Weekly Dose of Fat (2016 Review) – 12-30-16

Well, boys and girls, we’ve reached the end of another beautiful and interesting trip around the sun (best Dirty Harry voice) and this being the final installment of the Weekly Dose of Fat, the most powerful dose of fat-bike news, rants, and adventure in the World; You’ve gotta ask yourself one question…..are fat-bikes still fun or have they lost their luster? Which one is it going to be P-U-N-K?

Before we go back to the future, we should take a shot at a look back at the year that just was (or is) Two Thousand and Sixteen AD. The best way that I can think of doing so is with a photographic broadway musical. Cue the dancing pixels.

January 2016 – One of Sven’s bike(s) – https://fat-bike.com/2016/01/wallpaper-wednesday-svens-northpaw-on-the-beach/

February – Lost in the Swell – (dancing pixels) – https://fat-bike.com/2016/02/video-lost-in-the-swell/

March – Cook Inlet – https://fat-bike.com/2016/03/wallpaper-wednesday-cook-inlet-fat-biking/

April- The Merry Marmot DH Race (more dancing pixels) – https://fat-bike.com/2016/04/fat-video-tuesday-%E2%99%A6-500-mph/

May – Moonmen M23 – Bike Porn – https://fat-bike.com/2016/05/not-a-wallpaper-wednesday-club-%E2%99%A6-m23/

June – KB Gnome Tracking in Alaska – https://fat-bike.com/2016/06/foto-gordo-gnometracking/

July – It rained Fat-Bikes – https://fat-bike.com/2016/07/fat-video-tuesday-%E2%99%A6-its-raining-fat-bikes/

August – Fat-Bikes gone Hawaiian – https://fat-bike.com/2016/08/wallpaper-wednesday-hawaiian-lava/

September – A pugsley in Isreael – https://fat-bike.com/2016/09/wallpaper-wednesday-surly-pugsley-in-the-negev-desert-israel/

October – (the dancing pixels are back with) BBR Test Pilot, Dustin Carlson – https://fat-bike.com/2016/10/fat-video-tuesday-wozo-on-capt-ahab/

November – Fat-Bikes in NYC! – https://fat-bike.com/2016/11/wallpaper-wednesday-king-kahn-and-old-cars/

December – The dancing video pixels help us visit one of my happy places – https://fat-bike.com/2016/11/fat-video-tuesday-big-eau-pleine-stickers-contest/

Well that about wraps up the year of the gnome – 2016. The year that we learned that a fat-bike can do everything that a plus bike can do, but a plus bike (most definitely) cannot do everything that a fat-bike can do. There has been a lot of talk about how fat-bikes are dead in 2016…..and yet we talk to both dealers and bike companies that have showed sharp increases in sales in the fat-bike market segment for 2016. Over 50% growth. Maybe that’s the fake news thing that I keep on reading about.

We’re going to host the 2016 Gnomies coming up here some time in the next month. The Gnomies are the fat-bike version of the Oscars with all the splendor of the red carpet. I want you to imagine Samsquantch on the Red Carpet, holding a Polar Bear on a Gold Chain sipping Cognac out of a glass slipper. We’ll be handing out awards for the best gear in the world of fat-bikes, chosen by the academy of fat-bike scientists at the Bike Black Ribbon Society.

Fat-bike Links

You’ve got to be shitting me! – https://craigmedred.news/2016/12/21/one-stinky-story/

2016 Retrospective from the CoastKid – http://coastkid.blogspot.com/2016/12/2016-retrospect.html

Brian has Arrowhead on the brain – http://salsacycles.com/culture/arrowhead_on_the_brain

Boxing Day Beach Bash – http://coastkid.blogspot.com/2016/12/boxing-day-beach-bash.html

Sunrise to Savanna – http://coastkid.blogspot.com/2016/12/sunrise-to-savanna.html

Tips to make your fat-biking more fun from Diana McFadden – http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/outdoors/4186179-tips-make-your-fat-biking-more-fun-duluths-diana-mcfadden

Groomed Singletrack in Central Oregon – http://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/2016/12/25/fatbike-tracks-make-mountain-biking-year-round-sport/95844236/

United States Forest Service approves most of Crested Butte Fat-bike Use Proposal – http://crestedbuttenews.com/2016/12/usfs-approves-most-of-fat-bike-proposal/

Fat-biking in Central Wisconsin – http://www.wsaw.com/content/news/Fat-tire-biking-opportunities-in-central-Wisconsin-407767425.html

Fat-biking News from Rexburg – http://www.rexburgstandardjournal.com/outdoors/fat-biking-continues-to-gather-momentum-as-winter-sport/article_08aeaa84-c7f6-11e6-afa0-2f48c623e6ea.html

Jill’s 2016 year in review – http://www.jilloutside.com/2016/12/2016-in-photos.html

STICKER CONTEST

We’ll choose 5 winners at random on New Years Day and announce them on our next Radio Show. The contest details are in the December video link up there in the 2016 retrospective thingy.