Fat Bikes

I should have added I’ve got a new custom fork coming for mine that I should be able to fit Vee Snowshoe XXLs! I’ll probably wait to see how my Dillinger 5s cope at Rovaniemi before finding an excuse to invest in some 100mm carbon rims and 5″ tyres!

I’ve ridden 300km in 21 hours on mine and if not for a puncture would have completed a SDW double – great for all-day riding, knowing you can simply grind it out, regardless of conditions. Big rubber is a big help when riding in the dark on unfamiliar trails – I can simply let the bike run and know that it can cope with anything.

Cheers YoKaiser

They are still performance machines. Grinding uphill is no fun, roads best avoided. Bit of gravity on your side, and you start to smile. Out with my mate today, him on his susser, me the On-One Fatty. Any rocky downhill I flew, getting to the bottom so far ahead I thought he’d punctured. No, just my bike being silly fast. True by the end I was knackered, yet ride wise the bike did not give away as much as you’d think it would. I’d find it hard to recommend one over a normal bike, yet if you have the itch, and legs to get one moving, they are huge fun. Just cut your ride length down a bit to compensate initially.

Ah. I see. The Pug being narrower doesn’t have that issue. I must admit I’d like a Wednesday with a Bluto up front.

@psycorp, as for bikepacking I would also look at a surly krampus or a cotic solaris in bug wheel guise. My mate did the lakeland 200, on a krampus, me on the fatty. In general the krampus was faster. . I reckon the cotic though would make an ace bikepacking weapon.

Opinions vary wildly on fat bikes and I think a lot of that it down to the sort of riding you do, the bike you are coming from and your expectations. I have a Transition Covert that probably comes in around 32lb, 1×10 with a hefty rather than light weight build. I also have a Felt double double 30 coming in at about 30lb (light wheels, dtswiss br2250 with jumbo jim 4.0 tyres which really helps).

Also I think it’s only fair to compare YOUR fatbike with YOUR other bikes. Me passing other full sus sets on descents doesn’t really mean much if they are mincers (which a fair few people are at local trail centres).

For me the fatbike is a lot better than it has any right to be on a wide range of surfaces. It’s weight in getting up to speed is also it’s strength in momentum and combined with the extra grip means on smooth trails it is definitely faster than my full sus. The tyres have far better small bump sensitivity than a fork but of course that only works to certain level and when things get a hit more bumpy it become a rigid bike again. Hills, compared to my other bike, are better in pretty much every case on the fatbike. Hardtail response and efficiency when stamping on the pedals but the big tyres for comfort and traction. When it comes to good technical and fast descent the Transition will be faster but it needs to be something other than smooth. Little drops and short rock gardens the fatbike will deal with but proper rocky and rooty and gets really wild. It can be very fun but pretty tiring as the bike just can’t track the ground and understeer is a big issue on corners and you just bounce across stuff.

I love mine but it’s in contrast to my other bike. It wins for my local trail centres and lack of maintenance in the winter is great but when it comes to some up lift days and some of the cheeky local trails then the Covert is still the faster bike.

Also note fatbikes vary, the felt I have now is a much more sprightly ride than the charge cooker maxi I test rode.

I hope these rather long winded observation may help you.

@johnnyboy666

Your ramblings make perfect sense and correlate with my own observations when riding with people who were riding fat bikes.

Thank you.

Seems to be lots of Fat bikers pimping their bikes to the max making them look ridiculous and seem not to want to get them dirty!

I seem to enjoy riding my puffin fully loaded than unloaded seems to ride so much better!

They are just different. So different to ride that they make the local trails you’ve ridden for twenty years totally new. You have to think ahead, plan. Somebody else said they’re like a T2 van – I’d agree. Totally pointless, totally horrible, yet totally fun, totally addictive if that is your thing. It’s just a bike; don’t overthink these things, just ride it.

Not bollox at all, wind up a fatty and it hussles, just not as quickly as a properly ridden lighter faster more efficient bike.

Interesting reverse-ferret there. I thought they just ‘bimble’, now they ‘hussle’

Fatbikes are like mountain bikes in general. If you don’t get it, you’ll never be swayed by any sales pitch as to why it’s so good.

It’s all biking, innit?

Couple of quick questions about semi-fat bikes. I’ve been looking at the Spesh 6Fattie so firstly, is a bike like that the best of both worlds or the worst of both worlds?

And I’ve seen reviews of it saying it is hopeless on mud or roots. I though fat bikes were supposed to be great on stuff like that, so is it likely to just be down to the tyres it is fitted with?

I love Specialized bikes but have never been a huge fan of the tyres they put on them.

With ruts, sometimes they’re genuinely the width of a normal tyre. I think teh idea with fat tyres is you just stay out of the rut… But it also seems like most b+ tyres are a wee bit un-knobbly. There’s no Fat Baron or Short And Fattie that I know of?

