We’ve got a Full Moon tonight! With a couple of nightime beach rides planned in our area we will have photos from our area for sure! We’d love to see Full Moon pix from your neck of the woods! Send ‘em to us at fullmoon@fat-bike.com.

Among other stories that we are working on for next week is the continuation of the Fat-bike 101 series with a look at Hubs.

This Week’s Dose of Fat.

http://thelazyrando.wordpress.com/2013/05/20/sharons-porcelain-rocket-surly-pugsley/ - Preparing for a bike tour.

http://coastkid.blogspot.com/2013/05/easy-on-sunday-morning.html - Easy on a Sunday Morning.

http://www.adventure-journal.com/2013/05/the-daily-bike-a-costa-rican-stage-race-on-a-fat-bike/ - La Ruta story.

http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-gear/cycle-life/The-Six-Month-Test-Speedway-Cycles-Aluminum-Fatback.html - Six months with a Fatback.

http://www.whileoutriding.com/bike-talk/gear-ponderings - IGH/Krampus

http://phatdivide.wordpress.com/2013/05/22/psyched/ - Rabbit Holes for the Great Divide.

http://singlespeedpirate.blogspot.com/2013/05/by-wind.html - SS Fat-bikin’ in the KC.

http://thelazyrando.wordpress.com/2013/05/22/sharons-first-bike-tour/ - Fat-bike Tour.

http://coastkid.blogspot.com/2013/05/showers-pass-rogue-hoodie-review.html - Showers Pass jacket review.

Written By George Kapitz

Photos By Kari Lewis Scheppman

Editor’s Note : The Wisconsin Off-Road Race Series (WORS) is the largest state mountain bike race series in the country and this year they opened up a special Fat-Bike Category in all twelve of their races. Our amigo George is going to share his WORS experiences in a new bi-weekly series that we call ‘Fat WORS’ !

Come race day at Iola, I was jacked to ride the fatty. The new fat-bike open category goes out with the Sport racers. The average race is about 15 miles. Not a very long race, but an all out, pedal-smashing-fest. I’m new to the MTB race scene and don’t have a lot of experience. In my mind, I just think “pedal fast”. I’ve learned that warming up, hydrating, and pacing are paramount to success, when it comes to mountain bike racing, however, at the start of the race, I ignored all the strategies, that I had planned, like (find the fast guy and follow behind) and took off wheelie fast! A quarter lap into the race my heart was pounding (185 average and 194 Max) and I was getting passed by the field. I tried to keep a good tempo but I couldn’t recover from my exuberant start. At about the 3/4 mile point, I went over the bars on a rooty descent. After crashing, I told myself, I’m out of the race and relaxed and finished (6th of 8). I rode the next two laps at a good pace, and launched some big air where ever I could. This was definitely a race that I learned from and I’ll be better prepared in two weeks at Wausau. I hope I see you there!

Results – Open Fat-bike

1       Shane Veldhuizen       Green Bay  WI

2       Butch Welke            Lake Geneva  WI

3       Nathan Long            Eau Claire  WI

4       Marcus Steele          De Pere  WI

5       Joel Patenaude         Middleton  WI

6       George Kapitz          Manitowoc  WI

7       Dwight Ingalls         Oconomowoc  WI

8       Terry Prewitt          Black Creek  WI

Luca sent in this shot of fat-bike action in the Dolomiti Mountains in Italy! We here at fat-bike.com are excited to see the fat-bike love spreading throughout the world. Keep the photos coming!

Download the appropriate size and use it as your own wallpaper. Just click on the link below to open the full-sized version which you can right-click to save.

• 1920 x 1440 (4:3)
• 1920 x 1200
• 1920 x 1080 (16:9)

Got your own Wallpaper Worthy Photo? We’d like to feature fat-bikes from around the world!

If you’ve got a fat-bike related image that you feel is “Wallpaper Worthy”, slap it in an email with what, where, why info as well as photographer’s credit to wallpaper@fat-bike.com and you may see your creative work here! Please include a high resolution image to preserve image quality!

Entries must be in by June 21st, 2013

Krampus Photo Contest

We’ve teamed up with los gauchos del Surly to get you all a chance to win a sparkly new Krampus Frame and Fork! But that’s not all! In addition to the the Krampus frame and fork, we’ll be awarding a pair of Surly’s new Rabbit Hole Rims and if you act now (or by June 21st, 2013), you could also win a brand new pair of Knards, all bristling with hundreds of those beatnik tire whiskers to tickle your local singletrack into line. That’s right!…. some lucky boy or girl will win a Krampus Frame and Fork – a set of Rabbit Hole rims and a set of 29 x 3+ Knard Tires. But wait…..Surly and Fat-Bike.com aren’t just going to award one of these prize packages. That’s right…. send in your entry by (6/21/2013) and we’ll award this amazing prize ensemble to two of you lucky hombres!

