My first Krampus back in 2013 I’ve ridden a Surly Krampus since they came out back in 2013. I started with the OG Green Krampus but that bike died in a freak accident and it was replaced by the Black Krampus named Silver which has been my “Mountain Bike” for quite a few years. Over […]
Archive | Hubs
One Year with a HED Made in MN Wheelset
One year ago I unboxed a set of super-light wheels from three Minnesota companies that are collaborating together to create the HED Made in MN Wheelset. At nineteen hundred and seventy-three grams, I declared them the lightest fat bike wheels in the universe and I’ve been riding them for a full year now. I shared […]
The Lightest Fat Bike Wheelset in the World out of the box video.
We recently got word that a set of Made in Minnesota HED/Berd/Onyx Racing fat-bike wheels was on the way. We set up the camera and shot a quick ‘out of the box’ video to share some stoke for what HED Cycling bills as the lightest fat-bike wheelset in the world. A sub-2000 gram wheelset is […]
First Look – Fatback Big Su Carbon 27.5 Wheels
I’ve been riding a set of Fatback’s Big Su 27.5 Carbon Wheels for the last month on my Fatback Corvus FLT. March is a great time to experience virtually, all four seasons in America’s Dairyland. I just mounted my third different set of tires on our test wheels to keep up with the rapid transition […]
Onyx Berd HED Made in Minnesota Limited Edition Wheelset
HED, Berd and Onyx Release Exclusive “Made in Minnesota” Wheels
New Whisky Parts No. 9 Wheels – Show & Tell
We take a new set of Whisky Parts No. 9 carbon fiber wheels out of the box for a bit of show and tell.
(bikenerd) 29+ Wheelset – RaceFace AC 35 Rims, DT Comp Spokes & White Industries M16 Hubs
If you follow the site, you may have seen Bikenerd’s Plus Bike Editorial that we published at the end of 2019 and maybe you’ve been following some of the podcast discussions that we’ve had with Adam Blake about plus bike rim width. After digesting all of that information, I decided to have Adam build a […]
Cantu Rumble Wheelset Review by Adam Blake
An immediate difference… that’s what I noticed after installing the Cantu Rumble wheelset on my Salsa Cycles Beargease. The question was: what was I noticing? In my initial Cantu review, I touched on the fact that double-wall carbon rims aren’t much, if any, lighter than single wall alloy rims that are available and quite popular […]
Fatback 27.5 Big Su Wheelset Review
It’s kind of funny that I’ve reviewed the 26″ version of this wheelset and never really asked about the story behind the Big Su Name. So when it came time to write the review of the 27.5 Big Su Wheelset, I asked Fatback’s Head-Honcho, Greg Matyas ” I’m curious to learn the story behind the […]
CABDA MidWest SitRep
I made a trip to what I like to call the belly of the beast, Schaumburg, Illinois, yesterday to browse groovy cycling wares at the CABDA Midwest Expo. CABDA has been around for a long, long time. Way back in the last century, the shop that I worked at (ABC Cyclery) used to prep and […]
Fatback Big Su 27.5 Wheelset
We’re field testing a pair of solid, lightweight Big Su 27.5 wheels from our amigos at Fatback Bikes up in Alaska. We tested and reviewed the 26″ version of Fatback’s Big Su Wheels back in 2018. You can read how they performed here. The twenty-six inch set of big su’s received high scores so when […]
Fatback/Knight Wide Ride Wheel Review – By JP Syverud
Back in January the Secret Underground Fat-Bike Test labs received a set of Fatback Carbon Wheels. What can I say? Fatback continues to innovate the market with their latest product. This time they partnered up with Knight Composite to make this glorious love child of a carbon fat bike wheel set. I was super pumped […]
First Look Fatback Wide Ride Carbon Wheelset by Knight Composites
Our amigos at Fatback have followed up their (5 Gnome Rated) Aluminum Big Su fat-bike rim and wheelsets with a cross-town collaboration with Knight Composites. In addition to the shop in Anchorage, Fatback has a shop and warehouse in Bend Oregon where Knight is also located. Fatback brings a ton of fat-bike expertise to the table […]
