People Go Crazy For.. Sharp Dressed Slim

Well, here he is! As promised during the last instalment on our Slim project bike (issue 159) Slim has re-surfaced with a somewhat controversial makeover.

- Brum

The brief for this Slim was for a cool cruiser, which is what the Slim is anyway but we wanted to dress him up a little more with more attitude, if you like.

As always, our first stop is the Harley-Davidson Genuine Parts and Accessories catalogue which amazingly, just gets bigger each year. If ever there was a print contender for a digital version, this is it. And, in fact, H-D do produce a digital copy but it’s nowhere near as much fun as flicking through the print version. It reminds me of an old school telephone book but a lot more interesting!

Anyways, we had already blacked out the motor and headers and fitted black Rhinehart mufflers. The combination of a black motor against the white denim paint was pretty dramatic. Slim comes standard with a black front end and handlebars, wheels, footboards and struts. Combine that with the gloss black engine covers and things start to really pop.

Inevitably, when pondering in what direction Slim should take next the possibility of more black stuff came up. And was immediately approved. You can’t have too much black!

The other topic which continued to come up was the rear wheel. It was bloody skinny to the point where we started to feel it was under-tyred.

Sure, the Slim has always had a narrow 150/80-16 back tyre. It’s part of the style and part of the reason the Slim gets its name. It is slim!

That was fine when the Slim had the original Softail frame. The older Slim didn’t need much in the way of extra grip because the frame did not have much in the way of cornering clearance. Particularly if you were trying to beat your mates to the top of a mountain! Or anywhere really.

However the new Softail platform is a lot different. We have written pages and pages of praise for the new models, both for their excellent M-8 motors and their vastly improved chassis.