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Remember half fat bikes? I'm considering it and was looking for some opinions based on experience.
I have a stooge mk3. It has a kinesis maxlight carbon fork with lots of space, so I've been thinking about filling that space for those days at trail centres and the likes where going down is more important than climbing. I currently have a high roller 27.5 x 3.0 fitted front and back and I'm considering sticking a minion FBF 27.5 x 3.8 up front for a bit more cush on the rough.
So the questions are,
1. Will the FBF sit the front of the bike up too high and adversely affect the handling too much? I was planning on taking a couple of head set spacers out and rotating EBB to lowest position to off set the riding position.
2. Will the fbf add a nice amount of cush but maintain speed and control compared with the high roller or will it just feel fat and sluggish and not want to go round corners?
Thanks in advance for your answers based on experience 😁
2
2, as in: it just feel fat and sluggish and not want to go round corners
1 no
2 depends on the pressure you're running, get it right and it'll grip corners like chocolate ice cream to a toddlers face. Don't expect it to behave like a suspension fork though as there is no damping and once it starts bouncing and you go faster bad things can happen, ask @JohnClimber
@trimix thanks for responding. what makes you say that? Have you run an fbf before? Why would it feel like that?
@rOcKeTdOg thanks for response. Yeah it took me a bit of playing to get pressures right with 3.0 tyres, but sorted now. I will definitely experiment with fbf if I decide to try it.
With a very large volume tyre you start to lose control and feedback as its a lot of undamped suspension.
If you want precision to find grip you dont want that muffled / lost with bounce.
You say you want speed and control, that means grip but not much rolling resistance, confidence and controlled damping. The reasons semi fat bikes didnt catch on was because the offered non of the advantages a full fat tyre did and non of the advantages a normal tyre did. Its just a mushy compromise, half good at anything.
Get some light suspension and a fast XC tyre.
@trimix thanks for the feed back. What bike did you use a semi fat tyre on? Just out of interest.
There's a reason it didn't catch on (sorry).
what was that then?
I loved my T129 in fat-front/semi-fat rear.
Loads of control added, especially in tech terrain.
Cheers!
I.
Never tried it, but can't see how you would ever want a tyre that big at a trail centre. Even 3" is huge. No damping either! Boing!
A 3" tyre has less rolling resistance in rough terrain than say a 2.3" tyre. So makes sense to me. Especially if you have the PSI sufficiently low enough (not too low mind) and rims wide enough. I thought a 3.8 tyre would also be fairly decent if the PSI is right, hence why I was asking.
Thanks Ivan, looks pretty mad on a full sus. 😄
It's not enough of a benefit IMO/E.
Never tried it, but can’t see how you would ever want a tyre that big at a trail centre. Even 3″ is huge. No damping either! Boing!
Depends on the trail centre. For instance, it works great at Glentress, but is rubbish at Laggan.
OP - you seem to be asking whether you could fit a 3.8" tyre on your existing wheel? I'd have thought that was less than optimal unless your current rim is extremely wide. If you were going to be using a new wheel then it would make sense to go with a 26"x3.8" wheel/tyre, negating any geometry changes.
can’t see how you would ever want a tyre that big at a trail centre.
Can't answer that as I'm not riding trial centres... Peaks, Lakes, bit of Wales and also some Scottish places. I'm not a TC person...
looks pretty mad
😀 And was attracting loads of attention.
Cheers!
I.
@scotroutes running 50mm rim. Perhaps on the wrong side of alright??
Hmm. I'd be looking at 65mm and up for a 3.8" tyre. You'll not gain all of the advantages of a fat tyre on that rim and the profile of the tyre might be a bit iffy.
Hmm ok. Wasn't planning on another wheel. Thanks
50mm is fine. I'm running that 27.5 x 3.8 FBF up front, because my 29x3 Minion won't clear in a Bluto. Both are magnificent tyres! 29x3 Dirt Wizard out back, that can stay as I'll revert back to 29x3 front & rear for bikepacking if it's ever allowed again.
Thanks Richard. I had read on other forums 50mm worked ok. Have you tried the fbr? Any idea how it would fair as a front tyre? A little bit lighter and less rolling resistance than fbf I think.
Remember few years back one bloke turned up to GFBD on Puffin with Stans Hugo wheels and Nates tyres.
Rim 49.9mm internal, tyre 3.8".
He was absolutely fine.
Cheers!
I.
Not tried an FBR yet but want to (on the back though) The 120tpi FBF is apparently a tad lighter and cheaper. Some OE bikes come FBF both ends apparently. (Salsa Beargrease I think)
Interesting, thanks!
I run a 26x4 fbf 120 tpi on a Hugo 52 on my full suspension fatty works fine but wouldn’t want to run really low pressure as I think it might squirm a bit I run around 12 psi and a bluto fork so rigid might be a different kettle of fish
Thanks for the feedback everyone, after a bit more research I went ahead and bought the fbf and fitted it to 50mm rim. Glad I did to be honest, haven't really noticed the bounce and lack of dampening that was mentioned. Perhaps due to lower profile on 27.5 X 3.8 compared to a more conventional 26" fat tyre. Much faster and more responsive than I was expecting to be honest.
Cheers ☺️
I run 3.8 Nate's on 55mm rims with no issues- creates a rounder tyre profile but with the pressures fat tyres run it soon squashes to grip the ground.
Having said that I'm 'upgrading' to 65mm rims, but only because I can't find a suitable carbon 26 50mm rim.
hey monkey - have you looked at light bicycle? beware shipping costs though!
what forks are you guys running?