Fat Bike

[larkyMember]

Seasons greetings! After several years out of the saddle, i have just bought my first fat bike and was wondering if anyone can point me in the right direction of some good trails to get to know it on? I am based in the Gosport/Fareham area. Are there anymore FB riders in my area? Any advice/info appreciated and thanks in advance 🙂

[rOcKeTdOgSubscriber]

Try the UK fat bike club on FB

[tomhowardSubscriber]

I rode the same trails on my fat bike as all the other ones?

[n0b0dy0ftheg0atMember]

South Downs Way?
QECP?
Meon Valley Trail?
Join me climbing cat3/4 road climbs on a fatbike? 😈

[zippykonaSubscriber]

Frensham seems to be popular.

[LummoxSubscriber]

Yep, as others have said ride the same trails.

Qecp when it’s been raining is a hoot, also the chalky bridleways are rideable a bit longer.

If you really fancy something different find your nearest bit of coast and ride the shore/waterline. Shingle is hard work but is a little bit more manageable just where the water is lapping. Or head to sandbanks/studland (not tried witterings yet)

P.s it’s fun, so much fun. Expect to get asked a LOT about your bike

[AlasdairMcMember]

I think the fatbike fad has passed, they’re no longer a novelty worthy of questioning anymore. People will comment on them but won’t be as awestruck and dumbfounded. This probably means they’ve made way for the next niche on STW…

As for what trails to ride, the main reason I bought another one (sold my first earlier this year) was so I didn’t need to ride specific trails. They’re brilliant on open ground or following sheep trails, and they make almost all snow rideable. Don’t waste them on trail centres, go and ride the stuff you wouldn’t manage normally.

Note this answer refers to Scotland, i.e. open access.

[zippykonaSubscriber]

Just remember even in the driest summer the beach still gets wet and muddy.

They do add another page to the book of cycling though.

[MugbooSubscriber]

Welcome to the club, its heaps of fun and the infection is slowly spreading 8)

[Normal ManSubscriber]

I have also just ridden mine on my local trails. It did get me up steep techy pieces I’d failed before.

But other than that the main thing I noticed is that it just encouraged me to explore a little. Back like in the 80’s when I got my first MTB. Was that my mindset or the bike? Maybe a bit of both but more the bike as I’m still riding like that over 2 years later.

I still get a fair few comments / questions too.

I got plenty of good tips from here and the UK fat bike forum.

[leffeboySubscriber]

Are they good in mud? My fear would be that they would be too slippy rather than grippy?

[zippykonaSubscriber]

Yes, they do wash out in certain types of mud.
Since I’ve been using Bontrager Hodags it’s not happened.

[larkyMember]

Thanks very much for all of your responses, much appreciated. Looking forward to some fun times ahead with my fat bike and hopefully bump into a few more people with them too.

[Splash-manMember]

Are they good in mud?

My experience is that my mates on skinnies are off and pushing while I continue to plug through although occasionally you will find some mud that just causes you to wash out.

It did get me up steep techy pieces I’d failed before.

This as well.

The grip on off camber ruts etc is amazing in comparison.

[LummoxSubscriber]

Have a look on YouTube at gmbn’s fat Bike videos.

You’ll see how capable they potentially could be, but more so how ridiculously fun they can be too.

[zippykonaSubscriber]

To be fair the only bikes I’ve not had wash regardless of wheel size out are ones with CX tyres or Bontrager Muds.
You have to recalibrate what you can actaually ride up. Off camber grip is wonderful .
Really accurate pressure gauge is a must.

[leffeboySubscriber]

Interesting. Been debating this for a while but I thought that mud was where they were worst. Might have to borrow one to try

[LummoxSubscriber]

I find that I get into trouble way past the point I would have on a normal width tyre. Usually results in a foot disappearing under a muddy surface that I’d just been happily riding over.

[fatbikeandcoffeeSubscriber]

Hi Larky,

Welcome to the big grin fat bike family, the most interesting thing I found was that so many people want to talk to you about the bike!

I am local to you, Wickham, and as others have said simply ride the same trails but you can also ride trails that you would avoid like plague in winter normally.

QECP is a hoot, but even more so you can ride around the Whiteley Woods tracks all year (all your skinny tyred mates will drown in WW1 style mud), there is a great 10 mile loop out the back of QECP (used to be on Hants CC website but they recently started charging for it, bastards!) but a google should find it and that is a mud fest in places but a great mix of everything.

If you want a guide for that one or another fat bike to ride with holla as I need any excuse to ride more 😉

Fatbike is for life not for winter 🙂

James

[dovebikerMember]

In bottomless slop a fatbike will cope far better than anything else IME – when you get a 10 metre section of churned up bridleway like today there’s no way any of my skinny tyred bikes would have coped.

