I’ve always dismissed fat bikes for the riding I do but……

When I did the BHF SDW earlier this year and yesterday’s BHF L2BOR I saw one on each event. My general observations were:

They appeared to go uphill well.

Steamed along on the flat.

Went downhill like a hovercraft.

Now I don’t know the level or ability of the guys riding the fat bikes and for all I know they could be XC champions and would be racing snakes even on a Raleigh Chopper!

I’ve never ridden a fat bike and don’t know anyone with one, but I’m intrigued into what people on here with experience would say about them?

My thoughts prior to seeing these two in action was that they would be slow up hill and on the flat but pretty good on a sandy beach or rooty downhill.

Whats your view please?

Can be pretty speedy uphill, massive amounts of grip and they smooth out little bumps. I find they suffer a bit on smooth long climbs but on technical stuff they are lots of fun.

They are incredible versatilevers fast things, you’ll get looks and questions. The trick is in greeting the right tires and finding the tyre pressure that’s just right.

They’re way faster than perceptions. I ride mine all over the shop xc and it goes amazing.

I tend to run my tyres slightly higher for trail riding than say beach riding so it rolls very well.

Thanks chaps, I’m wondering if they would be a good option for me – comfortable XC machine.

Dont want to be driving a heavy tank though.

‘heavy tank’ is primarily down to wheel and tyre choice – rims and tyres often fitted to stock bikes are often their downfall and reinforce peoples perceptions about ‘heavy and slow’. Unless you’re riding technical trails hard, there’s no need for suspension either IMO. I built my own using a custom titanium frame and carbon rimmed-wheels – it’s an awesome bike in all conditions. If I could have only one MTB, it would be this one because its so versatile.

This will come as a bit of a surprise but fat bikes show the same variations according to geometry, frame material, weight etc as bikes with skinnier tyres.

Custom stooge titanium fat bike here with truss forks,  not ridden anything else for ages. Tyres are a big choice, personally not a fan of 4.8 plus tyres front and rear as it can feel like all the speed is sucked out of you on any incline, ride 4.8 front and  a 4 at the back. Light wheelset is a must.

Overall it rises quick, especially flowing trail centre tracks, great on tech climbs and just fun run on the downs, turns and berms are hilarious being a full rigid I am slower in rock gardens and take more time but on slow tech stuff I prefer a rigid form as the geometry stays the same.

Downside for me, context I spend all working day talking to people and riding is to escape, everyone wants to talk to you about the bike. My mistake I know.

Overall fat bikes are just smile inducing bit geometry, frame materla, angles and tyre choice are all consideration as well as gearing and mindset, you will have a blast but won’t be Strava K/QoM.

Love mine but can get they aren’t for everyone. Certainly worth an extended test ride / hiring one imho.

For me a fatbike is a great skills compensator on techie stuff. Think steamroller. 🙂

As for speed, they are not “fast”, but they’re bloody good at helping you maintain a decent average.

The first year I did on a fatbike in the ‘Puffer 24 hour, I was surprised to find I got an extra lap in despite the bike feeling “slower” and being almost 20lbs heavier than the lightweight I’d ridden previously. I had expected to do less, but had picked the fatbike for comfort.

After thinking it over I realised my perception of “fast” was when I was riding fast enough to be getting shaken around and feeling the vibration, or fighting the bars on rough stuff.

One proviso is they can chuck an enormous amount of muck into your face when it’s wet. Mudguards rule. 🙂

(Both bikes rigid singlespeed)

They are great fun but I’m not sure if I’d have one as my only (off-road) bike.

While heavier than a standard MTB, they aren’t as heavy as you think, my Singular Puffin is 14.5kg. The frame is only slightly heavier than a 29er in the same material – the Puffin is only 300g heavier than the Singular Swift. Other than the cranks all other components are standard MTB parts.

As noted above, wheels and particularly tyres make a big difference to how the bike feels. I’ve two sets of tyres for it: summer and winter. I didn’t ride the bike this summer so it’s still got the winter tyres on and they are noticeably slower particularly on smoother ground and tarmac – they sound like a bloody panzer division when riding on tarmac! Tyre pressures can also be a big factor – a change of 0.5psi can make a big difference when you are talking pressures in the 6-9psi range. My wife has 27tpi Surly Nates on her fat bike, they are 400g heavier each than my 45Nrth tyres.

There was someone on here who put slicks on his fat bike and did a TT on it, didn’t come anywhere near last either!

As @Normal Man says, worth having an extended ride on one to see how you get on.

They appeared to go uphill well.

The person riding it was fitter than you.

Steamed along on the flat.

The person riding it was fitter than you.

