A FatBike Adventure

So here I am, 24 years old and beard free, loading a fully rigid bike with four inch tyres and bent handlebars into the back of my car ready for a weekend in Wales. This is the first time I have ever seen a fatbike and I’m already wondering if it is a niche too far. It’s owner, Graham Foot from Slam69, who has kindly lent me his pride and joy for the weekend, can often be found raving about fatbikes on the interweb, so I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to give it a go and find out for myself.

Day one was a natural ride at Llyn Clywedog in mid Wales. A nice mix of gravel tracks, steep singletrack descents and technical climbs lay ahead. My normal cross country steed is a Giant Anthem 26’er, built light with 1×10 gearing but featuring a high, wide and short cockpit to make it more playful. The fatbike couldn’t be further from this. What must have been near on half a ton of Salsa Mukluk was hoisted out the car and put to work. Immediately I was amazed at how comfortable the long roomy riding position combined with the bendy bendy handlebars was. A quick blast along a country lane shot by and a short steep climb was dispatched with shockingly little effort.

I tried to approach the fatbike with a completely open mind, but it was hard not to assume it was going to be a slow cumbersome tank of a bike with draggy draggy tyres. Oh how wrong I was. 18 psi and 4.0 inch tyres with tread approaching that of a motocross bike should not work on the road but they floated along nicely. You get quite a lot of vibration and it produces a noise similar to that of like a light aircraft overtaking, but efficiency wise it was not far off a traditional mtb! What you do lose out on is acceleration. The heavy weight of the wheels means standing up on the pedals does not produce that instant speed I’ve been used to. The Salsa was much more happy spinning away in a lower gear at a steady pace than it was sprinting up hills in the big ring.

The next thing I discovered was traction. Lots and lots of traction! This bike will climb up anything if you have the legs to power it. I’m definitely not the fittest biker in the land (I blame the cider!), so some of the Welsh hills defeated my legs long before the rear wheel even hinted it might be running out of grip up the steep loose climbs. Hit the brakes at speed on a fatbike and the amount of grip you have to slow yourself down is mindboggling. This thing outbreaks my downhill bike whilst making it look like a freight train!

Stability was the next personality of the fatbike to let itself be known. Those big heavy tyres and massive rims puts the wheel weight up in the tractor range. As soon as you get the bike up to speed the gyroscopic effect becomes huge and the bike just wants to plow in a straight line through anything in its path. I discovered this trait at about 25mph down the first hill when I came to the first corner. I turned right, but the bike plowed on regardless and I almost ended up in a bush! Stability is awesome, sometimes. For a rigid bike it felt amazing down the loose rocky hills but for that level of stability the price you pay is the lack of agility. Once I’d learnt how aggressive you had to be to get the bike leant over and cornering it was great, but only ever on the fast flowing corners. Anything tight and twisty was much more of a handful and flicking the bike around obstacles proved exceptionally difficult.

Waking up for day 2 and it became clear the previous nights vast quantity of ale may hinder my performance for the day ahead! Good job we had an easy day at Nant Y Arian trail center planned. Well groomed twisty trail centers are definitely not the natural home of the fatbike, so it seemed like a good place to test the Salsa to see just how niche it really is. The fatbike is most fun when you are blasting down flowing trails at speed or spinning your way up steep loose climbs. The tight corners and quick direction changes of the trail center brought out all the problems of having such heavy wheels. The lack of agility and playfulness of the bike really limited just how much fun you can have on the unnatural singletrack. I enjoyed the day still; the bike was fast, it was a good laugh but I couldn’t help feeling my trusty Giant would have been a bit more fun. Sometimes drifting corners and launching off rocks is what makes a ride fun and the fatbike didn’t work for that at a trail center.
There really is great potential to build an awesome fatbike. If you are touring, or towing kids on the back or just exploring somewhere less accessible I think the Salsa is perfect. I’d love to try something with a lighter build and a shorter more compact frame that would be more suited to my kind of riding. It’s definitely niche, it’s definitely fun and it definitely could allow you to ride in some amazing places. I just wish it was more agile.

Big Thanks to Graham @ Slam69

Salsa Beargrease with Rolling Daryl rims is what you need. 😀

Nice report. Good to see someone approach the subject with an open mind.

It’s maybe worth repeating that, just like any other style of bike, fatbikes differ in handling characteristics.

Very nice … but did you manage to get onto and over the bridge without dabbing?

Ow, that Salsa Beargrease looks lovely! I did make it onto the bridge … but I did take the easier route to the left out of frame slightly then a 180 endo/hop around then back onto the bridge to give me some space to hope up the step onto the bridge.

I did make it onto the bridge … but I did take the easier route to the left out of frame slightly then a 180 endo/hop around then back onto the bridge to give me some space to hope up the step onto the bridge.

Good man … however, I imagine even with the traction of a fatbike you weren’t climbing out the other side 😉
Were you staying in Llanidloes?

I was so so close! I made it up the grass and half way across the rocks before looking left and think ahh, I don’t want to end up down there decided to get off at that point! Stayed at a friends house in Aberystwyth. It’s such a beautiful area of wales up there!