Post by summittoppler on Oct 27, 2013 19:17:22 GMT
OK some of you may have seen that ridiculous looking bike I posted in the Showroom thread northwalesmtb.proboards.com/thread/10486/fat?page=1&scrollTo=99293
So you may be thinking why buy such a daft looking steed, cos that's what the Mrs is saying?
After seeing some pics on Singletrack I then got myself registered on the UK Fat Bike Forum (http://www.ukfatbikes.co.uk/) where I got to see the pics, videos and read about other peoples experiences on the Fat bike. I was hooked. With me being hooked it was a matter of picking which one. The initial favourite was the On One Fatty (http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/CBOOFATX5/) as it the cheapest available. But I thought it was lacking something, then some of the manufacturers showed their 2014 fattys off at Eurobike in the summer. I got to see unofficially the 2014 Salsa catalogue and after seeing page 27 I was smitten. After a 9 week wait for the first batch to hit the UK, I'm now in the FAT club
So what's it like?
The first ride yesterday morning took me from the house along a deafening 150 yard stretch of tarmac as the 4" Surly Nates were producing arumbling sound of rubber hitting tarmac and the vibration to go with it!! Once at the beach of the Conwy Morfa and after some faffing with the tyre pressure, 9 psi seemed to work wonders on the low tide sand. You may be thinking, as I have done, bikes and sand don't go together, but they went together like bullets and guns
After nearly 25 years of MTBing this was a truly new experience for me, riding a bike along the beach and listening to the sound of the sea birds making their morning calls! The bike was faultless in the loose sand of the dunes and on the compacted sand of the tide.
Today I thought I'd give it a go in the local woods to see what its like on some quicker terrain. And what can I say, it was simply stunning riding a bike with 4" tyres over stuff I've dabbed on with the HT and FS. Wet roots just didn't hit the radar as the tyres rolled perfectly over them and cornering was a joy.
As far as fat bikes go, they are still in their infancy. In 2001 the winner of the Iditarod rode the first fat bike and stunned the competitors and the fat bike was born:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqX0vZ9VALI&feature=player_embedded
And my plan is to do EVERYTHING I've done in the past on this bad boy and even do more due to the fact that off-piste is not in the Fat bike vocabulary!!
If anyone would like a '2minute play' then give me a shout and we'll see what we can get sorted
Fat bike = Fun bike
So you may be thinking why buy such a daft looking steed, cos that's what the Mrs is saying?
After seeing some pics on Singletrack I then got myself registered on the UK Fat Bike Forum (http://www.ukfatbikes.co.uk/) where I got to see the pics, videos and read about other peoples experiences on the Fat bike. I was hooked. With me being hooked it was a matter of picking which one. The initial favourite was the On One Fatty (http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/CBOOFATX5/) as it the cheapest available. But I thought it was lacking something, then some of the manufacturers showed their 2014 fattys off at Eurobike in the summer. I got to see unofficially the 2014 Salsa catalogue and after seeing page 27 I was smitten. After a 9 week wait for the first batch to hit the UK, I'm now in the FAT club
So what's it like?
The first ride yesterday morning took me from the house along a deafening 150 yard stretch of tarmac as the 4" Surly Nates were producing arumbling sound of rubber hitting tarmac and the vibration to go with it!! Once at the beach of the Conwy Morfa and after some faffing with the tyre pressure, 9 psi seemed to work wonders on the low tide sand. You may be thinking, as I have done, bikes and sand don't go together, but they went together like bullets and guns
After nearly 25 years of MTBing this was a truly new experience for me, riding a bike along the beach and listening to the sound of the sea birds making their morning calls! The bike was faultless in the loose sand of the dunes and on the compacted sand of the tide. Today I thought I'd give it a go in the local woods to see what its like on some quicker terrain. And what can I say, it was simply stunning riding a bike with 4" tyres over stuff I've dabbed on with the HT and FS. Wet roots just didn't hit the radar as the tyres rolled perfectly over them and cornering was a joy.
As far as fat bikes go, they are still in their infancy. In 2001 the winner of the Iditarod rode the first fat bike and stunned the competitors and the fat bike was born:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqX0vZ9VALI&feature=player_embedded
And my plan is to do EVERYTHING I've done in the past on this bad boy and even do more due to the fact that off-piste is not in the Fat bike vocabulary!!
If anyone would like a '2minute play' then give me a shout and we'll see what we can get sorted
Fat bike = Fun bike
