[Closed] Fat bikes pros and cons please

a lightish build 650+ would be the best compromise

Sorry forgot to answer the OP's question.
If moneys not a barrier just buy one and ride it and make your own mind up.
It's just a bike. You've not got to stick with it for ever.

Who wants a compromise? I like riding different bikes. Fat's good, 26 HT was ace today. CX type thing will be ace next week.

Who wants a compromise?

I like riding different bikes

Fatbikes, well, its a bike. There are no cons to riding bikes.
You can get round a velodrome, down a dh World Cup track, Xc course, across the frozen wastes of Greenland or even to the pub on a bike.

There may of course be specific bikes that do specific things a little better, but I doubt you will see another do as well in all disciplines.

Get one, love it, ride it and appreciate its brilliance and foibles, then come back and share your adventures.

Most of the pros have been mentioned.. Not all fat bikes are the same but my Pugsley is comfortable, versatile, faster than people think, great on most terrain, simple to maintain, tough and yes it is great fun. I have ridden it for two years now for all kinds of riding - commuting, touring/bikepacking, trail centres, beaches, the Beacons in the snow.... Not sure how far as I don't have a milometer - but it is on its third set of chainrings.

In terms of cons... Well I can't really fit suspension forks so even thought it's a fat bike it is still rigid and at some point you will run out of cushioning up front IF you try and go really fast on rocky decents. This won't apply to fat bikes with Blutos, etc. As a result a Pugsley is awesome at say Brechfa, which is pretty smooth and sweepy, but not so good for say the Wall final decent. I have gone off trail centres anyway so that's not an issue for me. On rocky decents that have to be taken slowly it's amazing.

Another con is that an old 26 inch normal hardtail feels so puny and crap that riding my Pug has killed my hardtail for me.

Myths: they aren't slow on most terrain off road. I swapped with a friend and going straight from the Pug to his Stumpjumper, I found the latter draggy on anything surface that wasn't rock hard and smooth.
They aren't too slow on Tarmac either for me.... I have commuted on one with no problems for a while.
In terms of mud; firstly it depends on tyres. As with all bikes. Secondly, on some kinds of greasy slimy mud they may slip a bit more, but on most types of mud they are great and overall they beat my experience of normal hardtails on mud.

Q factor.... I thought it was going to be a problem. Knees hurt a little for the first few rides... Maybe because I was thinking they would. Then I got used to it and now I almost think I prefer it and have taken the varus wedges out of my shoes as I don't need them.

In short, I really enjoy my Pug. It has changed my riding habits though and I would really like to complement it with say a Wednesday with Blutos for trail riding.

I think we can sum up by saying a fatbike is not a trail centre bike although they can do ok there.

In many ways it's the perfect bike for Nth of Scotland riding.

I've ridden a fair number of them with different tyres at different pressures on different trails/conditions and can safely say I'd never choose to buy one. Bouncy, uncontrolled, draggy, slovenly things, in my experience.

Plus bikes, on the other hand, are worth a look.

Each to their own, but I've been riding a (27.5) plus bike for six months and am still struggling to see the point. Compared with a 29x2.25 wheel the 27.5x2.8 has a smaller diameter, but is still heavier. So, worst of both worlds really.

The plus wheels seem to be heavy enough to feel sluggish, without giving the bonkers levels of grip and float that you get with a true fatbike.

To be fair, it does work pretty well for my particular bike (Solaris) as it lowers the BB, which was a bit high with 120mm forks and gives the hardtail a bit more float and a bit more grip. It is actually a better trail bike (for me) as a plus than it was as a 29er. The problem is that I've also got a Transition Smuggler (long, low, slack, short-travel 29er) and that's better everywhere: up, down, wherever. The only reason I keep reaching for the Solaris is that I don't mind getting it covered in mud and chucking it back in the shed.

I'd never choose to ride fat unless I went back to the Arctic. Fastest hard tail I've ridden (timed runs) is a plus bike

I think this may be the key. If the better bike for you is the faster bike then it's unlikely to be a fatbike (unless you are in the snow). As far as I can tell a fatbike is great in situations where you have to go slow; snow, sand, bogs, steep, technical sections (up or down), but it is rubbish at blatting through rough stuff at warp speed.

I think this may be the key. If the better bike for you is the faster bike then it's unlikely to be a fatbike (unless you are in the snow). As far as I can tell a fatbike is great in situations where you have to go slow; snow, sand, bogs, steep, technical sections (up or down), but it is rubbish at blatting through rough stuff at warp speed.

There's a bit more to it than that, I'm sure (without getting geeky and doing back to back runs, just from Strava times on different bikes and different rides) the fatty is faster through a lot of trails. Now it's also possible that I've got faster since having a fat bike, but the bonkers levels of grip definitely help at speed too.

