I’m looking to go full fat on the front of a HT for winter use. The bike is designed for a 120mm suspension fork

So, is fat front possible (without spoiling the ride/geo)?

And, which fork should I be looking at with probably a Nate tyre?

Cheerseverso 🙂

Those on one carbons seem good value

Bud FTW

The offset for the on-one’s (and Puffins) is 55mm – most fat forks are a bit less than that.

There’s a lot on ebay for £80-£100 with various axle choices (make sure you choose one that comes with an axle if you go 15mm) but they tend to have a 51mm offset.

Not sure what effect offset changes will have on a standard frame with a fat front, tbh.

Bud?

I have an unused steel OnOne fork that’s not doing anything…

Surly Bud 4.8″ tyre, bigger, softer, more grip, less rolling resistance than a surly Nate.

Agree with FRC. I have just changed from an On One floater to a Surly Bud on the front of my Jones and the performance difference is night and day. Also, from your perspective the Bud gives a noticeably bigger outer diameter over the floater(or other 4 inch tyre) which will help with the front end height. Based on the age old accurate measure of ‘having a look’ it’s near enough the same as my 29er knard mounted on a flow.

Yeah – the Bud is nearly as dammit 29+ in size. Put it on a 70mm rim and run it at roughly 7.5psi and enjoy!

OK, is a bigger fork offset, fatty wise good?

What’s the HA on your frame?

Hard to see past an OO fatty Carbon or a steel one SH dirt cheap. Designed around 68 deg HA.

As above, Surly Bud FTW. Just better in every way apart from a few grammes.

I’m amazed everyone isn’t doing large offset forks on fat bikes.

I’m a big fan of Nates on the front, unless you are doing lots of snow/sand riding when Bud rules. Buy the high TPI ones though- so much better.

I very rarely ride snow or sand shaggy. I find the bigger volume of the Bud allows me to carry more speed downhill on rocky stuff, and it rolls easier too.

So I put one on the back too 🙂

69.5°

This is the bike I’m planning to use

Bedmaker: Why not a Lou? I even loved Bud/BFL for snow racing, for trail riding Nate/Floater was always a better compromise for me. YMMV etc.

You should prob just buy a dirt cheap 2nd hand fatty, been going for £500-600.
Try for a month or so then sell your other bike:)

I haven’t tried a Lou Shaggy. I thought if it is a bigger Nate, then it wil probably be overkill and a bit draggy on the back. I guess it would ultimately have more traction, but the Bud has ample and rolls along nicely.
Bud/BFL is my summer combo of choice, although the BFL is scary on any mud/wet grass. Superb on dry and rockier stuff though. Served me well in Torridon / Spain / Morocco / trail centre riding.

The Salsa Enabler is suspension corrected for a 80mm travel fork

That’s 50mm short of 120, although I don’t think 120 is the figure that should be used is it…? Isn’t there a sag figure?

The enabler still seems too short to me (468 a/c) to work

Don’t forget the tyre is a lot taller than a standard one – probably adds 20mm to the effective a-c in terms of the ground to head tube height.

This is what I was thinking, so it might be closer than it seems

I’ve got a spare Jones Unicrown if it’s any use. 435mm a-c, 55mm offset

Don’t forget the tyre is a lot taller than a standard one – probably adds 20mm to the effective a-c in terms of the ground to head tube height.

I’d be surprised. An on one floater was about the same size as spec purgatory on a flow rim but noticeably smaller than a 2.4 Ardent on a dually. The bud is obviously a bigger tyre and sizes up the same as the ardent dually combo. Have a look at some images of fat fronted jones to see what I mean.

Bonesetter you’re going to steepen the head angle and lower the front end. I tried it with my yelli screamy and it rode ok. I alps of recall someone going by tag nitrousjunky on mtbr who had a stickel built so he could run a fat enabler fork or suspension front but from memory that was designed around 100mm suspension. Why not buy a headset reducer for the lower crown and stick your stooge fork in there to get an idea how it would ride? Cane creek and hope make them.

Hmmm… Stooge fork is 475 a/c (with a nice 55 offset). However, it’s not that wide to fit full fat – still, as you suggest it would give an idea, and I do laready have a HS reducer set-up I could fix up

Yeah, I remember nitros’s ‘stickle with a rigid.

I used to think I couldn’t ride without a ‘long’ suspension fork back then. Going 100 would have given a more versatile bike

Curious, I had thought that I’d posted this yesterday, but I can’t see it now and the discussion has kinda moved on anyway, sigh …

Granted the geometry is different but, I run a Salsa Enabler on the front of my Swift (with a Surly 135mm rear SS hub and Salsa ‘Semi 29er’ rims (30mm) – currently using Conti MK v1’s in 2.4) – and it’s great, it works *really* well as a wide 29er.

The plan was for half-fat versatility at some point, but I didn’t go that far in the end, given how well it works as it is.

That’ll be no help tho’ of course. 😉

JUST the kinda feedback I’m after 🙂

Strange, I seem to remember seeing a comment involving a Swift too… 🙂

Yes but the swift is designed around an 470mm rigid so it doesn’t change the geometry. Unless you spec’d your stickel with a steep head angle then I suspect you’ll be fine on that front but it’s going to lower the front down which might make it feel a bit rubbish…albeit we’re only talking 20mm once you account for sag. Not trying to piss on your chips here by the way, I did similar experimenting before I got my jones and it’s fun to try. Can also take the air out of your forks and zip tie the crown to the brace for a gentle pootle up the street test.

What would be really fun on your stickel is a fat front with a nate and a rockshox bluto…… 😀

John_I – I’ve emailed you regarding your fat fork.

Emailed you back.