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

26×42?? What are you guys riding up? So that’s basically granny ring at all times. I run a 30t up front on a 10/42 cassette and that feels crazy low in first gear. There is only one climb I can think of in the Quantocks which is crazy steep where for the first few 10s of yards I have used first gear. Other than that’s it’s too low for anything else. I would have thought any lower a gear is so painfully slow as to be counter productive?

John

I assume you weigh approximately 8 stones?
26/42 is perfect for the huge wheels (they may be 26″ rims, but the tyres add up to a huge diameter) plus winching my lard ass up anything resembling a hill.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that 26/10 is basically equivalent to 32/12 (OK, 32/12.31 if you want to be pedantic), so you are only losing about one gear from the top. I think a lot of people are put off using a 26T by this idea that it’s basically a granny ring, but forget that dropping from an 11 to a 10 tooth sprocket is a big difference.

It’s all just personal preference at the end of the day though and depends on how you ride, where you ride and to some extent, what you ride. For example, I’m looking at going 1x on my Orange Five. I’d like to stick with a 32T chainring on that as the bike was basically designed around that size chainring. The Five is also for short blasts in the woods. The fatbike, on the other hand, is for bigger days out, winching myself up mountains (with 30-60 minute sustained climbs) then coasting back down. It has huge amounts of traction and no rear suspension to worry about. So 26T with a 10-42 would make sense. A bottom gear of 26/42 is certainly low, but appreciated when you are 30 minutes into a climb, breathing through your ears and faced with a steep ramp covered in loose rocks (a surprisingly familiar scenario up here). A 28T with 11-46 would also do the job, but would just be heavier with no real benefit.

Did anyone else buy one of those On One Fatty v1 wheels that were supposed to be Rear Disc Spaced, to fit the RDS carbon Fatty fork?

My FatNotFat 29er front wheel has been fine since installing the fork ~6 weeks ago, but I went to switch to my fat wheel setup yesterday and the front rotor is right up against the mounts and won’t spin, as if it is Front Disc Spaced or something in-between (~2mm extra clearance would do it, while the FDS to RDS difference is ~4.8mm)!

I’m a bit pissed to say the least, I purposely bought that Fatty v1 wheel last summer because it was RDS and the default Wazoo front wheel is FDS.

Any ideas?

Finally went tubeless today on the DT Swiss BR2250 wheelset.
Fattystrippers! Couldn’t be easier to fit..tyres went up no problem.
Dude now weighs 12.4kg. All the weight I’ve shaved off I can undo by fitting a dropper!

Anybody know what headset bearings I need to order for my Dune?

Just pulled the trigger on a large dune. Should be here in a few days.

Looking forward to my first ride on a fat bike. 🙂

n0b0dy0ftheg0at – Member

Any ideas?

Burn On One to the ground?

Got my large Dune yesterday – god I was excited! Taking it out of the box was worth the £500, what a silly and awesome chunk of tyres and yellow! 🙂

I had some cheap avids laying around, so didn’t bother with the cable discs at all, straight onto the hydros. I was pleasantly surprised it had a 180mm rotor on the front. I did have to re-tap the top disk mount, wasn’t very smooth at all and I was worried about it stripping.

The seatpost is still a bit short at the max mark, but just ok. I’m 5-10 ish.

I was very surprised to feel how light the wheels where. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but they aren’t as heavy as imagined.

I’m happy with the 8 speed kit, I run 8 speed on my commuter and although it feels clunky, it lasts forever.

I went for a short blast, and so far think it’s too early to draw too many conclusions, other than WEIRD and interesting!

I had 10 psi front and 12 psi rear (measured with a motorbike pressure gauge), and any breaking down steep trails seemed to make it stand-up, or veer, or just wobble. I need a bit more time to feel/understand what’s happening with it and adjust when I’m doing I think – but not sure lower pressure would make this better?

Mashing the pedals makes it go in all sorts of directions but where you want. 😀 Guess that wide q-factor has a big impact.

