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Reader’s Ride(s) – Alaskan Fatback for a Lady

 Ed’s Note: John from up Alaska way sent on this build report on a Fatback that he and his lady built. Take it away, John!

I finally got around to snapping a couple of photos of my lady friend’s awesome Fatback, really, this bike is awesome, just look at the sexiness. I wish that I had some shots of it out in the wild, but alas, we don’t have snow here in the great AK quite yet, so back yard photos are all that I could muster up at the moment.

My girlfriend had been riding around a perfectly serviceable aluminum Fatback for a couple of years, she commutes every day all winter and then rides after work at least 4 days a week. To top it off I drag her out for long trips on the weekends. Anyway, last Christmas I decided to surprise her by upgrading her ride to a bona fide super bike.

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I started with the Fatback aluminum frame with swinger dropouts since she is fond of the single speed lifestyle. A carbon Fatback fork rounds out the frameset.

Components are all hand picked, from the formula R1 Racing brakes, to the deep purple Chris King bits, to the Origin8 sweep back carbon bars, to the Gates carbon belt drive (the gear is a 46-28 if you were wondering) all the way down to the purple anno chainring bolts and a set of custom purple eggbeaters. Why doesn’t anyone make a deep purple seatpost clamp, damn it…

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Next up, the wheels. Why settle for something that someone actually produces when you can get your hands on a fine set of prototype rims that reportedly will never see production. 90mm wide, tubeless ready, paired spoke rims with giant rectangular cutouts straight from the guys at Fatback. The wheel builders report that these were a huge bitch to build and are really glad that only 10 sets were made and this was the last one that they will ever have to lace up. Hubs are Hadley built Fatback branded beauties. All wrapped in 45Nrth Dillingers and set up tubeless, of course.

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By the time it was all built up a couple of months had passed, but we managed to get out and do some serious riding the last couple of months of winter around here (March and April for those non-Alaskan types out there). She rocked a couple of races and we got up to the legendary Resurrection trail a couple of times to make sure that the rig was backcountry compatible. No problems at all, belt drive is highly recommended for those that don’t care for gears. Next stop, Rovaniemi, Finland in Feb 2014…

That’s all for now, pray for snow!

John

Do you have a fat-bike, and/or related ride experiences that you are passionate about, makes your life better and that you think our readers would dig hearing about? Shoot me a note to greg@fat-bike.com and we will check it out.

5 Responses to Reader’s Ride(s) – Alaskan Fatback for a Lady

  1. Matt November 14, 2013 at 10:03 am #

    What are the wheels and hubs on this ride. Very nice looking.

  2. Tad Dickman November 14, 2013 at 1:10 pm #

    Matt – read the article maybe?

  3. freisianpug November 14, 2013 at 5:59 pm #

    Love a belt drive, and kudos for being brave enough, (or fit enough), to take the single speed option. Personally I hooked a Rohloff to my belt, but either way, it’s got to be the future. Sooo smooth and maintainence free. Lovely bke.

  4. Jeff O'Gara November 15, 2013 at 9:38 am #

    I have a deep purple seatclamp if you really want one, what size?. email me ogarajef@luther.edu

  5. CHUCK BIRD November 15, 2013 at 7:38 pm #

    Yes. That is extremely sexy.

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