If someone’s bubble has burst and they want to swap their fat bike for my Giant TCX SLR2 I’ll help them deflate 😆

After my brief relapse back into normal mountain bikes, it was fun to take the fatty back out again this weekend and I had something of an epiphany. I said that the only area where I feel the fatbike doesn’t work (for me) is fast rocky descents. It’s not just slower here, it’s much much slower. However, it’s not so much that I can’t ride it fast over this terrain it’s that it takes much more energy to do so. Mental and physical; picking lines and moving the bike around. Since I enjoy a good climb, I’m often knackered before I start the descent. So, after a few minutes on the fatbike I’m having to throttle right back just to get a rest.

I also realized that it’s not just a case of the fatbike being slower on these rough descents than my full-suss. It’s also much slower than my old (Solaris) hardtail, which is making me wonder about a Bluto.

While I contemplate the enormity of that decision, here is a picture from the weekend.

I don’t think so. Several of my mates ride fatties around the Surrey Hills. These are not weekend warriors, they ride hard and often and they love them. They ride everything. Might get one myself.

Holly thread resurrection !

I notice there are three high end fatbikes on the first page of the classified section today (none in my size fortunately). That’s at the height of what might traditionally have been thought of as fatbike season.

There have also been comments from the Singletrack crew about the lack of fatbikes at shows (particularly compared with the last few years) and we’re still waiting for anything to rival the Bluto (from a cost/performance perspective).

Obviously fatbikes aren’t going to die, but those of us who like them probably aren’t going to have too many new options (bikes or components) to drool over. Might be some bargains to pick up though 🙂

Maybe a better way of looking at it is that the “ooh! a new type of bike, I’ll get one and see what it can do” effect has worn off and the early adopters have all got one or sold theirs on. People generally know now what a fat bike is good at and whether it fits in with their scope of riding.

roverpig – Member

Obviously fatbikes aren’t going to die, but those of us who like them probably aren’t going to have too many new options

Sure, but that’s inevitable- just the transition from a growing market to a fairly full one. Possibly a little overfull, up til now it’s been rapid expansion but sooner or later it’ll turn fully into market share scuffling.

I don’t think most nouveau fat riders think there’s a “season” tbh, not one revolving around UK snow anyway… Probably for beach riding summer is better, for trail riding which is what gave the niche its growth, probably they’re worst in winter after all. So except for a real snow bike I wouldn’t read much into that.

If the fatbike bubble has burst I’ll take a nice carbon bluto’d up one off your hands, I won’t even charge.

It’s a good point about the “season” in the UK. I did use our Scottish winters as an excuse (to myself) for getting the fatbike. But, in practice, I do very little “traditional” fatbiking as that isn’t really the riding I enjoy. The fact that I can ride on snow, for example, is impressive. It can sometimes make the difference between getting a ride in and not and if I find a bit of snow on a regular ride I’ll have a play in it. But in all honesty, given a choice, I usually pick the route with the least snow as mostly it’s just a slog. The same with sand. A bit of beach in the middle of a ride is a laugh, but I wouldn’t ride sand all day as it’s mostly either a slog or a bit flat for my tastes.

Agree.

Snow, sand and comedy frame bags are very nearly every thing I hate about fatbiking. The first two are entertaining once in a while but can seriously up your maintenance costs.

My fatty is a simple trail HT, just with added traction – if it has a season it’s the same one as every other MTB, one that depends on the rider.

Any bubble bursting has been the slowing of the curious I think. Possibly most people that wanted one have one, possibly On One just sold so many bikes that are now with second and third owners… There’s a large Fat presence out there that isn’t going away.

As indicated in the lightweight fat bike thread, Doverbike and myself were out in Finland for the Rovaniemi races. Generally the terrain isn’t challenging in the sense that you aren’t doing trail centre type trails (and going “off-piste” by even a metre is interesting! 😳 ), it’s very much traditional style XC riding where fitness is important at least as much as being able to get air.

If your main interest is riding trail centres then a fat bike is really just an amusing sideline. You’ll have fun but a far, far, better bike is the modern full suss: trail centre and FS development have gone pretty much hand in hand – riders get a better bike so trails become “boring”, trails get toughened so they are interesting to those with the latest bikes, riders get a better bike, etc.

There’ll be some model rationalisation as Northwind has said but the UK, as ever, is really just a small market in the general scheme of things, there’s a big fat biking scene in the US but they’ve the terrain and weather to suit. Look at the number of endurance/ITT type races in the States vs Europe, roughly 20 to 1.