Here’s all that you have to do to win.

Send us a photo of you or a friend riding any bike dressed as Krampus. Easy right? Well, that’s not the only wrinkle. You also have to wear a Krampus mask. We know that everyone probably has some sort of demure superhero costume, but not everyone will have a Krampus mask laying around the house, so we created a Krampus image file that you can download and then get all crafty, and make one of your own. Right clicking skills, printer and paste not included. So stop thinking about eating paste and get busy!

• Get your Krampus ‘get-up’ together

• Make a mask (if you don’t already have one) get creative with glitter glue, your be-dazzler and feathers, but remember that you (or your amigo) have to be able to ride a bike in a safe, yet rad manner for the photo. To open the file for our krampus mask, click this link and then print the 4 page document - KRAMPUS_PRINT_4pages

• Make with the photo shoot and then…?

• Send the photo to gomez@fat-bike.com with Krampus in the subject line.

One entry per person – Entries must be received on or before June 21st 2013. Winners will be chosen by a panel of three judges, using a secret set of exacting sciences and black magic. The judges decision is final and the winner will be notified by email. By entering a photo, you are giving us permission to post your photo to the interwebs and stuff. When you make your mask, make sure that you cut eye-holes, so you can see. We always say, “Safety Third” and wear a clean pair of underpants.

Contest Sponsored by

“My vid was filmed in a place that’s about an hours dive east of Melbourne (Oz) in a place called Mount Dandenong but it’s know to us more as just ‘The Dandenongs’. There are many walking and cycling tracks there with lots of parks and gardens that make it a very special place. “

Written by Spinner Ryerson

This is my Krampus.  It’s my coolest bike ever.  I think it’s cooler than yours, but that’s arguably arguable.  The only things cooler that I can think of are:

Absolute Zero and possibly Bill Murray. In that order.

Krampus finished build

With the green frame I had a few ideas for color combos. I had a few suggestions that a Gold set up would look great, but for some reason I had purple on my mind as well.

I began working through the bike parts catalog and setting up my component list for the Green and Gold Krampus, when it was brought to my attention, that there is a football team in my new state (of just a year) with those same colors, and how cool that would be. I hit myself in the forehead. I’m an avid football fan and I hail from The Land of 10,000 lakes. Green and Gold was out of the question.

Then a pretty girl brought in an older but well kept Raleigh road bike.

It had a darker green frame and bright orange bar tape.  She was on to something.  And the color scheme for my Krampus started coming together.

Brilliantly Clashing, or Hideoulsy Beautiful.  It was just the right kind of Awesome Ugly.

Bonus – I was able to switch over most of my Salsa El Mariachi parts to this new beast.

The Old:

I had gotten the bars for $10 from Over The Edge Sports in Fruita, CO a couple years ago after snapping my previous set on the 18 road trails.  Those were going to stay.

The cranks, Hope EVO2 hubs, bottom bracket, Avid cable brakes, levers, and Ritchey seatpost all came over from my El Mariachi. It appeared online that there was quite a bit of confusion around that possibility because most people were thinking that the Krampus was a fat bike build with fat bike hubs and bottom bracket.  Well it ain’t.  The hub spacing is standard 100mm front and 135mm rear and the bottom bracket shell is the standard 73mm.  I had Tim tear down the old wheels and lace up the old hubs to the new Rabbit Hole rims.

The New:

The rim strips are lined with orange trail marking tape, which was left over from the First annual Platty Fatty in Plattucky (that’s Platteville, WI for the uninitiated).

I opted for a fresh set of Salsa skewers, cables and housing from Jagwire,

I decided to go with the new RaceFace grips to round out the front up top.

The headset is 44mm, not the standard 1 1/8″ that I had on the Mariachi.  I didn’t realize I needed that when I ordered it but caught on real quick once I started building it up and was able to get a 44 next day.

Of course the old 29er rims and tires would work but just wouldn’t do.   Surly Rabbit Hole Rims and Knard 29×3 rubbers, the real reason you want this bike.

Add in some fancy shiny new orange Crank Bros candy pedals.

To top it off I threw in a little bling with the orange bottle cage, valve stem caps and brake rotor bolts.