The limiting factor is a lack of suspension, but that's not part of the 'fat' bit of the bike. I wouldn't use my rigid 29er as the basis to write off 'thin' bikes either.

Difficult to generalise fat bikes in the same way as it is any other category DH bikes for example.

Each has some important characteristics but they're all a bit different and at the extremes very different

Mine is dead on 14 kg and blindingly fast everywhere except pasty skaty mud and sustained gnar-tech. Someone else's is probably really good through swamps and snow but there you go such is life's rich tapestry

Can only recommend some test rides. Ignore the spec sheets if it feels ace from the first turn of the pedals you've found a keeper otherwise keep looking

I think I've hit the sweet spot!

Carbon rigid forks and Blutos
4.8's on 100 rims, 4.6's on 80 rims and 650B+

Now i've got it covered 😀

What have we missed?

Con - They do not turn you in to a riding God.

I think this may be the key. If the better bike for you is the faster bike then it's unlikely to be a fatbike (unless you are in the snow). As far as I can tell a fatbike is great in situations where you have to go slow; snow, sand, bogs, steep, technical sections (up or down), but it is rubbish at blatting through rough stuff at warp speed.

Think this pretty well explains it succinctly, plus you could add that you can ride stuff that you'd be walking riding anything else.

Okay she had a demo .....well someone's on one ....and

Hated it .....interestingly liked the first 20 minutes but the next hour or so did not get on with it especially in turns...it was a mixed fell side with firetrack and Singletrack.....

But she has had a go on trek stache-.....liked that as it felt lighter and more managable....

More pondering

ive had one a while now and tbh wasnt that enamored with it. lots of fun in the 2 or 3 snow rides ive managed but its pretty terrible down any of my favorite normal trails that have any sort of technical features, ones im used to going twice as fast down! so it is mostly used to walk the dog and tow the tag-along.

however, just this weekend i took it to the sand dunes at St Anne's... Holy shit that is absolutely insane fun!!! ive definitely found its vocation! cant wait to that again!

It's quite amusing that people are surprised that they are good in snow & on sand, which is what they were designed for & not so good on normal trails.
See also DH bikes at a hill climb etc

It's quite amusing that people are surprised that they are good in snow & on sand, which is what they were designed for & not so good on normal trails.
See also DH bikes at a hill climb etc

and yet most of the fat lovers will tell you they're ace at everything 😉

She approached with a more open mind leaning towards goona to love this but it was not for her..... I do think weight ( hers) may have impacted saying that she has owned big bikes in the past 36 lbs freeride dog sled.....

29 plus needs more investigation though

worth bearing in mind there's VERY few tyre options for 29+ - if you're gonna go plus, I'd look at 650b+ instead - plenty already out there, and more coming from the big boys. as far as i know, only trek [i]really[/i] support 29+ (save for mebbe some more niche offerings)

You do know that you can get fat bikes around the 11kg mark without to much expense, and some have them around the 8kg mark!
I built my Fatty Trail (with carbon fork) on a tight budget and it came in at 12.7kg, and that was with the standard heavy OO wheels and 2x 1.4kg tyres.

Did you play about with the tyre pressure on the test ride? It makes a huge difference using the correct pressure, and tyre choice can also affect things too.

Its harder to design a good 29+ bike than it is a good 650b+ bike. B+ is basically the same outer diameter as 29er, so many of the questions relating to what geometry works has been well researched and defined.

After Saturday's ride - just over 100k on the river Ayr way, I'd say a big advantage is riding wet, sodden grassy trails. I was on B+ and my buddy on mahoosive ground controls. I was really having to work to keep up, and he's not any stronger a pedalled than I normally.

and yet most of the fat lovers will tell you they're ace at everything

Tyre pressure was tried at different settings yes...just not for her.....

And possibly neither is 29 plus for her or me.....

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Free entry to MTB races. I guess since they aint gonna be claiming any trophies

I love the fat bike look but after trying one and the effort to get it moving I was put off immediately. Also the bars are far too wide for tight trails IMO I do like the look but I wouldn't touch. Me and a mate rolled down the hill on our bikes my Dale and his charge cooker and it was almost like I was pedalling the way I pulled away.

beermonst3r44 - Member

Also the bars are far too wide for tight trails IMO

Wide bars are fatbike specific?

Wide bars are fatbike specific?

You need fat bike specific shoes as well apparently, maybe the OP's daughter was wearing the wrong footwear?
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/what-clipless-flat-pedal-shoe-for-fatbike

Bit like those 29er specific saddles 8)