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Purely subjective and not boasting but I seem to cover the ground at a fair old lick on my fat bike.
Without wanting to bore everybody to death it feels motorised. There's a threshold slightly above walking pace where it seems to go a lot faster than the amount of effort I'm putting in. I'm basing this on occasional riding companions who are kind of struggling to keep up and the increased number of Cannock randoms who are reeled in and despatched. No swooning please.
Not sure what it is obv the tyres have something to do with it, maybe being rigid there's no noodliness and I think having a bike that is actually the right size also helps
Just wondered if anyone else has a fast fatty?
Hey Rocketman, if you're southern based you sound like the perfect candidate for the Fat Bike subcategory in this year SouthernXC...
I've heard others make similar comments before, I guess it's an inertia thing?
These guys do for sure:
threshold slightly above walking pace
You did say fast didn't you?
Love that film. Suspect my kids will as well.....
im not too sure if mine fast because im too busy laughing me co*k off every time I ride it 😆
So at just over 4mph you're faster than the people you're riding with? The awsumz is mage stongz
im not too sure if mine fast because im too busy laughing me co*k off every time I ride it
If you are quick, you might just win the latest vasectomy thread....
no need MCTD, im THAT ugly and bearded that no woman would ever look at me, Lol
and im the fastest mon in our street if that's any good? 😉
So at just over 4mph you're faster than the people you're riding with?He's not saying that.
^^ glad someone is paying attention 🙂
Even if they do begger up their quotes.
Riding mine, I've seen some PRs in places I'd not expected them.
If they really do give speed for any given effort, they should be mile-munchers. not sure if it would be first choice for a SDW in a day, though!
Anyone put in big miles on theirs? 50-100 mile day rides?
As unbelievable as this may sound, I'm easily faster than my roadie uncle on his Spesh Sirrus on my Moonlander with the 4.8" BFLs at 10/12ish psi ON THE ROAD!
I've done 50+ mile days on a fatbike. Used it for bikepacking trips too. On the right terrain it'll cover ground easily enough (often better than a skinnier tyre). The reduced tyre "chatter" also makes it remarkably comfy on longer trips. It's mostly about momentum though. A lighter, skinnier wheel/tyre combination is obviously easier to accelerate. A heavier combo tends to carry any speed better once it's spinning.
FWIW, I've noticed a similar tendency with my B+ bike. In fact, I reckon B+ (or 29+ if you're taller) is probably the best compromise for most riders who don't need the floatation of the bigger (4"+) tyres.
I've noticed a similar tendency with my B+ bike
This is the direction I'm heading in
Fat tyres have convinced me that thin tyres are all wrong (for me) and a + bike would make a great all-rounder
This thread is useless without Strava. Seriously. What feels fast isn't necessarily fast.
I've done a few solo 24hr races on mine so that works out at some fairly big miles. I have noticed the speed thing too and put it down to carrying more speed through corners so you don't have to accelerate again.The closest analogy I can think of is back in the day of crappy non turbo diesels if you drove smoothly they could be hustled along at some "interesting" speeds but if you screamed along the straights and pootled around the corners you were going nowhwere fast!
[quote=molgrips ]This thread is useless without Strava. Seriously. What feels fast isn't necessarily fast.Surely the "fun" element is that you feel fast - unless of course you're actually racing?
I won the solo category of a 24 hour race on my Moonlander!
[url] http://newretrotom.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/chamonix-24-hour-mountain-bike-race-solo.html [/url]
I've noticed a similar tendency with my B+ bike
I think a b+ bike, with a spare set of 29er wheels with 2.x" tyres, would be great as a "one bike for everything" ride.
molgrips » This thread is useless without Strava. Seriously. What feels fast isn't necessarily fast.
Riding mine, I've seen some PRs in places I'd not expected them.
Like long shallow uphills. Short, sharp, steep, scrabbly uphills that I've only cleared on the fattie, I expected to be PRs. A couple of the right sort of downhills too.
Good work, NR Tom! That's exactly the sort of riding I was wondering about!
I thought at first it was just that mine felt nice, going fairly slow- none of my other bikes are really good at bimbling. Everything's easier when it feels good. But even with big grippy tyres it's still an easy bike to keep trundling along. Don't tell anyone though, they all think we're super fit.
Flipside seems to be that it gets draggier, faster than a normal bike- trying to keep it going fast drains my legs way faster even when it had JJs on.
@NewRetroTom wow that's amazing! Going to have to give it a good read! (:
Surely the "fun" element is that you feel fast - unless of course you're actually racing?
Absolutely. But the OP was talking about actually being faster, which is an interesting topic in its own right.
Fun is subjective, so ride whatever you like 🙂
The only problem I have with fatties is that my wife instigated a 1-in 1-out policy in the garage when I had 5 bikes. I managed to get that extended to 6 because you need a specific bike for the track.
So I'd have to get rid of an MTB, currently rigid 29er, 7" FS or XC race.
Tough call.
Hey NewRetroTom, that is well good work. Thanks for raising the bar even higher for us mincers to look up at... 🙁
nedrapier,
Did the Lakeland 200 with my Fatty in 2 days - it was awesome at the mile munching.
Saying that, I think Scotroutes has the best answer. A mate was on a 29+ & although I could ride up the odd thing he could not the 29+ (krampus) was definitely faster overall.
Then again, he did have his tyre pressure well up.
Fast riders will be fast on any bike, but saying that there seems to be some evidence that fat bikes roll well over some types of ground and carry speed well through corners.
But then they loose in absolute speed in other areas. I don't think your going to see them as the bike of choice for serious racers, but they certainly seem to have a sweet spot that clicks with some riders.
they certainly seem to have a sweet spot that clicks with some riders
That must be the category where I fall into. Haven't ridden anything else since getting mine. I really do enjoy it.
I did a b+ versus 29" test at my local xc loop. Same bike, different wheels. Similar style of tyres (front more aggressive). I did 5 Laps on each, with target heart rates. This was on two different Sundays with a similar build up in the week. The 29" had the disadvantage that the conditions had deteriorated a lot.
I swore the b+ was faster. My wallet wanted it to be faster, I'm sure I tried a bit harder on it too.
It wasn't as quick as my 29".on the fast laps.
What I did find interesting was that on the lower heart rate Laps at the end, the b+ was showing it was a good margin quicker....
Maybe when half arsed riding it's quicker, but not flat out.
That would make sense. Drag is proportional to speed, but the lower pressure and more supple ride would seem to help at lower speeds where the smaller tires would get bounced about more.