The 2019 Sea Otter Classic has become the best bike show in the US and they just announced expansion plans for Sea Otter Europe. The US version of the Sea Otter Classic is held at the Laguna Seca Race Track out near Monterrey, California about an hour drive from Silicon Valley. It’s quite beautiful there. […]
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 […]
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 […]
Uncle Gomez sent me a set of 27.5 carbon fat bike wheels recently. You can check out the “product spotlight” he wrote up but the basic stats of this wheelset are the following: Exterior width: 75mm Interior width: 69mm Front weight: 1,053g (with tape and valve stem) Rear weight: 1,164g (with tape and valve stem) […]
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 […]
“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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
My amigo Thad Carson (taddyhogg) tipped me off that he’s been running the Maxxis 27.5 x 3.8 tires mounted to a set of HED 27.5 x 45mm Raptor rims on his Oddity Cycle Lime Greenis Maximus. He also shared some encouraging reports about how his set-up handled the rocky trails near KC. (KC has super […]
I’m a convert. They’re worth the money. The kids might not have the warmest boots and the wife might not have the biggest diamond, but doggone it, I will have a carbon wheelset for my fat-bike. And this set won’t break the bank so the fam will still have food on the table. […]
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 […]
It’s Day 3 – Part Two of the Interbike rodeo championships at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas. We walked six miles yesterday and we’re looking to set a new strava, personal best, today at the ole trade show. (Can you strava a trade show floor?) Much of what we saw in the fat and plus bike […]
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 […]
I nabbed a sneak preview of these new ELITE carbon, double wall, rims, when I visited Borealis at the end of July. The spy shots don’t show the final graphics, but these are the new wheels that have been developed through a strategic partnership between Borealis and Reynolds Cycling. The official press release is below. We should have more information […]
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 […]
With the introduction of the Crawler a couple years back the folks at Origin8 got into the fat-bike game a bit earlier than most. Now, their new wheelsets seek to expand their fat-bike reach with a selection of affordable complete wheels. The version we have here is a SRAM XD Driver compatible version. Made from […]
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 […]
ED: Andrea Cohen, fat-bike rider and racer extraordinaire (she finished 1st at this year’s Triple D in the women’s class!) has a set of the newly available Bontrager Jackalope wheels for testing. Here is here first look at these intriguing wheels! Wheel choice is always a hot debate among fat-bike riders. Deciding what the ultimate […]
As some of you might remember, I have a bike named, Otis, that just recently celebrated its first birthday! Back around x-mas time we ran a long term review of Otis where we mentioned that we’ve been working on a little project to upgrade Otis’s wardrobe. We code named this operation #otisgetspimped. In other words, we’re going to take […]
Sarma is newer company to the fat-bike scene but they bring to the table many years of aerospace composite experience along with a strong interest in fat-bikes. In addition to a fat-bikes frame (the Shaman), they also have a line of fat-bike rims called the Naran. The 100mm Naran was the first 100mm carbon rim on the […]
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 […]
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 […]
WHISKY 70MM TUBELESS RIM/45NRTH VAN HELGA. By – Jesse LaLonde It’s only fair to preface this with a racer guy mentality. Sure, JRA is the peanut butter but pushing personal limits is the jelly. Cooking corners, jibbing rock gardens, and roosting burms, are all part of the game. While the motor is the star of […]
You may remember that we got a sneak peak at the prototype of a new Stan’s tubeless rim aimed at the fat-bike market last fall at Interbike. In fact, the rim was so important to Stan himself that he was at Interbike to talk about it! We also met Bob Nunnink, Stan’s US Domestic Sales & Marketing […]
Sarma just announced the very first Carbon Fiber 29+ Rim to hit the market! The new Naran 29+ is tubeless ready – 50mm wide and weighs a mere 450 grams! If you were thinking about building a set of summer wheels for your fat-bike, these rims could be a game changer. The following is from the news […]
Just arrived at FB.c World Headquarters is a pair of Naran Carbon rims that Dimitry at Sarma sent for testing! Jim is going to lace them up to a pair of Northpaw Hubs and we will get them on a bike and commence to testing! Meanwhile, here is a recap of what to look forward […]
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 […]
Turnagain Components was created by the founders of Borealis Fat Bikes. Recently they announced a new aluminum pinned fat bike rim they’re calling the FR80. The Turnagain FR80 is an 80mm wide extruded aluminum fat bike rim. They are single-walled rims designed to work with all common fat-bike tire widths with a standard tubed setup. […]
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 […]
As soon as I scheduled my trip to Minneapolis to attend the Freewheel Winter Bike Expo, I contacted Andy from Hed to see if I could visit their production facility and possibly, demo a set of their new carbon fat bike rims. As the date of my visit grew closer, Andy and I worked out all […]
