I keep looking at potential upgrades for the Wazoo, in terms of improved riding comfort and even better if they are weight saving, but it the upgrades could easily get more expensive than the original bike cost without getting too silly! 😆

2x SV13F tubes ~£12 (~440g loss)
RDS front wheel for Carbon Fatty Fork ~£40 (unknown gain/loss)
Carbon riser handlebars ~£60 (~240g loss)
Pair of Juggernaut Pro / Jumbo Jim / Fast Track Fat tyres ~£90 (~800-950g loss)
Conversion to 1x/2×10 ~£130 (unknown weight loss)
Carbon Fatty Fork ~£150 (~900g loss)
On-One Fat Not Fat 29er wheelset ~£299 (~1500g loss?)

Part of me thinks just get the tubes, a set of BSC type 1s for tarmac commuting plus the gearing upgrades and be done with it!

Go tubeless? Cheap but effective way of saving a few g’s and improving the ride

Invest in some decent wheels, ideally with a modular axel system 12mm / 9mm etc… Good tyres, that are suitable for the riding you do, tubeless based on a decent set of wheels will also travel with you.

Doubt there’s anything else that will really improve the ride. Carbon forks will shed weight but make sure you’re getting the same rake and axel to crown dimensions.

1×10 or so can also travel with you to the next bike, so weight up the commitment to a fat bike and buy accordingly with a view to upgrading in the future.

Go tubeless? Cheap but effective way of saving a few g’s and improving the ride

I’m really on the fence about tubeless, having never tried it before. Isn’t going to cost something in the ~£50 ballpark for the startup materials and by the time you add the masses of sealant, the gains over a ~185g tube will be minimal?

Plus the jury is out on how the default wheelset copes with tubeless, a forum member here tried it with mixed results.

Before we even talk about my excessive ~90Kg weight! 😆

Isn’t the ‘Fat Not Fat 29er wheelset’ just fat hubs on narrow rims so you can run normal tyres? Would save weight but it wouldn’t be a fat bike anymore!

Isn’t the ‘Fat Not Fat 29er wheelset’ just fat hubs on narrow rims so you can run normal tyres? Would save weight but it wouldn’t be a fat bike anymore!

The idea behind that upgrade is that as much as the wheelset will cost, 29er tyres are usually a damn sight cheaper than fat tyres. My Wazoo is going to be a “do it all” bike for at least the short term and I do worry about how quickly fat tyres will wear on spring-autumn commuting duty on tarmac.

Honestly they don’t ride as heavy as they weigh.
Buy some tubes and just don’t worry about it.

The forum member trying tubeless could have been me?
I’ve now got it working very well on my Wazoo with ghetto tubeless.

I used 24″ tubes with presta valves and filled the void in the rim with a wrap of camping mat. Tubes cost under a fiver, camping mat was a fiver from Argos, and then sealant. Works well and seems a solid set up.
Tubeless isn’t just about trying to shave weight off remember.

So now, I am ghetto tubeless, carbon fatty fork and carbon bars and weigh in about 33.8 lbs if I recall.

Eventually I may upgrade the crankset and BB and eventually maybe the wheels, but it’s fine as it is and I should just leave it and enjoy it…which I do.

If you want to save weight have a look at Fatty Strippers. Same thing as split tubes but less weight.

Nobody, I kept a spreadsheet of the difference my upgrades made in weight 😳 or 8) as appropriate

OE New Difference
post 350 175 175 CF post I already had
saddle 410 280 130 WTB Silverado I already had
bar 380 315 65 Havoc 750mm, chosen for width, and I already had
F tyre 1550 1390 160 Changed for O-O Floater for grip in mud
R tyre 1460 1430 30 Ditto
F tube 420 181 239 Schwalbe FR tube
R tube 415 190 225 Ditto
F gear 498 50 448 ditched mech/shifter etc, replaced with 30T NW
R gear 1180 1040 140 SLX cassette and chain, Zee mech and shifter

So most of the changes to improve performance but lost 1612g in the process.
I may treat it to an O-O Fat Carbon fork in the future mainly for weight loss (depending on whether I take my easter bank holiday working as time or pay….)

Think I’m going to pull the trigger on some Jumbo Jims* and a pair of sv13f tubes tonight, jury is still out on buying an Exotic 750mm carbon riser bar in the Ebay 20% deal. Not a bad little combo for ~£135. 😈

* Thinking snakeskin in case I try tubeless at some point, like kayak23.

