If the fat bike in your life is not rotund enough for your flotation needs and you’ve been looking for a bike with the widest profile rims on the planet, you’re in for a treat. Adding to the rich fat bike tradition of bike brands like Bearclaw, Corvus ,and 9:Zero:7, which were founded by bicycle […]
I’ve had a plan to get up to the UP to ride for at least a couple of years. Ever since Jason at Bearclaw Bikes announced their drop-bar fatty called the TOWMAK I dreamt about returning to the vast Huron National Forest and its hundreds of miles of rustic roads, trails, and beaches. So when […]
The 2022 Life Time Sea Otter Classic presented by Continental was last week. Racers, fans, and our favorite brands gathered at the Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey California! I walked the aisles of the expo to bring you the latest and greatest products coming to the US market from all of the best companies. It […]
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 […]
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 […]
Should your next bike have 27.5″ Wheels? Do you need to run out and trade your old 26″ fatty for a newer model? 26 vs 27.5 editorial
The Art of Staying Light and Fat – Whisky No.9 76W rims Written by Adam Blake, Photos by Gomez If you’ve read some of my recent gear reviews, you know that I am very much into carbon rims on basically every bike I ride. I like that they add liveliness and responsiveness to my steeds […]
Roval Terra CLX: One Wheel to Rule All Roads
HED, Berd and Onyx Release Exclusive “Made in Minnesota” Wheels
We take a new set of Whisky Parts No. 9 carbon fiber wheels out of the box for a bit of show and tell.
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
“Its totally a thing.”… generally that is my response when people approach me about carbon rims on a fat-bike and their viability. A lot of people immediately focus on weight savings in carbon vs aluminum rims, but with companies removing material from aluminum rims, and utilizing single wall designs, the weight savings from a reasonable […]
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 […]
Way back in December I wrote an introduction to a new wheelset and fork from the carbon fiber maestros over at ENVE. This was big news given that one of the biggest names in carbon fiber was (finally) getting into the fat game. You can read all about the M685 wheels and Fat Fork here […]
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 […]
While there are currently a quite a few rim/wheel options out there in the fat-bike universe, one major player in the high-end carbon market has been noticeably absent – ENVE Composites. The same can be said for fork offerings … lots of choices but no ENVE. Well, that’s now changed with the launch of the […]
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 […]
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 […]
We’re in the midst of testing 4 sets of wheels that range from 26 x 4.8 to 27.5 x 3.8. All 4 wheels are pictured below and labeled A-B-C & D for reference. Starting last November, I ran 27.5 x 50mm Wheelset C and wrote an article about how stoked that I was to be able to ride […]
In addition to hosting every denomination of bicycle racing, the 2018 Sea Otter Classic has become the best bicycle industry trade show in these United States. Even the corporate giants of the industry come out and show their wares and simultaneously support their race teams. Along with the big boys, the Sea Otter expo area features […]
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 […]
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 […]
Back in July, I began testing my Amigo Jack’s new Blackjack Fate. We published a first look about the Fate in August – https://fat-bike.com/2016/08/first-look-fate-from-blackjack-bikes/. I pursued this review to see if an open mold, carbon fat-bike could hold a candle to the performance of two proprietary, high end, carbon fat-bikes that I spent time testing last […]
Direct from the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, we have all of the freshest fat and plus bike hotness for y’all! I was going to try to separate the plus from the fat, but there’s a lot of cross-over. I saw fat-bikes that were designed to run plus and even one plus-bike that can run, […]
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 […]
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 […]
Product Spotlight: Dirt Components Thumper Carbon Fat Wheel Set By Dave Krueger Carbon wheel set you say? I got an email from Sven just before I headed up to Cable, WI for the Birkie. There were certainly other words in the email, but all I remember seeing in the email was “carbon wheel set” and […]
There is hardly anything as sexy as slipping some carbon fiber of some sort onto your fatbike ride. Sure, fatbikes in the early days were pretty “big boned” and maybe not the most performance orientated as they are evolving to today. In the past, why slap spendy light pieces and parts on a tug boat […]
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 […]
In this video Andy Tetmeyer from HED Cycling joins us to talk about HED’s new fat-bike rims and wheels. The products referenced in the video are: 24″ BAD fat-bike aluminum rim 24″ BAD fat-bike aluminum wheel 26″ BAD fat-bike aluminum rim 26″ BAD fat-bike aluminum wheel 26″ 85mm carbon rim 26″ 85mm carbon wheels 26″ 100mm carbon rim […]
As we all know the fat bike market is exploding. We also all know that the wheel really makes a fat bike what it is. The introduction of new wheel options are essential for fat bikes to grow and change. The Kuroshiro enso 685 is a fat carbon rim option offered by Raceware. Raceware […]
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 […]
From the Show Floor at Interbike 2015 Andy from HED Cycling shows us new 24 and 26 inch aluminum Fat-bike wheels. In this video you will hear Andy extolling the virtues of 24-inch fat-bikes and 24-inch fat-bike wheels. To see more about what can make a 24-inch fat-bike a real consideration for riders of smaller […]
NEWS – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Tim Krueger Announces Red Bear Products, A Wheelgoods Distributor for Kuroshiro and Bouwmeester Composites to North America September 13th, 2015 Tim Krueger announces his second new company this year, Red Bear Products. Red Bear Products will be a distributor of bicycle wheelgoods, concentrating on industry-leading technology, hard-to-find brands, high-quality […]
With Eurobike kicking off today, Kuroshiro is introducing a new carbon fat-bike rim called the ensō6105. The 6 in the name is for 26″ rim and the 105 designates the width in millimeters. You may recall the zig-zag design of the spoke reinforcement area from other Kuroshiro rims as they no make four sizes for the fat-bike and […]
Back in July, I was dispatched to Utah for a mission, to document and photograph, Surly’s new fat-bike. I was also headed there to attend the Quality Bicycle Products, western dealer round-up, called Saddle Drive. After I shot a slew of photos of the new Salsa’s, I met my contact, John Fleck (special ops edition) in the Needles […]
Our amigos de Surly have three versions of their new My Other Brother Darryl (MOBD) tubeless ready 80 mm wide rims making their debut at Eurobike today. The first version is a pinned rim that comes as original equipment (OE) on the new Wednesday fat-bike. That OE version has hexagon, shaped, speed holes and is drilled to lace as […]
So you get a new fat bike as winter 2015 comes to a close and the thought is, “O well, that was nice, put it in the bike storage until next winter so I can ride it again.” Wrong homie. I took out Salsa Beargrease X01 on the red dirt bacon strip of Cuyuna […]
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 […]
Fat-bike.com field correspondent and bad-ass rider, Andrea Cohen, has had our test set of the Bontrager jackalope TLR wheelset for several weeks now. Here is her review! I have been riding the Bontrager Jackalope rims for the past three weeks solid. Commuting, bushwacking, groomed trails, and everything in between. The tubeless ready wheel-set has served […]
Story and Photography by Aaron W. Hautala During our previously chronicled Salsa Bucksaw test ride, part of the never ending love fest needs to be attributed to the wheels, tires, and bars (handlebars, not brownies) on this not-so-average full suspension fat-bike. Enter the Whisky No.9 – 70mm Carbon Fat Rims, Whisky No.7 Carbon No-Rise 760 mm handlebar, and […]
