Hi there,
So winter has been over for a while already but I wanted to share my view on this.
Some might dislike me for this but I have to say I really don't like fatbikes at all!
Yes somehow they do look kind of cool and in some points I do understand why they are so popular but performance wise,
it seems to me that the fatbike industry is lying to us.
I had 2 whole day test rides with a Salsa Beargrease (Carbon).
I was surprised how light the bike was.
The first test in test in a whole day trip of trail ride through a mix of pathways, roads and forest (Nice weather and dry).
The second test was at mount Fuji, Japan with about 7 to 8 inches of snow.
Why I think they are lying to us, all fatbike makers seem to always advertise how good it is to have a fatbike during winter time and that you can ride absolutely anywhere with it, espacially it seems sand dunes and snowy mountains.
The reality was that on the dry testing day it performed rather well, but I felt actually less comfort in trails that with a regular Trail MTB, also it is a bit harder to maneuver through the woods with this chunky bike (So I learned, Ok fatbikes are not really meant to be used for trails), on the road it performed best even though it makes a lot of noise at higher speed (Probably because the bike is not so streamlined). One other big negative point was that I had 2 flat tires while trail riding through the forest.
The second test was with heavy snow conditions, we had 8 different MTB's with us (Trail, Enduro, 29er, 27.5, Fatbike....). There was so much snow that for almost all of us it was not so much fun, of course i thought that these weather conditions would be excellent testing ground for the fatbike. Oh my was I dissapointed, maybe it was because I had not enough weight of the bike but everytime I tries pedaling the bike would either get stuck in the snow or would spin without moving forward. The only advantage I could see was that due to the large area of the tire it was more stable and you wouldn't need to put your foot on the ground as much. In the afternoon I then changed to 29er as I blew up another fatbike tire (Fatbikes seem to be very expensive to run, 3 tires in 2 days
) and actually could perform a lot better with it in the deep snow (Only maybe with less stability).
So, have some of you tested fatbikes in extreme weather conditions.
What were your thoughts about their performance?
So winter has been over for a while already but I wanted to share my view on this.
Some might dislike me for this but I have to say I really don't like fatbikes at all!
Yes somehow they do look kind of cool and in some points I do understand why they are so popular but performance wise,
it seems to me that the fatbike industry is lying to us.
I had 2 whole day test rides with a Salsa Beargrease (Carbon).
I was surprised how light the bike was.
The first test in test in a whole day trip of trail ride through a mix of pathways, roads and forest (Nice weather and dry).
The second test was at mount Fuji, Japan with about 7 to 8 inches of snow.
Why I think they are lying to us, all fatbike makers seem to always advertise how good it is to have a fatbike during winter time and that you can ride absolutely anywhere with it, espacially it seems sand dunes and snowy mountains.
The reality was that on the dry testing day it performed rather well, but I felt actually less comfort in trails that with a regular Trail MTB, also it is a bit harder to maneuver through the woods with this chunky bike (So I learned, Ok fatbikes are not really meant to be used for trails), on the road it performed best even though it makes a lot of noise at higher speed (Probably because the bike is not so streamlined). One other big negative point was that I had 2 flat tires while trail riding through the forest.
The second test was with heavy snow conditions, we had 8 different MTB's with us (Trail, Enduro, 29er, 27.5, Fatbike....). There was so much snow that for almost all of us it was not so much fun, of course i thought that these weather conditions would be excellent testing ground for the fatbike. Oh my was I dissapointed, maybe it was because I had not enough weight of the bike but everytime I tries pedaling the bike would either get stuck in the snow or would spin without moving forward. The only advantage I could see was that due to the large area of the tire it was more stable and you wouldn't need to put your foot on the ground as much. In the afternoon I then changed to 29er as I blew up another fatbike tire (Fatbikes seem to be very expensive to run, 3 tires in 2 days
) and actually could perform a lot better with it in the deep snow (Only maybe with less stability).So, have some of you tested fatbikes in extreme weather conditions.
What were your thoughts about their performance?
