After yesterday’s filth fest I just hosed off the chain ,lubed it and now it’s ready to go again.

The same could be said for any bike, that’s not really a fatbike thing.

Ok so still massively undecided, this is a massive long shot and a big ask, anyone in the West Midlands area that would be willing to let me try there fat bike?, really do not want to waste my money if I do not like it prefer to save up and buy a 27.5 or 29er but that is a new thread!
Thanks all

Not wanting to page anyone, but I think Rocketdog is in your neck of the woods?

What size do you need?

You do know that a 26″ wheeled Fatbike is an effective 29’er considering the rolling circumference of a fatbike tyre…

Yes you need one. But with a fork for trail riding.

Yes you need one. But with a fork for trail riding.

Agreed. Also, if I stick my fatbike next to my 29er hardtail, the overall circumference of the fat bike tyres are noticeably bigger. That’s 4.4″ jumbo jims compared to 29×2.35 specialized purgatory grid.

There’s a large Canyon Dude for sale on ebay at the moment. I have one and love it.

I was on a 26er and nearly went fat bike early last summer.

i was looking at the dune and a variety of variants. Its a maze of varying BB standards and mess of cranks and q-factor. that kind of put me off. lots of the secondhand market dune’s can have either shoddy or nice upgrades on (like theres one hard to get race face crank that fits).. seems like the chainrings on stock ones are not good. i was purely considering this as a +1 bike, a toy. not a replacement.

i ended up waiting, and luckily for me my work bonus timed up with when i decided a fat bike was off the table, and i doubled my budget to 1k. i was set to get a marin hawk hill (rrp 1200, but findable under 1k new) to replace my ageing santa cruz superlight. (i also looked at the bossnut and didnt like and is also prone to this reverse snobbery phenom.) in looking for that i came across a deal on a marin b-17 and did some reading about 27.5+. rrp for the b-17.1 then was 1799 (its now 1700) and i got it for 1299.

mid fat/plus is great, its fun. its not a fat bike though but does get rid of trail chatter while adding tonnes of grip. most 27.5+ bikes can take 29er wheels so i’ve added a 29er wheelset and swap between the the two depending what kind of riding i’m doing. 29er wins out for longer XC style rides as the weight and drag of plus does get noticeable. its like having 2 bikes for one and both still fun.

OP you havent said what you ride, what type of rides you do?

I’d say get whats fun, but also consider how much you’d use it and whether this is an extra bike or “the one to rule them all”.

Hi all and thank you very much for the messages back, I would need a medium in pretty much anything!.

Lots to think about and research and probably a million more questions that need answering.

The kind of riding I do mostly is straight out the door road, bridleways, cheeky trails and have been known and would like to get back into going to trail centres (god forbid!), also would not mind dipping my toe back into fun xc type racing so I suppose a 29er might be better.
But as said before something to get my mojo back and get me out there.

There is a great spec carbon full suss lefy fork fatbike on Pinkbike right now to suit a rider up to 5’8″ and a very good price.

No stealth ad, its not me selling

@donkeydave – General consensus on the Dune, and there’s a very very long thread on here about it (fat bike for under £1k), is that it’s a good bike for the money. I’ve not had one but know a couple of people who have and it’s more than good enough for a supplementary bike. Of course at that price point there are going to be compromises and it’s not going to be up to the standard of a £3K carbon framed top of the line bike but that’s an unfair comparison.

Bottom brackets, cranks, axle/dropout sizes: these went through a bit of an evolution. Dropouts went from the Pugsley’s 135mm front and rear to what might be considered the current “standard” of 150mm front, 197mm rear. BBs are pretty much all 100mm shell width (with the usual threaded vs press-fit shenanigans) but there’s two standards for cranks: one for 170mm rear spacing and one for 197mm.

It’s actually quite simple: fat gives the most smiles per £.
Don’t take it too seriously. Until you are with others at the bottom of a steep slippery climb that normal bikes cannot look at. Plus, as others have said so many times, on cheeky trails, slippery roots, off camber mud and slow speed techy, twisty descents, it’ll give you a huge grin, more so than any normal bike. I’m lucky to have options but for so many rides, it’s the fatty that comes out of the shed first.

I never really understand why people think there rubbish on normal trails, this stigma about only being any good on snow or sand is rubbish IMO.
They are like any other MTB, have the correct tyres on and buy a decent brand/model and they are a total blast on the trails, climb really well and bounce down the descents, lots of fun and they don’t hang about either!
I really regret selling mine, but personal reasons got in the way.

