Mutt Motorcycles unveils Fat Sabbath 125

APRIL FOOLS’ DAY is well over a week ago now, so we were a little surprised to receive a press release announcing the arrival of the Mutt ‘Fat Sabbath: Black as the night and loud as Sabbath’. Surely not?

But just a few lines into the copy made it clear that Mutt Motorcycles is deadly serious with the bike’s heavy metal-inspired moniker. And as for the ‘Fat’, that stems from the fact that the bike apparently looks, and sounds much bigger than its 125ccs.

While we can’t say we’re keen on the name, the blacked-out Mutt certainly looks the part, with knobbly tyres and not an inch of chrome on show – bar the forks of course.

Aside from the clunky Continental TKC80 Twin-duro rubbers, the Fat Sabbath is actually pretty understated, which is a definite plus in today’s market of over-complicated modern retro machines. A stubby pipe, short mudguards, diamond embroidered black seat plus matching grips on Renthal bars and a mesh-covered headlight are custom cool, but not ostentatiously so.

With its city-slicker/scrambler looks, the Fat Sabbath will certainly appeal to the cool kids of Shoreditch, but the question is whether the engine and build quality will deliver.

Featuring Suzuki’s capable, if not slightly uninspiring 12hp GN 125 powertrain and with the base chassis and drive train also produced in the Far East, the Fat Sabbath isn’t exactly the British custom that it purports to be. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing, as it allows the manufacturers to keep the base price as low as £3,495. The Euro4 bike has a 12L fuel tank and a claimed top speed of 70mph.

Only the styling and finishing touches are done in the manufacturer’s Birmingham workshop, which also houses a clothing store, coffee shop and an events space. “A Motorcycle lifestyle hub that is a really cool place to ride to and hang out” is how Mutt describes it.

The Fat Sabbath is the latest of more than a dozen small capacity customs that Mutt makes, with a ‘Special Operations’ arm of the brand offering further customisation options. And you can’t fault the manufacturer’s styling skills and attention to detail – after all, the founders’ backgrounds are in building bespoke vintage bikes, with more than 200 bespoke custom bikes to their names.

Mutt Chief mechanic Benny Thomas commented: “The Fat Sabbath is an evolution in our special Sabbath themed model. The first Sabbath was basically a beefed up limited edition derived from our ever-popular Mutt Mongrel, we then got requests for an even ‘blacker’ version, in the spirit of Spinal Tap we asked ‘how much more black could this be - none more black’ and the Blackest Sabbath was born.’’

Of the Fat Sabbath, he added: “We beefed the Blackest up even more, adding wider rims, super fat Continental twin-duro tyres, micro LEDs, hand fabricated fenders, a handmade blacker than black diamond stitched seat and a whole host of special touches. It’s far and away the coolest 125 out there. It's more about McQueen cool than boy racers, but for everyone, not just the movie stars.’’