David Pritchard and Doug Moore have been good friends since they were small children growing up in Georgia. As the years passed, their adult lives and careers took over and led them in different directions, but the two always made a point of keeping in touch. Doug often told David about how much fun he was having building custom bikes apart from his day job, and David was starting to get sucked into the motorcycle lifestyle after hearing how much fun his friend was always having.
When it came time for Doug to sell his stock '98 Fat Boy so that he could begin construction on his next bike, David jumped at the chance to buy it. However, after logging about a year's worth of miles on the odometer, David began to get a little bored with it. The Fat Boy needed more power to make riding it as fun as it was when he first brought it home, and giving the bike a fresh new look sounded pretty appealing as well.
So Doug sat down and drew a few plans to show David some ideas for changing the look of the Fat Boy. Doug's plan was to build David a long, low, and very fast bike with a huge rear tire and possibly a skinny 21-incher for the front. After going over the plans with David, Doug quickly learned that his friend's tastes leaned more toward the classic old fat style, exactly the opposite of what Doug thought he would like.
David's bike was hauled to Doug's shop in Charlotte, North Carolina, and after about two or three days, it was completely stripped to the frame and neatly arranged in two piles. One pile of parts would be cleaned up and re-used, and the rest would go into storage in the back room. The frame was cleaned up, but all of the original EPA and vehicle information stickers on it were left intact, giving the bike a little more of a factory custom look.
Then, Doug stripped the engine down to the H-D cases and began to build it back up with a few performance-enhancing items. A pair of S&S pistons and cylinders were used to pump the displacement up from 80 to 97 ci. A couple of ported S&S heads were slipped on top of the motor to take full advantage of the flow regulated by a 502 S&S camshaft.
An S&S carburetor, a Vance & Hines Longshots exhaust, and an H-D ignition system were used to finish off the engine. A stock Harley five-speed transmission, that was recently rebuilt and sitting on a shelf, was bolted into the frame and hooked up to the engine with a stock chain primary drive system.
With the engine and trans out of the way, Doug was free to move on to the suspension. The stock H-D forks were stripped and polished to perfection, before getting sent out to Brown's to be covered in chrome. When the parts came back to the shop, the forks were rebuilt using new springs and seals, and it was lowered 1-1/2 inches in the process. A lowering kit was added to the stock H-D shocks to lower the rear of the bike by another 2 inches.
Performance Machine wheels and brakes were attached to both ends and covered in rubber from Avon. David limited his rear tire choice to a 180 series to allow for good handling, while still giving the back of the bike a very aggressive look.
We're told that the sheetmetal and paint required a great amount of restraint to be exercised on Doug's part. He originally wanted to use some really radical fenders and tanks covered with a wild paintjob and killer graphics work. It wasn't easy, but Doug was able to hold back. He built a custom rear fender and fuel tanks, and shaved the rivets from the stock front fender before treating them to a subdued paint-job that consists of dark and light shades of blue, that make up the basecoat and flames. Doug was so pleased at how good this minimalist approach worked, that he plans on using the less-is-more method on the next few bikes he builds.
Well on his way to the home stretch, Doug started to add a few necessities and accessories to finish things up. A set of custom-made beach bars with Ness mirrors and H-D hand controls were bolted to the top of the forks, and a Headwinds headlamp was tossed in to complete the front end. The stock Harley instruments were installed in the dash, which was also custom made by Doug.
Custom LED tail lighting was designed to fit the rear fender, and the turn signals were all found in the Custom Chrome catalog. Nine months after the project began, David was standing behind Doug as the Corbin seat was being set in place, and the bike was fired up for the first time.
The new Phat Boy is even more fun than David thought it would be, and he's been continually burning up asphalt all around town since the day he took delivery of it. The pair say that they could never have imagined they'd still be hanging out together after all these years, and it blows them both away to think that they still have similar tastes in hobbies, cars, and music. They may differ slightly when it comes to what their ideal designs would be for a custom bike, but even with the slight disagreements standing in their way, they were still able to pull it off.