On one fatty first impressions (anyone)

Seatstay bridge

Bars, top tube(s) and fork

Big gusset and headset

That’s all for now!!!

I couldn’t ride it with the headset logos like that.

I love the humongous orange decals. Still not so keen on the skinny fork/thick headtube.

Gotta get those rims drilled though. I’ve got so used to see holey rims that standard ones are beginning to look weird 🙂

I have a feeling one of these would be wonderful in Woburn Sands…

The headset logos had me puzzled. Should it be readable while riding and from the front of the bike (like I have it) or should they be readable from the side of the bike? I could be persuaded to change it. Maybe the mods can set up a poll!

I like the look of the fork. I like the look of the frame. I’m not sure that I like the two together, though. As above, I think that the fork looks a little to skinny as its right under the massive down tube and head tube. I do like the look of the chunky carbon Carver fork…

And I do plan to drill the rims. I also plan to go tubeless. But can you imagine how long it would have taken if I drilled the rims as part of the build?

Druidh – you’re trollin’ me on the orange, aren’t ya? 😉

Upon my command, unleash SPACERS!

Are the front hubs wider than normal? I’ve just got some rigid forks which take a 29er with about a foot clearance all round. God knows what they were meant for, so a fatty will fit easily hub permitting.

Upon my command, unleash SPACERS!

I’ll start messing with the spacers tomorrow. If you are concerned, the stem on my regular mountain bike is slammed, no spacers at all. Flat bar, too. We’ll see where the Fatty ends up.

Are the front hubs wider than normal?

The front hubs are 135 mm OLD. Same width as regular MTB rear. However, there are 2 rotor standards for front hubs and forks; they vary by 5 mm.

One is identical to the rear hub as far as rotor placement. That’s what the Pugsleys use as some folks actually use a rear hub on the front as a spare if the rear freewheel breaks or ices up. Then all that they need to is swap wheels.

Most fat bike front hubs are made to the other standard now. But I’m sure that there are exceptions. HTH.

The headset logos had me puzzled. Should it be readable while riding and from the front of the bike (like I have it) or should they be readable from the side of the bike?

It doesn’t matter as long as it is centred one way or the other.

I don’t think Joeg really exists and this is a very intelligent marketing campaign by that sneaky chap Brant 😉

Any thoughts on the combination of a 55mm fork offset and a 68deg head angle?

What as the reasoning behind this Bant?

Tyres are looking good – any chance of an ultra light version? I really don’t want to buy any more fat tyres that are 1500g!

The lawn needs better drainage and WTF is going off with the front brake hose routing? Even with the daft/wrong foreign brake levers on the wrong side setup you should be able to make it work better than that.
Other than that, looks good.

What as the reasoning behind this Bant?

It’s to make it stable, yet quick.

A feeling of stability was one of the first things I noticed. Once the bike is rolling it seems to sit ‘in’ the trail and responds predictably to shifting your weight around. As this is the only fat bike I’ve ridden I can’t comment on whether it’s the front geometry that’s doing that or something else, but it works for me!

Is there likely to be any chance of that fork becoming available seperately Brant? Numbers look ace.

36 lbs, 15 oz.

Good god these aren’t bikes for light guys are they? My fastest riding buddy is a small light guy, he’d never get this around a corner, he’d shift his weight but it would just carry on ahead without him.

Is there likely to be any chance of that fork becoming available seperately Brant? Numbers look ace.

Definitely.

Groovy

Lighter bikes are available.
Your wallet will be lighter too.

yes please for that fork. long enough for a frame that’s corrected for 100mm. with option for rim brakes. I’ve waited sooo long for a rigid replacement for my Pace Evo (to which it looks similar).

what you need now is one of these!

Joe …how come yours comes with gears on the front ???

He fitted them himself.

Any thoughts on the combination of a 55mm fork offset and a 68deg head angle?

No, as I haven’t ridden it yet. 😳 I will rectify that this afternoon, though. 🙂

Oh – and I did the soap on the tire beads. Tire hop issue is gone. Thanks for the suggestion.

