Harley-Davidson FXSTB Night Train

According to the literature, and quoting Harley-Davidson here, “The FXSTB is lean, mean and ready to be ridden hard.” So not wanting to disappoint them or anyone else, I decided to take it on its first ride out. This just happened to be the National Rally, a 540mile expedition around the UK, starting at 2pm on a Saturday and ending sometime in the primeval hours of the following morning at a racecourse in Staffordshire!

Some people stated I was angry at even contemplating taking the Harley on such a run, recommendations from various individuals were that I should take my Osteopath with me in a back-up car as the riding position was not quite suitable for this kind of rally and this type of long haul trip! Well ignoring all sense and good advice, I took it with a pinch of salt and packed up the cycle ready for the off later in the day.

The FXSTB Night Train is one of Harleys more immoderate models in the true tradition of ‘long, low and raked’ custom bikes. Harley-Davidson build this particular model based on the Softail specifically for Europe, and it was titled by Willie G as the Night Train. The study comes from the manufacturers first proper custom cycle back in the primeval 70′s, a stripped down Shovel Head, nicknamed the Night Train after it became known from a road test in the famous American entrepot ‘Hot Rod’.

The Night Train looks good from any angle you care to sit and gaze. The front end is lifted from the Wide Glide together with the super skinny wheel and tyre, and a single headlight is fitted to finish off that immoderate custom look. The top yoke is then capped with 6″ risers and drag bars all in chrome. That concludes the bulk of the chrome fittings on the Night Train, we now move on to the rest of the cycle in black of course! In traditional style the Night Train gets a proper Harley tank with instrument and ignition etc mounted on the top between the fuel filler cap and the fuel gauge cap. Underneath all this is the huge 1340cc fuel injected v-twin, completed in a fantastic crinkle black. Getting lower and lower we move to the ‘Badlander’ seat and rear fender, and the solid disc rear wheel. The look is complete and the Night Train has a aggressive stance and a super low profile. Read more…