Would you buy a (new) fatbike for ~£1k?

Well….not for that price.

Crank arm fell off, to some extent. I’m going to blame me.

Well, after not riding for nearly 3 years, a month now on Singletrack again, the bug has really struck anew.

Bought one of these Dunes yesterday… a couple of hours round Llandegla this afternoon and I’m still smiling 🙂 Haven’t had as much fun for ages.

Haven’t seen this mentioned – I assume the wheels/running gear is not as good, as it has (albeit basic) hydraulic brakes…….

BH Bigfoot

It’s heavier as stock, steel forks, un drilled heavier wheels and tyres……..just not as good a bike IMO.

Well thanks to all the enthusiasm on here I’ve just bought a secondhand On One Fatty.
Should be a fun toy for the winter.

While all this was going on I have also bought a s/h fattie!

I’ll soon be a huffin’ and puffin. Can’t wait! 😀

Not sure about transmission yet, assume you need to do something funky with such a wide BB shell?

Pretty much all the big brands have options, apart from Shimano who are sticking their fingers in their ears and shouting la-la-la. Only thing you can mess up is crank length, they come in 100 and 120mm BB’s (roughly for 4″ and 5″ tyre clearance respectively). There’s a slight degree of incompatibility with some frames/cranks but it mostly seems to have been ironed out.

First ride done! Pics first then a ramble with my thoughts on how it went.

Who are you calling fat? by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

Who are you calling fat? by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

Who are you calling fat? by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

I need to find a better way to strap it to my bike trailer. This only sort of works!

Who are you calling fat? by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

Took the dune to the FoD and – for those that know it – rode all of the Verderers and the first climb/new descent on the Freeminers. Did a bit of off piste as well, mainly messing about on small to medium sized drops.

Running 10PSI in both tyres (no spare tubes yet), conditions were good on the man made trails, pretty muddy and slippy everywhere else. Bike was stock except for a seat collar QR.

Things I loved:
– Grip. I know I shouldn’t have been surprised but it’s phenomenal. Nowhere near the limits but on the last verderers descent, I was happy to chuck it into the berms at reasonable angles. While making BRRRAAAAP noises 🙂

– Nimbleness. I expected a monster truck that you point in one direction and can only go somewhere else by shouting ‘FULL RIGHT RUDDER’ and clanging a ships bell! But it’s amazingly precise, really can pick a line, lots of fun swinging in between apexes. Easier to get round hairpins than my 29er

– It is a monster truck tho. From 26 to 29 I noticed the ‘rollover’ you get with bigger wheels. The Dune is like that but on steroids. It’s amazing how much the tyres will soak up and you can pick stupid lines right up to the point when you realise it is 2inches of undamped travel. There’s no magic there!

– Climbs well. DIdn’t use the inner ring but nothing really steep on this ride. It’ll go 1×10 easily. I love the way you can basically stop, put the power down and motor off. Not in the deep mud but everywhere else it felt like you could climb up the side of a house if you had the legs.

– Gears and brakes (Although see below) work fine. Comedy gaps in the block but everything shifts properly even when muddy.

– Grin factor. New bike and all that, but god it made me smile. I wasn’t going to do the free-miners but wanted to play on some little drop off I know up there. The last run over wet roots was brilliant. Although I was lucky not to crash a couple of times.

Things I didn’t like so much
– How quickly you slow down! I barely used the brakes and I’m not brave. Although I didn’t like them much. When you get up to speed you need to keep it, encourages pumping etc but I didn’t get it right too often.

– Hard (for me) to get it airborne. That’s why I went looking for drops. It needs a proper weight shift to get the front end up. I’m used (post Jedi) to just standing up really on my FS bikes. You have to work harder here but that’s just technique. By the end I was happy lobbing it off a 2ft drop and it feels super stable in the (tiny) air. Landings are well cushioned 🙂

– The brakes. They work fine actually but those long leavers are nasty when you’re used to one finger braking. Happy to switch those out for SLX next weekend.

– No dropper. You do get used to one don’t you? I lowered the seat for the longer descents but I’ll definitely be on the lookout for a long 30.9 dropper. The std 350mm is not quite long enough for me, I need another half inch(!). But I’ll live with it as it’s definitely worth a dropper.

– Narrow bars. All my bikes has 780mm, these are maybe 710? Luckily I have spares.

– I had to come home. And go to spin class later. My legs are ruined!

I was knackered anyway as I’d ridden 60km yesterday in the slop and been to the gym this morning. But the Dune put such a grin on my face, I just kept going until running out of time and light. The verderers is about 11km and it normally takes me about 40-45 mins. I ride it lots with my teenage daughter – normally on my HT and once on my cross bike (which was horrible) and today I ripped round in about the same time including some faffing.

Not putting too much effort in at all, so while it’s not as quick up or down as my other bikes, it’s not far behind. And I don’t much care because you just go searching out stupid stuff that seems entirely inappropriate for a rigid bike.

