Last year I bought a Surly Ice Cream Truck, to scratch a fatbike itch and found that I really loved it. This year’s project is to see whether a lighter bike with similar geometry is actually any better.

In one of those wonderful moments of serendipity Canyon announced a two-day sale (with a £200 saving on the base model Dude) on the same weekend that I sold my Smuggler. Some things were just meant to be, so I bought the Dude and am in the process of replacing pretty much everything! In fact, all I’ll keep are the frame, headset and drivetrain (with the latter being replaced as it wears out).

Anyway, enough preamble, I’m currently playing with routing options for the dropper, but am also wondering what to do about the rim strips on the wheels. I’ve got some orange tape on the way to match the orange details on the frame, but looking at it I think the black looks quite classy.

So, what do you think, nice bright orange rim strips (it’s a clown bike after all) or understated black?

Black, looks really nice as it is. Orange will look hideous.

Grass needs cut and you definitely win the award for worst hoses.

Orange btw

Why not go the whole hog and get some of this fine looking stuff

Fat bikes aren’t exactly subtle, so why tone it down.

Grass needs cut

I’ll have you know I cut the grass last week. Not going to waste time doing it again until we start losing things in it!

I think I’d put a different saddle on it tbh

Orange/gold rim strip to match the frame highlights, IMO.

martymac – Member
I think I’d put a different saddle on it tbh

Gives new meaning to the term “internally routed” dropper post 😯

Orange.
Is the noose in case the indecision reaches the point of utter despair?

Keep wheels as they are get some matching fork stickers made up.

Nice rope swing.

rim strip – id match the grey.

Thanks folks. Seems to be a majority in favour of “make it loud” with just a couple of people showing any class 🙂

I do have a set of orange/black bluto stickers on the way from SilkGraphics and they’ll definitely be going on.

If you can get the colour match on the cutaways close, I think it looks great. Mine is reasonably close but the yellow of my tape doesn’t pop in quite the same way as the frame so it can look odd. Not perfect but I like it.

Like this:

rim strip – id match the grey.

Grey? How very dare you! That’s Tundra Green. Not exactly exciting though, is it.

Orange Floaters. You know you want to.

Of course, I matched the rim strips on the ICT and always liked that.

I think it’s the two-colour frame that is giving me pause for thought. If the frame is all one colour then matching the rim strips seems the obvious choice. But with two colours it’s not so clear. I think I’ll probably still go orange. Not the tyres though, that’s a step too far.

Orange rim tape and green spokey-dokeys?

Mine match with the orange on my Fat Rat, so does the stem plate, seat clamp, saddle clamp, top cap, lock-on rings and pedals 😆

Nice @steve_b77, but now I’m thinking I need orange cables too 👿

roverpig – Member
Nice @steve_b77, but now I’m thinking I need orange cables too

Don’t see why not

Best looking Fattie I’ve seen so far.

Well played sir.

Personally unless you cam match the orange exactly then I’d go for black. No point ‘matching’ with something that doesn’t really match.

Of course as you have a fat bike your idea of pleasing aesthetics may be different from mine 🙂

Fat bikes aren’t exactly subtle, so why tone it down.

So much this. Mountain bikes in any guise should be pimped out. The bigger the wheels get, the louder the bike should be.

I tend to think the opposite – if I want people to point at me I’d wear a clown suit.

I’ve an SDG falcon ti-alloy rail saddle in black and orange. Hardly used. Open to offers RP.

Sorry to say but I like the colour of the ICT more. I know I’m a bit Surly biased but purely talking colours here.

if you are going tubeless the stock DT rim strip is pants.

i however have no taste and mine look like this

Kudos Rocketdog. Looks like you’ve used a picnic blanket to line the rims. Crazy bike needs crazy bits

I tend to think the opposite – if I want people to point at me I’d wear a clown suit.

Getting geared up for riding makes anyone look like a clown to start with. Embrace it, you know you want to 😉

Rocketdog
Which rim strips would you recommend for tubeless, apart from tartan? that may be the reason why my attempts failed.

Which rim strips would you recommend for tubeless, apart from tartan? that may be the reason why my attempts failed.

Anything you want plus some fattystrippers

OK, thanks for all the comments, job done. Needs better light to show it properly, but I’m happy enough with it. Just needs a few scratches, or at least some dirt, now.

I’ve an SDG falcon ti-alloy rail saddle in black and orange. Hardly used. Open to offers RP.

That would finish it off nicely. Don’t suppose you fancy a part exchange for a brand new fabric scoop in black 🙂

Sorry to say but I like the colour of the ICT more. I know I’m a bit Surly biased but purely talking colours here.

I wouldn’t disagree with you. I’d never have bought a light blue bike, but I grew to really like the look of the ICT. Especially against any sort of blue sky. There was something classy looking about those steel tubes. This Dude looks fine, but still a bit plastic looking to my eyes. Maybe that will improve with a bit of dirt though.

Which rim strips would you recommend for tubeless, apart from tartan? that may be the reason why my attempts failed.

I never had any problem setting up the BR710 rims tubeless with multiple layers of duck tape. This time I tried Duck tape for the rim strip, then a couple of layers of Tyvek tape, but it’s too early to say whether that will hold.

Hmmm, now you’ve done it I think black is nicer 😉

Thanks but I’ll skip on the part ex of the saddle. But if you are interested drop me a PM.

A fatbike should be mud coloured or have icicles hanging off it. 🙂

Hmmm, now you’ve done it I think black is nicer

😀

A fatbike should be mud coloured or have icicles hanging off it.

You’re not wrong. It looks a bit like a toy at the moment, but I’ll try and rectify that over the weekend.

But if you are interested drop me a PM.

Thanks. I may get back to you on that. I’d better ride it a bit first though. It’s still possible that I’ll find that I prefer the heavier ICT after all and I’ll need to swap everything back 😮

40mpg – Member
Which rim strips would you recommend for tubeless, apart from tartan? that may be the reason why my attempts failed.
Anything you want plus some fattystrippers

I use 70mm wide electrical tape over anything. The tartan is just ribbon from hobby craft. Once up tubeless i use waterproofing spray to stp it getting saturated.

I found fatty strippers way to thin and delicate and a pain with all the trimming.

Don’t think Magnolia rim strips would work. 🙂
Split tube & foam padding here.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/UhPVDu]Puffin – just getting on with it. No colour matching here. Or tartan. :-)[/url] by pten2106, on Flickr

The rim tartan clashes nicely with my endurance racing kilt

A quick note for those that care about weight. I don’t really, but the aim of the exercise was to see if the lighter Dude would work any better than the heavier ICT, so I thought I should at least make a token attempt at weighing stuff. All weights were done on the same digital bathroom scales (so pinch of salt time).

Surly ICT (bluto, reverb, 4.8″ jumbo jim) = 35 lb
26″ Orange Five (for reference) = 31 lb

Straight out of the box the Dude was 27.5 lb. OK, that’s without pedals, but not bad for a £1,500 (large frame) fatbike.

I then replaced almost everything, often with heavier kit (carbon fork to Bluto, fixed seatpost to 150mm Reverb, 4″ liteskin tyres to 4.4″ snakeskin etc).

All up weight (ready to ride) = 31 lb

As I say, my scales aren’t calibrated, so absolute weights may not be accurate, but I can say that the Dude weighs exactly the same (within 0.1 lb) as my 26″ Five. I weighed them both multiple times to make sure (as it seemed a bit spooky), but they are exactly the same!

The rim tartan clashes nicely with my endurance racing kilt