It’s not often that hand-built custom fat bikes arrive in the test hopper at Fat-Bike.com. I got a message from Daniel Countiss, owner of Defiance Frameworks, that he would like to have one of his titanium bikes reviewed last spring. I jumped right on it and contacted Gomez, we’re all in. Defiance Frameworks is based […]
Alice & the Borealis Tejon It’s been a busy summer. Parts of the family spent time in Central America, others spent time in northern Ontario, and some did the premiere midwest mountain bike road trip. Between all the coming and going, we still made time to hit our local trails and what’s left of our […]
It’s been a while since the Black Bike Ribbon Test Pilot – Youth Division was put to work but with the recent release from Borealis Fat Bikes, Uncle Gomez hired Alice to test out their 24in kid’s fat bike….The Tejon. Kids get older and grow faster than a good night’s sleep so this’ll probably be […]
PUTTING SOME TIME ON THE BOREALIS TELLURIDE In early March, I received this Colorado designed beast of a fat bike from the gnome master himself, Gomez, to put through the paces for a couple months. You can find his initial impressions and unpacked review here. My duties were to feel the bike out in two […]
On this episode of the DGP we ‘Ask Adam’ a question from Eric Owsley. Eric hails from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. After that, we focus in on the subject of Ski Area Bike Access with the General Manager of Alpine Valley Resort, Jamison Stachel. We close the show with band and cult leader, […]
For the past two months, I’ve been riding the newest version of the RSD Mayor Aluminum fat bike, appropriately named V4 (version 4). If my local riding crew is any indicator of how much I enjoyed riding and testing this fat bike, I’d bet they’d all agree that I was thoroughly stoked during the time […]
Editor’s Note: There are so many builders of exquisite bicycles located all over the US that can’t take the time or expense to hit NAHBS every year. Other shows like the one in Philly draw regional builders. The great lakes or the mid-west area doesn’t have a regional handbuilt show and it’s been a while […]
Back in February, we received a Borealis Telluride demo to ride and review. We took the bike down into the shop and built it up just in time for our product tester (Ronsta) to be headed out of town on vacation. Since the bike was the size I ride, I decided upon a short term […]
(Editor’s Note) – The following is from our old friend Will Ross! Will recently made a career move to the Trek Store of Anchorage and that means that he’s riding a new bike! We asked Will if he could write a story about his new whip and the rather fantastic results are below. I have […]
Giant Bicycles has finally joined just about everyone else and is offering a fat-bike called the Yukon. It will come in two models the Yukon 1 and the Yukon 2. The two new models are both aluminum with 27.5 wheels. MSRP is $1630 for the Yukon 2 and $2100 for the Yukon 1. Yukon 1 […]
I like being medium. Medium is good. Vertically…I’m medium. I’m about halfway between two extremes of height. In other words, I’m average. Doors open up for those above me and those below but recently, one opened up for me in the form of a fat bike to test and review. Medium has its benefits […]
Last time that I was up to visit Scott & Christina Quiring we talked a lot about 27.5 fat-bike wheels and Scott told me that he was working on a bike specifically designed to run the new sized wheels with the new gargantuan Terrene Tires 4.5″ Cake Eaters…(Project Abominable) We left an asset in place […]
Just before the Holidays hit (with a thud), I day tripped out to where the cheese curtain meets the mighty Mississippi River to visit the Wyatt Bicycle Company in LaCrosse. Back in the day, LaCrosse hosted mtb races out at a private campground called Blueberry Springs. Way back in like nineteen 89? a bunch of us […]
JP gets REEB’ed by JP Syverud Well, it finally happened. My dream has finally come true. I got REEB’d! I have always wanted to have a custom fat bike built just for me. I sold a few bikes and other things lying around the house just to gather enough acorns to get this thing built. Be warned, this isn’t for the faint of heart. It took some sacrifice, but in the […]
