OK, as per the title, I know you could just get a fat bike and stick normal wheels in it but I’m thinking something more along the lines of a Swift or similar (so 29er normal wheels) that could take a fat wheel (maybe in trendy 650+ size or just straight old 26″ fat) in the rear – by fat, I mean 3ish”, not a really fat fat wheel. Even better if it was normal QR hub spacing – eg 135/100.

I currently have a swift with a rigid fork which will take a 3″ front tyre but the rear would be much more limited. I’d also ideally want to avoid a wider BB shell and would be ok with sacrificing super short stays as I don’t actually reckon they do much to improve handling in themselves.

So am I barking up the wrong tree or does this exist/can it be built?

There’s a couple of posts here http://www.cotic.co.uk/news/ about running a Solaris with semi-fat tyres.

Thanks for that. It sounds like the sort of thing I was thinking but maybe not quite fat enough to really be worth doing. I was thinking that a 29er frame with smaller wheels than its designed for but with fat tyres would be a better solution than a 29er wheel with a fatter tyre.

EDIT – I misread it – Sam was talking about a 650b tyre in a standard 29er frame. I’m still not sure it’s fat enough though.

Chainline will be an issue with fat tyres and non-fat frames/cranks.

Surly 1×1 might do what you want?

Pretty sure evil sovereigns can take up to 3″ on 26s

nemesis – pretty sure Singular’s fb page had 650B+ in both ends of a swift quite recently?

That rings a bell ned but I have a feeling it was in a newer frame than mine which has bigger clearances.

Scotroutes – even on 1x and semi-fat rather than ‘proper’ fat?

jhj – ta, will have a look though from memory, evils are probably more than I was looking to spend.

stooge can do 29+ front and 650b+ rear, jones daimond or space frame can do 29, 29+ front or fat front plus big 29 rear or 650b+ rear or go for the jones plus and have the option for all.

Stooge only do the one frame size. I’d need XL.

just checked – new frame with 650B duallies, 3.25 vee rubber.

You might be OK with duallies or Hugos and 2.8 WTBs?

Yeah, maybe I’ll ask Sam how much less space the old Swift has compared to the new one.

hm, Swift with 650b+ would be quite interesting.
On the similar theme – Rooster?

Someone on here had a picture of a Ragley Blue Pig with some sort of nearly-fat setup, maybe 26 inch knards? Don’t know how it’d ride but it looked the business.

Isn’t the blue pig 26″? A quick look at CRC suggests a max tyre size of 2.5″ so 3″+ sounds like a push…

Nah, the ragleys (at least the older ones like mine) have mad tyre clearance- the CRC blurb says “2.5 with massive clearance” rather than “max 2.5”

Ah here it is, Anotherstan’s bike

3 inch knards on 50mm rims

Sam’s response on how much clearance older (blue) Swifts have compared to the current (cream) one.

For a curved stay blue Swift about 10mm less between the stays. A 2.8 tyre should fit fine. On a straight stay model I very much doubt any 27+ tyre will fit.

Mine’s straight stay, unfortunately 🙁

Running 2.75 dirt wizards on my 45650b on 40mm rims. Clearance is okay but don’t think I could go any bigger.

We can build you that at Pactbikes.

We only work in Ti. Would be £1100-£1200.

Thanks brant but way more than I’d spend on a frame. I do like the idea of Pact bikes though in general.

Surly Instigator, currently on sale at CTBM (I think?) was designed around 26+, but wor also fit 650b with “normal” tyres

Have just unearthed a veritable Singular museum at my German dealer’s. Can do you a curvy stay blue XL Swift at a killer price?

I may struggle to justify swapping one blue Swift for another but if it’s killer enough… 😉 YGM

On One Parkwood 29er will take 650b+ wheels according to a post on their instagram page a couple months back. Not sure if they were 3″ or just 2.8″ tyres though.

Hmmm… Parkwood is interesting. I see that there’s a parkwood fatty as well though that wouldn’t meet my requirement of standard spacing.

Oh, no XL parkwoods… Wonder if L would be big enough.

Anyone riding a parkwood rigid? Don’t fancy a Bluto fork.

Sam any large Buzzards lurking in the Singular museum?

T1000 – as a matter of fact I think there is! Drop me a mail.

what’s your budget? – How about a Pivot Les Fat

C456’s have mad tyre clearance. 26+ or 650b easily.

…but not the 29er wheels I want to run as well…

Maybe I should wait for 2016 – this seems to be exactly what I want and the nostalgia bit works as a Pine Mountain in those colours (well, zolotone and orange) was my first mtb.

SOC15: Marin Celebrates 30 Years with 27+ Pine Mountain 1, Four Corners Touring Rig, Plus Vintage Collection

Nah, the ragleys (at least the older ones like mine) have mad tyre clearance- the CRC blurb says “2.5 with massive clearance” rather than “max 2.5”

Ah here it is, Anotherstan’s bike

3 inch knards on 50mm rims

yep, that was the first attempt (actually, 3″ duro leopard/ 2.75″ dirt wizard on 50mm tryall rims)
anyway, here’s the sequel.

Kinesis FF29 is advertised with scrapers and trailblazers fitted iirc.

Surly have been making the bike you need for years before the current 26+/27.5+/29+ bandwagon rolled into town. A Krampus or an Instigator will meet all your needs. I’d recommend the Krampus personally, it works great with 3″ fat tyres as pictured but also with standard 29er wheels and tyres too. Seriously fun in the woods…

Anotherstan, I love your Instigator, that must be a great ride with the Pikes up front 😀

it is a great ride, don’t know whether it’s down to the pikes or not. but they are cracking forks mind.
had a blast last weekend at bpw. the instigator really came into its own.

the krampus looks like fun. i’ve had 29ers in the (distant) past and didn’t get on with them. although the krampus looks like a whole different story. maybe i’ll try one some time.

Thanks for that. Interesting that I’d missed the Krampus and it does seem to meet the requirement – Surlys do seem expensive for what they are though.

Also found the Genesis Longitude which looks like very good value
http://www.genesisbikes.co.uk/bikes/adventure/frames/longitude-frameset

I thought the longitude had pretty much sold out everywhere?

It does look like that might be the case…