Only 15km and less than 90 mins riding. But on that experience, going to get the upgrades on and get back out there!

nds have options, apart from Shimano who are sticking their fingers in their ears and shouting la-la-la. Only thing you can mess up is crank length, they come in 100 and 120mm BB’s (roughly for 4″ and 5″ tyre clearance respectively).

Thanks for that TINAS. The RF cranks look good especially as I have a spare 32T direct mount ring. NW in his DORC guise told me there’s something about offsets you need to be careful of. I do love a new standard 😉

Great write up Alex.

Look forward to hearing about the upgrades and how it rides.

I had a Surly Pugsley over the weekend and, on the back of that, ordered a Pug this morning while returning the loaner.

Ta. The transmission I’ll probably run through the winter as it’s better than expected. It is ugly as sin tho. And the cranks flex even under my puny thighs! Brakes, bars and grips tho need changing.

Once the TX is shot, then it’ll be a used but serviceable 1×10 SLX drivetrain with a 32T ring and a set of new cranks. Cranks seem to be around £85 with a BB (but not direct mount ring) which seems pretty reasonable.

How are you building the Pug up?

I was so impressed with the overall package I went for the complete build.

Are you on the UK fat bike forum?

Not yet but I’ll take a look when I’m back from Spin. Assuming I can still walk 😉

eddiebaby – Member
Well thanks to all the enthusiasm on here I’ve just bought a secondhand On One Fatty.
Should be a fun toy for the winter.

Will be hand delivered to your good self tomorrow 😀

Nope, tried to register a couple of weeks ago but still waiting for admin approval? Any suggestions?

No idea. Sorry. I think some of guys also post on here so maybe they can help?

Admin on UK Fatbike Forum can be a bit slow – they will get to you eventually!

The UKFB Forum has only one Admin who gets bombed with loads of Spam so has to sort through for the genuine fatty folks…
Great to see so much Fatbike interest here on STW 🙂
This forum totally ripped original Puglsey/Muckluk owners 6 years ago… until it snowed in December 2010… 😉
Since folks have seen what Fatbikes are like on natural terrain for xc riding…

The two Facebook pages- UK fatbikes and UK Fatbike Club have most of the same members as the UKFB Forum…

Also Forth Fat page on FB for the yearly coastal fatbike meet- sponsered by NB Gin 😀

Ok great, sounds like its just a matter of waiting it out then.

Also Forth Fat page on FB for the yearly coastal fatbike meet- sponsered bt NB Gin

Sounds good!

…sounds like its just a matter of waiting it out then.

I’ve been trying since late September, but no luck yet.

On my 3rd try now. Have tried emailing them, too.

Hope it works out. I’ve found the site very useful.

same for me, tried it several times, also emailing… no luck

anyway, really great to have an fatbike thread here on STW now..

They let me in no bother. You’re all not worthy!

Well here it is all dressed up and ready to roll. Not had chance to ride it yet as been he’ll last few days.

Lookin good! Have to say I’m really glad I replaced the green rim tape though. Most important mod.

Nah it needs green floaters lol

I’ve just bought a Fatty too, must be catching!

I need to replace the Jumbo Jim’s on mine with something that copes with the gloop a bit better – any thoughts or recommendations…?

Nates

(Or Floaters if on a budget)

Grand – thanks Andy

The Nates really are superb, but look for the folding versions as the are 1/2 a kilo lighter than the wired ones. Floaters aren’t anywhere as good, but are half the cost of Nates. I’m running a floater on the rear as cheaper and a Nate on the front to stop the classic fatbike front wheel quaplaning on thick mud.

I can do Nates, but might just get one for the front, so I don’t actually shit myself at Cwmcarn, as I nearly did on Sunday…

Good shout on the weight, thanks again.

They let me in no bother. You’re all not worthy!

Oh if they let NW in, I’ll probably not bother applying 🙂

Like the bike packing one. I reckon the biggest weight saving would be removing all the assorted bracketry and front mech. I’ll do a before and after weight when I make the changes to mine. Not that I care much as it doesn’t feel heavy to ride.

Anyone know where to source an inner tube from? Assume it needs to be schrader? Most seem to be presta

You can use a presta with either an adaptor or the wee steppy lockrings some tubes come with.

(or you can just not stress about it but, you know)

I’m going to work through my stock of random big dh tubes first.

Inner tubes; I use the Spesh Presta 26 x 2.4-3.0. Works fine on a 4″ tyre and relatively light compared to the fatbike specific geronimos.

Do they still work alright for bigger tyres?

I have some old DH tubes, will go dig ’em out and see how fat they are. Failing that I like Andy’s suggestion. Last time I saw a fat bike tube, it looked like it’d cleared out a whole rubber plantation!

Do they still work alright for bigger tyres?

They do, a lot of people use the 3″ Schwalbe tubes.

The only downside is they’re essentially disposable, patches never seem as stretchy as the tube, at least a third of mine peel off again inside the tyre within a few miles.

Tubeless is the way forward. Not much weight saving by the time you’ve added a LOT of gunk (150-200ml or so), but it saves having to pump up those tyres and find/fix/’hope they inflated’ tubes.