hia,

considering getting a fatbike for the winter. Before you get the pitchforks out, i’m living in Scandinavia so it’d be useful 😀

Thing is, i don’t want to spend loads (limit 1500e). So, besides on-one and mongoose, what other options are available at the lower end of the market?

it’d be good to see pics of some in action too 🙂

cheers,
hr

Genesis Caribou?

oh, 1500euros

…

konas fatbike is about that price

that looks nice. What else is out there?

I’m getting loads of info the carbon fibre wonder machines and the like, but not much at the cheaper end.

http://www.fatsandbikes.com/Fat-Sand-Bikes_c_1.html these look ok too. But the import duty would sting.

Are they as hard to get up to speed as they look?
That Kona looks very nice. It looks as if you need bags of torque to get one going though. And effing big rotors to stop one.

Charge Cooker Maxi?
http://www.tritoncycles.co.uk/m1b83s369p11378/CHARGE-Cooker-Maxi-Fat-Bike-2014

works out about 1400 euros…

looks loads nicer than the kona

Are they as hard to get up to speed as they look?
That Kona looks very nice. It looks as if you need bags of torque to get one going though. And effing big rotors to stop one.

Nope, they really aren’t that hard to pedal and in many cases easier as the tyre deforms around the terrain.
As for braking I’ve a 140mm rotor on the back and a 160mm on the front and never had an issue slowing down. They did get a bit of a squeal on going down my local hill Ben Rinnes though. 😀

Nakamura Fat Bob from Norway? Same factory as our bikes, saw these out there recently.

didnt realise that nakamura made one. Who do they share a factory with???

http://www.terrengsykkel.no/ubb/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1281508&nt=162&page=1

There are also Russian made fatbikes, in Ti frame only, and a budget steel complete, will try look out the link and post it up for you 🙂

Where can you buy nakamura from?

russian ones sound interesting. Be ace to see those.

You can get nakamura stuff in norway, sweden and finland. Their bikes i’ve seen around helsinki look quite generic, it could be that they share frames/ tech with another company.

Here

Motorman, tnat link is to a US discount seller? Any UK or european equivalent?

i read from here that Nakamura = Diamant = Motobecane . So, it might be that Diamant or Motobecane are for the uk market.

looks like that bikesdirect site won’t ship outside of north america, but are happy to send the bike to a friend/relative in the US.

I believe the question was “are they as hard to get up to speed as they look?”
and the answer is Yes, if you are the type of rider that likes an fast accelerating bike, look elsewhere. Fatbikes work best mainly pedalling while seated and pedalling rather than sprinting to speed, freewheeling and repeating.

Is the mongoose available here?

To demonstrate their pedalling performance here’s a video of some guy on a fatbike riding a hard pack trail centre descent pedalling the whole way and barely managing to keep up with an old slow guy on a normal mtb.

To put this into perspective, The old bloke takes about a minute longer to ride the trail than most decent riders on Hardtails would

campkoala – Member
…here’s a video of some guy on a fatbike riding a hard pack trail centre descent pedalling the whole way and barely managing to keep up with an old slow guy on a normal mtb.

Couldn’t think of a worse place to take a fatbike, but only a minute lost seems like a good trade off.

Is there a similar video of the the old guy trying to follow the fatbike through soft deep mud or up a steep loose gravel track?

Probably, it’s quite flabergasting how incredibly dull fatbikers videos actually are. Quite why they feel the need to justify their hobby by videoing the most mundane rides on this earth I have no idea.

is it an insecurity issue?

Not seen many fat bikes in the ads on here so I guess people that bought them like them.

Look for a second hand Surly Moonlander, it will be your ideal bike, sign up to the fat bike forums and look for used ones, they crop up occasionally.

Or go for a 9zero7?

There was one in the classifieds yesterday, considering there’s likely to be less than a couple of hundred in use in the UK you wouldn’t really expect them to come up S/H too often

Back to the OP, apparently next month’s Terrengsykkel has some fatbike features (tests and trip reports). Not sure that helps if you’re in Finland, but you can get copies in Sweden. But then the language might be an issue.

they share frames/ tech with another company.

