Fat Boy Wheels – Flossin’ The Fat Boy
1. Fat Boy Wheels before and after the flute and chrome treatment.
2. Currently, Joe offers ’07-09 Fat Boy Wheels. But he is working on the tooling to do the earlier model-style Fat Boy wheels as well. Here’s a stock wheel Joe had lying around. Obviously, by purchasing a set of Joe’s wheels, you can still use your stock tires, saving yourself even more money (if they’re still in good condition).
3. The first thing Joe did was send the wheels out to have the clear coat on them removed. Next, since they are cast wheels, and they have the rough casting texture, Joe sent them to his plater who pre-sanded them. Joe then blocked and leveled the wheels by hand to get all the rough sanding and unevenness out and to give the face a nice, smooth and level surface.
4. Once completely smooth and level, the wheels were then sent to Joe’s good friend and machinist, Larry “Wheelman” Tyler who did all the fluting on the wheels. Once in his possession, Larry indexed and fluted every hole by hand with his mill.
5. After fluting, the wheels went back to the plater where they polished out all the machine marks. Then, the wheels received a triple plate chrome finish and were ready to roll.
6. The finished detail was very impressive; it’s almost like looking at teardrops of chrome. When rolling the wheels really shine, as the fluted chrome surface kicks off rays of light like a fine diamond.
7. Here are some of the stock Touring wheels Joe offers in chrome.
8. For Road King owners, Joe also has these replacement Console Screws ($24.95 each) that feature a slightly peaked point. They are available in smooth or ribbed.
9. We removed the stock Phillips head screw and washer, then twisted in the Console Screw. The bottom side is grooved and has an O-ring to keep it in place and vibration free.
10. The product that started it all, the Willy Shiny wheel spacers for Touring models. The spacers are available in chrome or black ($89.95). However, Joe says he can also do spacers for custom applications such as the black and machine-cut spacer to the right.
11. The addition of the spacers can really clean up the lower frontend of a Touring bike, because they hide rotor bolts and make a smooth transition from the rotor to the lower fork leg. They feature a press-fit, steel, machined spacer with a built-in safety stop collar to keep them properly spaced from the rotor. For those of you who want to run a single rotor on your Touring bike, Joe makes a smaller spacer for the non-rotor side.
12. Here is a set of the chromed and fluted Fat Boy wheels on an ’08 Anniversary Edition Fat Boy. The owner of this bike, Duane from Florida, was the first person to get the new wheels, and Duane told us he couldn’t be happier and said they fit the look of his bike perfectly.
For most Harley owners, a new set of wheels ranks somewhere in the top two items to swap out on their project list. However, aside from an extensive motor hop-up or a flashy paint-job, new wheels can be one of the most expensive purchases. Sure, your stock wheels might look great and roll straight. But what if you could make them look even better and at the same time save a bundle of money? That’s exactly where Joe Cutshall of Willy Shiny Wheel Spacers fits in.
Joe’s Willy Shiny company is originally known for its wheel spacers for Touring models, but Joe has expanded his business to offer chromed stock H-D wheels as well. Recently, Joe got a hold of some OE, late-model Fat Boy wheels and started messing around with the hole pattern at the outer edge of the rim. After some trial and error, he eventually came up with a fluted design that utilizes the stock holes, but gives the wheels a completely different look–especially once they are chromed and spinning down the road. The best part is that the wheels go for $995 a set, bearings included. There is a $400 refundable core deposit as well. So initially you’ll pay $1,395, but once Joe sends you the new wheels, you send him your stock Fat Boy wheels within 30 days and you’ll get your $400 back.
In case you haven’t priced new wheels lately, unless it’s a spoked wheel, you can’t even get one chrome wheel for less than $1,000. Then again, even some spoked wheels go for more than a grand each. We were able to catch up with Joe and he showed us how the fluted Fat Boy process was done.
