For those not familiar with the Lake MXZ400 it is Lake’s “winter extreme” cycling boot. It takes almost every aspect of Lake’s classic MXZ300 series boots and adds features that increase the warmth of the boot. In my “out of the box” write up I detail a lot of these features if you are interested […]
If you follow bike media you will know that at one point not that long ago 2.8-3″ plus tires were the greatest thing ever. Now the talk is that they are too squishy and vague but 2.6″ tires are the goldilocks size, splitting the difference between traditional MTB tires and “full” plus tires. Personally, 2.6″ […]
Where the hell ya been? Some of you may have been wondering about the Fat Camp podcast and what the heck Captain Ken and his sidekick, Andy, are up to these days. Let’s just say it’s been an interesting spring…but the boys are back with some technical talk about fat and plus bikes. In […]
It’s been a couple months since Ken and Andy sat down and did some blah, blah, blah. And for this show, there’s quite a bit. 1.5 hours of it. So hit play or download it for later but whatever you do, make sure to give #31 a listen. Here’s what’s happening for this show: What […]
This winter I have been testing out a pair of studded 26×4″ Terrene Cake Eater “light” casing tires. For full specs on these tires, check out my Initial Look. My neck of the woods got bombarded with snow in December and early January but then Mother Nature turned off the snow spigot and gave us […]
In recent years there has been an explosion in the number of groomed fat bike trails. During this trend, we have seen a huge variety of different grooming solutions from homemade contraptions to companies selling finished products. Rollers were sort of the first wave of successful fat bike grooming implements because they could […]
A pair of Lake MXZ 400 boots, size 50 recently arrived on my doorstep. Many fat bikers are familiar with their MXZ 300 line (the current version is the MXZ 303) because it has been the go to winter cycling boot for as long as I can remember (well over a decade now). The MXZ […]
Terrene is the new kid on the block for tire companies but already have a second studded fat tire tread available in their line up. Last year they introduced the Wazia which falls in the all-round to aggressive range of “knobbiness.” This year Terrene is offering the Cake Eater as a faster rolling fat […]
It’s Fat Camp time again and it’s show #30. In the midst of the deep freeze, Ken and Andy chat with Nate Phelps, race promoter of the Winter Rush fat bike race at Big M in Wellston, Michigan, about the nitty gritty of the race and what racers and fans should expect. What’s […]
Welcome to Fat Camp show #29, just in time for the holiday season and hopefully some gosh darn snow in the land of the hand. Here’s what’s on tap for this most recent episode: Need warm feet? flats pedals and boots or spend the dough for 45 NRTH Lake Cold Cycling Shoes ESI grip […]
Andy gets a Salsa Deadwood! Ken rides Marji Gesick 100, or at least part of it… Moral of the story, don’t skimp on tires for this race; ride burly tires. Over a Beer: 5 Reasons Why Plus-Size Tires Are Overrated We discuss some of the different fat bike fork options and who should consider each […]
Welcome to episode 27 of the Fat Camp Podcast all you gnome hunters out there. It’s time to settle in for part deux of KBS’s recap of his August bikepacking adventure on the Colorado Trail. In this episode of Fat Camp, Ken shares his stories with Andy on second half of his trip which […]
Ken and Andy are back in the studio with the skinny on everything fat (or plus). Fat Camp show #26 starts out (as usual) with a little nugget of tech talk that involves Velocity and Stans. That’s about all the tech you’re going to get with this show. You see, the brains of the podcast […]
The Fat Camp is back again for another techy discussion of fat and plus bikes and this time, it’s all about geometry. No, not the class you had to take back in high school, where you sat next to smartest kid you could find, so you could pass the class. We’re talking frame geometry […]
Ken and Andy are back from spring hiatus for episode 24 of FatCamp Podcast. For this 24th edition of the camp the guys keep it moving straight forward and rarely veer off topic. Let’s face it, life gets complicated and practical reality slaps us in the face every once in a bit. Luckily, the dynamic […]
Vee Tire is one of the only fat bike tire makers to offer two different rubber compounds; one black like normal, the other an off-white color. I always wondered if this was just a gimmick or if there was anything to the white compound. Vee lists the white compound as having “better ice performance, is […]
Plus Stuff From the Second Annual Maxxis Summit at Mulberry Gap Maxxis jumped into plus tires in a big way in recent years and has developed what is arguably the most complete lineup of plus sized tires (at least for 27.5+) of any tire company. They have everything from the fast rolling Icon all […]
Maxxis recently held their annual “Summit” in the mountains of Northern Georgia at the Mulberry Gap Mountain Bike Resort. Maxxis had some exciting news to announce on the fat bike tire front so my podcasting partner Andy and I got to head down and get the skinny on their fat. There will be a following […]
My local cycling club (Shoreline Cycling Club) recently acquired a Best Tracksled for $5,400 to use to groom a 16-17 mile loop at the Big M in Manistee National Forest which is in the northern portion of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. I have clocked about 8 hours so far using it to groom trail and […]
This winter my “skinny fat” setup (a.k.a. 4″ tires) has predominantly been the studded 4″ Vee Tire Snow Avalanche in the white Pure Silica Compound (PSC). I’ve bounced around to a couple other 4″ tires but keep coming back to the Snow Avalanche because it is such a versatile tire. If you are interested in […]
This has been one of those winters where I have been pretty darned stoked to be testing studded tires. It seems like every other weekend has been “studded tire only” conditions due to a big melt and freeze cycle. During this time the 4.6″ studded Terrene Wazia tires have become my best friend because they […]
I sit here and write this while psyching myself up for another 3-4 hour ride of breaking trail on the Cannolis. It has been a good winter here on the west coast of the northern lower peninsula of Michigan and we have already gotten over 5′ of snowfall. We got the okay from the National […]