Just get one, make sure it’s one with front suspension though, so you’re going to get the most out of it on any kind of trail/terrain.

Fatty rider here.
Bought a Salsa Mukluk from Merlin when they were on offer, fitted some Mastodon forks.
I love it. I also have a 29er hard tail which hasn’t seen daylight for months.
I live in the lakes so ride it all around, trail centers natural rocky stuff. It really is ace. The amount of grip from the tyres is amazing. And that is the thing..tyre pressure is really really important. I run mine with tubes at about 10-14 psi. This seems to be a sweet spot otherwise I found the tyres a bit “wandery” and would be a pain to steer.
Try one. If you go to Keswick you can hire an efatty!! Think how much fun that would be…

I never really understand why people think there rubbish on normal trails,

I did two rides on one, with varying pressures, and I found it bouncy as hell. I didn’t find that particularly fun. I still want one, but I still think it’d be less fun on singletrack descents.

I decided I didn’t need a fatbike and then bought one just before the snow.. It was fab, now just need to get out as test it in ‘normal’ conditions. I have a feeling it’s going to quickly become my favourite bike..

10-14 psi

Is not a sweet spot where fat tyres are concerned, that’s like saying a nuclear bomb is a precision weapon. If you’d said 10-10.5psi then fair enough but a 40% range, no. Usual starting point is 1psi for every 10kg of your dressed weight.

Hard trails I’ll run 8-8.5psi but for loose or soft terrain I’ll drop that to 6psi, soft snow might be 4psi, never ridden proper powder but that might be 2psi or less.

I like my fat bike. I’ve not ridden it in summer, but I plan to this year.

Personally, I wouldn’t have gotten one if I didn’t live in a snowy place as Id have just spent the money on an even more expensive summer bike. That shouldn’t stop you buying one. As some one said above, buy used and give it a go. If you don’t like it, punt it on.

One word or warning, you will never look at a normal mtb Tyre again and think it looks anything but dangerously narrow.

I have a fat bike itch. I can see the Solway from my window so beach riding is a possibility, that and general daddy daughter rides.

Anywhere to keep an eye open for a secondhand bargain other than eBay/gumtree?

As above – have a look at the Calibre Dune in Go Outdoors, currently £549 before any “deals”. For dipping your toe/tyre in the water it’s a bargain. You’ll get lots of giggles and “Look at daddy’s fat tyres!” comments 😉

A couple of years ago I entered the Rovaniemi 150 fat bike race so my wife thought she’d do the shorter race but didn’t have a fat bike and because of the “Fat bike for under a grand” thread I did look at the Dune for her. In the end she went for a Surly Wednesday but the Dune would have been capable of the race, possibly with more aggressive tyres.

Breadcrumb – uk fat bike selling page on facebook

I have eyed up the Dune, if it drops below £500 I might use cycle2work for one.

I’ll check out Facebook too.

rickmeister

Subscriber

There is a great spec carbon full suss lefy fork fatbike on Pinkbike right now to suit a rider up to 5’8″ and a very good price.

There is nothing in biking that I like more than a fatbike with a lefty, they’re just so ridiculous

The Dune is looking tempting. I’ve got a half decent 1*10 drivetrain sitting about and a dropper too. Are the Tektro brakes up to the job? I’ve got some 180 rotors in the spare box too.

How are Go Outdoors prices? Do they fluctuate much?

@breadcrumb

Add one to your basket, go to checkout and try promo code EXPOTH10

£494.10 🙂

Thanks, although that’s not helping my wallet…

Standard Dune Brakes are shit almost dangerous, I got a doner bike and converted to hydraulic it’s not hard.

The standard bottom brackets on dunes are crap and fail within a year of hard use. Very hard to replace. (I’ve got an alternative replacement coming in 8 weeks from go outdoors pressed in one)

I found an original replacement but God knows if it will fit ??https://www.ebay.it/itm/movimento-centrale-fat-bike-100mm-alluminio-bsa-151mm-NECO-scatto-fisso-vintage/232989159959?hash=item363f3c7217:g:GR8AAOSw1Exb2urJ

The rear derralier hanger snaps screws like carrots. Not too bad to replace
http://www.westbrookcycles.co.uk/scott-big-jon-replacement-derailleur-hanger-p298404

As for the frame and wheels for what I do on flat proper muddy tow path I love my dune, although standard juggernauts are easily punctured.