It made muddy sections extremely easy – which for someone who struggles with mud, is great. Rode through a bottom bracket deep long puddle and it hardly slowed down.

Tyres seem ok, though I gather you can get much gripier tyres for mud. Shame the rims are drilled for car valves IMO.

I really enjoyed bouncing it down drop-offs, then trying to get it to slow down and turn for upcoming tight corners! Again, breaking hard seems to make it veer.

It’s much harder work on the climbs than a rigid 29er (Surly KM), which is good because I wanted it mainly for getting in quick and tough 1 hour rides. By the time I get fast on this I’ll be flying on the KM!

All in all I’m liking it, the fun factor is there and I’m itching to go and see what it can handle and learn how to ride it. I think the only issue I have is adjusting my riding to suit it, but for £500 I can see that it will be a load of fun, especially when winter rolls around.

This weekends job, tubeless. 😯

Then I’ve got a whole week off work to ride it! happy days! Will post some photos of my adventures.

How heavy are you? The veering sounds like self-steering which ime usually happens if your tyres are too hard.

I never got to take mine out of the box- but I did get to ride it through the shop and out the door 😆

97kg, so not light!

See, I’m leaning stuff here, I’d have sworn that tyres being too soft would fold about and self-steer…

Guess 8 psi would be next to try?

Edit – Just to add, after doing the chubclub this year, the Dune was my treat for getting under 15.5 st. 😀

I’m happy with the 8 speed kit, I run 8 speed on my commuter and although it feels clunky, it lasts forever

You’re not wrong – Got my Dune last October & after a winter of riding up to now(probably 3000mls-ish), a Dyfi enduro, several long days in the saddle, it’s still going strong & shifting well on the cheapo drivetrain…. Only real issue I have with the drivetrain is the jump from 1st to 2nd is a bit too much, but I’ll stick with it until when it finally wears out….

I changed ;
– H/bars to some comfier carbon ones with some ergo grips
– Bel Air saddle, comfiest saddle going IMHO
– Dropper seat post, as at 6’1″ it was very high at the back on the descents, best thing I’ve done to it TBH.
– Brakes that will actually stop it
– The tyres, had Floaters on it which were a vast improvement on the Juggers, just swopped to 4.8 JJ’s(bit tight at the back, but fits…just !) which seem nice & quick

Northwind, good advice.

lowered the pressure and it started to behave much better. Not sure what I’ve lowered it to, just kept going until it rode better. Seems to roll better too..

Also figured out you have to really exaggerate the action of turning with your hips – if you don’t point your torso where you want to go, the bike will go where it wants!

Once you get through the travel of the tyres and hit bigger bumps, you really realise how stiff the fork and frame are. On similar trails my steel KM is much smoother. I bet the ICT is a brilliant mix of the two, but maybe not worth the extra £1800. 🙂

After a long Wharncliffe session this January I treat mine to a Bluto, worth every penny.

Welcome to the Dune Club, the most expensive cheap fat bike you can buy. Despite the fact that it rides just fine as stock you can’t help upgrading! Just the frame left as stock on mine once I get my wheels built up…

grenosteve – Member

I bet the ICT is a brilliant mix of the two, but maybe not worth the extra £1800.

If you chat to Roverpig from this parish he may part with his ICT frame and forks 8)

I was checking out a Dune a couple of weeks back. On top of the reduction to £499 they were doing an extra 15% off that too! I was sorely tempted to get one except I already have a fatbike, a Cube Nutrail.

What I will say is the Dune is a lot lighter than I was expecting, lighter than mine and I still think it would be even if you fitted Blutos. Gotta love that colour scheme as well.

Well, tubeless failed! I’ve done lots of wheels and tyres using my track pump and trusty 2l bottle. Fat tyres aren’t having it though, think I need a compressor.

Decided to just put sealant in the tubes for now, but the cores aren’t removable! 😡 well maybe they are and they’re just tight, but I’m not willing to put anymore pressure on them. Its not like Fat tubes are easy to find in local shops!

