First Ride of the 2025 Harley-Davidson Fat Boy Gray Ghost Icons Edition!

Cycle World

The Fat Boy 35th Anniversary Icons Edition takes this legendary model to a new level with a 117 ci engine and chromelike bodywork with yellow accents to honor the original.  Check out the story at https://www.cycleworld.com/harley-davidson/gray-ghost/  Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6CLI74xvMBFLDOC1tQaCOQ Read more from Cycle World: https://www.cycleworld.com/ Buy Cycle World Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/cycleworld

Transcript

00:00Well, I've always said that riding is an excellent time to reflect.

00:03God, that killed me.

00:05But in all seriousness, riding is a good time to reflect and never more so than with this

00:11Harley-Davidson 35th anniversary Fat Boy.

00:17In fact, it's hard to imagine Harley-Davidson or even motorcycling without a Fat Boy,

00:22because at this point, for many of us, it's as if it's always been there.

00:26But the original Fat Boy of 1990 represented a design departure for the brand.

00:31It was called the Grey Ghost because of its silver paint and aluminum disc wheels.

00:35It was this kind of minimalist composition that delivered exceptional power.

00:38In fact, Brad Richards, current Vice President of Design and Creative Director,

00:42says that when he was in design school, the original Fat Boy

00:46embodied a level of sophistication he'd never seen in a Harley-Davidson before,

00:50and it really made an impact on him.

00:52The Soft Tail line was just six years old when the Fat Boy debuted,

00:55and it became a cultural icon like almost no other modern motorcycle.

00:59Its image cemented in our minds, particularly by its role in the 1991 Terminator 2 movie.

01:05I asked Richards how you approach reinterpreting a motorcycle like the Fat Boy for current times.

01:10And he said, like designing any legacy Harley-Davidson in the portfolio,

01:14it's tremendously intimidating to try to capture some of the original magic

01:18that Willie G and the boys were seemingly so effortlessly able to capture.

01:23He went on to say, when we redesigned the Fat Boy for 2018, it was really about presence.

01:29There's no other Harley-Davidson in the line like it.

01:31The 2025 Fat Boy Grey Ghost is the fifth model of the limited edition Icon's motorcycle collection,

01:38and it's the first one to come without bags.

01:40And as a nod to its introductory year, only 1,990 Grey Ghost will be produced,

01:45the number marking the model year it was introduced.

01:47The divining characteristic of this bike is, of course, the chrome-like finish.

01:51Harley calls it Reflect.

01:53It's not chrome, but it is applied with a process called physical vapor deposition.

01:57They'd used PVD on some other parts before, but never applied it to large pieces like this.

02:03Richards said they always talk about how the Fat Boy comes across as a solid chunk of billet,

02:08and here is a piece of billet someone's polished.

02:11Richards and the team discussed how they could take the Fat Boy up a notch for its 35th anniversary,

02:16and this was the answer.

02:18But it was also a real challenge.

02:20Early tests with the PVD finish were described as an orange dipped in chrome,

02:24but obviously they figured it out.

02:26And the depth and clarity of the tank and fenders is remarkable and impactful,

02:31particularly so out in the real world.

02:33Just like with the 1990 model, yellow accents on the heads work as a contrast to all the metallic tones.

02:39Like the original Fat Boy, it has a round air filter housing.

02:42There's the stitching on the tank strap, stitching on the seat,

02:45and they also brought back a version of Willie G Davidson's original Fat Boy double-winged tank emblem.

02:50The original sketches of that are exceptionally cool.

02:53Richards said that Willie G always talked about the engine as the centerpiece of Harley-Davidson design

02:58on any motorcycle, and the rest of the bike was just the setting.

03:01The Fat Boy takes this idea to a new level.

03:04And while they did kick up the size of this motorcycle to give it a stronger presence,

03:08and to give it that Fat Boy stance, more so than the original bike,

03:13it still remains what I would call human size.

03:15And Harley's done an exceptional job of not getting into the mission creep,

03:20of increasing the size of their bikes,

03:22to try to make them seem bigger and stronger and more powerful.

03:25I would say Harley-Davidson has had quite a bit of discipline

03:29in keeping the size of the motorcycle relative to the person riding it,

03:33and also relative to the strength, the visual strength of the engine.

03:45The 2025 Fat Boy Grey Ghost is priced at $25,399, or $2800 more than a base model Fat Boy.

03:51I rode the first generation Fat Boy in the mid-1990s, and man did it vibrate.

03:55But in 1999, I photomodeled the significantly redone Fat Boy.

04:00It had the TwinCam 88B, or Beta engine, that brought counterbalances to a big twin for the first time.

04:05What a change that bike was.

04:07But it was nothing like the all-new Softail line introduced in 2018.

04:11That took Harley's big cruiser line to a new level.

04:14As it is with any big twin, the engine is the defining characteristic of the riding experience.

04:19Like the rest of the 2025 lineup, the Fat Boy gets a 117 cubic inch engine.

04:23This new mill made 90 horsepower on the CycleWorld dyno, but more importantly, 112 pound-feet of torque.

04:30And while that torque peak is impressive, even more so is that torque stays above 100 pound-feet,

04:34from 1800 rpm all the way to 4700, and essentially never drops below 90 pound-feet anywhere.

04:42The engine will pull hard from 1500 rpm in sixth gear, and it pulls fiercely through the mid-range.

04:48At the same time, you can hit cruise control at 60, and the engine lopes along at about 2100 rpm.

04:56There are some really sporty handling motorcycles in the current Softail lineup,

05:00but the Fat Boy isn't one of them.

05:02That fat presence demanded some very wide tires on those impressive aluminum wheels.

05:07It also gets comfort-oriented damping, so it's best to carry a relaxed pace on a winding road.

05:12Still, you can swing along pretty good.

05:13It takes a little bit more bar pressure to initiate a turn and hold the line,

05:17than on some of the other Softails.

05:19Like the other Softails in 2025, the Fat Boy gets lean-sensitive ABS and traction control,

05:24plus three very nicely calibrated ride modes.

05:27You can still carry a nice pace on a winding back road,

05:29and riding that wave of torque is one of life's great pleasures.

05:32Plus, looking down to see yourself reflected so clearly in the finish on the gas tank is truly

05:37a unique experience.

05:39Is the 2025 Fat Boy 35th Anniversary Edition a success?

05:43It does have true presence, but the real test is,

05:45every time we park it, we keep looking back at it.

05:48And if that's not the ultimate expression of an iconic model like the Fat Boy,

05:52we don't know what is.

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