This is one of those posts. It's for me to read whenever I think about buying a fatbike, as I did over most of the Christmas break.
What I want to remind myself is: fatbikes are slow. Not slow in an enjoyable, leisurely cruise with the family sort of way, but slow in a crawling, painful, struggle sort of way. A way where, during today's fatbike ride, I literally got off the bike and checked to make sure a brake wasn't dragging (they were not)
In some ways, I'm getting wiser about burning money on bike junk. The old me would have ordered a fatbike this Christmas, ridden it a few times, and realized how slow they were (not trusting my memories of my Gravity Bullseye, Salsa Mukluk, or Raleigh Pardner... clearly I have a ways to go to achieve wisdom). The ever-so-slightly wiser me instead borrowed a fatbike from a tall friend for today's ride. My friend Sean loaned me his Charge Maxi while he's trying out my Niner ROS B+:
During today's ride at Alum Creek P1, the trails were nice and packed, with about four inches of powdery snow off the beaten path. I was on my borrowed fatbike, Marc on his B+ full suspension vunderbike, and Peter on his 29er hardtail. Normally, we're all more or less evenly matched, but today Marc pulled away from me with ease. I'm working and straining on the Charge, but I can't even keep him in sight.
Maybe I was just having an off day? Except when we traded bikes, I could then easily pedal away from Marc, even though I hadn't bothered to raise the saddle on his two-sizes-too-small bike, and was using his clipless pedals with regular hiking boots. I started out behind Marc, watching him struggle across a flat, while I just coasted along.
Maybe this would all be OK if the fat tires were full of redeeming qualities. Not everyone wants to go fast... though most people want to keep up with their friends. The big tires do have pretty good shock absorption, but shouldn't they have awesome grip everywhere? Yet both front and rear tires were slipping around at least as much on the fatbike as they were on Marc's B+ bike. I would think the fatbike would be better through the powdery snow, but in riding the unridden trail around the pond next to our house, my Karate Monkey floated with ease compared to the fattie.
Maybe a fatbike with five inch tires is just the ticket for beach sand or Alaska snow. They seem popular there. If I ever move there, I will consider buying another fatbike. But until then, I'm going to just say no.
Unless I just want to go really slow.
One week later update:
I kept the above in draft mode while I waited to get more pictures. With another snowfall this weekend, I did a few laps in the fresh snow around the pond on both the fatbike and my KM. My first lap was on the KM, and I had to stop several times in the six inches of power when I lost all forward progress. Next lap on the fatbike, I stopped one less time. So I guess that's an improvement.
I keep looking for a use case for a fatbike. Here's my new rule of thumb: if the bike can stand up in the snow by itself, it might be a good time to have a fatbike:
Although honestly, once there's a bit of track packed down, the 29er was still easier to pedal. I think this whole experience is motivating me to get a B+ with better clearance than my Niner ROS9. I just wish there were more steel options.
Special thanks to my friend Sean for loaning my his fatbike. It's a Charge Cooker Maxi, size XL (good to have tall friends). It uses the clever offset rear end of the Surly Pugsley:
Seems like a decent wheel and tire package, Charge snowflake cutout rims and Vee H-Billie tires:
Sean's younger than I am. I had to flip his stem up and add a riser bar to get the bars close to where my back can handle them:
So I guess no more of this:
Interestingly, I found it somewhat difficult to lean the fatbike over enough for a decent powerslide on the ice. Another reason for smaller tires.
You can’t judge all fat bikes based on a lower, middle end bike you were riding. No offense to the Cooker owner, but wait until you ride something like a Beargrease with carbon wheels before writing fat bikes off completely. If carbon isn’t your thing, at least some decent wheels like BR2250 set up tubeless. World of difference.
ReplyDeleteCertainly a light wheelset and better tires would improve the fatbike ride. But a bike shouldn't need a $900 wheelset to feel sprightly. My KM rolls fine on ~$200 wheels. Or $100 wheels.
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