[Closed] fatty, rigid or bouncy front end

I've got a carbon beargrease and I kept it rigid for ages and loved the lightness of the bike . I think it was around 27lbs but I succumbed to blutos and I don't remember how light it was now 😯

Go rigid and get the whole FB experience - its a hoot!!

If you really notice that your getting a battering then let the tire down more

Tried blutos and thought they were pretty dreadful.....but i would be tempted if Sram released some Pike FB specific forks

Until then....i'm sticking rigid

Besides the weight saving (~900g in my case), do carbon forks feel like they improve the ride on a fatbike, when tyres are likely to be at 10PSI or lower most of the time?

Besides the weight saving (~900g in my case), do carbon forks feel like they improve the ride on a fatbike, when tyres are likely to be at 10PSI or lower most of the time?

It's probably proprioception as much as anything, you can feel that the forks are stiffer, because fork flex/damping feels different to tyre squish.

In the same vain I can feel the difference between the carbon and alu bars despite the weight of the bike and 4" tyres.

900g would be a significant drop though, you'll notice that!

It's probably proprioception as much as anything, you can feel that the forks are stiffer, because fork flex/damping feels different to tyre squish.

In the same vain I can feel the difference between the carbon and alu bars despite the weight of the bike and 4" tyres.

900g would be a significant drop though, you'll notice that!

Only thing that is holding me back is the cost, £150 for the fork and then £40 for an RDS front wheel, half the cash I paid for the whole bike!

Big thanks to everyone who chipped in with advice, the forum has once again proved its worth and an extra thank you to Pete and Flo for their sage advice.I have decided to go with the rigid 8.0 and if I feel the need to put bouncy forks on it well I can do that as and when.
My only remaining question is can the standard DT BR2250 wheelset and 4" JJ tyres be made tubeless as I hate inner tubes (even my road bike is tubeless)Thnx Paul B

I think a Bluto was pretty much top priority when I bought a Big Jon but after riding it around for a while I'm glad I didn't

Big Jon isn't like a late 90s rigid Carrera. The fat tyres work really well up to a point - the cut-off is pretty brutal mind - but with a bit of finesse it flies you just have to stop relying on the suspension and sort it out between yourself and the tyres. Pressures make a huge difference

The other massive bonus for me is the razor-sharp steering which is way better than any suspension fork I've used

Zero maintenance as well

Hi Paul,

this is great news! Think, you´ll have fun with it. And like you said, you always can go one step further if you feel the need for a bouncy front.
The wheelset as a whole is named after its weight (~ 2250g) and the rim itself is named BR710 so you may find more info using this number. Its real weight comes closer to 680g, though, and yes, it´s tubeless ready.

I don´t know about the light weight options of closing the rim holes and sealing them up properly in GB but in Germany we often use one layer of 50mm Gaffa upside down, [url= http://www.mtb-news.de/forum/attachments/img_4523-jpg.403375/ ]5 layers of cling film[/url] and finally cut down the ends to the inflated tyres like known from ghetto tubeless.

Nobody,why do you need a new front wheel? I thought the Fatty fork had same drop outs as the Wazoo (135mm x 10)?

Fatty tubeless conversion is easy enough and makes life much easier

Tubeless ghetto set up is my favorite solution. 2 x 20" inner tubes cut around the circumference to make a new rim strip

Put some gorilla tape on the rim to protect the new tube from the spokes

Use the valve from the new 'rim tape', chuck loads of sealant in and pump it up

I strapped my tyres closer to the rim and used a compressor

Only one puncture in 3,000 miles and never burped it yet. Saved about 1/2 lb in each wheel and eliminated pinch flats

Usual tubeless faff but well worth it in the long run 🙂

Nobody,why do you need a new front wheel? I thought the Fatty fork had same drop outs as the Wazoo (135mm x 10)?

Because the Wazoo front wheel has the modern standard of a Front Disc Spaced hub, but the Carbon Fatty Fork was designed under the old standard Rear Disc Spaced hub. 😉

This is why kayak23 had the rotor rubbing against the left fork blade, kayak23 got round this by lathing 4.8mm off the brake mount, which I believe is the difference between FDS and RDS front wheel hubs.

The brake mount "fudging" might work out absolutely fine for those that have done it, but I have no access to or experience of using lathes. So if I ever get round to buying the Carbon Fatty Fork (the only QR, non-tapered fat carbon fork I've come across), I will buy an RDS hubbed front wheel.

I thought about buying the Fatty Front Wheel in the PX sale that ends tonight for ~£40 including the discount, but as I'm not going to pull the trigger on a Carbon Fatty Fork for £150 tonight, I decided against buying it just in case the fork purchase never ends up happening.

flows - Member

Its real weight comes closer to 680g, though, and yes, it´s tubeless ready.

