Readers have been emailing me about the bike setups used at the Fat Bike Birkie so I shot an email to Ned Overend to ask him about his Fat Bike Birkie ride! Ned was the Fat Bike Birkie runner up this year and won the whole shebang last year. Let’s take a look at his Specialized Fatboy SL.
Ned says:
I used a FatBoy SL that comes with our Fact 5 carbon fork. I set it up with narrow bars and a couple bar ends mounted close to the stem for an aero position. I had SRAM 1×11 gripshift, I switched from the stock Race Face cranks to the SRAM X-9 so I could mount a 32-tooth Rotor ring up front and I used our Ground Control 4.6 tires.
He goes on to say:
The only difference in the set up between the USAC Ogden race and the Birkie is that I used a front tire with more knobs on it for the Birkie, because all the high speed turns needed more aggressive knobs. I still trimmed the center knobs but not as much. The rear tire was not trimmed. The bike comes with HED carbon rims and I mounted the tires tubeless. I trained on the course with 8.5 PSI to get used to my tires sliding in the corners and dropped it to 7.5 for the race. With Shimano XTR pedals, my bike weighed 24.3 pounds.
There you have it folks! Some minor changes but pretty much what you can buy off the showroom floor!
Check out the stock Specialized Fatboy SL at – http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bikes/mountain/fatboy/fatboy-sl
Interesting to read, thanks.
Absolute legend, still kicking much ass! Thanks Ned.
If you tweak Ned’s first name it becomes End. End Over End.