It is kind of funny, last year/season we saw a flood of similar “me-to” fat bikes from manufacturers trying to jump on the fat bike bandwagon. Everyone seemed to want to pile on the fat bike craze. From those heady times, we have seen some really interesting and fresh bikes emerge for the 2017 season. […]
I think these tires are Rad. Not in a “I am going to ride these on every ride!” kind of Rad. Rather “these things are really good at a few things and are really fun to play around on but I don’t want to ride them all the time” kind of Rad. Allow me to […]
Vee Tire released several new tires at Eurobike/Interbike this year. One of which is the Snow Avalanche which comes in 26 x 4″ and 26 x 4.8″. They come in several different variations with both the 4″ and the 4.8″ versions coming in with a regular black rubber compound, the Pure Silica Compound (PSC) and […]
Bearclaw Bike Co. is a name that many people may not be familiar with but I am guessing if you follow the fat bike race scene (in Michigan) it will be a name you start to see a whole lot more. The first offering from Bearclaw is the Balthazar and it is an unapologetic race […]
Terrene is a new name on the fat bike block but is a company that brings some street cred to the neighborhood. Terrene is managed by Tim Krueger who previously worked as a brand manager for Salsa Cycles and is the founder of Advocate Cycles. Terrene recently came out with three tires: the Wazia which […]
Uncle Gomez and the folks from Vittoria Tire recently helped Christmas come a bit early and sent me a pair of Vittoria Cannoli 26 x 4.8″ tires to test out. This is a tire I am pretty darned stoked about. The Surly Bud and Lou’s have been the king of the hill for all around […]
This is only “kind of” a mid-term report on my Quiring Triple B. There really was never an initial report on it but if you follow the Fat Camp Podcast here on Fat-Bike.com you will undoubtably have heard me talk about it and it is tough to talk about the Vee Tire 2XL tires […]
While Mother Nature was a bit stingy in supplying us Michiganders with powder earlier this winter, she has started to make up for it with some great January conditions. Through the course of late fall and early winter I have been able to put the Vee Tire 2XLs through a wide variety of conditions and I […]
When I got my Quiring Triple B bike this fall one of the first things I thought about was getting a frame bag. I love having a frame bag to stash gear in during any season but especially during the winter where having some extra warm gear can be a life saver. The problem was […]
After Labor Day and into fall is an ideal time to beach ride along the shore of Lake Michigan. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways: The lake is still warm making early morning starts 10-15 degrees warmer and a heck of a lot nicer There are generally still a lot of warm, […]
Vee Tire has quietly made a new fat bike tire available to the public and it is going to raise a lot of eyebrows in the fatty world. It is called the Snowshoe 2XL and the listed size is 26 x 5.05 inches. The crazy part is, it is even bigger than the listed size […]
This is a short-term/initial thoughts review. I have only gotten about a month of time on these tires but luckily it was long enough to get in rides with a wide enough range of conditions from mid-winter to spring snow. This was more than enough time to get a good feel for them. If you […]
Let me just get to the point and write that these tires are da bomb. They are fairly light (for a 3” 29er tire), the tread design rolls well, grips like a slot car in most conditions, seems to have good durability and has awesome tubeless characteristics. If you are looking for 29er+ tires, I […]
Luckily, after a long drought of alternatives in 29er+ tires, there has started to be a flood of options being introduced. Bontrager is the latest company to send us tires to test and it looks to be a super solid contender. Named after a mythical blood sucking creature, I can already tell you there is nothing sucky about this […]
I recently had the pleasure of stopping by Quiring Cycles World Headquarters in Freesoil, MI and picking up our new fat tandem. We asked Scott to build up the frame to fit the widest tires and rims available because Wifey and I are planning to play on this beasty during all four seasons. On a […]
The Maxxis Chronicle was a tire I was super excited about as soon as I saw pictures of it on the interwebs. Luckily, it hasn’t disappointed and riding it has been a case of love at first corner. All of that said, this isn’t a tire I would run on both ends of my bike […]
About a month ago I got a package from Fat-Bike.com world headquarters with a pair of Vee Tire Trax Fatty 29 x 3.0” tires. This is the same pair that they took a First Look at back in April and that article contains all of the numbers for the TF. I say, ‘screw the numbers’, I […]
Back in December I wrote about my new Quiring fat bike (Achieving Fat-Bike Versatility). That article got into how the bike can switch geometry to suit different riding conditions such as summer and winter fat biking. This summer I have been exploring another aspect of the bike: A summer fat bike setup versus a 29er+ […]
Ed: One of the main topics at the Global Fatbike Summit happening in Ogden, Utah this weekend, as well as the just concluded Midwest Fatbike Summit in Cable, WI, is the topic of Grooming Trails for Fatbikes. We are fortunate to have Ken Blakey-Shell’s experience grooming snow trails for various uses to give us a primer. […]
This review comes after about 20 hours and 150 miles of trail riding. A vast majority of that riding took place in fresh snow because Northern Michigan got a heaping helping of December snow this year. I tried to get onto groomed trails as much as possible but even those were still fairly loose due […]
Have you recently experienced the “wobble, wobble, stop?” Have you been having difficulty getting riding again out on the trail? How about extended periods of hike-a-bike? Are you getting tired of riding the “inverted balance beam?” Maybe you have just been feeling a vague longing for speed or a general lack of flow in your […]
This “out of the box” review is a two-fer because Christmas came early for me this year. Recently a box showed up on my doorstep containing a pair of forest green Industry Nine hubs laced to Borealis Carbondale rims. It was especially festive because of the Christmas color motif once I put the wheels on […]