Fatback Big Su Review
Back in September, we spotlighted the Fatback Big Su Wheelset and after a couple months of gnome roping, we’re back with a full review. I’ve been running the Big Su’s on my ‘murdered out’ Fatback Corvus FLT – [code name: ten beers] with a set of Schwalbe 26×4.0 Jumbo Jims (tubeless). I took a […]
First Look – Fatback Big Su 26″ Wheels
Back in the springtime at Sea Otter, muh man Fuzzy showed me Fatback’s new Big Su Aluminum Tubeless Ready Rim. The new rim weighs in at an ultra-svelte 640g. I’m not talking about ‘light for an alloy set of wheels’. I’m talking lighter than a bunch of the double wall carbon wheels on the market. Last April […]
Borealis Carbondale 27.5 x 50mm – Maxxis FBR/FBF (Plus/Fat) Wheel Review
“What my fat-bike did on summer vacation” Back in April, we published a comparison of 4 sets of wheels (Two 26″ & Two 27.5″ options) with the goal of demystifying how 27.5″ rims and tires compare with their 26″ counterparts. I was especially interested in learning how tall each of the four wheelsets measured along […]
Product Spotlight – Pub Carbon Wheelset – 27.5 x 75mm
We’re going to get deeper into the 27.5 wheel size over the next few months and the next set of wheels in the spotlight is the Pub carbon 27.5 x 75mm rims laced to DT Swiss hubs with Terrene Cake Eater 27.5 x 4 run tubeless. The Pub Carbon rims have an inside dimension of […]
Product Spotlight – Framed Carbon Wheels – By Andy Amstutz
Carbon fibers according to Google are a material consisting of thin, strong crystalline filaments of carbon, used as a strengthening material, especially in resins and ceramics. Google says nothing about being a kick ass rim material for fat bikes. I’ve been riding aluminum rims for years and jumped at the chance to test […]
REVIEW – Atomik Phatty 85 Carbon Rims w/ I9 Hubs by Steve Meurett
The winter only fatbike realm has long since been left behind-thank goodness. This is not news-most of us who ride fatties, do so year round because they just work…are fun…go anywhere…handle well…go fast? Well, of course, if properly outfitted. Within a short period of time, manufacturers have evolved the stock fatbike into a do […]
Kuroshiro Enso 685 Wheel Review by – Andrea Cohen
All the way back in November a fancy box of Kuroshiro Enso 685 wheels showed up at World of Bikes. The ever-growing fat-bike market is constantly evolving to fit the needs of all sorts of riders, and high end components are definitely being asked for. Fat-bikes are getting faster. The rise of fat-bike dedicated […]
Otis Turns Two – Fatback Review – The extended club version
Otis’s Story Timeline 12/25/2013 – Otis’s Introduction and Naming – http://fat-bike.com/2013/12/fatback-190-product-test-episode-1/ 12/25/2014 – Otis Turns One – http://fat-bike.com/2014/12/otis-turns-one-%E2%99%A6-fatback-long-term-review/ 2/5/2015 – Otis Gets Pimped – http://fat-bike.com/2015/02/otis-gets-pimped-part-one-otisgetspimped/ 6/18/2015 – Otis’s Pimped Parts Review – http://fat-bike.com/2015/06/hed-rims-onyx-racing-hubs-paul-skewers-6-month-review/ That brings us to today and a story that could be called Otis Gets Pimped, Part Two! I had planned all along to apply some sort […]
Industry 9 Introduces New Fat & Plusbike Wheels
Straight out of the heart of Western North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, Industry Nine, is introducing new rim options for Mountain, Fat Bikes, and Plusbikes. Two new tubeless Fat Bike rim options join the well-received BigRig 825 Carbon, The new BigRig 975 Carbon and the alloy BigRig 845 are built on Industry Nine’s proven Torch FatBike […]
HED Rims/ Onyx Racing Hubs / Paul Skewers – 6 Month Review
Last December, I started testing a new set of wheels on my Aluminum Fatback named Otis. I wrote a piece called Otis Gets Pimped (Part 1) that covered some upgrades that we would be testing. This is the second installment, where we’ll check in with how the new pimp’n parts have performed over the last […]
In pursuit of never ending roll — Fatback Hadley Hubs, The long-term review.
