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not a whole lot of riding was done that day at laggan – but it sticks in my mind as one of the most memorable days riding last winter ! what a fun day .

the guy pushing in the first photo – his freewheel froze closed so he had no drive from the top DOH !

that is all (from a bored office desk destined for 25 degrees 24/7 on tuesday 🙁 )

Call that snow? Pfft..

Call that bike riding?

wheres that aidan ? mines is a trail centre – apparently thats all i ride 😉

would you mind if i dropped you that email with a few Tour divide questions ?

i assume your tan is fading fast in the uk 😉

Still my favorite snow pic ive taken , although its still weedy snow compared to aidans – isnt it funny how mid summer we (or i ) dream of snow , mid winter we dream of dust ?

That's Rainy Pass, Alaska.

I don't call that bike riding, I call that going on a journey with a bike. There were hundreds of miles of riding on that trip, so it wasn't just dragging a anchor through lots of waist-deep snow.

Feel free to go with a TD email. It might be a week or so before I get to answer it, though 😉

i thought it was the idita – just didnt look like wales to me 😉

first post are all laggan for mine between xmas and new year and the second was the descent to loch muick in november

no worrys on time aidan ive got 18 months to prep 😉

bah, you two want a proper snow bike…..

what like a red cross phil 😉

Still my favorite snow pic ive taken

he's wearing shorts! I wish I was that tough… 🙂

trail_rat – Member
what like a red cross phil

huh? I don't geddit, I'm well thick today….

at my end all i get is a cross , looks like you linked to face book so its an issue at my end – goddam websence …

anyway yes shorts – thats andy , hes 'ard as nails !

loved it last winter!

more pugsley snow riding pics here 😮

and a snowbiking film

oh I see! yeah, you definitely need those crosses for snow riding 😀

I do actually hanker after a pugsley, would never really get used though

nice turner 5 spots 😉

so thinking out loud here

my rig needs new forks – and the frame is creaking like a maddun

surly pug frame + forks is 550.

+ rear hub for front wheel

an old Raceface 100mm BB i have from my DH days

could i build it up into a reasonable to ride 29er innitially and get large marge and endomorphs later ?

purely hypothetical atm as ive just bought a thorn raven enduro with a rohloff – woops

i used to hate them and see them as pointless but once you see past the snow only use and look at the versatility on soft ground they become ideal for exploring the cairngorms and other such areas – other than the weight of course !

After a couple of rides on this.

It's left me wanting a fatbike even more than i did before.

Yesterdays ride round the Doethie Valley has shown me just how well the Larry tyre works on soft boggy ground. The difference between the way the front floated over stuff and the back just dug in was vast.

Can't wait until the Mukluk's available.

singlespeedstu, I've wondered about the mechanics of the fat front and skinny(er) rear. Is the back the weakest link and negate any advantage of the big front tyre?

I think for boggy ground a full fat would be better than a half fat.
Might take a bit more to power it though. 😉

Even on the bit's of rocky stuff it felt better on the front than the rear. The front would just roll over the rocks and i could feel the rear tyre smacking the rim into the rock. That was with a 2.4 Racing ralph on too which is huge compared to most.

No need to buy a special fatbike fork if you have some old bits lying around.

I think you can see where I'm going with this

Exploded view in correct positions by epicyclo, on Flickr

This is an experimental trial. I've got to get some precision bushes made to take up the clearance. I'll be using IrnBruCanium because it's made from gurdurs. Then I'll bolt it together with spacers and use large seatpost clamps on the lower legs to prevent them twisting. This way I can experiment with the geometry of the fork until I find the optimum ride height.

Once that's sorted I have another pair of forks (with disk mounts) to sacrifice and I'll bond the legs together.

And to think I have been disparaging of telescopic forks – I stand corrected – they do have some uses. 🙂

BTW it is going to be quite light.

never laughed so much- all of us coming down the other side of the brecons from this photo at high speed the first 3 broke the crust of the snow to loose our front wheels and get catpulted over the bars at once

thats what happens with just skinny mud tyres on!

Fantastic idea with that fork. 😆

It'll probably be too narrow once I get the 100mm rims and the tyre spreads a bit more, but it gets the project rolling 🙂

lovin it epicyclo 😮
i did 56 miles on the cheviots last year in a long day and reckon the extra wieght was offset by the bikes ease on soft going parts of trails,
though it was the driest i had ever seen it up there it was wet enough in places to be glad i was riding the pugsley, gteat bike and love it 😮

Bugger! I've only 1 seat clamp big enough. Now I'll have to go to the bike shop, but that means I can't get it rolling until tomorrow. Maybe I'll think of a way to bodge the bodge…

Obviously I don't have enough bikes if I can't rustle up 2 large clamps. I'll point that out to she who must be obeyed, I'm sure she'll agree. 🙂

epi do you not think the stanchions may not take the forces?

Considered that.

The fork tubes are 30mm and should be adequately strong, especially as there's no way I'll be doing jumps and such like with fat tyres. With the compliance of fat tyres I doubt they will be receiving any impacts greater than they would have had as suspension forks.

They won't be ridden far anyway because this is a proof of concept, and if it works out, I'll be doing the same thing to a set of 32mm forks – and the alloy stanchions will be replaced with Ti tube when I can find a supplier willing to do a small order.

Maybe one of the mech engs on STW would care to pass opinion.

Can't wait until the Mukluk's available.

ISON is only importing the frame, not the complete bike – sadly. Mark from The Bike Chain had been pestering them for prices.

Well tell him to pester harder. 😉

I'll try to get my LBS to ask too.

The more people that ask the more chance there is of them importing them.

I'll do it too, although I may end up making my own frame. I can see some improvements that could be made…

how much is the frame on the mukluk and what makes it better than the surly stu ?

Mukluk is a fair bit lighter.

It was the price and convenience of a fully built bike that was attracting me TBH.

Seems like an easy way to try out the whole fat thing to see if i like it.

Agree the mukluk looks great value.

The fat bike forum on mtbr is very interesting.

Stu, that fat front is good in rocks on a rigid!

Stop talking about it, your making me impatient.

I wonder if Dave Yates would make one for me 😆

I hate snow biking as much as i like Skiing in the summer!!