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Out riding this morning and there's a fair bit of snow around the dee valley
I was out on my karate monkey running 2.4 front and 2.3 rear tyres, dropped psi down to 16psi and had loads of grip and traction. The bike rode perfectly on compacted snow and up to about 5-6" deep but it was hard going. The snow wasn't all powdery quite firm with a frozen top.
Now Ive looked at fat bikes on and off for the last few years and have parts sat around to be used in a potential build. My question is at what point is a fat bike un-rideable in snowy conditions? Shirley there is a point when you start to sink and lose grip/float/traction. I'd like to know your experiences please. Oh and if there's anybody with one in north Wales that would let me have a go on theirs before the snow goes then that would be helpful!
My ride today got to a stop due to 20foot snow drifts. There is a road under there somewhere!
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No easy answer I'm afraid - such is the variability of snow. Of course a wider tyre will help, but it can be the case that you want a wide/knobbly tyre for traction whereas a wide/smooth tyre cuts the surface up less and doesn't dig in.
Sometimes, it's actually better to have skinny/knobby tyre as that will cut through powder to a firmer base (in the same as as mud tyres work on other MTBs).
as per scotroutes.
on fresh still falling powder i found about 8 inches to be the limit.
if it had a frozen crust i found once i got moving she was pretty unstopable.
Depends on a whole lot of things. When walkers and other trail traffic pack the snow down, its easy to ride. But the last two snows that we've had were overnight, and heavy, wet snow followed by a day above freezing. Impossible to ride in that crap!