I’m well aware that nothing grips on wet roots.  But has anyone else found fat bikes worse? I’ve ridden the same bike for years, and it’s always been difficult on roots, just wondering if it’s just me.

Last night in 2 hours I had:

1x “sideways superman” as the back wheel disappeared at lightning speed climbing up some switchbacks.

1x OTB directly into the only Holly sapling nearby in a trail lined with nice soft bracken and loam.

1x spectacular OTB which left me airborne long enough to be searching for something to grab hold of, before deciding that gloveless and going for the front tyre wasn’t the best idea after all. The bike then caught up with me and smacked my right knee hard enough that I couldn’t bend it over TDC for the ride back to the car!

Fat bikes are generally better than standard ones but when they do let go they tend to slide for ever.

Caveat – On one tyres are a nightmare on roots – the tread is too paddle like so there’s no sideways, if a root rests on the gap between treads you’re toast. Maxxis FBF  on the front and Surly Nate rear works well for me on wooded singletrack

Fatbike riders are generally worse riders and use their body to control their bike far less.

Sweeping generalisation I know. but 100% true

Fatbike riders are generally worse riders and use their body to control their bike far less.

Sweeping generalisation I know. but 100% true

The only thing more fun to ride than a fat bike is your mum, both are a stigma I’m happy to live with.

Caveat – On one tyres are a nightmare on roots – the tread is too paddle like so there’s no sideways, if a root rests on the gap between treads you’re toast. Maxxis FBF  on the front and Surly Nate rear works well for me on wooded singletrack

They are On-one tyres so maybe that explains it. I’ve got a stock of them though so I’m not changing! I did try Nates and couldn’t really tell a difference in normal conditions.

I’ve got a stock of them though so I’m not changing!

Get used to falling off then 🙂

I got rid of mine after one too many falls. If you bought them when O-O were flogging them cheap you’ll get your money back+ on the UK Fat Bike sales page.

Fatbike riders are generally worse riders

What about people who ride normal bikes well then get a fat bike?  And only ride it sometimes?

I hate roots…

That’s all I have to add.

Wet roots caused me to break my neck headbutting a tree. Never try to ride them on a demo bike with semi-slick tyres.

Bonty Mud-X were pretty good last time I tried them, but I don’t think they come in fat bike size. It’s those sipes (I think that’s what they call the slices in the knobbles). Can you get fat tyres with them?

Bonty Mud-X were pretty good last time I tried them, but I don’t think they come in fat bike size. It’s those sipes (I think that’s what they call the slices in the knobbles). Can you get fat tyres with them?

As I’ve spare tyres I could always find out with a pair of cutters if it makes a difference.

The On-One’s have a sort of double/single paddle round the center, then two rows of circumferential (?) ‘paddles’ on the shoulders.

yeah they are crap on roots – not sure why that caused you to go OTB though? Might need to think of another excuse 🙂

Once the front wheel has decided it didn’t like being in front I didn’t really get chance to observe whether I actually went over the bars or just carried on down the trail without the bike and the bike went sideways.  The important thing is it hurt!

I thought that grip on wet roots was mainly influenced by weight placement – so if you’ve got your body all wrong you’re goin’ down. Unless you can correct your weight placement in a nanosecond and save it.

Also depends on the angle at which the tyre rolls over the root, so hitting it at a perfect 90 degrees is spot on, but too much either side and the tyre starts to move to the side. Yes?

Best thing to is go really really fast and scream your head off.

I always crash on wet roots, BTW.

Its not your tyres. Mostly roots are a problem because people break/steer/pedal over them. Hit 90 degree straight on, with some speed, pedals flat, ass off the saddle and relax and it shouldn’t be an issue. Also low tyre pressures will help. Under 20 psi 😉 on 2.3s.

Changing tyres wont help much

Also low tyre pressures will help. Under 20 psi

on 2.3s.

Changing tyres wont help much

It did for me (specifically from the ones the OP uses) – 4.0’s at 6 psi 😉

Sometimes you’re the hammer sometimes you’re the anvil. Sounds like it was just your day to try out for the Red Arrows 🙂

Back in the day… wet roots and Conti Vert Pro’s… the root of todays NHS crisis with people carrying injuries for the rest of their lives…

Lesson of the week – don’t stock up on tyres.

Its not your tyres. Mostly…

Yeah, but some of it definitely is. I learned most of my root riding at QECP, which, if you’re not familiar, is roots roots and more roots. Most of the roots have chicken lines around them now, where people haven’t bothered to learn the technique. But I still take the rooty line. Wrong tyres in the wet though and its a different ballgame.

Wet roots aren’t a problem

Off camber wet roots – now they are a swine!

If I see these coming up my tactic is NOT to hit them at a 90 degree angle. I want to exit at a 90 degree angle and that’s not going to happen if I enter at 90!

Instead point the bike up the slope more to compensate for the fact you are going to be sliding sideways back down. Also try and unweight the bike a bit to minimise the drift – sort of like a jump that doesn’t quite leave the ground.

It doesn’t always work though – depends how long the section is – sometimes you are just going down 🙂

There used to be a section like that on a trail back home, think of a chicane with a raised mass of roots as the island.

You could either pick your way around them all winter, or launch yourself over them and after a few hundred crashes you could set yourself up and know where and what angle you’d exit at every time 🤞

Wet roots, and indeed roots in general, are my nemesis. I can get down Fort bill down hill track, but point me in the direction of the pie run on gt red and I break out in hives.

. Hit 90 degree straight on, with some speed, pedals flat, ass off the saddle and relax and it shouldn’t be an issue.

If only the dammed roots would cooperate and line up at 90 degree angles to the trail. The ones that get me are all over the place !!!

I always found Swampthing Super Tacky to be good on wet roots, dunno if there’s a fat bike equivalent, might be a bit draggy mind.

Minion 4.8s at 6psi work great for me- basically they’re massive and squishy so it’s not that they grip on roots, it’s that at any time, they probably still have some knobs in the ground not being degripped just because of the contact patch and deformyness.

Downside is it’s much harder to unweight or gap things that’d be better gapped. Well, among the downsides.

Only way to deal with wet roots

That or jump way the hell over the damm things!!

Just about to fit some 2.6 Magic Mary’s to my Kenevo – that’ll show them roots. The 2.8 Butchers would surely kill me

Wet roots? Get your revenge, the answer is Ice Spiker Pros. 🙂

I hate the **** things.

Mostly roots are a problem because people break/steer/pedal over them.

Which is kinda necessary if they’re on a descent, aren’t running neatly across the trail, or are on a climb. Obviously, the solution is to get off and walk unless the roots are perfectly positioned on a nice, straight, flat section.

Love that end bit of the beast/dragon’s back at coed y brenin where it’s a mash of roots all over the place before the dropoff under the bridge.

Great in the dry… 😉

Floaters are cheap for a reason, changed mine for a nate on the rear and a minion out front – hello grip .

Compound really effects grip on roots, most fat bike tyres have harder compound treads and are skatey  on roots because of that.

The best tyres I’ve used for gripping on roots has been the ridiculously soft E13 Trs tyre and the purple Ultra Soft 2.6 Magic Mary. The Mary actually allowed me to use the front brake on roots on the steep bits of Morzines “The Roots” run, in 2 inches of slop and pouring rain. Never, ever in my life used a tyre with that much grip before. I’m not kidding when I say it felt like cheating.

However, I wouldn’t run the orange 2.6 soft compound Mary to get more grip on roots, the tread is wider spaced than a standard Mary and that combined with the harder compound creates a fairly skatey tyre on roots considering its size.