97kg, so not light!

See, I’m leaning stuff here, I’d have sworn that tyres being too soft would fold about and self-steer…

Guess 8 psi would be next to try?

the starting point rule of thumb that gets quoted a lot (and mixes units in best British style) is 1psi for every 10kg of body weight. At 97kg I’d not drop from 12 to 8, that’s a 33% reduction in one go.

grenosteve – Member

Well, tubeless failed! I’ve done lots of wheels and tyres using my track pump and trusty 2l bottle. Fat tyres aren’t having it though, think I need a compressor.

It’s a bit of a bollocks on the standard Dune wheels. Can be done but I got nowhere near until I started adding packing foam.

Dune wheels are pretty easy to ghetto tubeless with a split tube, On One were doing 24″ fat tubes for £2 when I did mine…. If the tyres are a bit “baggy” on the wheel(like JJ’s) use a few loops of insulation tape around the edge each side..I’ve always found that once ghetto is set up right it’s just as good if not better than the proper tubeless way of doing. I’ve never burped a tyre with it, even had to cut some tyres off, the seal between the split tube & tyre has been that good !

One things for sure though, fat tyres are loads better without tubes in them. Dumping all that rotational weight & added thickness of the tube certainly helps.

Will give tubeless another go, but really seems like its pointless with just a track pump… Will have to borrow a mates compressor.

Was out again for over 3 hours this morning, really liking the fat bike. Did some trail centre stuff, downhill tracks, rocky narrow natural trails, XC loops, bogs, and just riding through the undergrowth between paths!

Got a PB by a long way on some DH tracks! The dune with the saddle down feels like an off-road BMX. 🙂 I like that you can brake as hard as you like almost anywhere without sliding.

Its slips liked any other bike on large wet rocks, but I’m OK with that, it helps with my nemesis, deep mud!

Really starting to get fast on it now, I can see why so many people have them as their only MTB.

Got some nice blisters and calluses developing on my hands, think the stock bars and grips need to go!

Split tube makes it a lot easier, I kept banging away at it til I had it working with just foam and tape. For some reason everyone used to recommend the schwalbe AV10D (or SV10D, I can never remember which one is presta and which is schrader) but the AV10/SV10 is much lighter, cheaper and is exactly the right width for an 80mm tyre- no need to cut it down.

Don’t know about the on one options, I wanted as light as I could get while I was split-tubing but eventually moved on to tape only to save all the tube weight.

On One’s 24″ split tubes don’t weigh too much TBH, you cut most of them off anyway, & anything is lighter than the tubes they come with as standard !

As for the bars & grips, I did one ride with them & binned them for carbon bars & ergo grips, much better. It’s he most comfortable bike I own & after spending 8hrs riding it off road the other week I can certainly see why people use them for epic distances..

Fatty strippers are like split tubes without the weight. Don’t cost much more than a tube either.

out of interest I’d heard 20 inch tubes are better for split 26″ set ups …was i misinformed ? hope not as i’ve ordered some superlight schwalbe 20 inch schraders from sjsc !
Also… fattystrippers …need to buy 2 x valves on top + not reusable they say?
The tubes I ordered are
these ones[/url]

Yes, you need valves (you can just cut some out of old tubes). You can reuse them if you don’t trim them, but that looks crap, so mine are trimmed. And I don’t change tyres anyway.

Out of interest are the Dunes big enough for tall guys ? I’m only 1.88 but tend to ride XL frames with a fair amount of post out as have long legs . I also Like a VTT around 60 to 63 cm .

I’m 6’1″ & a large is perfect for me, but then I generally always ride large bikes in all brands I’ve tried Giant, Spesh Kona, Trek, On One, Cube, GT etc

Was chatting to a Go outdoors staff member the other day. He said they are looking to release an updated Dune later this year. He said it will be the same frame but with a Bluto fork, with better speced components and running 1×11 . He said that they are hoping to price it around the £1000 mark. Took it with a pinch of salt but would be interesting to see considering how they have released an updated version of the Bossnut.

