I have been running a Fatty now for a couple of months and love it. It’s a different ride and does take some getting used to – a bit like riding singlespeed for the first time. It was a natural extension to the bike collection which includes a CX bike (one extreme), rigid singlespeed, full sus race bike and now the On-One (the other extreme). It cost me about £750 to build so cheap as well, but drilling the rims was a ball ache!
I would say that they are not fast, but neither are they slow. My average speeds are about the same as on my single speed, but it is much much more fun. My riding is mostly local around the Clent Hills and surrounding trails – a lot of which are fairly sandy. Cannock is amazing on it – big smiles! I even rode to work on it last week which is 20 miles along the canal each way and it was no bother.
On road they are hateful things, but as soon as it goes off road it rolls much easier than you would expect, climbs extremely well and descends like a loon. Winter will be an interesting test, but the mud it has seen so far has been dispatched with ease as it doesn’t sink!
Oh – and towing the kids on the trailer bike or carrying my daughter on a WeeRide (or doing both) is brilliant. Now I want (no, I need) a fat bike trailer bike!
btw – who is doing the FAT category at Oktoberfest? Should be a blast!
