Red Carpet Rides

Red Carpet Rides

H-D Screamin’ Eagle Fat Boy vs. Victory Ness Series Jackpot

BLAKE CONNER

CRUISIN’ IS ALL ABOUT THE ARRIVAL. KIND OF LIKE HIGHschool prom, it doesn’t matter how you look once there or when you leave, it’s all about the grand entrance, that first impression. All those hours spent polishing chrome had better not go unnoticed; that’s why you blat the throttle a couple times as you pull up to your favorite hangout, right? Television has exploded with Chopper this and Build-Off that, so that now millions of men dream about Big Twins, raked-out front ends and fat tires; everything dipped in chrome three times over. But let’s face it, your average bike nut can’t afford a high-end custom chopper and furthermore doesn’t have the patience to wait for one to be built. Enter the factory customs. Now you can waltz right down to your Harley-Davidson or Victory Motorcycle dealership and get what is essentially a custom bike, made in limited quantities for a fraction of the boutique builder price and with a fac-

tory warranty. That alone is worth the price of admission for Harley-Davidson’s Custom Vehicle Operations Screamin’ Eagle Fat Boy or Victory’s Arlen Ness Signature Series Vegas Jackpot. Both bikes are the crème de la crème of each company’s lineup and carry premium price tags. The Ness Jackpot will set you back $21,999, about $4500 more than the standard bike. The Fat Boy will suck $28,495 out of your wallet-ten grand more than the standard model.

Peruse the build sheets of either bike and there is one common thread: lots of chrome, billet aluminum and in-your-face paint. If you added up the prices of all the goodies sprinkled over these bikes the sum would be a lot greater than their already extravagant prices. In the case of the Harley your money goes way past vanity, as the bike packs one helluva nice 103-cubic-inch Screamin’ Eagle engine. Laying down rubber never looked so good.

VICTORY

NESS JACKPOT

$21,999

Price...........$21,999 Dry weight........681 lb. A «Ups Stump-pulling torque Wheelbase........66.0 in. A Bling bling bargain? Seat height.......27.5 in. A Ness connection Fuel mileage____30.8 mpg A Lots of attention 0-60 mph.......4.2 sec. 1/4-mile......12.62 sec. v Downs @ 103.81 mph Weeble Wobble handling Horsepower......78.3 bhp Clunky transmission @ 4600 rpm A little too much vibration Torque.......97.0ft.-lbs. @ 2700 rpm Top Speed.......125 mph

Legendary custom-bike builders Arlen and Cory Ness have had signature-model Victorys adorned with their famous last name for three years now. Their finishing touches accentuate Victory designer Michael Song’s look-at-me-now styling.

The Ness Jackpot is long, low and all about the look. If the raked-out front end wielding a 21-inch pizza platter doesn’t get your attention, the 250mm tire riding in a slammed rear end will. The Jackpot’s monoshock has just 3 inches of travel (compared to 3.9 on the Vegas), which subsequently dumps the custom Danny Gray seat to a low 27.5 inches. On the freeway this allows the rider to hide behind the headlight nacelle and dash assembly and get a bit of wind protection. Chalk one up in the positive column. Things aren’t quite so good for your spinal column, though, thanks to the jolts it takes when the road gets rough-a big negative check there.

Fat tires are cool, that’s what Victory’s customers tell them, but handling isn’t at the top of the priority list. The fat rear Dunlop requires constant attention in the form of steering corrections; any irregularities or camber changes in the road grab hold of the big contact patch and cause the bike to wander. Looking cool has its limitations.

The Ness Jackpot doesn’t need the big-bore kit that comes in the Harley because it’s just fine in stock form (although a 106-cubic-inch S&S big-bore kit is now available). The 50-degree Twin Freedom 100/6 engine displaces 100 cubic inches as the name implies and features a six-speed tranny.

The paint-can bores measure 101mm with 102mm of stroke (3.97 x 4.01 inches), giving the Jackpot an arsenal of 78 rear-wheel horsepower at 4600 rpm and a massive 97 foot-pounds of torque at just 2700 rpm. Enough to wow Executive Editor Mark Hoyer: “When I rolled into the throttle it was impossible not to be impressed by the power and character of the 100-cube engine. Metrically, 1634cc these days is no longer giant, but the way the Victory sounds and makes power is great.”

The Jackpot’s gearbox also impressed, with an overdrive sixth that drops revs pleasantly on the open road. The unit shifts well in most situations but can be clunky at lower revs ^going down between second and first.

