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.[img] 
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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 😯
odd that they couldn't shave a bit more weight off those Apaches - plenty of nobblies lighter than 1220g
I think I see more fatbikes now than ever, If by the bubble bursting means they are mainstream maybe so. I bought a cheap one and did the usual upgrades and had good fun on it but not enough fun that it was really that different to my regular mtb. With limited space I'd rather have a mtb , roadbike and cx / tourer. That said each to their own , all bikes are good are good for mental / physical health and the environment.Like any sport or recreation there are the snobs who may look down on the dune or wazoo riders who are having just as much fun as the 3k carbon fatbike riders. I'd imagine as fatbikes become as popular as regular bikes there will be a few misty eyed bloggers bleeting about things being better in the old days with horrible geometry and anchor weighted bikes.
You had a fatbike? I couldn't see past the hideous checked shorts and jacket combo.
[quote=stanfree ]I'd imagine as fatbikes become as popular as regular bikes there will be a few misty eyed bloggers bleeting about things being better in the old days with horrible geometry and anchor weighted bikes.That happened almost right away. Lots of stuff about the likes of Trek and Specialized having no "heritage" in fatbiking. As has been pointed out, I just rejoiced in the increased choice of tyres and components at prices that didn't make your eyes bleed.
What was the 'bubble'?
There were no commercial fatbikes out there, then there were a few, now there are some and some plus bikes. A bubble would imply there were millions of them, I hardly see any and still get loads of comments from MTBers or otherwise.
Re-read the first post on this thread.
I had a real holy shit moment this morning when checking out the price of fat bike tyres, most really are ridiculously expensive, that's low volume production for you. Spinning a new tyre isn't cheap, mould costs are over 10k and MOQs are multi thousand. That's the price of being a niche I guess.
On-One isn't getting out of fat bikes. It just happens that we've run out of fatty trail frames at the same time as fat bike hubs. For some reason, every man and his dog bought them during december/january and we've blown through the stock.
They'll be back.
Second, the whole attention grabbing thing is my least favourite aspect of fatbikes
the flipside is that they are so entertaining to the non-biker that they kill stone-dead any anti-biker reaction or sentiment. Loads of times we've come across a group of walkers, and you can see that instant reactive tension/hostility disappear. They are so non-threatening, and you can't even appear to be able to take yourself seriously on one, it's the 2-wheeled equivalent of a puppy. I'll take "ooh it look's like a monster truck!" to "SLOW DOWN WILL NO ONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!"
I agree, for whatever reason a fatbike doesn't seem to raise the hackles as much of the bobble-hat brigade
I hope the bubble has burst.
I want to be niche again.
I'm fairly new to riding (2 years) and have just ordered a Cube Nutrail. The guy I ride with takes his fat bike wherever we go, over all terrain and in all weather around the Surrey Hills and to be honest he never struggles, point the thing downhill though and I can't keep up.
Really looking forward to getting mine next week!
On-One isn't getting out of fat bikes. It just happens that we've run out of fatty trail frames at the same time as fat bike hubs. For some reason, every man and his dog bought them during december/january and we've blown through the stock.They'll be back.
This makes me happy.
And also I bit sad, because I bought something other than a fatbike assuming I wouldnt be able to get reasonably priced replacement bits 😡
Looks like Halfords have stopped selling the voodoo wazooo....