Carbon bikes they sell are open mold yes. Alu frames are specced by a chap who works for them. Crazy-big, interesting market for top-end bikes over there considering the population size.

campkoala – different bikes, different people, different perspective and different terrain – it’s all fun surely!

To put it into perspective the other way around, the other week, I came 13th in the solo 8 hour category at the Bristol Oktoberfest on a Fatty.

My previous results in past years were 14th and 25th on a Cannondale Rush on pretty much the same course and same conditions.

hmm, i’l look out for terrengsykel. Is that in norwegian? Well, i’ll be able to find someone who can translate. I might just flick through the pages and see if any distributors are listed, it must be easy to send a bike from Norway or Sweden to Finland.

so far, i’m most tempted by the…
– On one
– Charge Cooker Maxi
– Nakamura Bigboy

2nd hand bikes cost the earth over here, so i think i may as well buy new

Monkeyp, you need to re-read what particular type of rider/riding I was talking about instead of taking offence/trying to justify YOUR choice to ride one. I don’t particularly care how anyone else chooses to get their jollies, Just answering the guys question truthfully.

HansRey – I love my Fatty and have yet to find anyone who rides it who doesn’t come off with a smile on their face.

I bought the frameset and then set it up 9 speed with some shifters and mech I had lying around and a wide range 9 speed cassette. Standard stem, post and saddle I had lying around and some new Formula RX brakes direct from Formula (£130 all in!) with a 180 rear and 203 front disc. Got some wide carbon bars and a Truvative Holtzfeller chainset. The whole build was about £750. I have also drilled the rims and changed the insanely heavy tubes (600g a piece!) for some Schwalbe DH tubes to bring the weight down to about 28lb.

The bike is crazy fast on technical stuff. I am quite a light rider and once used to the feeling on corners it just rails everything. On technical or loose climbs the grip makes it climb well. Shallow fire roads are not great, but keep it at speed and it’s not too bad. Tyre pressure is critical though, 7psi is about right for me.

I built it up to use up some spares, half expecting to sell it – that is not going to happen!

I find the acceleration fine to be honest. I am about 70kg and so long as you get some weight out of the wheels as described above it doesn’t appear to be an issue.

monkeyp! this is the sort of encouragement i need 😀 The bike is 1.184,49euros, plus 35euro delivery. Not bad at all. The tyres are 4”, how sure are you that the DH tubes will survive being overinflated? Are there lighter tubes available, for fat tyres?

infact, their winter bundle of kit looks good value too.

Do they have XXL sports stores (like a Norwegian Decathlon, sort of) in Finland? They’re bringing one out under their own brand, White, soon. Not many details apart from spec.:

Swedish linky

They’ll also be carrying Surly Pugslys next year, at the outer limit of your budget (XXL like to carry limited stock of equivalents to their own brand to show off their value-for-money).

I’ve been running Specialized 3.0 tubes in my 9:ZERO:7 for almost two years. I’ve had two punctures in that time (thorns) – and I hardly ride on sand/snow.

Fine, if you’re happy that’s all that matters to YOU. You are however completely deluded if you think any fatbike accelerates well, rides technical descents well at speed or even corners well on mtb trails in comparison to a well set up 26″ bike with the correct tyre choice and pressures for the conditions.
They do hold momentum well, roll over certain things more efficiently and allow more grip in certain situations but I fail to see your problem admitting their down points. Epicyclo seems town to know the truth and have no problem admitting it.

I think you’ve made your point campkoala, no need to keep repeating it.

You’d have though so wouldn’t you?

Can anyone actually answer my question?

Is the mongoose available in the UK?

Interesting warpcow, I hadn’t seen that one. I’m not particularly interested in fatbikes, but might check these out once they appear in the shops. More about the white bikes fat pro on this link – spec seems OK (X7/X9/SLX discs, ritchey stuff…) and price not ridiculous for SE/NO.

Hansrey, Terrengsykkel is Norwegian, doesn’t take much understanding. I’m sure you could find someone to translate for you if thought it was useful. See here for what they have lined up (test of Surly and the Nakamura, guide to all the fatbikes on the norwegian market, Rena-Lillehammer ride report, and an editorial on the boom in fatbikes and biking on ski tracks (or not – maybe relevant in Finland too).