If you chat to Roverpig from this parish he may part with his ICT frame and forks

Thanks NM, but it looks as though I might have to take the radical step of actually listing these for sale if I want to sell them. Which probably means they’ll be sitting in my shed for a good while yet 🙂

RP..what sort of price are we talking for the whole bike?Might be tempted if cheap enough!It is a large no?

I’m using fatty strippers on BR2250 wheels. Setup couldn’t be easier.
Apparently you can reuse them, but you need to carefully part the tyre from the fatty stripper as they get stuck together with the sealant.
I trimmed mine, but I’d say still reusable as the fatty stripper should still fit in the bead of the rim refitted.
Just need to lube them up to get the tyre bead to slide into place.
I used Stan’s valves, just cut some old inner tube circles, think I used 3 on each valve.
Poke a small hole in the middle and put into the valve.
Hold the wheel horizontal, push the valve against something like a tabletop while pushing your bodyweight against the wheel.
Then screw up the locknut as tight as you can on the valve.

As most fatty rims are single wall, there isn’t enough thread to get the lock nut tight enough on the valve to stop air leaking.
That’s why I used the circles cut from an inner tube or even a fat rubber washer. For good measure I used two lock nuts on the valve.

Not sure if I’d want a Bluto on mine TBH -Part of the reason I bought it was to have a maintenance free bike that could be ridden all year, washed when I felt like it that just needed a spot of lube on the chain now & again…..Apart from a few upgrades & greasing the headset a couple of times it has been exactly that. Now I’m running 4.8 JJ’s on it I don’t feel the need for a bouncy fork, got other bikes for that…

RP..what sort of price are we talking for the whole bike?Might be tempted if cheap enough!It is a large no?

It is indeed a large although a “whole bike” could be a problem as it’s currently in bits 🙂 I think I’m only a brake adaptor and a set of cables away from having all the bits to build it back up again, but finding the time to actually do that is another matter.

I’m not at the stage of giving it away, but happy to let it go to a good home for a “fair price”. So, if you fancy a fatbike in kit form feel free to message me 🙂

Calibre Dune owners, I’ve just changed my wheels so now have the original wheels set up tubeless with On One Floaters that are surpluses to requirements. They’ve done October to March so not a lot of use.
Anybody interested as a winter wheel set up to save you swapping tyres?
I’ve no real idea of value but I imagine postage will be costly. email in profile.
I’m near Huddersfield if that helps.

…and I could hook you up with some alost new 4.8 jumbo jims to go with it!

John

My dude has been on a diet..
Hope fatsno hubs with XM551 27.5 rims..the grass hasn’t been on a diet!

Yes the logos don’t match up, but the tyres were so tight on the rim I couldn’t be bothered to wrestle them round.
Have to take them off anyway as the gorrila tape supplied isn’t holding them up tubeless, will try some 30mm tubeless tape I have.
Maybe I need two runs overlapping?
Diameter wise the ranger 3.0 are roughly 725mm, the 4.0 Jumbo Jim’s measured 735mm.
If we take into account the higher pressure run on the rangers and less tyre sag, I’ve probably not changed the bottom bracket height.

Had a quick spin round the block, and it feels very flickable and nimble

emac65 – Member 
Not sure if I’d want a Bluto on mine TBH….blah blah blah

Posted 3 days ago #

Ahem….. Well, that was before some git posted a PSA that On one were doing them for £299…………. 😳

They’re up to £350 now, still a bargain but I’d have to get a new front wheel/hub as well for my Wazoo so that adds a pile on too unfortunately

Anyone tried Schrader tubeless valves, especially with Fatty Strippers?

I’m just wondering whether Schrader would fit the valve cutout better in my Dune wheels, less faffing with old inner tube packing/spacers, and no need to take the valve cores out to get air in a hurry?

Or am there just as well off using valves cut out of old inner tubes packed out to fit?