The thing about fat tyres on mud is that you tend to float over it rather than cut through it. Something like a Nate will give you some steering ability and traction though.

On roots and the like you might find the undamped rebound an issue

Is 27+ the best/worst of both? Both I suspect. Not a replacement for 4/5″ tyres on really soft stuff, nor with the amount of “cush” on small bumps – but better on both regards than a non-+ setup – and, of course, more grip on dry/loose stuff.

@madBillmacMad

I use my Solaris for bikepacking and it’s great – I did the YD300 on it without problem. The one thing that shows that it isn’t designed for the activity is that there’s only one set of bottle cage bosses and they are set rather high so partial frame bags like the Wildcat Ocelot or Alpkit Possum can’t be used with a bottle in situ. You could of course get a custom frame bag.

Cheers for the replies. Still swithering. Looking for a bike I can ride all day and over all sorts of ground. Doesn’t have to be particularly fast. For exploring rather than racing. Still thinking the 6Fattie might be just the thing.

Good choice I reckon. Usual caveat with Spesh- watch out for non-standards 🙂

I got a ROSE Tusker fattie in Aug this year…….oh mate to me it’s like being a kid again…..so much fun and it gives you the biggest smile !!
Yeah it’s slow…but riding up boxhill the other week……I got drafted by a roadie in the middle section….the cheeky ****!!..lol
I can’t wait for it to snow !!!

Drafted by a roadie in the middle section?? Which way up did you go? More to the point, you out on Dec 5th as possibly a group heading out from Reigate Hill 🙂

The only problem I have with the fat bike, is grip.

i.e. when I ride any other bike a I fall off a lot, as I used to so much grip! Off camber, slimy, rooty, rocky, dusty, muddy – doesn’t matter with a bud up front and a nate at the back. Point and go. Also pisses off non-fat riding mates, as they tend to flounder.

I’ll concede it is slower/heavier, and requires and change in pedalling style/energy output, but apart from that, **** crack on and get a proper fat bike. Anything else will ahve such a marginal difference, other than in marketing bollox. (say that coming from bitter 29+ waste of time experience)

I got my basic felt double 70 fatty back in March and have pretty much rode nothing else its great for most of my riding and I am begging to think that maybe with a set of blutos on I could lose my other bike’s.As has already been said they are good fun you get lots of comments but for me I was getting pretty jaded with all the mega bucks enduro bikes and the latest must haves to the point where I was begging to lose interest in mtb since getting mine I have got my buzz back and the Facebook fat bike groups are welcoming and great source of information if you need advice

b-s-c No like 29+ ? What set-up did you run?

@cheekyget I know you can spec almost any front fork with your Tusker but what is the width of the rear and with the 4.25 tyres on have you got any room to go to say 4.6 or even 5?

Drafted by a roadie in the middle section?? Which way up did you go? More to the point, you out on Dec 5th as possibly a group heading out from Reigate Hill

Yeah should ok for a meet…I’ve told my other fellow fattie rider and said yeah…….are we going down the single track to Clifton rd??……..went down it the other week ……whoa!!…..how steep…..the fattie loved it!!..ha ha ha 😆

@cheekyget I know you can spec almost any front fork with your Tusker but what is the width of the rear and with the 4.25 tyres on have you got any room to go to say 4.6 or even 5?

I find out tomorrow for you chum

Since I got a Trek Farley 8 6 months ago I take it on every off road ride I do because it’s such great fun. It takes a bit of time to “wind up” so you don’t get the sudden uphill acceleratlon you can get on a light carbon hard tail, but on technical steppy climbs it’s even better than a regular bike. And downhill it’s perfect.

Get one.

Probably a bit marmite but i love mine! Been running my Singular Puffin for over 12 months and it is my ‘go-to-bike’ for everything apart from super fast training rides and big days out playing in rock gardens

Have done endurance racing, beach riding, epic 60+ mile rides, countless bivi rides and loads of local woodland blasts on mine

I’ve recently made it singlespeed for the winter and it’s just made it even more fun!!!

Basically, i’ve built myself a 20″ BMX bike – its like being 11 years old again, attacking everything flat out, wildly swinging the bike side-to-side with a massive grin on my face

It may not be the fastest MTB out there, but that’s not why i ride – i ride for a giggle, to keep myself fit and to frighten myself silly – something which is much easier with 2″ of un-dampended suspension rather than 160mm of plush & controlled travel 🙂

No idea where Clifton Road is?

Just made this beast out of ebay bargains!

Cost about £200 (although I found about half of the bike lying around in the garage)

Haven’t ridden it off road yet as Winter seems to have been put on hold – if this state of affairs continues I will see it as money well spent 🙂

@cheekyget I know you can spec almost any front fork with your Tusker but what is the width of the rear and with the 4.25 tyres on have you got any room to go to say 4.6 or even 5?

The frame width on the rear is 5″……. And with the standard tyres your left with a clearance of 15mm each side.
But take into account that you won’t be riding with these tyres hard.