[Closed] Do I want a fat-bike?

Just as a wee addendum, rode my ChiTi with full fat over the weekend (100mm rims, 4.8 Bud and Lou)

The only real downside was on really narrow trails (lets call them ruts!) that were not an issue on 'normal' width tires. Esp going fast - catch one side of tire, overcorrect, catch otherside... arhgghghgh speed wobble!

On the sheep path type ruts in the mountains it was not such an issue as speeds were lower and there was margin for error to just 'fat bike it' out of the rut. However on some of the Enduro ruts around Dunkeld/Birnam it was a bit spicy!

"Do I want a fat-bike?
Yes, yes you do.
I sold my FS after buying the Puffin, its been my main bike for 3 years.
Its a keeper.
Try & get a ride on one though, My lads On-One is not a patch on the Puffin, the Puffin is like a Monster Truck Cotic Soul. Its just a laugh, everywhere it goes.

[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/4181/34320966602_6ec7ba5dd8_k.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/4181/34320966602_6ec7ba5dd8_k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/UhPVDu ]Puffin - just getting on with it. No colour matching here. Or tartan. :-)[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/takisawa2/ ]pten2106[/url], on Flickr

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Somewhere north of 66 degrees and -25C in Finland - I didn't have any direct human contact for about 36 hours. Took about 16 hours to cover 90km that day - don't let the blue sky deceive you, there was barely any warmth from the sun and just standing around you could feel the cold knawing at you.

I suggest that before pressing the buy button on ebay you join the UK Fat Bike selling group on facebook. It's very active and there are always deals at every price level. If you can find some fattys to try or demo then try to do it because there's as much difference in fatty geo/handling as with any other kind of bike so it's good to know which works for you. Having said all that, I think all fattys are going to be fun! Good luck and many happy rides.

so why in 2020 would anyone ride on tyres...

There are people out there that still think tyres peaked with the Nokian Gazzaloddi.

No, me neither.

Forgot about this but sometimes the question comes up about whether fat bikes are slow compared to other bikes. Which seems to be the common misconception.

So last summer I took my Canyon Dude fat bike (weighs roughly 14kg) to a XC race along with my carbon 29er HT (11kg), which I'd usually use. I'm not especially quick and only do the odd race for a bit of fun, so this was purely a bit of a laugh. However I was interested to see the difference over a 40 minute lap of woodland single track. It was the Brighton Big Dog race if anyone's familiar with it.

Anyway, I did the first lap on the 29er, second on the fatty. I was 30 seconds slower on the fat bike. Which I could easily put down to being a little bit tired as I went as quick as I could on the first lap. A mate who was racing predicted I'd be several minutes slower on the fat bike!

Riding the same bike (Salsa Mukluk Carbon) with 26x4.8 vs 29x2.4, I was roughly 2 mins slower on the fat wheels round the bottom loop of gisburn, IIRC around 50 mins. Felt loads faster (not necessarily in a good way) on the skinny wheels mind.

Imo/ ime fat bikes are significantly slower on tarmac and fast easy trails. Once it gets twisty the extra grip and momentum makes up for the extra drag

big_scot_nanny
Full Member

The only real downside was on really narrow trails (lets call them ruts!) that were not an issue on ‘normal’ width tires. Esp going fast – catch one side of tire, overcorrect, catch otherside… arhgghghgh speed wobble!

This is even more fun with frozen or hard-dried ruts. There was a year of the glentress seven where one section was an absolute motorway for normal wheels, just stick the tyres in it and scalextric your way down it at max speed, and a sort of nightmare assault course for me. It's rare, though