Went with snakeskin JJ 4.0s in the end, 1090g and 1129g, with a pair of FR tubes that were 193g each. When I finally get the 20% off voucher refund, which I had to chase up again yesterday, they will have cost a few pennies under 90 squids delivered.

Planning to hopefully fit these this afternoon or tomorrow and see how they feel, albeit it’s now been over ~2.5 weeks since I last rode due to this man flu thing, that is still yet to shift completely!

Right I got a Wazoo earlier this week (thanks Mrs Dahedd) & given my financial situation I’ll upgrade bits as & when they break. Gears & brakes first probably.

1. Going to stick with tubes for now, I’m a short fat git so what pressure should I be running the tyres at?

2. What mud guard would you recommend for the front end? Got the rear covered with an old Crud catcher.

3. Hate the saddle. It has to go asap.

I’m no featherweight either at ~85Kg, so I was using ~12-18PSI (with +2 at rear) depending upon how far I was travelling on tarmac, with the Mission Commands. I briefly tried ~10 at the front, but the steering got too weird for my liking, I can only guess that was the infamous “self steer” effect that Vees are said to suffer from.
Embarrassingly, I’ve yet to do anything proper on the Jumbo Jims, would have loved to have taken it to Longleat Center Parcs with us next week but without a car these days this is a logistical nightmare!

I’ve got a set of SKS Fatboards (rear plus down tube), but you might find the front guard from the SKS Grand Mon & Dad combo works, I managed to miss that possible setup back in Feb and ordered the new fatboards from Germany.

The saddle is ok for me, but damn heavy at ~450g! Purely on looks and weight, I like the http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/SAWIVEL/wittkop–co-timeless-2016-velodrome-leather-saddle and http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/SASESIT/selle-esse-italiana-vela-ltd-edition-leather-saddle , but for now I shall try what I have in the garage.

Need to have another go at taking my old Time ATAC carbon XS pedals off the Felt, curious to see how clipless goes on a MTB, but right now they seem well and truly seized on the racer!

Part of me wonders about an Exotic carbon handlebar or the “chewy” Nuckeballs.

But money is quite tight, so my next buy is more than likely going to be a Fat Not fat 29er set, which might need to RDS to FDS converter for the front wheel so that it fits the Wazoo’s FDS fork. Even though I got a good deal on buying a pair of Jumbo Jims for £80 new, spending that sort of money on new rubber is quite scarey for me and I do worry how the JJS will cope wear-wise on tarmac commuting duty after next week’s holiday.

1) tyre pressure is all about trial and error IME. However I read somewhere that a good start is 1 Psi for every 10kg you weigh. I started with that and didn’t have to do much to find out what worked for me. Maybe I was just fortunate though.

2) Mudhugger have just bought out a new front one. Looks good but costs £36.
I rode without a front mudguard a few times only to find that my Nates could throw mud right down my throat! I now have a mucky nutz fat face fender XL. It was £14. I still get a bit dirty but haven’t been hit in the face since fitting it.

3) Charge Spoon/Madison Flux seem to be regular STW replies to saddle questions.

That tyre pressure guide is bang on what I settled on through trial and error.

I also got a JJ liteskin cheap through the PayPal/eBay promo, just 1 for the front which dropped a bit more weight.

That’s a good tip for the wheels. 14 stone = 89 kg. So 9 psi, that seems a tad light so I’ll go about 12 & take it from there. Hope to get out for a spin tomorrow.

Think I’ll pinch the saddle off my old Stumpjumper that the Mrs rides. Get her a proper ladies saddle to protect her girlie bits 😀

I’ve felt the self steer effect as nobodyofthegoat calls it, subtle pull to the left on tarmac, not an issue off road though, least not one just felt during my first spin.

So today I have an slightly annoying update…

I bought a FatNotFat wheelset last weekend and earlier today, finally got around to swapping over the disc rotors and cassette from the original fat wheels. Took the wheels down to the garage and the rear wheel slides in fine…

But the front wheel rotor wants to sit ~5mm inward of the disc pads when I line up the hub correctly in the dropouts! 😆 👿

So unless I’m being thicker than normal, that suggests to me the new front wheel is Rear Disc Spaced, while the default Wazoo fork is Front Disc Spaced?