Edit: understand the comment about riding in sand increasing maintenance but riding in snow doesn’t – proper snow that is when it’s genuinely cold – the bike gets back from a ride in exactly the same state you set off.

Not for me at least 🙂

Converted my full suss trail bike to fat front, got fatty single speed/geared fully rigid bike, bought another frame to make it more trail oriented…

Life’s good at the mo 🙂

Cheers!
I.

Search for Gartner Hype Cycle. I’ve linked to it previously. It refers to IT developments but applies to many other things, including consumer goods.

I don’t own a fat bike, though I would if I could!

What I don’t get is why quite a few people are willing, really willing the fat bike to die a death.

Why is that?

Poopscoop – Member
I don’t own a fat bike, though I would if I could!

What I don’t get is why quite a few people are willing, really willing the fat bike to die a death.

Why is that?

(a) It challenges too many preconceptions and prejudices. For years we’ve been chasing lighter, longer travel. Lots of that stems from the input of those that race, as if that had anything to do with the vast majority of riders. Fatbikes are mainly about fun, lots of folk don’t get that.

(b) Too many fatbike messiahs proclaiming they are the best bike for every trail.

I notice there are three high end fatbikes on the first page of the classified section today (none in my size fortunately). That’s at the height of what might traditionally have been thought of as fatbike season.

One of the original attractions of fatbikes was that they were somewhat isolated from the constant development cycles of other MTBs (being somewhat simpler). I know quite a few of us who bought in early are still running older bikes. You can also buy a decent fatbike for not much money. I therefore think that “high-end” fatbikes will struggle to attract any meaningful resale value.

Some kind of bubble has burst; I only remember seeing 1 fat bike at the London show, last year there were loads

I’d been after one for some time and finally got one this December past. I absolutely love it. Yes it has a comedy element but it’s also very capable. It’s undoubtedly the best climbing bike I’ve ridden (better than my Anthem)

Perfectly happy for fashion to move on elsewhere. I’m happy to be the only fatster on the trail

MTB manufacturers probably hate them as it’s against their business model of deliberate obsolescence – they’d rather sell 10mm of more suspension or an e-bike. It was 29+ and fatbikes that have got me interested in riding MTBs again – simple, low maintenance and capable of riding almost any terrain. If I want to ride fast offroad, I have 2x CX bikes.

+1 to that Colin. My Puffin is either a prototype or one of the early production models, don’t know what Ian ended up with before he sold it on to me. I’ve no desire to fit a Bluto fork to turn it into a trail centre oriented bike, it runs fine as it is.

Fat bikes will be:

a) ideal in some situations
b) OK in quite a lot of situations
c) crap in the remainder

A bit like most other bikes really. Depending on where you live and what trails/bridleways/terrain you ride a fat bike will be suitable some or none of the time. Unfortunately that isn’t black and white enough for some people and they have difficulty in understanding that there are shades of grey.

Hopefully not burst, may treat myself to a cheap one next winter as I have a beach right on my doorstep.

I love my Fatty a Trail. Just not as much as my Fatty. So I’m taking off the 120mm Bluto and Reverb, changing tyres and I know I’ll be having fun again. I ride too much on road and canal path for it to be my only bike but I really would miss it.

Well I rode my Pugsley from Sand Bay to Burnham last week, along the beach, forest single track, cycle path and road. V pleasant. If the bubble has burst I’ll be happy to pick up nice fat bits going for bobbins like the amazing 26er stuff I’ve got recently for peanuts……

Love mine – winter or summer. Its a climber, a not bad downer and an awesome go anywhere (especially the pub) bike.

Hope it has burst. Cheaper bits – especially tyres.

Maybe, but with on-one leaving the market that means no more floaters which were the only ‘good value’ option, anything else is two to six times the price, and anything the same price is a bit crap.

Mount Fernie, rob?

Yep, Ned. Just on the banks of the Elk river where we go to drink a cold Kokanee and watch the ghostrider appear in the summer sunset on Hosmer. Home is in the Annex.

Still love my fatty 🙂

I now ride fat bikes more than any other type of bike. My current long termer is a Cannondale with a lefty fork. It is great! Much more testing to be done. My last one was an ICT which I bought. I’m hoping my next test bike is a Salsa Bucksaw as full sus appeals!

😀

Cheers

Sanny

I’m not really concerned about whether fatbikes are good or not, I’m a fully paid up member of that club, but I’m still concerned about the bubble bursting, for two reasons:

First, I don’t think we’ve got them right yet. The ICT is a far better fatbike for the type of trail riding that I enjoy than the early snow-focussed bikes, but I’d like to see what a few more years of innovation could do. It stands to reason that sticking honking great wheels on a bike will change optimum trail geometry, but I’m not sure we know what that is. We need a sustained high demand to make it worth manufacturer’s time to test new designs.