Surly Tug Nut – a must have for running ss on sliding rear drop outs and quick release skewer combo

I’m loving this bike. It is 7lbs lighter than my Single Speed Pugsley coming in right around 29lbs. I kept the gearing 2:1 with a 34×17.

(Radioactive) Viking Blood at the Decorah Time Trials

Her initial “race” was the Home Opener: Decorah Time trials.

She’s on schedule for Chequamegon 100, SSUSA and the Blockhouse Roll this season.

Editors Note: Spinner is a registered Bike Black Ribbon Test Pilot and is rumored to have radioactive, Icelandic blood. Check back frequently to get updates on how our (tres) Krampus perform this season for Colin, Spinner and Paddlefoot, along with more 29+ news and reviews from all of our test pilots.

 

As soon as I saw the Growler Cage, I thought of our test pilot, Colin. He works all day brewing delicious craft brewed beer for Lakefront Brewing in Milwaukee (The Beer City) and rides his Gravedigger Pugs from ‘where his crib be’ in River West, along the Milwaukee River, on the newly gentrified “river-trails” – back and forth, commuting on urban off-road trails, every damn day from home to the brewery and back.

I requested Kawasaki Green neoprene on our test set of growler cages to match Colin’s Necro Pug’s color scheme and they look really sharp. I’ve tried to talk Colin into taking two growlers of beer every night and stopping off on the way home to share with his amigos. Maybe form some sort of drinking under bridges club, this summer and let us all know how these heavy duty cages haul the suds, as it were.

A growler holds a half a gallon of beer, so our double barreled set-up, brings a full gallon of happiness to the table. The cage itself looks and feels up to the task of handling the weight of a full growler. The padded neoprene sleeve provides a cushioned grip on the glass of the growler and is replacable, if it becomes worn. Growler cages are made right in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which is home to many fat-bike enterprizes!

MSRP is $55 dollars. The replacement neoprene sleeves come in eleven different colors and will run you $7.

Colin is the right man for the job….I mean who else works where there’s a 1500 gallon tank of craft brewed beer, just waiting to be drained? We’ll report back to you on how these cages stack up, over the summer.

For more information visit - http://growlercage.com/

Save Up To 70% On Cycling Essentials Every Day At TheClymb.com. Valid 24/7/365.

Jason Liddell took this shot of his 9:Zero:7 with the magic light of the East Lothian coastline bathing the beach in colour. You can see more of Jason’s photographs at http://www.flickr.com/photos/jason-l/.

Triple F is a weekly feature, designed to inspire fat-bike fun, fueled by submissions from our readers. Would you like to help? Send your uncle gomez some fun fat-bike fotos at gomez@gmail.com and then ride and smile, knowing that in some corner of this crazy blue marble, you helped promote something immensely groovy!

White Industries M16 Hubs for our Krampus Build Project

Future Fat

We kick off next week with a Reader’s Ride(s) piece from Spinner Ryerson and hit Austrailia and Utah for the rest of what’s fat & fresh for next week. Dr. Huber is in the house and building some wheels for our Krampus Show Bike project that we’ll be sharing with you over the next few weeks and Sven is working out all the details for another Full Moon Beach Ride for the Memorial Day Holiday Weekend.

Fat Links

http://40psi.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/uk-12-hour-champs-on-a-fat-bike/ - Race’n

http://andbicycle.blogspot.jp/2013/05/surly-krampus.html?m=0 - Kustom Machines

http://laotzucycles.blogspot.com/2013/05/moonlander-summer-clothes.html?spref=fb - New Shoes

http://flag2gc.com/ - Fat Canyon

http://surlybikes.com/site/Taiwan_Trip - Raw Krampus Porn

http://surlybikes.com/blog/post/krampus_complete_hiccups - Some info to know about your new Krampus Complete

http://coastkid.blogspot.com/2013/05/forth-fat-raffle-for-bike-bagcouk-frame.html - Fat-bike Wheel of Fortune

http://deathrideradventure.blogspot.com/2013/05/warm-up-cool-down.html - Utah trip with Krampus and Mukluk.

http://coastkid.blogspot.com/2013/05/across-void-gin-head-rocks-again.html - Low tide ride.

http://coastkid.blogspot.com/2013/05/a-present-from-surly.html - Bruce gets a reward.

http://www.ergodyne.com/Community/Pages/Win-A-Surly-Bike.aspx - win a moonlander?

