While riding today on a few inches of untracked snow, I decided that getting used to front wheel washouts on snow is one of the things that has made me much more comfortable with them on dirt.
Fat bike babble
- Thread starter johnbryanpeters
- Start date
I think that in conditions like today, fat tires are worse than regular tires with studs.
i have no idea what you people are talking about, but if you're turning the pedals in december, keep on keepin' on...
If your front wheel is washing out regularly, think about shortening your stem to get more weight on your front tire...
But yeah, drifting on off cambers with the fatty is actually kinda fun.
But yeah, drifting on off cambers with the fatty is actually kinda fun.
On snow, it's not because your stem is too long. It's because the second you try to "weight" a wheel and ride aggressively, the bike slides. They don't have "edges" like skis. Depending on the conditions and tires, you have to ride very "carefully" and "centered" over the bike, rather than leaning into turns or turning the wheels very far. To offset this, I find studded tires go a long ways and the bigger the tire, the more grip you get for this. I'm testing out my D4 studded tires vs my D5s because I have two wheelsets now, and the studded D5 just blows away the D4, I can lean it way further into turns. Lots of people think that you only need studs for ice, but I find the little sharp points will dig into any surface, hard or soft (because your body and weight will compress the snow beneath you) and give you significantly more grip. Then there's uphills, where again a fatbike will usually just spin the wheels on any steep incline. Once again the studs help immensely. I highly recommend using studded tires if your riding is predominantly on frozen surfaces. They were damn expensive, but damn if that wasn't some of the best money I ever spent in cycling. You can buy $500 cranks, but they don't perform any better than $100 cranks, they are just lighter, but the studded D5s have allowed me to go out and ride nearly every day in every condition in the winter.
I totally agree with everything you said. Except I still think having a shorter stem allows you to be more centered. I found a night and day difference when I went from my stock 720mm bar and 90mm stem to my 780 bar and 60mm stem. all of a sudden I could control where the bike was going a lot better, and all my drifts were two-wheeled instead of front wheel washouts.
I'm hoping there won't be too much ice this year, I'm not ready to invest in studded tires just yet. But yeah, I've been out a few times (last spring) when I knew they'd have made the ride.
I'm hoping there won't be too much ice this year, I'm not ready to invest in studded tires just yet. But yeah, I've been out a few times (last spring) when I knew they'd have made the ride.
Seriously I don't know why anyone is bothering to make mtb stems longer than 70mm these days
I run a loaded precision 45mm stem with 780mm bars. The big bars help a lot with generating leverage to turn the big wheels out of the saddle. This no doubt helps, but I can't emphasize how much studded tires help on snow when it's NOT icy. I can actually halfway-edge these things around turns, which is far more than I can say about riding non-studded on snow (not ice).
Fat tires on glare ice kind of suck. They suck far less than unstudded to be certain, but the tires are so big that they spread the weight out over a large area, which decreases the effectiveness of the studs. Skinny studded tires are better on straight ice, but obviously far less versatile.
Because selling bikes with stems more than 70mm+convincing people they need shorter=more $$$.
In some snow conditions like earlier this week, narrow tires dig to solid frozen base better than fat tires that just sled around.
And no, this is not about the stem, it is more about balancing like on slippery skinnies.
And no, this is not about the stem, it is more about balancing like on slippery skinnies.
I am picking mine up later this week. The weather goddess is kicking maine in the junk by giving us shitty snow and a lot of ice. Winter is still young.
Give it a couple years...the lizard people will convince us we need 110mm stems and neon pink riding clothes again...
have you watched any UCI DH races in the last 3 years?
Nope.
ok, because neon pink has been back for a while.
I want a phatbike. But all the used ones on PinkBike are something like 2k and up. What the? Unless I want some random Chinese bike that fell off the back of a truck in Buffalo.
Should have jumped on the wagon at the local bike shop when they were dumping Charge Cookers for $800. Derp.
Should have jumped on the wagon at the local bike shop when they were dumping Charge Cookers for $800. Derp.
Yeah... was talking to a couple of buddies about that just the other day. Seems like 2k is about the entry point for them these days. There are lesser priced options, but they come with such garbage components that it's barely worth the price of admission. I bought a demo bike from my lbs at the end of last season. Made a down payment in February, and took possession at the end of March. They let me take it out whenever it wasn't booked (which was most weekends in Feb, oddly enough). March was a write-off for me anyways due to the ol' snip snip, so I didn't miss much. I got it for $1000 off the sticker price, which was fair I thought.