Second, the whole attention grabbing thing is my least favourite aspect of fatbikes. I just want to ride my bike in peace, so it would make my life easier if they weren’t quite so unusual.

(Second, the whole attention grabbing thing is my least favourite aspect of fatbikes. I just want to ride my bike in peace, so it would make my life easier if they weren’t quite so unusual.). Exactly this.. although I don’t get many comments as I’m either out and about too early or off the beaten track

Buy a set of Pogies. When folk see them, they magically miss the wheel size.

TBH I get a lot fewer comments these days. Maybe because they’re quite common in this neck of the woods and if I’m further afield it tends to be well off the beaten track.

In my LBS the staff there are almost all on fat bikes, they have a fat bike ride once a week and keep trying to convince me to join them. Not my cup of tea but they obviously find some long-lasting appeal to them out of all the bikes they stock.

roverpig – Member
We need a sustained high demand to make it worth manufacturer’s time to test new designs.

Hey RP, hope all is well with you and yours.

I can’t help feeling that this is the double edged sword that bursts the bubble, or at the very least let some air out! High demand got the big manufacturers attention and they jumped on the bandwagon. Leading to the market getting somewhat flooded. This squashes the development being done by the more fatbike orientated manufacturers who just can’t keep up/compete with the big boys in terms of buying power (then spec) and marketing budgets.

All just IMHO of course.

And a fine opinion it is too 🙂

Actually, it is a very good point. The big guys jumped into the market to cash in on the bubble, but (as far as I can tell) didn’t offer any innovation; just flooded the market with similar bikes to what were already out there, taking away the incentive for the smaller players to innovate. Maybe that wouldn’t matter if demand stayed high as the bigger players would then have to innovate to compete with each other. But as it stands, it looks as though they’ve just killed off the smaller players then run away.

But then it’s doubtful if we’d have seen Rockshox launch the Bluto while fatbikes remained more niche.

Ah yes, that does kind of shoot my argument down in flames. Where is the crash and burn emoticon 🙂

Incase it hasn’t been said already, fatbikes seem to make a lot of sense as e-bikes.

Saw a YouTube vid of surly e-bike conversions in NYC. Looked like fun.

Kind of like when mountain bikes started to gain popularity in 1989…

Maybe a simplified version to entice the commuters?

While I appreciate the fatbike’s forte is off-road, I’m saddened at the lack of fat tarmac-specific tyres out there. And the only one out there of note, the Vee Apache Fatty Slick, seems to be taking an age to reach the UK shores (and I still dread how much it will be listed for, given the eye-watering $120 price at https://www.veetireco.com/listings/fat-tire-apache-fatty-slick/ ! 😯 😯 😯 ).

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but part of me wishes I had dived in head first into fatbiking with something like the rigid forked, carbon framed Canyon Dude. Now I’m putting regular 50+ miles on the road weekly, I’m starting to get a little frustrated by the Wazoo’s weight, especially in the default wheels (~3700g?). But even with the FatNotFat wheels, it’s still a portly ~12Kg bike, before I get round to having the carbon fork installed (which will save another ~900g).

But with the post-referendum pound weakening and consequent price hikes, a Dude is realistically a non-starter for me now. Consequently, I’m loosely toying with the idea of a hydraulic adventure bike like the Arkose X, which then makes me wonder if it’s worth keeping the Wazoo should I buy an Arkose.

I guess I’m questioning my purchase more now because so much has changed in a year, I’m ~14Kg lighter; considerably fitter; my old lower back injury is giving me far less grief; despite my front end spill two week ago I’m now feeling the need for speed (something I very much lost after my freak RTA).

Not to mention, I handed over ~£400 after discounts and vouchers to buy the Wazoo last year and excluding consumables (tyres; chains; cassettes etc.), I’ve spent at least that on component purchases, way more than I’ve spent on all my other bikes over the last 30 years combined… It’s starting to feel like an absolute money pit!

All RockShox did was take a Rev and make it wider – not much development there, and it’s been a solid banker for them ever since.

I hope the bubble hasn’t burst as I’d like easy access to tyres/cranks/hubs as I continue to ride one over the next 20 years.

Fat bikes are a niche so any non standard tyres such as slicks are going to be a further niche so low production run = high price. I dropped £125 a tyre for the Vanhelgas, studded Dillingers are £225 😯