Chris Chance Unveils Fat Chance Yo Eddy Titanium At The Sea Otter

by 2

Chris Chance is celebrating moving the Fat Chance workshop from the Bay Area to Medford Oregon by announcing a full, US-made titanium version of the legendary Yo Eddy hardtail. He was at the Sea Otter Classic to launch it and to meet up with fans from all over the world.

fat chance yo eddy titanium chris chance sea otter
Chris Chance. One of those legends.
yo eddy titanium, fat chance, chris chance, sea otter 2019
This machined yoke will slim down for production.

Welcome back Yo Eddy Ti!

Just like the nineties original, the Yo Eddy Titanium features externally butted titanium (in beefy tube diameters). It’s a 29in hardtail, with room for a 2.6in tyre. It has the same geometry as the Yo Eddy and is aimed at being the kind of bike that should last you forever (or until you fancy a chance…)

Chris is taking orders now and expects the bikes to be ready in the late summer.

yo eddy titanium, fat chance, chris chance, sea otter 2019
Look at that pierced chainstay/brake mount!

Check out our previous look at Chris Chance, here: singletrackworld.com/2018/04/chris-chance-and-the-new-fat-chance-wicked

fat chance yo eddy titanium sea otter 2019
Welding!

The price is going to be somewhere in the region of $3500, with a wait of 12-14 weeks, though Chance thinks this should come down now that they have the new workshop dialled in. Welcome back Yo Eddy Ti!

yo eddy titanium, fat chance, chris chance, sea otter 2019
Downtube bolt-on cable routing
The most famous skull and crossbones in cycling?

The Fat Chance brand was dormant for years until Chris reappeared a few years ago and launched a Kickstarter campaign for a newly redesigned steel hardtail that would be made in the US. Enough retro fans, and lovers of steel hardtails rallied round to make it a reality and Chris has been appearing at the Sea Otter each year with new models, including the Wicked and the Slim Chance road bike.

yo eddy titanium, fat chance, chris chance, sea otter 2019
It’s good to see that name back
yo eddy titanium, yo eddy ti, fat chance, chris chance, sea otter 2019
Neat dropouts as standard

Chris had originally opened a workshop in California, but found that the cost of living too high to be able to pay his fabricators a decent wage, so he has moved the workshop to Medford, Oregon while Chris himself lives in Ashland nearby.

yo eddy titanium, yo eddy ti, fat chance, chris chance, sea otter 2019
Threaded BB – and an awkward prototype chainstay bridge that’ll become sleeker in production.

While there are many riders who shake their heads at the prices and the fact that ‘it’s just a hardtail’, there’s an equal number who remember the (equally premium priced) original bikes and UK team riders like Dave Hemming and Darren Tapp from the nineties glory days with fondness.

yo eddy titanium, yo eddy ti, fat chance, chris chance, sea otter 2019
Coming soon to a well-off bike nut near you.

For more details about the whole range, have a look at fatchance.bike

Singletrack Weekly Word

Sports Newsletter of the Year finalist at the Publisher Newsletter Awards 2024. Find out why our newsletter is different and give it a go.

Chipps Chippendale

Singletrackworld's Editor At Large

With 23 years as Editor of Singletrack World Magazine, Chipps is the longest-running mountain bike magazine editor in the world. He started in the bike trade in 1990 and became a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Over the last 30 years as a bike writer and photographer, he has seen mountain bike culture flourish, strengthen and diversify and bike technology go from rigid steel frames to fully suspended carbon fibre (and sometimes back to rigid steel as well.)

More posts from Chipps

Comments (2)

Comments Closed