The Rickinator – 2022 FLFBS “Back to the Roots”

Who would have thought in 1990 that a motorcycle with disc wheels, V-2 engine and rather low seating position would once become such a huge success story lasting over 30 years? Certainly a lot of people in the Harley-Davidson community, including one particular Harley customizer and builder in Rastatt, who would soon write his own history with the widening of the first-generation “Fat Boy” disc wheels: Patrick “Rick” Knoerzer. More than three decades and two new engine series have passed since the silver and chrome flashing original “Fat Boy” with the striking yellow trim stripes on the cylinder head, but the spirit of the “Terminator bike” from the Terminator 2 blockbuster movie is still alive. Especially in the highly modified conversions by Rick’s Motorcycles, Fat Boy’s of all model years that have been extremely refining and re-defining the “Fat Boy” for decades, but never questioned the character of the model itself: Even with a set of Rick’s design wheels this 2022 model year “Fat Boy” remains recognizable as FLFBS!

The three-piece assembled 10-spoke “Steve” design wheels are less “bulky” in style than the massive discs of the series – although these were sometimes perforated with cutouts or holes, sometimes milled more filigree in the course of the models history: The “Steve” design wheel is one of Rick’s classics and comes, naturally, with matching brake discs and belt-pulley. The rear 9.0 x 18” wheel size allows the mounting of a 260 Metzeler tire in the rear – in the stock swingarm of the 2022 Milwaukee Eight FLFBS. As “standard” at Rick’s, featuring Air Suspension. To give the observer a clear view of the right side of the wheel, brake rotor and caliper are relocated to the left: behind the pulley with Rick’s Side Drive Braking System. A clean solution!