The lawn needs better drainage and WTF is going off with the front brake hose routing?

Not my lawn. That’s a field next to the local volunteer fire department. I had a tough time finding a place to take a photo. We got about 2″ of snow Thurs into Fri. And a photo of a white bike against snow wouldn’t work. The snow melted in the sun, bu the ground is still frozen, thus the puddles.

I cover the front brake hose issue in one of my earlier posts. I couldn’t get to to work at all out in front of the bar. Routing it like a Fox suspension fork (clamp on the arch, route inside lower leg to caliper) will not work since the upper hose guide is so close to the top of the fork. It is probably too long, by my other disc brakes use mineral oil so I can’t cut the line as I don’t have a bleed kit. And knowing that it bothers someone may just mean that it stays that way! 😉

Good god these aren’t bikes for light guys are they?

I didn’t weigh mine as intended by On-One; I had to start swapping parts right away. 🙂

The inner tubes are made of lead; mine were 593 grams each! So that’s an easy and cheap way to put her on a diet. I plan to go tubeless, so didn’t spend $ on lighter tubes. I also plan to drill the rims.

Mine gained weight in the following areas:
– 2x drivetrain +221 grams (24-36-bash crank, front shifter, direct mount adapter, front der. etc.)
– KS Lev seatpost +282 grams (I did save 10 grams by losing the QR seat clamp, though :D)
– XT Race pedals +339 grams (just a big balance bike w/o pedals!)
– Ergon GX grips +10 grams
– XT cassette (- 54 grams) I got it for a good price 😳

So that’s about 800 grams added, or 1.76 lbs! So that would put the stock weight at about 35 lbs. Mine is the 16″ size.

Is there likely to be any chance of that fork becoming available seperately Brant? Numbers look ace.

I’ll bet some fatty buyers will replace theirs with a carbon fork or a suspension fork, so likely there will be used one around before too long. I have an itch for that carbon Carver fork, but its offset is 10 mm less and I’m worried about what that would do to the handling of a bike that I haven’t even ridden yet…

what you need now is one of these!

I’m American so I’m not familiar with those at all. These would have been what we had on my side of the Atlantic:

Edit – OMG; I just realized that I posted an orange bike!!! 😯

Joe …how come yours comes with gears on the front ???

Because there are hills where I live, and there was no way that my sorry @ss was going to be able to pedal a 36 lb+ bike up hills when the lowest gear was 32-36! 😀

As above, I added them myself.

Joe – FFS get it ridden and post photos of it dirty.

4 pages and no ride review…………..

I’ll bet some fatty buyers will replace theirs with a carbon fork or a suspension fork, so likely there will be used one around before too long. I have an itch for that carbon Carver fork, but its offset is 10 mm less and I’m worried about what that would do to the handling of a bike that I haven’t even ridden yet…

Shorter rake will make it feel heavier steering.
We are doing a carbon fork at some point.

Which may go part way to explaining why the handling feels better than some other fat bikes.

This is a more and more used quote i would love to see put into practice…

I put it into practice by not buying a Pug + getting a Fatty 😉

Is it possible to objectively test handling? Very subjective and depends on where you want it to shine.
Fatty feels more lively and capable, I ride techy rocky stuff on most rides + being used to low long bikes with relatively slack head angles, means the Fatty will feel better to me then some other fat bikes with different design briefs.

It would be good to get someone as experienced as yourself to test say a Fatty, Pug, 907 and Krampus on different terrain.

After all you are to blame for allot of this interest in fat bikes 🙂

Be good to get some impressions on ride

What’s it like on switchbacks, how does it handle muddy inclines etc

Rode some tight steep rocky switchbacks yesterday + It was great. The level of grip means you can work the bike round tight spots taking mad lines. I imagine bermed switchback’s would be a hoot.