Went downhill like a hovercraft.

The person riding it was more skillful than you.

I have a half fat bike, 29+ which has 3” tyres.

it’s a surly karate monkey, built up with no effort towards light weight at all, i have no idea what it weighs, yet everyone who has a go/lifts it always comment that it’s lighter than they expected.

i would echo the comments above re wheel/tyre weights, if you use the cheapest available, they will be heavy and crap to ride, but the top end stuff is quite a bit better imo.

I’m always amazed at how capable my Puffin is for a big old rigid lump. Despite trying to convince myself otherwise, It is also the most fun bike I have ever ridden. I think the comedy is enhanced by the 27tpi Nate up front that bounces like a space hopper on any bump, meaning rides are done largely on one wheel. On that note, it lifts the front incredibly easily, which doesn’t seem to obey the laws of physics, Jim.

I’m not a great rider, but I think I’m faster on it than on any of my bikes due to the confidence it inspires. Great uphill too because it just grips and goes with very little scrabbling, even with the slippery eel-like knard on the back. Tempted to upgrade to Edna’s on each end to see how it performs.

Try one and see what happens.

They’re something different. I’m definitely not in the ‘I sold all my bikes after a 5 min ride round a car park’ camp, but they’re great for a day where you aren’t taking it seriously or smashing Strava laps, just good fun.

Slow, but not as slow as they look, if someone overtook you they were still faster than you. I’ve got a lot of PB’s on my fatty, and it probably is faster in certain niche scenarios, but most of the time in could probably ride something else just as quickly if I pushed myself the same (same as single speeds, they don’t actually climb quicker, but you do climb quicker on them).

If you’ve got the legs to get/keep it moving then it’s like a monster truck. It kinda makes riding a normal trail feel like a rough DH track on a DH bike (loads of grip, slightly muted from reality).

There is more than one fat bike out there though, some are built in the style of expedition XC bikes like the pugsley and spesh Fatboy, others are as long/low/slack as plenty of mainstream bikes (I don’t think Sick make a Fat Gnarcacist, but they should!)

I found mine to be astonishingly faster than my usual bike at Glentress ( not on the climbs)  I think it was the extra grip giving me confidence.  Caveat – I am not a good or fast rider.  I also found I can climb stuff I couldn’t on my mtb – again the extra grip

Slower when peddalling  but not by a huge amount.

I’ve a fat bike (canyon dude) and I love it. I also have a carbon 29 hardtail that I used to do the BHF SDW a couple of years ago. I live a couple of miles from Ditchling Beacon so ride the south downs a lot. The fat bike is slower uphill but just as quick across the ground everywhere else and is the quickest bike I’ve ridden on south downs descents. The tyres, when set at the right pressure, just roll over everything and inspire lots of confidence. The only thing I’d say they’re not good for is loose, dusty singletrack or mud when they don’t really grip. I’m going to get a 2nd set of wheels soon though, 29+ seems the way forward there.

I wouldn’t have one as my only bike but I wouldn’t be without one either. If I want to go flat out I have a Rocket but over winter I love the fatty. Apart from bigger drops I ride the same trails just slower and it is easier over slower techy lines.

At the icy Kielder Duathlon this year it clearly suprised lots of people as I motored past in confidence as they struggled. The CX chaps were faster up hill but got well out my way on the descents.

A friend of mine who is fatty only has a few Strava KOM’s locally both up and down on his rigid ICT, although he has now succumbed and added a Manitou fork

I’ve got a fatboy as my only off road bike and it’s great.  The fatboy is light and fast all over and I find I can keep up with most groups I ride with.  I live by a beach so that’s why I bought it but it’s very good as a trail bike albeit a bit rough on rocky trails. It’s rigid and I’ve thought about either a bluto or buying a full suss for the rough stuff. I’m tempted to swap it for something like an ice cream truck instead as a one bike to rule them all.

I love mine- a very upgraded Calibre Dune, with 4.8 tyres and some nice light bits + a dropper (but no suspension). It’s not so much that it’s good- though it’s very good at what it does. It’s just that it’s so different, you can ride the same trail once on a normal bike and then ride it straight after on a fatbike and have a totally different experience. And riding it inappropriately never gets old- I’ve raced an enduro and a 7 hour xc race on mine and had a blast.

But as someone mentioned above they do vary a lot- mine is an outright trailbike, others are tourers or brilliant beach bikes which mine probably isn’t, I’ve never tried.

you can ride the same trail once on a normal bike and then ride it straight after on a fatbike and have a totally different experience.

