There’s a fine history of of Independent Bicycle Dealers – aka : ‘Bike Shops’ creating their own fat-bike brands. Both Fatback and 9:Zero:7 were created by two enterprising bike shops in Anchorage Alaska and Bear Claw Bikes is a relatively new brand that is the creation of Einstein Cycles over in Traverse City, Michigan. Today […]
For years I’ve always had a dream of riding somewhere desolate and remote on my bike. I thought that dream was just going to stay a dream as I’m a normal guy with a wife and 3 kids. However, last December during a bivvy ride with my mate, John ‘Climber’ I planted a seed of […]
It’s your uncle Gomez here at Saddledrive at beautiful Northstar Village in Truckee, California. It’s Media Day at Saddledrive and QBP showcased all of their new products. Let’s start with our friends at Salsa. They have 4 new Mukluk models in the 2018 lineup and 3 new carbon Beargrease models that are all rocking 27.5 […]
Hello all of you fat bike buffs (and gnomes)! I’d like to take a second to introduce myself as one of the newest Bike Black Ribbon Test Pilots. My name is Nick Holzem, you may have first heard me in an interview on “The Weekly Dose of Fat episode #123”. At the time, I was wrapping up the “Hugh Jass Fat Bike Series” with one race to go. […]
What would you say if someone asked you, what is the ultimate fat bike set up? Up in Alaska, one might say: Super light carbon frame with rigid fork. Light rims and tires that are great in the snow Bar mitts In the mid-west the answer might be: Aluminum frame with rigid fork and summer […]
I’ve been riding a Fatback Corvus for the last few months and it’s ‘high time’ for me to put into words, the way I feel about the fourth carbon fat bike that I’ve reviewed over the last couple of years. You can read my initial impressions and review this bike’s impeccable racing pedigree here – https://fat-bike.com/2017/04/product-spotlight-2017-fatback-corvus/ In […]
The Smokestone Henderson fat bike is the brainchild of Graham Foot from Slam69 Cycles in Gloucester in the UK. I was invited to spend the weekend with Graham and find out about the history of the bike and to spend some time in the saddle. Graham’s history in the bike industry goes way back to […]
Notice that the swings are empty and not moving? That’s because my kids have been on these two FRAMED Mini-Sota kids fat bikes for the past 8 weeks and don’t care about their old best friend, Mr. SwingSet, anymore. They let their friends borrow them and now their friends’ swing sets have filed for […]
The six weeks that I tested the Roughneck, just happened, to fall at the tail end of the best Winter (snow wise) we’ve had here in the Pacific Northwest in several years. I had the pleasure of riding it in a lot of different snow conditions including a week and a half of icy stuff, […]
Back in January, a Framed Wolftrax Carbon Custom landed in the Fat-Bike.com Bike Black Ribbon Test Pilot hanger bay. You can read the initial product spotlight with all the details of the build and other minutia here. Over the next two plus months, I’ve proceeded to put the Wolftrax Carbon through its paces. To say that […]
Winter in the UK, the time were riding seems to be a wet affair. However, with spring showing its face one Saturday late in March I thought I’d hatch a plan. Now I’ve took in this route at the start of the ride a few times before. Starting at 1,200 feet I made my way […]
We have a brand new 2017 Fatback Corvus in the shop for testing. Two of our Black Ribbon Test Pilots, Aris and Travis, recently reviewed the Fatback Skookum and Rhino. I’ve written half a dozen stories about my ‘Made in the USA’, aluminum, Fatback (named Otis), but we’ve never spent any long term, quality […]
In the fat-bike marketplace, we’ve seen a lot of gimmicks in the past couple of years. For example: carbon, full suspension, symmetrical rear ends, the color Orange, etc. etc. More and more I’ve been seeing fat bikes on the trails all year long. Fat Bikes are becoming THE choice for riders that want a bike […]
After a thorough 2 month shakedown of the 2017 Fatback Rhino FLT during a very snowy Alaskan winter I came to the conclusion that this bike has made the shortlist for the next fat-bike in my quiver. The build kit on the bike I tested is the GX1 with an MSRP of $2,399.00. The bike […]
People love to complain about the weather and the last couple of winter’s around the midsection of the Great Lakes have been pretty shy on sustainable snow-pack. As I write this (Late February) , my local temperature is forecast to be nearly 70 degrees and we’ve completely lost our base down to the bare dirt. […]
Careful what you wish for, right? I’ve been wanting to get my kids on fat bikes for years. We’ve shopped, priced and measured but simply never have pulled the trigger on one. So who comes to the rescue for a testing session……? Uncle Gomez of course. Just when you think winter is done (with […]
