On One Fatty as a replacement for a singlespeed.

My finger is hovering over the buy button for the rolling chassis, I’ve ridden one (cheers again John) and thought it was great fun.

So, what do i need to know?

It would be a replacement for a singlespeed Ragley Piglet, it therefore needs to be a good Winter training bike – ie, minimum maintenance when the foot deep slop returns. Probably wont see too much sand or snow just local trails and the odd trail centre.

Anyone else swapped a SS for a Fatty?

From the list of bits that are needed to complete the build I’d just need a headset (smoothie seems the obvious choice), BB and cranks – anyone got any experience of the Race Face ones?

I’ll be going 2X9 to start with simply because that’s what’s in my spares box – any issues running a front mech?

Anything else I need to know?

I’ve been using the RF Atlas cranks for almost 2 years on my 907. No problems to report, though the BB is beginning to sound a bit rumbly. Replacement bearings are available so I’ll likely knock some in before winter.

There is a UK Fatbike forum where you will likely find the answers to all your questions.

Cheers Scot, sounds like Race Ace cranks are a decent bet.

Anyone else? Posted on here rather than the fat bike forum as I’d like to hear the downside of fat bikes too.

Downside? All your other bikes will gather cobwebs.

What size are you going for Paul?

I have been riding mine for a few weeks now and it is remarkably similar to riding a singlespeed in some respects – i.e. you just have to grit your teeth and hoof it up climbs knowing that you have the grip. It isn’t a fast bike, but it isn’t slow either (Strava is showing roughly the same average speeds as my rigid singlespeed). Technical riding is such fun and I had a great time over Cannock last week. Road drags are less fun (in the same way as on a singlespeed).

I built mine up with Holtzfeller cranks (which were £55 from Merlin a while back) which I am running 1×9 which is holding up very well and has a good enough gear range on the widest range (12×36?) cassette I found.

Built it up for about £650 and got some nice oranage anodized accessories to pimp it up for my Birthday (Superstar do a good range).

Current build with random spares bin bits is about 32lb. I am hoping to get this down to about 28lb with some wheel mods and other tweaks.

chainslapp – Member
What size are you going for Paul?

16″ – rode Johnclimber’s yesterday and it was a really good fit, really chuck-able (for a fat bike).

Monkeyp – cheers for the feedback, just what I wanted to hear 🙂

Shame Merlin haven’t got any of those cranks left as they’re about half the price of the Race Face ones.

It was a great deal as they retail at about £200 – and, unknown to me when I ordered came with a seperately boxed Howitzer bottom bracket (wrong length for the fatty though). The 100mm BB can be got from Germany for £32 though.