The frame is super lite but the rear end is not up to landing hard on the rear or steps imo.

I’ve had mine 2 years 15miles a day, every bearing was bollocked’s but I’ve spent best part of £300 to give me another 2 years fun and transport.

Gonna post but might have to edit this server us sloooowwww

For what dunes cost it’s a no brainer, the grin factor is well worth it.

Fat bikes are not everyone’s cup of tea and definitely not full day adventure bike but yup I love my fatty.

Yeah, the brakes are pish, fine for bimbling but considering how cheap decent hydros are you’d be daft not to.

The BB actually uses replacable cartridge bearings, though the bearing size is a weird one- I found some but only from aliexpress 😛

Are the mech hanger screws still too short? I got a very early one and both screws were way too short, easily fixed but annoying. Never had any bother since and Mike said it’d be fixed as a rolling revision.

I know we’ve seen some chainstays break but mine has had a proper beating and never complained… 2nd proper ride:

Probably about a year later:

Fair to say, if I did break it at the Golfy I wouldn’t grumble, that’s clearly not what it’s for but it did alright. Mine was the first on STW so it’s been tested 😉

Oh and if you don’t already have a good big backpack pump like a truflo 2 stage or something, get one! You’re almost certain to flat as you work out your pressures (IMO you pretty much want to get them as low as you possibly can, that’s when fatbikes work best- so you’re going to flat finding out how low that is) and reinflating a fatbike tyre with a little pump is funny for about a minute then not funny for the next 19.

Lastly… This might sound sort of insane, with a new £500 bike, but you can get a Maxxis FBF 4.8 120tpi for £60-ish, or a JJ 4.8 for about the same. That’ll absolutely transform it, if you’re riding tricky/squishy stuff. The Kendas aren’t awful but they’re limiting. Fatbikes absolutely live and die by tyres and pressures. I paid some stupendous amount to import my fat Minions when they first came out, never regretted it at all, at one point something like 1/4 of the entire value of the bike was in the tyres!

It does seem a lot of bike for £500 by modern standards. The description says Kendas, the photo shows Jumbo Jim’s?

How easy is it to set it up tubeless?

It looks an ideal bike to put the Mac-Ride on for a daddy daughter bimble.

Just one note of caution on the Dune. If like me you end up upgrading every bit apart from the frame over time then you might be better off buying a better one in the first place. Having said that I am truly happy with mine and won’t swap the frame unless it breaks.

Another way to look at it is as an easy way to sneak a another bike into the fleet, ‘its less than £500 dear, its a bargain’!

As above though I had brakes, dropper, saddle, bars, 1 by, stem, etc from myb hardtail so just needed a fork, £300 from On One with a free frame, bars and stem, etc, and a pair of DT SWiss wheels with Specialized GC’s £300 off FB fat bike page. And then waited till some Aeffects came up second hand at the right price.

I have some Truvativ cranks that fit the Dune if anybody needs a set. I ran these up until this winter even though I already had the Aeffects because truth be told they worked well enough just not as blingy.

How easy is it to set it up tubeless?

Very easy. I used the split tube method. It transformed the handling.

Absolutely love my Dune.

Tubeless, I did the standard Dune rims with Gorilla tape and tracker rod taped in place as a gutter/shelf bead and this worked just fine with Floater tyres.

I use Fatty Strippers on my DT Swiss and if I was doing a standard Dune rim again I would use Fatty Strippers and tracker rod like Baltobrewer in this thread

https://forums.mtbr.com/fat-bikes/fatty-stripper-tubeless-solution-989657.html?fbclid=IwAR2br37Z1rtzlMmj3xTDbEwcgt1ZclsK3kafnIdbnlNaf50mtSN-w_k5oo0

The Dune has always been one of the best budget fatbike options, but second hand prices are so low that I’d probabky go down that route.

For example, I toyed with the idea of selling my large Canyon Dude a while back. Carbon frame, Hope hubs, DT Swiss rims, Hope brakes, reverb and nice tyres, but I still reckoned I’d do well to clear much more than £600 (after shipping, fees etc). That’s basically what it would cost for a Dune one you’ve swapped the brakes and tyres for some that actually work. That’s just a random example, but there are plenty of good cheap fat bikes on the market at the moment.

I’ll keep an eye on Facebook and eBay. I’d sooner move one of my bikes on to make room than just keep adding to them. Road bike hasn’t turned a wheel since June so that’ll be the one to go.