The final stop of my December trip to visit three Michigan bicycle companies landed me in Traverse City, Michigan. I made arrangements to meet at Einstein Cycles with both Keith Conway, who manages the shop and Jason Lowetz who owns both Einstein Cycles and the Bearclaw Bicycle Company. Einstein Cycles (Jason) launched the Bearclaw Bicycle Co. […]
The last time that I’d visited Scott and Christina Quiring at their shop in Free Soil Michigan was back in the spring of 2012. Free Soil sits between hundreds of thousands of acres of National Forest and one of the best Lake Michigan beaches that I’ve ever ridden. It’s a veritable Fat-Bike Paradise. I’ve been fortunate to […]
Earlier in December, I visited three Michigan bicycle companies on a short press junket and this is the first story that I’ll write from those travels. My first stop on the trip was to RAD Bicycle Company which is run by Matt Craig and Mark Major in Pinckney Michigan. RAD is focused on making handmade steel plus […]
A year has passed since I first rode my Fatback Corvus FLT for the first time. I swear that time just goes by faster and faster when you’re having fun. The road that set me on the path to riding a Fatback Corvus FLT goes back even further than that, but you probably started reading […]
Sometimes I’m not sure of who I am. A father, a husband, a surveyor, or just Kato’s roadie who drinks for free (even if it means stealing L7’s beer, but that’s a story for another time). We all have different parts to play throughout our lives, sometimes balancing out multiple facets of ourselves within […]
This is the second report from a Road Trip to points west of the Mississippi last month. After spending a rainy weekend in Fruita, to visit some friends, I made my way to Carbondale Colorado to get a peek behind the Titanium Curtain at Why Cycles. It poured rain all the way there and my […]
It’s been a long and sometimes strange journey that’s led to my review of the new Salsa Beargrease. Back in March of 2017, I had just won the Fat Bike Birkie and right after I rolled over the finish line was when I first met Gomez. He was standing there, staring at me with […]
First things first. Fat bikes and skate parks do not mix. (with my skill-set) Well…more to the point, super knobby fat bike tires (look’n at you Terrene Wazias!) and skate parts do not mix; for the general reason of causing me to scrub too much speed up the transition, further causing me to stall out before […]
Back in July, we received a beautiful Otso Voytek Plus-Fat rig for review. If you missed the introduction and specs, you can find that post here: https://fat-bike.com/2018/08/first-look-otso-voytek-plus-fat-rally-sport-by-seth-bell/ Now that Summer is officially in the rear-view and the crisp days of Autumn are here (my favorite!), we wanted to share with you what a few months of […]
So, there I was, in the middle of a serious negotiation for a new camper. The wife and I were working the salesman over, trying to better our trade-in when I happened to look at my phone and see a message from everyone’s favorite uncle, Tio Gomez! “Any interest in testing out the new ICT?” […]
You may ask yourself who is Why? Why Cycles is a fairly new company, being about 2 years old. Their focus is making high-performance, titanium bicycles, with their newest release being the Big Iron fat bike. Why may be fairly new, but the company is made up a number of individuals that have extensive […]
Product Spotlight- Framed Alaskan Carbon By JP Syverud The story of how I became the test pilot that gets to field test the new Framed Alaskan Carbon goes back to last winter. Tio Gomez and I were sitting at the bar at the Sawmill Saloon up in Seely, Wisconsin. It was the day […]
Otso Cycles hails from Burnsville, MN., which is a long ways from where the brand’s identity is rooted. In Finnish mythology, Otso is the Spirit of the Bear; the noble king of the forest, a spirit of strength and courage, and also a relative with whom we share our adventures in and out of the […]
I had just hooked my daughter up with a brand new 29er, and was feeling some serious bike envy, when I received a timely phone call from a certain Mr. Gomez. My pleading instruction for my next bike to test was “gimme somethin baller” so I could stop feeling so left out of the cool […]
