My routine for winter usually first involved putting narrow tyres on. Mud X’s for example.

This isn’t an, “I don’t get fat bikes” post. In fact,I love fat bikes!

Just genuinely curious, guys.

Surely those massive tyres must be a nightmare in winter gloop?

gloop – great.

Sticky clay – nightmare.

ime, obviously.

( I went back to a standard 29er with a Maxxis Shorty when it was really sticky round here last winter as I got fed up dragging 3 stone of mud round on the fat tyres).

although when it’s like this the bike’s irrelevant 😉

Depends.

Gloop is such a catch-all phrase.

Tyres are all different widths. Wider isn’t always better as the “floatation” effect can see you losing traction over wet stuff.

Tread patterns vary. The old Endomorphs had little tread so wouldn’t let much stick to them. Very little grip though.

Love the pic! Lol

Yeah, round here (North Downs) gloop really does mean sticky clay in most areas.

Narrow tyres do help but still need to dig the mud out with a stick sometimes if it gets really biblical. Lol

Fatbikes with grippy tyres can remove enough clay mud so the following riders can ride on bedrock, but the fatbike is totally jammed up. 🙂

In mud that isn’t clay, a fatbike enables you to ride further.

Far enough that when you get brought to a stop, and you put your foot down, you go in up to your knees. The next half hour is spent guddling armpit deep in icy gloop trying to recover your lost shoe. 🙂

Basically it’s common sense, and you quickly establish what the limits are, but a fatbike is much better fun in mud than just about any other bike. Just get the right tyres. (I like Nates)

Oh, love that picture, and the bike!

Reminds me that although I love summer rides, winter can be a lot of fun too! .

…nTill you get home and have to clean the damned thing! Lol

Very little bike cleaning in winter. The snow just melts off and leaves a clean bike.

Mine acts like a sledge in really sticky slop

Sledge, like that description.

Gagging to get out in the mud with my new build ht once it’s together.

It’s not a fatty unfortunately though. 🙁

I borrowed (an admittedly very light carbon) one last winter for a ride. It had 5″ tyres. Patches of mud that usually have me gliding to a sticky halt, it just floated over, carrying speed. On the climbs, it had loads more traction.

Lots of confidence on steep greasy trails. I’m not convinced they’re better in deep mud, as they float about on top of it. But it depends what/how you’re riding. For low intensity stuff where you just want to keep rolling, they’re hard to beat. Occasionally the floatation works against you though, usually when you’re going fast.

In summary. It depends.

With mine I find I tend to float over the top. Fine in principal, and still seem to get way more traction than narrow tyres, but steering becomes pretty non existent.

Skinny tyres work like a rudder through the mud. Fat ones just swivel but you go straight on.

Good fun though, and I developed a method of swinging the bike round my body mass to turn it!