‘Urban myths soon grew up around the Fat Boy’
What’s in a name?
Famously, Willie G. himself rode a prototype Fat Boy to Daytona Bike Week in Florida in February 1988 and then again in 1989 to gauge public feedback. These trips were essential in fine-tuning its style and are considered to have contributed significantly to its success. Among the details and features which were honed during these trips were the Fat Boy’s bold, monochromatic silver paint and silver powdercoated frame set off with yellow detailing, the lacing on both the seat and fuel tank which were indicative of Willie G’s fondness for the handmade look and his self-penned Fat Boy logo which was conceived to evoke ‘patriotism and nostalgia’ and has featured on every Fat Boy since. While the name itself – Fat Boy – was inspired as well: bold, simple and pure… although in truth not with the controversial origins urban myth soon suggested it had. Soon after the Fat Boy’s arrival, there were rumours that its name was a dig at Harley’s Japanese competitors in being a macabre composite of those of atomic bombs Fat Man and Little Boy as dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in World War II. It was also suggested the first Fat Boy’s silver colour and yellow detailing was the same as the two B-29 bombers which dropped them and that its disc wheels mimicked its landing wheels.
Not true, according to Willie G. himself in his book 100 Years of Harley-Davidson published in 2002 (the great man himself retired in 2012): “You are probably wondering how we were able to decide to choose a name like Fat Boy,” he wrote. “I have heard many stories about it, almost all of which are false. Here’s the real story: it’s hard to find names that will win everyone’s support. We always wondered, ‘How are people going to nickname this machine?’ And we worked by reflecting with this question in mind. We were looking for the unusual and maybe even a little irreverent. For me, and for many of the other collaborators who had seen it, this motorcycle had a massive, fat look. So the marketing people have come up with the name Fat Boy. And everyone adopted it.” More recently Scott Miller, who worked in H-D’s styling department at the time and later rose to be head of styling, has said the styling cues for its solid wheels came from a steam roller and that its silver-grey paints-cheme – which led to the original bike being dubbed internally as ‘The Grey Ghost’ – was meant to resemble forged steel. Either way, the Fat Boy made a huge impact when launched in 1990 drawing crowds and attention like no other Harley of recent years – enough in fact for Hollywood to take note and select it for Arnie to ride in Terminator 2.
That priceless extra publicity was enough to cement the Fat Boy as a Harley icon and for it to become an instant best seller and, although later bikes such as the Road King and Street Glide, have now overtaken it in terms of pure sales, the Fat Boy remains one of the most influential Harleys of modern times. Fittingly, Harley created a special 30th Anniversary Edition of it for 2020. No Hog deserves it more.