If the above is true, I have several options, from cheap to expensive…
Stick with the default fat wheels for now
Just fit the new rear 29er wheel and use the original front 26er front wheel for now (waiting for a Carbon Fatty Fork deal)
Buy an RDS to FDS converter for ~£20 from http://www.tritoncycles.co.uk/frames-forks-c6/frame-fork-spares-c152/problem-solvers-fat-fork-disc-adaptor-p11825
Splash out on a Carbon Fatty Fork now for another £150

Think I might go the adaptor route for now, as much as I have liked the idea of that fork for a while, I can’t justify to myself spending that amount so soon, heck as of yesterday I could have bought a Voodoo Marassa for <£240 for the price of the wheels and the fork! 😆

Just rather annoying that the PX site blurb never mentioned RDS and when I asked on the UK Fatbike forum, nobody replied to my query about this despite several members having the 29er wheelset. 🙁

Or buy my carbon fatty fork for £70 🙂

Is that with the PX carbon fork bung and what colour is the fork? And is that £70 plus p&p or inclusive?

Don’t do a half-hearted sale promo! 😆

The Problem Solver RDS to FDS adapter with long bolts has just arrived in the post, so I have some bits to fit this afternoon and make my Wazoo look less like Frankenfat’s Lovechild. 😀

Got my Wazz on Tuesday but need upgrade front end after finding it too low.Thinking 2″risers.Can any of you guys who already upgradrd vonfirm bsrs spec am thinking 31.8 mm?

Not sure about spacers but as soon as cash its available I’m firing nine Witt a shorter stem and riser bars. It does definitely sit lower, hurts my back.

Can anyone confirm diameter of handle bars.Front end too low getting sore neck
Want to upgrade 2-3 inch risers?.Is it 31 mm.Other than that the Wazz is outstanding value and eats the beach up.All good FUN!.

I’m really on the fence about tubeless, having never tried it before. Isn’t going to cost something in the ~£50 ballpark for the startup materials and by the time you add the masses of sealant, the gains over a ~185g tube will be minimal?

Is the weight saving from tubeless even noticeable, you still need spare inner tubes anyway which weigh just as much. Plus carrying drinking water weighs a hell of a lot more still.

I found the best way to save weight is to carry a lot less water & plan a place to re-fill half way round the ride as water weighs you down more than anything

Is the weight saving from tubeless even noticeable, you still need spare inner tubes anyway which weigh just as much. Plus carrying drinking water weighs a hell of a lot more still.
I found the best way to save weight is to carry a lot less water & plan a place to re-fill half way round the ride as water weighs you down more than anything

Surely 2 spare tubes (and a bit of sealant) is lighter than 2 spare tubes, plus a tube in either tyre?

Carrying less water will save weight but planning routes around the locations of pubs, friendly cafés or available outdoor taps isn’t always practicable…

So 800g of water or 800g of extra wheel mass? I know which one I’d choose…

Tubeless ain’t all about weight. My Wazoo feels better tubeless, and it’s lighter. 🙂

Tubeless ain’t all about weight

True, but CTM’s list back up the page has the stock tubes at over 400g each, so you definitely save significant weight in this instance, and improve the ride I would hope…

Is the Wazoo RDS or FDS at the front? I think the On One fork will be RDS?

Tyres are always a good idea IMO, they’re the single component that can most ruin a bike. Other’n that don’t look for things to upgrade just because, look for specific things that bother you.

Wazoo comes with FDS wheels and fork. I had to get an adaptor from Triton to makes the FatNotFat front wheel work with the default fork, if I get a carbon Fatty Fork, I can remove the adaptor as both wheel and forks are RDS.

The default bars are too low for middle aged men in baggies like me with bad backs! The clamp is 31.8mm, standard oversize.

It does not help I recently upset my back again, but I’m in two minds about the height of the front end with the 35mm zero rise Corto stem and Knuckleball bar with 25mm rise.

Tempted to maybe put my spare On One 80mm 35 degree stem back on the bike for a while, which will raise the front ~5cm more compared to the Corto, things feel worse when I have the saddle height near my maximum of ~87cm (BB to top) for my short ~31″ legs for my 5’10” height.

