WTF: The Rungu Double-Fat

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Those crazy Californians just can’t stop inventing stuff, eh? Here we have the Rungu Juggernaut. It’s a twin front-wheeled fat bike designed to offer stability in all sorts of terrain, including soft sand. It’s been out for a year or so but it has somehow escaped our notice until now.

With its two front wheels controlled by linkages to two half-handlebars, it’s already in the ‘Eh, what?’ category. Add in a pair of ‘shoulder spaced’ fat wheels, twin disc brakes and a single 4.8in rear tyre and you have a bike that’s more ‘Look at me’ than Chris Eubank’s daily driver.

Rungu3
The Juggernaut – with added ‘e’
Rungu2
And in self-motivated guise
Rungu Kilimanjaro
How about twin 29ers for a bit more range?
Rungu side
A distinctive side profile

 

The Rungu comes in several versions – all equally bonkers. There’s a triple fat Juggernaut, the triple fat PLUS electric twist grip electric motor and then there’s the almost nearly normal version with twin 29er wheels called the Killimanjaro

The bike has appeared on the Gadget Show, showcasing some amusing tarmac characteristics. But hey, the Rungu isn’t for the road, it’s for the beach and beyond, right?

https://youtu.be/V0OJYopJ7MU

As Rungu says itself: “A platform for adventure, Rungu Trikes offer mobility and stability where a bike can’t go and a car won’t go.”

For more details, see its website: http://riderungu.com/juggernaut/

Chipps Chippendale

Singletrackworld's Editor At Large

With 22 years as Editor of Singletrack World Magazine, Chipps is the longest-running mountain bike magazine editor in the world. He started in the bike trade in 1990 and became a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Over the last 30 years as a bike writer and photographer, he has seen mountain bike culture flourish, strengthen and diversify and bike technology go from rigid steel frames to fully suspended carbon fibre (and sometimes back to rigid steel as well.)

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Comments (9)

    myopicmyopic August 18, 2016 at 6:19 pm

    I’m sure there was a post about this last year?
    I can’t imagine it’s very stable, especially under cornering. But I think braking would also be a problem. With a disc on each front wheel, if there’s any difference at all in performance between the brakes, it’s going to veer to one side under braking – no?
    Add that to the possibilities of differences in the performance of 2 front suspension forks on the Kilimanjaro model would make me feel quite nervous!

    hodge1365hodge1365 August 18, 2016 at 6:37 pm

    Ffs. Why?

    harry_the_spiderharry_the_spider August 18, 2016 at 6:50 pm

    No understand.

    pb2pb2 August 18, 2016 at 7:29 pm

    I bet “john the climber” has his name down for one 🙂

    MrOvershootMrOvershoot August 18, 2016 at 8:04 pm

    Thanks for that Paul I just sprayed my laptop with cider 😉

    richmtbrichmtb August 19, 2016 at 8:56 am

    Beyond a certain steering angle will the front wheels not hit each other?

    Utterly bonkers

    timraventimraven August 19, 2016 at 12:09 pm

    Surely it’s made because they can and obviously for a laugh.

    pb2pb2 August 19, 2016 at 1:39 pm

    “Surely it’s made because they can and obviously for a laugh”.

    And that’s how the world ended up with Jones’s — its a slippy slope.

    ps sorry Nige but we both know its true 😉

    dovebikerdovebiker August 19, 2016 at 4:34 pm

    If you are riding is deep, soft snow this has some benefit because front wheel wash-out is the main reason progress is halted – the double front wheel would ride-up easier and give some stability. Then again a tadpole, recumbent trike would be even more sensible, as Maria Leigerstam proved with her Icetrike ride to the South Pole.

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