Simply changing the wheels transforms them. I’ve 26×4.8 and 29×2.4 setups for mine. Rode back to back on a 1 hour trail centre loop, 29×2.4 felt faster but properly beat me up, 26×4.6 was more comfy, felt more fun, but was only a couple of minutes slower.

Fatties are Fantastic, Faster in most places than most bikes (not all) BUT more fun to ride than ALL … imo of course 😉

don’t forget the Fatty beach ride on the 6th of October!

https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/fatbike-beachride-saturday-oct-6th-formby/

Really love riding my cheapo calibre dune.,it’s the cheapest ,heaviest,lowest spec bike I have ,but it always puts a smile on my face,it’s also my favourite bike  and it’s faster than it should be in many situations.

I have noticed lately though that fat bikes seem to be a dying breed and there seems to be few manufacturers selling them for 2019.Has anyone else noticed this?

Also I am struggling to find a new reasonably priced crank set for mine at the moment and new tyres are eye wateringly expensive! If anyone wants to point me in the right direction I would be very grateful,but this is something that might be worth baring in mind if you are considering one.

I bought a 2015 trek Farley last Christmas.

26×4 tyres and reasonably light. It shifts and always beats my expectations.

Great fun and where I am we always get a few months of snow.

Really surprised at liking it, and as above, probably not an only bike but a good compliment to the shed full.  On smoother trails I can beat my Orange 5 times on it.

Kind of getting sucked in to upgrade now.  Getting some trek carbon forks, Hope Fatsnos and looking at some Chinese carbon wheels.

mm93

…I have noticed lately though that fat bikes seem to be a dying breed and there seems to be few manufacturers selling them for 2019.Has anyone else noticed this?…

I think it is because it’s a bike that’s hard to obsolete.

Once you have one that works for you, there’s no necessity to change it other than when better rims and tyres come along. Thus you don’t buy another when the new model comes out.

I’m pleased to see the Johnny-come-lately manufacturers drop out because they were doing it all wrong IMO. If you want an all terrain offroad and offtrack bike, the original fatbikes were the best. Steep HAs and plenty trail makes for better low speed handling in snow and deep sand. There’s no way I’d want a fatbike with suspension or slack HAs for riding where I like to go.

On the other hand if you want something to race around a hardened trail maybe the later models were better, but the reality is that you’re better off with plus tyres than fat ones for that sort of work.

Go and ride one and see for yourself.

There are plenty of bargains on the fat bike selling Facebook page.

Where abouts are you  Four?

As always, it depends where and how you ride and there are as many flavours of fatbike as other bikes, but my own experience suggests ha they are perfectly viable (and lots of fun) for XC riding and great for exploring new areas where you don’y know what the trail will be like or even whether it will exist.

Based on over 100 hours on each bike my overall average speed on both my Canyon Dude and Surly ICT was slightly (1.5%) faster than my 26″ Five, if that’s any help at all !

They are not great on really smooth surfaces (e.g. road) and not a good choice if you like to accelerate and break a lot, but for keeping momentum off-road all day long they can be ideal.

I had one, liked it but then sold it. It was one of the OneOne Fattys when they were all the rage.

It was good fun to ride on twisty, rooty stuff and climbed really well. Opened up beaches and soft tracks that would be no use otherwise and there was a lot of that around where I lived. Less fun was it was quite heavy and without spending loads on tyres it was a bit limited in slop. No amount of tyre makes up for suspension as well.

I’d have one again if I lived somewhere where it would open up soft boggy,  sandy or snowy riding. Also, I’d save my pennies and get something light.

A fat bike on the SDW in wet conditions would be horrendous.

I’m pleased to see the Johnny-come-lately manufacturers drop out because they were doing it all wrong IMO. If you want an all terrain offroad and offtrack bike, the original fatbikes were the best. Steep HAs and plenty trail makes for better low speed handling in snow and deep sand. There’s no way I’d want a fatbike with suspension or slack HAs for riding where I like to go.

On the other hand if you want something to race around a hardened trail maybe the later models were better, but the reality is that you’re better off with plus tyres than fat ones for that sort of work.

Conversely, most of my off road riding is Tunnel Hill, Cesars Camp, Porridge Pots etc. which for 8  months of the year is a mix of soft loamy trails and mud, but being ‘secret’ the trails don’t really get cut up in the way busier areas do.  A slack-ish fatbike absolutely rips through the singletrack and monster trucks through the areas where they’ve been felling trees. I don’t think a Pugsley/ICT would really work in quite the same way.

Just waiting (impatiently) for some minion 4.8’s to see if they’ll fit in the On-One!

Variety is good.

I really want a Smokestone or Rocky mountain for even more slacker boingier bonkersness.