Tonight I visited the Planet X site, they’ve reduced all the bits I wanted too upgrade my Wazoo.

So that’s 2 new,tyres, knuckle bar, stem & grips. Go check out their website. The tyres were £30 last week, £21 now etc.

Tried the Top Cash Back sure as well fit the first tinge so I’ll see how it works. Only thing I couldn’t get was Fat innertubes, all sold out by looks of it.

Wazzoo is £399 in Huddersfield today, looks like an 18″, apologies if that’s normal.

Not long had my latest PX order arrive. 😀

Carbon fatty fork ~580g, so light, less than 3x weight of the 747mm chewy knuckleball bars!
Carbon bung ~60g
180mm Formula The One-Oro-Mega rotor ~140g
160mm Formula Lightweight rotor ~100g
Supplied front skewer ~80g
Front fatty wheel ~1660g (not too bad considering the solid rim)

With 1 litre of Muc-Off C3 wet lube, pretty happy with that bundle for ~£143 including Topcashback. 🙂

I’m a bit apprehensive about swapping out the forks, hoping it becomes obvious and easy to do, as I uninstall the default fork.

Kayak23 (or any others who installed this fork), what torque did you use installing the carbon bung?

Did you have to use brake type adaptors, or did you simply move the mounting brackets from the default Wazoo fork?

Did others find that the bung is too big for the internal dimension of the carbon fatty fork steerer, unless they remove the outer sleeve completely?

Does it matter how the bung’s flattened circle top is orientated in the steerer?

Got a bit stressed about the bung not appearing to fit at all, thinking it was another quality control issue like the London Road’s oversize ovalised seat tube top! But is does seem as though with the outer sleeve removed, the bung ought to grip with the knurled expander as I tighten the bung nut/bolt.

While googling about the bung not fitting the fork, I came across http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/headset-playloosening-niner-fork-what-am-i-missing , which alerted me to the fact the bung nut had an inner thread, into which the topcap screw goes once the bung is set in place! 😆

Sorry about adding to my thread again without a reply, but I will forget about this discovery, if I don’t enter it now. 😉

Those of us with weak lower backs, myself and I think Dahedd included, might be interested to know the Carbon Fatty Fork has a steerer that is ~30cm… ~10cm more than the default Wazoo fork! 😯 8)

So I will have no issue running the zero rise Corto stem and the 25mm rise Knuckleball on the new fork. Thankfully I think I have enough spare steerer spacers in the garage, once I’m happy with the bung torque to put the new bits together.

Thanks for the update NoBody. My parcel also arrived today. I’m off tomorrow so I guess I know what I’m doing.

Was it the On-One fork you bought? I’ll maybe look at that later. Though I liked the Green Chinese one I spotted on eBay. For now I’ll have enough to do swapping tyres & changing over the stem, bars & associated gubbins.

Yep, the On One Carbon fatty fork, I’ve not known it to be cheaper than the current £89, same for the bung (£5) and the Fatty Front Wheel (£34).

Just remembered that you said you thought there were no more fatbike innertubes left at PX when you made your order that gets installed tomorrow. They are there, but a little hidden…
http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/TUVILIMTB/vittoria-lite-mtb-inner-tube

http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/TUOO26MTB/on-one-26-mtb-inner-tube

No idea on the Vittoria’s weight, but I’ve read the On One version is heavier than the default Voodoo one at ~550g (vs ~450g).

Schwalbe do two fatbike innertubes I know of, a very safe bet sv13j @ ~390g and a slightly more risky sv13f @ ~185g. I’ve got one of each installed, after one of my freeride tubes split along the seam during its first inflation.

Have fun installing your stem/bars/tyres tomorrow and taking them for a testride, pretty sure you will like the result, especially from the tyre swap! 😀

Double post. Crap Scot Rail WiFi 😡

Bugger. They hid them pretty well. I’ll order a couple once I’m off this bloody train with its crap WiFi.

Might be too late, but SJS cycles have the ~185g SV13F tubes at £3.99 each…

https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/inner-tubes/schwalbe-sv13f-xlight-fr-presta-tube-26-tyres-54559-to-75559/ (p&p extra)

Or free delivery for spending £10 or more via http://www.highonbikes.com/schwalbe-sv13f-mountain-bike-mtb-inner-tube-26-x-2-1-3-0-presta-40mm.html