We got our hands on Salsa’s ‘top of the line’ Beargrease a couple of weeks ago. The idea was to assign a test pilot with race credentials and experience with riding the previous model of Salsa’s proven (fat bike category) race whip. So we sent the Beargrease to Leia Schneeberger. Leia: aka – the […]
The new Salsa Fat-Bikes have arrived! Today we’re here to share what will likely be, a hot ticket come this holiday shopping season….the 2019 Salsa Fat-Bikes. BEARGREASE – completely redesigned for 2019 The Geometry of the 2019 Beargrease gets a subtle tweak with the goal of not turning off any of the folks that already know […]
The Big Iron, is the newest addition to the fleet over at Why Cycles. Named after a Marty Robbins ballad, this titanium bike has our stoke levels off the charts. Last Monday, a pair of Big Irons’ showed up at our doorstep. A size medium, for Becky to test, and a size XL for […]
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 […]
The Family Truxter. The Shaggin Wagon. The Grocery Getter. I’m a wagon guy so the idea of this bike appealed to me right off the bat. Plenty of room out back to toss a bunch of junk in and go. I made it a point to use it for as many local errands as I […]
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 […]
WHY CYCLES ANNOUNCES THE BIG IRON, A TITANIUM FAT BIKE Tuesday, April 17, Carbondale, CO. Why Cycles, the two-year-old Colorado-based company that designs, manufactures, and distributes high-end titanium bikes, today announced the official release of its brand new fat bike, the BIG IRON. Why Cycles is a small company that is quickly picking up […]
Rocky Mountain has laid down the blueprint for modern cross-country race fat bikes. Along the way they also have established a place in the endurance and adventure sectors as well. After an intense 5-week schedule of fat bike races during the heart of winter and capping it off with an impromptu excursion to the […]
Back at the very beginning of November 2017, I ordered a Fatback Corvus FLT. I pulled the trigger because after riding a Corvus for over six months we reviewed the Fatback Corvus earlier in 2017 and I wrote that I thought that it was one of the 3 Best Fat-Bikes that I’ve ever ridden. I […]
Editors Note: Seth Bell is an eighteen year veteran of the bike industry and makes his home in Mason City Iowa. He currently owns six or seven fat-bikes and he spends his days working on the frontlines of what can go spurious with your average fat-bike. Those two things alone should put him […]
I’ve spent the past few months aboard the 2018 Kona Wozo, a bike that is designed as an all-season, aggressive, hardtail that happens to have fat tires. This bike hasn’t seen much change from its 2017 counterpart, but that’s for good reason. I have had a great time riding this bike and am happy […]
After a solid six-week shakedown of the Salsa Mukluk Carbon GX Eagle I concluded that I really like this bike for various reasons. The build kit on the bike is the new GX Eagle with an MSRP of $3,499.00. The bike stayed mostly stock throughout the test period, I put my Ergon grips on […]
The Rocky Mountain Suzi Q fat bike arrived this week and just in time for peak winter season riding. Over the next month and half, I’ll be riding and racing this bike all over the Midwest. My season is heating up with 5 races over the next 6 weeks including The Swety Yeti, The […]
Way back in November, when it was still warm and snow-free here in the midwest, Gomez gave you a rundown of the Specialized Fatboy Expert that had recently landed on the doorstep of Fat-Bike.Com World HQ. He rode if for a couple weeks, gave some first impressions and then decided to hand it off […]
From the moment that the original Pugsley was phased out of production, fat-bikers and surly-philes have asked the question “when will Surly bring the Pugsley back?” We asked Sov at our 100th Weekly Dose show back in 2016 if the Pug would make a comeback and he led us to believe that there was a possibility that we […]
Mukluk – (noun) muk·luk \ ˈmək-ˌlək \ a soft winter boot traditionally made of reindeer or seal skin originally worn by Arctic aboriginal people of Alaska. Mukluks weigh little and allow hunters to move quietly. I received word recently from the Fat-Bike.com Headquarters to keep my eye out for a big box from Salsa arriving at my doorstep. I considered […]
