always reeked havoc with timing, jets and such. I figured a new bike with EFI would be great and it is. The new bike will not take the same corners at the same speed however. If I do move pegs and try really hard, I could make this thing handle really well I am sure. I would have to change the wheels since the tires made for it are not meant to really test the potential of the bike. Besides, most sane people do not try and make racers from Dyna's from what I have seen. Straight line sure, but not competitive track racing.
Have you compared it to other Harleys for handling, what did you find? Lets go for a ride and see what happens, I am all for it. It does handle better with new tires, but I have not really pushed them yet.
To be honest, it would not surprise me in the least if it was my bike that handled horribly. When I took delivery, it was literally falling apart from the showroom floor. ??? The back brake light went out after 300 miles, turn signal did not work after 3 miles, the back M/C lost all of its fluid at 450 miles, brake switch failure at the same time, most everything was loose and frankly I have not gone into every detail on the bike. It only has 6300 miles on it. Stopped going to the dealer when I realized they really did not take care of it. After they replaced the back M/C, the first corner I went around I heard my pipes dragging on the road. They did not even put the bolts back in the mount for the back part of the exhaust and it was hanging by the jug exhaust bolts. SERIOUSLY!!!!! Limped it home and swore never to return. So much for them doing warranty work and caring about customers. Never returned to a dealer since and most likely never will. I just do not feel safe having a dealer do work on something they obviously did not even test drive before giving it back to me. Talk about trying to kill customers...literally. Brake lights and turn signals not working on a new bike? I am convinced I have the bike when the builders had a really really bad day. My old bike did not even have this many issues after years of pounding the hell out of it. For sometime, I assumed Harley quality was worse but most everyone has not had these issues from what I have read out here.
I am building an addition and expanding the garage (too much dust and stuff for doing serious mods). Would love to get a couple of weeks to thoroughly break the entire bike down and see what other problems I might find. I discovered the front wheel bearing was pretty well worn and actually a bit of a mess when I changed the tires. I found this to be strange, but for some reason this did not surprise me after everything I have dealt with. The little floating and clicking front end seemed to disappear with this discovery. The back wheel bearing was fine but I changed it anyway. I have to take the wheels off again to put on the new brakes from Lyndall, but no problem for the betterment of stopping. Will the bearing and tires make a big difference, possibly...let you know when it warms up and I can report on the differences I find. I can tell you the Commander II's are really good in the rain, but I wish I could tell you how they are in the twisties and if the handling in general has improved. It rained over three and half (snowed in other parts!!!!) inches this week..supposedly in three days the weather shall cooperate once again.
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My Dyna is a 2000 FXR4, 12.5" PROGRESSIVE air shocks and front springs and Gold valve.
It handles excellent. Getting ready to put a 49mm front end don't know what one yet.
It smokes every Dyna I come across. S&S V111 EVO MOTOR.
116 HP 5600 RPM 122 TQ 3800 RPM with 3.4 gearing and a Primo-Rivera Overdrive transmission.
IT ROCKS
Ltank