I guess it depends on the mud, It will still slither around a bit in soft surface mud , but never feels out of control. Muddy climbs, even without a granny ring, have all been doable so far. You’ll be doing well to spin it out. Decent mud guards are apparently quite important to avoid pebbledashing

Mal-ec not a fatty review but this sort of thing? http://forums.mtbr.com/fat-bikes/snow-demo-ti-9-zero-7-alu-9-zero-7-ti-fatback-wildfire-compared-580906.html

So, I took people’s advice and actually took my Fatty up to the park and went for a ride. And I didn’t die.

Without a doubt, it is the best fat bike that I have ever ridden!*

Tire pressure 7 psi front, 8 psi rear. The traction is unbelievable. Weather here is about 40 American degrees, below freezing overnight, and some light rain. Ground frozen in spots, and trails are muddy, with frozen areas underneath. My Hans Damps would not have worked at all, and even my Trailrakers would have struggled and probably spun out on some of the uphills. No such problem with the floaters; they never lost traction. They also cleared mud well, though none of it was real sticky mud. Good job Shiggy! 😀

As far as handling, I would say that is is dead on. I left the bar and stem set up as delivered (I changed grips, though), with 30mm of spacers below the stem. I assumed that I’d want to lower it as my regular bike has the stem slammed with a flat bar. But I immediately felt comfortable on the Fatty, though I did notice that I was more upright and not as stretched out. But it worked for this bike. I’ll experiment a bit to see if I like something else better, but I can ride it as is with no problem. Handling is stable, not twitchy at all. I did notice the inertia and gyro affect of the heavy tires, and needed to adjust my steering input a bit to compensate.

My regular bike has 26.5 inch wide bars. They were about an inch wider when I bought them 5 years ago, and the guys at the LBS were darn near pissing themselves laughing at how ridiculous a 27.5 inch wide bar was. But the 30 inchers on the Fatty just work. And there are some narrow tree gaps on my local trails, too. I will look at going wider on the main bike now!

I had no problem at all lifting the front wheel over a couple of logs; it felt natural. I an absolutely terrible at wheelie drops; and there is a little 12″ high one on one of the trails. I nailed it perfectly on the Fatty the first time; they tires soaked up the landing just great.

I was surprised how easily I adjusted to the rigid bike after 6 years on full suspension, the fat tires absorb a good bit and roll over everything. I could feel a little bouncing at times, though.

Going to a 2×10 drivetrain was absolutely the right decision for me. I need the granny on the climbs. This is also my first experience with 10 speed, and I must say that I’m very impressed. Now I just need the $$$ to upgrade the other bike’s drivetrain to 10 speed. The bike’s weight is definitely noticable; there is no hiding the fact that it weighs almost 10 lbs more than my regular ride. Its not cumbersome or anything, it just takes a bit to spin it up to speed. But it’s fun to ride, and hauling it up climbs will no doubt boost my fitness, which is a good thing indeed.

The saddle was instantly comfortable, and will probably stay on the bike till it wears out. The stock seatpost was nice, but it is not a dropper, so I replaced it with a KS Lev. Worth its weight in gold, I tell you!

I do need to adjust the tension on my pedals, though. I fell over once. 😳

I’m a Magura fan myself and had my doubts about the entry level Avid Elixr 1 brakes. I’ve seen lots of posts with horror stories with people complaining about Avids. But my Avids just worked. No noise. Good lever shape. Pretty much invisible, which is how good components should be. Of course, one short ride doesn’t say anything about their durability, but if they continue to work this well and don’t need constant attention, they’ll stay on the bike.

So overall, I’m thrilled with the Fatty. If you’re thinking about a fat bike, you should definitely go for a spin on one. And if regular trail riding is what you’ll use it for (as opposed to snow and beach) then the On-One Fatty is worth a look. Overall, great job Shiggy and Brant (Except for the orange decals, that is!) Photos to follow…

*Note – it is also the only fat bike that I have ever ridden.

Yup, the orange decals suck a fat one

If you’re thinking about a fat bike, you should definitely go for a spin on one

nice work 😉

Fatty on the trail

Tight squeeze (yes, I rode it 3x!)

Tight squeeze from rider’s perspective

Not much room for error

Looks like others had a little trouble, though

Swoopy stretch of trail