Fit, finish and function are all top-notch on the Ness. The idiot lights are located where even, well, an idiot can decipher them. We wish the bike had a tach and aren’t that fond of the chromed billet handgrips and lack of a keyed steering lock, but most necessities are there. Reward vision would be better if the mirrors didn’t vibrate nonstop.

The Jackpot isn’t an urbanite, nor is it rigged for canyon running. It’s for the smooth open road, slow weekend dawdling and tire kicking at a hangout-arenas where it functions exceedingly well.

The CVO division of Harley-Davidson has been churning out factory customs since the FXR2/3 Super Glides were released in 1999. Now in its eighth year, the lineup includes models from the V-Rod and Touring ranges plus this Softail, a follow-on to last year’s CVO Fat Boy, co-winner of Cycle World's “Sturgis Shootout” and our pick as Best Cruiser of 2005. Compared to the Jackpot the Fat Boy is much more radical in terms of fitment. Not only does it have almost every bolt-on accessory imaginable from Harley’s Genuine Motor Accessories catalog, but tops things off with a potent powerplant.

The Fat Boy is cruiser in every sense of the word. Relaxed upright riding position with feet comfortably anchored to the floorboards and a natural reach to the wide bars-for cruising, the seating arrangements can’t be beat. It may not appear to be a low rider at first glance, but the Fatty sits an inch lower out back and loses that same amount in seat height (down to 26.2 inches) accordingly. Like the Ness, the CVO bike pays for its hunkered down looks in ride quality-freeway expansion joints really drive the point home.

H-D

SCREAMIN' EAGLE FAT BOY

$28,495

Price....... .... $28,495 Aps Dry weight... ..... 707 lb. a 103 lovable cubes Wheelbase... .....64.4 in. ▲ Bling, bling prom king Seat height.. .....26.2 in. ▲ Curves, no problem Fuel mileage. .. 31.5 mpg 0-60 mph ... ____4.6 sec. Downs 1/4-mile____ . 12.97 sec. ▼ Same price as your truck @ 102.98 mph t Picasso paint not for Horsepower.. ....85.2 bhp everyone @ 5500 rpm ▼ Polishing time just doubled @ 4000 rpm Top Speed.......127 mph

Featuring 98.3mm bores (3mm over stock) and 111mm of stroke (9.5mm over), the 45-degree Twin runs slightly lowerthan-stock 8.6:1 pistons. It puts up numbers to rival the Victory’s with 85 hp at 5500 rpm and 90 ft.-lbs. of torque at 4000 rpm. Its top-end performance allows the Harley to keep pulling where the Victory falls flat on its face.

Hoyer said it best: “Every power pulse feels more rounded, fuller, richer and as though there is just a little bit more immediate urge at hand. Like a good tube amplifier hooked up to your favorite guitar, it sounds good at any ‘volume,’ but only reveals its true richness when it hits its sweet spot as you crank it up a bit.”

Comparing the two, the Harley is by far the more versatile-handling bike. Open highway, backroads, city traffic, tight illegal U-turns for photographer Jeff Allen, it can do it all. The low center of gravity, better steering geometry and more conventionally sized 140/75-17 front and 200/55-17 rear rubber make it much more rewarding to ride.

We had a few complaints. The headlamp didn’t exactly burn holes through the darkness, and the warning lights/ turnsignal indicators are placed way down on the fuel tank in a fairly useless location-of course, these have been down there for years and it doesn’t seem to be hurting sales. We also wouldn’t mind a sixth gear for highway cruising.

These two bikes are built with the same cut-no-corners mentality and draw similar amounts of attention, as Hoyer discovered on a nighttime photo shoot in Los Angeles.

“So we’re parked in an alley off of Hollywood Boulevard some time around midnight,” he relates. “Lovely ladies would traipse by and say, ‘Nice bike.’ The only jarring departure was the greasy-haired dude with the strange look on his face and dirt on his clothes who asked, ‘Hey, you guys don’t need any acid, do you?’ I looked at the paint jobs on these two bikes and said, ‘No, we’ve got all the colors we need, thanks.’”

These factory-custom crown jewels stand out exactly as their builders and buyers want them to. Excessive bling backed up by impressive performance. Is your taste for the chopper inspiration of the Jackpot? Or do you lean toward the mod-rod, long-n-low look of the Fat Boy? It’s all about how you want to make your entrance.