[dobiejessmoMember]

I think the Fat bike fad has gone hardly ever see them anymore yet I have a few bikes and my fat bike still looks the best and makes me smile when I ride it not to mention the chats I have with ramblers about the wheels/tyres that no other bike has ever done I have ridden I use mines as a mud plugger tyres are my Trek are amazing in mud and great last week in the snow.

[scotroutesSubscriber]

dobiejessmo – Member
I think the Fat bike fad has gone hardly ever see them anymore

Really, I see more than ever. Must be a local thing?

[LawmanmxMember]

Loads of Fatbikes round here too, its all just riding fun bikes whatever the tyre size 🙂

[dobiejessmoMember]

I tend to ride Cotswolds above Cheltenham and Gloucester and Forest of Dean/also Ridgeway etc not seen a Fat bike out and about for a while see a lot E-MTBs last fattie I saw was up the Malverns 8 weeks ago apart from mine

[NorthwindSubscriber]

As far as niches/bubbles I think a lot of people who would have bought a fat bike now buy plus bikes since they’re marketed as ticking some of the same boxes, which is probably a big disappointment for a lot of people

And +1 for just riding the same stuff. But riding the same stuff differently. It’s like a trail multiplier and difficulty slider all in one

[grenosteveMember]

Took my Dune in Wharncliffe this morning. 🙂

Even it was no match for some of the super boggy trails we have at the moment though…

[geeMember]

I recently discovered that mine fits in a normal Evoc bag. 4” tyres and 85mm rims. I think a winter trip to the Alps could become an annual thing! Currently in Chamonix and there are some really fun places to ride. I hear Courcheval is even better.

[vincienupSubscriber]

TBF, I only really wanted to ride a fatty as a trail hardtail, so for me Plus is working out as a better choice at the moment. There are things full fat is better at, but not enough that interest me and the parts are a bit less specialised. Definitely tyres are way cheaper.

Horses for courses. I may change my mind later…

[NorthwindSubscriber]

vincienup – Member

TBF, I only really wanted to ride a fatty as a trail hardtail, so for me Plus is working out as a better choice at the moment. There are things full fat is better at, but not enough that interest me

Ah, you miss the point of a fat trailbike- it’s not that they’re good at it, they’re really not- it’s that they’re different

Mine is basically never the better bike for the riding but often the better bike for the ride

[40mpgSubscriber]

Larky- there’s a bunch of based New Forest way who often ride over your way. As well as QECP and usual stuff, there’s a few other great rides local to you. Get used to checking tide times though:
West Wittering to Selsey, stop at The Lifeboat for fish n chips and cider.
Gosport/ Lee on Solent, up to Warsah then the pink ferry to Hamble for cider at the King & Queen.
Hamble to Itchen Bridge , over the bridge to Wetherspoons for cider.
Pop over to the Island for loads of good trails. And cider

[40mpgSubscriber]

Then we also do the SolentWay down to Calshot, lymington to Mudeford, hengistbury to sandbanks with the chain ferry to studland, purbecks etc. Plenty to keep busy on the beaches when your sick of mud inland!

[cheekygetMember]

I went out with a couple of mates a few weeks back , they were both on full sus and me on my fat bike….a few miles later after I was blitzing them up the muddy trails…I let them both have a go on the fatty.
Well there faces said it all….’this is unbelievable in the mud….and …it feels like cheating as it handles too good’
I think they were impressed.
I know my 11 year is …because he asked for and got one for Xmas …loves it!!

[NorthwindSubscriber]

TBH with mud, it depends on the mud- there’s some that fatbikes are good at that normalbikes aren’t, and vice versa. For me, the fatbike’s worse in mud essentially all of the time but if my riding was different maybe that wouldn’t be true- once you get into real swamps thin tyres just cut into more mud and floatier tyres can work but for everything else give me a 2.5 shorty.

[ivantateMember]

Got my first fat ride tomorrow morning

Overall I am hoping for a different dimension to normal trails and a bit of fun in the snow.

[scotroutesSubscriber]

there’s some that fatbikes are good at that normalbikes aren’t, and vice versa.

Very much this. And of course it’s very tyre dependent too.

[zippykonaSubscriber]

I bought an old Orange 5 last year and have been mainly riding to work on thar.
Last week I took my Fatty and I couldn’t believe how quick it felt. It has rigid forks and it just feels direct. You pedal,you move. There’s no slack taken up anywhere.
The only minuses compared to a normal bike are…you will get twice as muddy, a normal bike will gap you for the first 5 pedals but momentum will soon have you carptching up.
Downhill it’s as quick as my full sus.
How my Orange was voted bike of the year by MBR in 2007 I don’t know .

[fatbikeandcoffeeSubscriber]

@zippykona I used to have that challenge then bought some BBB fat bike mudguards from flea bay and since then all good 🙂

Hope that helps

James

[cheekygetMember]

Or make some out of old muc off bottles like me