Final GoLite Clearance! – While Supplies Last, Get 60 – 80% Off Outdoor Apparel And Gear At GoLite.com. Click Here For Details!

This article is part of the Fat-bike 101 series and is intended to help new fat-bike owners, and potential fat-bike owners, with some of the questions they may have about fat-bikes. In addition, it is a chance for experienced riders to add comments to help our new brethren enjoy all that fat-biking offers. Consider these articles as conversation starters, not exhaustive explanations!

Some of you out there have now been rocking your fat-bikes for well over a year owing to the fact that Santa brought many good, and not so good, boys and girls fat bikes for the Holidays last year (not to mention those of you who are new to the fold this year).

Now that the new sheen has worn off a bit, the snow has rushed under your fat tires and the sand is gritty in your chain, maybe some parts are wearing out, you may be thinking about how to shave a few ounces or pounds (yes, you can shave off POUNDS!) off your fat steed.

So, what can you do to shave some weight of that portly rig?

Lighter tubes – Cheap and Easy

Stock OE Surly Tubes weigh in the neighborhood of 450-500 grams while Q-lite, and other light weight, 26 x 2.7″ tubes weigh in the area of 250-290 grams. The 26 x 2.7″ tubes work fine in 26 x 3.8″ tires owing to the stretch of the rubber and some folks even run them in the extra-large 26 x 5.0 Big Fat Larry-sized tires with success. So, saving 400 grams just by swapping out tubes is a no-brainer.

One issue you should be aware of, especially when using 26 x 2.7″ tubes for the larger 26 x 5.0″ fat-bike tires, probably not a good idea to patch a pictured tube for reuse in BFLs and the like. I know your sister’s, brother’s cousin did it and it worked fine but, really, the tube stretches so much and the patched ares doesn’t that you’d just be walking at some point. Save yourself the headache and carry a spare tube for that inevitable flat.

We did an article on lighter tubes last year that is still a good resource – http://fat-bike.com/2012/03/lighter-fat-bike-tube-alternatives/

If you are the experimental type you can try tubeless on your fat-bike. There are several ways to do it that work but it is best to find someone who has experience to show you the ropes. The benefits are even lower weight than tubes, good flat resistance and that supple, tubeless feel.

Tires – Not So Cheap But Still Easy

The stock tires on your fat-bike are most likely 27tpi versions of either Larrys or Endomorphs. These OE tires weigh in at about 1600 grams give or take a few grams while the aftermarket 120tpi/Kevlar bead versions of Surly and VeeRubber tires weigh in several hundred grams less, typically in the 1200-1300 gram range meaning that you can save 800 grams, or 1-3/4 pounds just changing tires! This weight savings is also in a really good place because it is rotating weight. Just this quick switch will make your rig feel livelier for real!

There are several articles on the site about tires. One about Tire Weights is here – http://fat-bike.com/2012/01/tire-weights-for-fat-bikes/ – if we did our job right and put tire articles in the proper category you’ll find those here - http://fat-bike.com/category/components/tires/

Wheelsets – Moderate to Very Expensive, Easy if you get a set custom built or Hard if you want to try to DIY.

Depending on your rig this could be an easy, albeit spendy, place to save some weight. The Large Marge rims that came stock on your Pug are strong but among the heaviest fat-bike rims out there! Marge Lites or, depending on your riding style and area, Schlick Northpaw-S rims, can save you 400-500 grams a wheel or another couple of pounds right in the place where you want the weight savings the most. That rotating deal again. Heck, you can even go wider with Rolling Darryls or the like and still save a few hundred grams over those Large Marges! There are other considerations for a wheelset than just weight but the fact that you will undoubtedly save some ounces or pounds is a great side benefit!

We’ve been keeping a running list of wheels and weights we’ve built here if you want to compare – http://fat-bike.com/2011/12/fat-bike-wheel-information-for-weight-weenies/

You can, of course, save weight on almost any component that comes on an OE-speced fat-bike. I generally wait for drivetrain parts to wear before replacing them with potentially lighter parts. The Cockpit area is a good place to shave some weight especially if you are not only replacing a bar, stem or saddle for weight, but also for fit/comfort. In the end though the three areas above will get you the most bang for your buck with potential weight savings of 4-6 POUNDS not out of the question and, in the process, make your fat-bike experience more enjoyable.

If you are an experienced fat-biker please consider leaving a comment below to help newbies get maximum enjoyment from their ride.

If you have a topic you’d like for us to open up a dialog on, please send us a note to fatbike101@fat-bike.com and we will do our best to cover it.