It's not btw- I'm sure I've seen some press material saying it is but DT say not.

Northwind - Member
It's not btw- I'm sure I've seen some press material saying it is but DT say not.

You´re right, DT doesn´t name it that way. Though, the welded rim joint plus the recessed tyre bead every other brand is naming "tubeless ready" to me makes this rim "tubeless ready" as well. 😉
I bet, DT as a very big and conservative brand didn´t stick such a fancy label on it, because they found it odd inasmuch as the rim also has huge holes in the middle.

boltonjon - Member
Fatty tubeless conversion is easy enough and makes life much easier

Of the dude models I'd go for the more expensive rigid.

It's the only one that has 1X so is set up for 5" and comes with some 5" (summer) tyres.

Rigid 5" is really good. Yes blutos or Lauf will be smoother but I ride lakes and peaks fully rigid and love it.

Also it was the simplicity that attracted me.

If you worry about the weight of a mainstream (not a cheap lump) Fat Bike then maybe Fat Biking isn't for you.

I've been riding mine fully ridged for the last 6 months and loving it. But everyone I know with Bluto's says I should get some - even though I keep up with them (or go faster) on the downs. I've tried some out on friends bikes for short stints, and TBH I'm not sure that the added weight and servicing would out weigh any additional smiles for me.
I would be tempted by some Lauf forks though, for the lack of maintenance and minimal weight gain if nothing else.

My downhill strava times on my rigid OO aren't far off those posted on my Spearfish.
I really don't miss suspension on the front.

Because the Wazoo front wheel has the modern standard of a Front Disc Spaced hub, but the Carbon Fatty Fork was designed under the old standard Rear Disc Spaced hub

cool thanks for the explanation. Just saved me 150 quid as I was toying with the carbon fork (and had ignorantly assumed it was the same standard).

But I really wouldn´t recommend the ghetto tubeless method. While the Gorilla tape used in both versions weighs the same (40g) the split tube comes in at 150-180g and the 5 layers cling film + valve are ~20g. Ime this makes a pretty solid difference

The weight loss with ghetto is a bit of smoke and mirrors as you're using a tube in order to do it plus all the other gubbins. My FR tubes weigh 180grms a piece so I've lost the same weight for a lot less faff. I appreciate there are lots of other much vaunted benefits to tubeless, but to me they are theoretical (I get maybe 1 off-road puncture a year, I weigh 65kg so can run low pressures) so I am still in the luddite "meh" camp and all my bikes (fat, FS, CX, road) run tubes.

And I'd do what the OP ended up doing - buying the rigid forked Dude with the option of getting bluto in the future.

How is the puncture count with the 180g tubes?

@crashtestmonkey: If you had pre-emptively bought that Fatty Front wheel last night in the sale, waiting to see if the Carbon fatty Fork reduces in price at a later date, you could have used an adapter such as http://www.tritoncycles.co.uk/frames-forks-c6/frame-fork-spares-c152/problem-solvers-fat-fork-disc-adaptor-p11825/s33072 to fit the Fatty wheel in the Wazoo's fork for now.

I saved a little weight going split-tube, just because my tube was lighter than anything I'd use in a fatbike normally. But the real point was puncture prevention, inflating fat tyres with a packable pump is a bollocks.

But I've switched over to the plastic wrap method now and so far so good, that does produce much more weight saving.

JohnClimber

"If you worry about the weight of a mainstream (not a cheap lump) Fat Bike then maybe Fat Biking isn't for you"

John if I did not know you better I could be fooled into thinking you were serious but as you have championed Lauf forks since the first day and one of major selling features of the Lauf fork is its weight saving I am happy to assume you are just trying to be ironic in a clumsy sort of way 😀

Zippy - zero. Same as the STW member who recommended them and has been using them for 3 years (apologies to that user for forgetting name, possibly roverpig?).

And as I replied previously to NW about tubeless, I'm not 'anti' just meh - cost benefit analysis doesn't work for me. If I punctured more often, and been stranded in p1ssing rain with a mini pump it'd be a different equation.

flows

The wheelset as a whole is named after its weight (~ 2250g) and the rim itself is named BR710 so you may find more info using this number. Its real weight comes closer to 680g, though, and yes, it´s tubeless ready.

I don´t know about the light weight options of closing the rim holes and sealing them up properly in GB but in Germany we often use one layer of 50mm Gaffa upside down, 5 layers of cling film and finally cut down the ends to the inflated tyres like known from ghetto tubeless.

Flo that is a brilliant solution, top marks to whom ever came up with that idea 😀

Flo or Northwind,I forgot to ask how much Stans will I need to seal a pair of 4" tyres ?

Flo or Northwind,I forgot to ask how much Stans will I need to seal a pair of 4" tyres ?