$1500 and up is a good starting price point. Lots of crap below that. Also, set aside money for frame bag, pogies and studded tires if using on any kind of frozen water.
eBay is your friend...there is a bunch of Cookers on there now at that price point. May have to pick one up myself...
A few Framed on there too. Anyone have knowledge of these? Good/bad/indifferent?
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Probably lots in "real tree"...
What did you get??
Pugsley used $500 it's a 2014 with SLX had it a couple weeks they are out there my buddy found this for me on Facebook I guess there is a fat bike trader or something
2k and up seems crazy for these bikes. I get that the nicer ones and of course the carbon ones should be up there...
When I borrowed the phatbike from the ski resort two weeks ago, it was a simple Norco Bigfoot or something. Aluminum frame, no suspension, SRAM x5 components (or something low ball like that), Avid brakes of some sort and the rest of the stuff was all Norco house brand components. I think buddy said that they are worth about $1800 or something? That still seems a little up there, for what it is. Lets be honest, I don't need any thing fancy on the bike, just stuff that works for putting around slowly in the snow. I think I might hold out to see if they sell off these rentals, as they are about two seasons old but look to be hardly used at all. I'd take one of those for $700-800 easily.
hella dentist status.
I recall about 10+ years ago I was at a shop in Newport that had a Pugsly built up that he used as his beach cruiser. I thought it was a cool beach cruiser and could see it in the snow, but wouldn't have expected to drop more than maybe $750. Guess I am just a cheap bastard. Never thought it would catch on
Speaking of epic dentist status, the "mini fat" or whatever it was called in Hood River was carbon AND useless for $6k
I know right?! I agree about the desire for simplicity, but simplicity costs money these days?!!? a 1x drivetrain is going to be more expensive than 2x. and then there's the tires. Yeah, you can roll on the stock tires of cheapo bikes, but it won't take long to want to ditch the 454 gr. of tubes and go tubeless. that conversion is (or used to be) costly as most entry-level tires don't convert to tubeless. I wound up buying 45nrth tires on closeout at the end of the season, but were still Nrth of $120 a tire.
I know the point of them is to putz around in the woods in the off-season, that they are not real mountain bikes. But the thing is, when the conditions are good, and my bet is that down in the GTA there'll be plenty of good days over the course of a winter, these things can be a rippin' good time. And let's face it, we're mountain bikers. we have the bug. we love to upgrade to milk the most performance from the bike. we notice when we can outride a bike due to sub-par components. And that's when you hit the $2k mark (in canuckian pesos mind you).
I know the point of them is to putz around in the woods in the off-season, that they are not real mountain bikes. But the thing is, when the conditions are good, and my bet is that down in the GTA there'll be plenty of good days over the course of a winter, these things can be a rippin' good time. And let's face it, we're mountain bikers. we have the bug. we love to upgrade to milk the most performance from the bike. we notice when we can outride a bike due to sub-par components. And that's when you hit the $2k mark (in canuckian pesos mind you).
last january i was riding. it was around 15°F, ground was nice and frozen, maybe an inch of hardpacked snow covering probably 2/3 of the trail. no need for a fat. i was on my xc hardtail, 2" tires. mega skinny. blew past 2 dudes on fat bikes who were farting along slow as shit, bikes looked fancy and brand spankin new. as i passed them the look on their face said "what the fuck are we doing"
I would 100% ride a fatty. May peruse the streets for a steel framed Surly or something for kicks.
oh yeah, there's plenty of those days too. but there's more days when a fatty is moar betterer....
The trails around here are rarely packed down like that...unless you ride on trails that the dog walkers use and want to ride on miles and miles of dog crap and dodge dog shit filled bags hanging from the trees.
in my neck of the woods we'd get maybe 5 or 6 days a winter (if we're lucky) when a fat bike would be a legit advantage over anything non-fat.
here its due to either lots of riders on the trails, or freeze thaw.
This. For the rest of the winter, fatties keep bitching about not having the white ribbon highways they deserve, and asking everyone else to stay the fcuk out of their trails.
the problem here (on some trail networks at least) is that most fat riders think that having a fat bike gives them a free pass to ride when trail conditions don't allow, ie when the ground isn't frozen and is super soft. so the fatfucks make super big messes and tire ditches in mud spots. that then freeze and are a major pain to deal with.