Last year, when venturing into a custom wheel build for my then new Trek Farley, the strategy was simple – turn this fat bike into a never ending roll machine. Good hubs equal better rolling momentum. In speaking with Pete Hamer of Freewheel Bike in Minneapolis, MN, we reviewed just about every manufacturer that buillt […]
Sarma Naran 100mm Wheelset – Carbon & Tubeless
Mi nombre esta es Gomez and I ‘m a frequent tire changer. The fat-bike dot com test kitchens are a revolving door of all sorts of fat-bike tires, so I get the opportunity to try out new sneakers all of the time. That’s my excuse for not having gone tubeless, before now….but that’s all about […]
Video – Neil From Cycle Monkey Talks About the Rohloff – Ventana Fat-bike
Neil Flock from Cycle Monkey talks about the collaboration with Ventana to bring a Rholoff-compatible fat-bike frame, which can use the Gates Carbon Drive belt system, to the fat-bike world. Learn more at – http://cyclemonkey.com
Hauck-Bicycles Hub Spacers – Converts 135 to 150mm
Folks that have plans to purchase a new Bluto and have Hope Hubs, should perk up and take notice! Our new amigo, Steve Hauck, out in Montrose, Colorado makes a sweet set of precision machined spacers that will allow you to convert your 135 mm spaced font hub to the Bluto 150 mm spacing. Right now the Hauck […]
Coming Soon! Rohloff 170mm Fat-bike Speedhub XL
Now it is official! We got the info below directly from Rohloff and after receiving it I also contacted Neil and Phil from Cycle Monkey, the US Authorized Service Center for Rohloff for their thoughts and some pix. First from Rohloff: Rohloff AG is pleased to announce our intention of adding a new SPEEDHUB 500/14 […]
Borealis 150mm Thru Axle Front Hub
Aris has a RockShox Bluto on the way but the SRAM mothership was all out of compatible front hubs so all it took was a call to Adam at Borealis Bikes, problem solved! Adam sent us one of their new Borealis 150mm Thru Axle Front Hubs! This isn’t simply a 135mm thru axle hub […]
NEW – Jade Cycles Fat Rim & Hub
One of our readers sent me a shot of his Jade Cycles Ti Fat-bike last month. To get some background on the bike, I contacted the owner of Jade Cycles, Jim Degracia and found out that they had lots of new fat-bike goodies in the pipeline. Jade is located in Holland Michigan, right across the big […]
Borealis Carbondale/Industry Nine Short-Term Review
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 […]
Initial Report – Borealis Carbondale and Industry Nine Wheelset
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 […]
About the Rohloff and Gates Carbon Belt Drivetrain
This is the second story that Euan Pennington sent us and it focuses in on the Rohloff/Gates Carbon Drive he used on his fat-bike build. Recently I created a new bike, the “Steel Donkey”, and in doing so I went looking for a reliable and long lasting drive train that could survive abuse, remote […]
9 Months with Paul Component RHUB 170mm Rear Hub(s)
Having originally received one of the first RHUBs for review from Paul at the get go, I’ve been riding the Paul Component Engineering Disk RHUB 170 on my primary fat-bike for over 9 months and currently have 3 different wheelsets built with the Paul RHUB. (I paid for two of these hubs with my own […]