After I spent some time getting initial impressions of the Fatback Skookum we had in for testing (you can see the Fatback Skookum Product Spotlight here) I wanted a guy with mad skills to spend some time with the bike and Aristotle Peters is one of those guys. Aris was one of the first people […]
Coincidentally, a week or so before being asked if I wanted to test & review the Jamis Roughneck, I had suggested that very bike (and a couple “plus bikes from the Jamis line as well) to an old friend who’s getting back into riding after a long hiatus. His #1 criteria was value/performance […]
Since I’ve been an e-Fat-Bike rider since December of 2014, Gomez asked if I could compare my 2015 Felt Lebowske and the 2017 Specialized Turbo Levo HT Comp. The two bikes are almost opposites in many ways. The Felt Lebowske looks like a Fat-Bike with a motor and battery added to the frame, but the […]
The testing lab at Fat-Bike.com was recently offered up a Framed Wolftrax Carbon fatbike to put through its paces. Gomez reached out to see if I was interested, and after a little coordination with the brown Santa, I soon had the Wolftrax in my possession, assembled, and out on the trail in quick order. Framed got […]
Borealis Flume Review By Dustin Carlson Do you ever find yourself looking out the kitchen window at a barren wasteland of frozen tundra covered in snow? Do you ever think to yourself, while looking out that window, why can’t it be spring, so I can start riding my bike again? If this sounds like you, […]
The Fatback Skookum is a carbon-framed, 5-inch platform fat-bike aimed squarely at the 4-season crowd. The Skookum was my favorite fat-bike at Interbike when it was introduced and the opportunity to ride one for a few weeks came as a welcome surprise thanks to “Fuzzy” John at Fatback. Our test Fatback Skookum came packed in […]
We’ve published a series of articles about the bikes that our reader’s ride, but I don’t think I’ve ever met someone that has quite the list of bikes that JP shared with us. It’s not that JP has a huge stable of bikes, there are many others that have more bikes in the shed than […]
I was very interested in testing the new Specialized Turbo Levo HT Comp Fat bike for a couple of reasons. I’ve been riding a Felt Lebowske e-fat-bike since December of 2014 and I wanted to see how the e-technology has changed in two years. And I was also curious to try a hardtail again. […]
Photo: Margus Riga – Location: Pemberton, BC The new Rocky Mountain Suzi Q is a step in the trail riding direction from the Canadian bike company and uses the 27.5” FAT wheel size. The Suzi Q is based on a lightweight carbon or aluminum frame and sports a 68-degree headtube and a short, 434mm, chainstay that […]
Borealis is known for making top notch fat bikes. Their design and attention to detail is best in the business. We all know that the high end, carbon “Crestone” models are great, but Borealis also has the aluminum “Flume” line. The geometry is much the same between the two models, with the major […]
A couple of years ago, we predicted that kids fat-bikes might reach Stingray or PK Ripper status for the current generation of grommets. I don’t keep my finger on the pulse of what’s cool for grade schoolers, but if I’m reading the tea leaves of the cycling interwebz correctly, there’s a 32% chance that we did’t […]
Back in September, I visited the QBP corporate campus in sunny Bloomington MN, for an opportunity to meet and talk with Surly’s product development team about a project that’s been in the pipeline for quite some time. I learned of the existence of the Big fat Dummy project about the time that the Ice […]
Who likes putting a bike on the roof of their car? Not this guy. I usually just chuck my old Surly in the back of my pick’em up truck and haul ass to the liquor store on the way to the trail head. If you haven’t noticed, Surly has started making their newer bikes […]
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 […]
I voted for the RSD Ti Mayor Part of my responsibilities as Payload Specialist on the USS Faterprise is to schedule bike tests with our Bike Black Ribbon Test Pilots. This year, we’ll be testing an All-Star lineup of 2017’s, like the Fatback Rhino (Travis) & Skookum (Sven), along with a Borealis Flume (Wade) and […]
Two months ago, my take on fat biking was this: I love it! It is a great way to switch up the local trails and make them new again. If and when it snows, I can keep right on truckin’, never miss a beat. But when it comes to “epic all mountain” trails, […]
The folks at the Tumbleweed Bicycle Company have developed the Prospector with bikepacking in mind and have built in some unique features including what they bill as it being the first production fat-bike to use a standard 73mm bottom bracket. The Prospector is designed to be rugged, adaptable, and to carry a load – Tumbleweed […]
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 […]
Bag Maker and Beer Dranker Señior Tupper Becker went out and bought himself a dual suspension fat-bike up there in Fairbanks Alaska and I asked him to tell us a thing or two about how she rails berms and what-not, so stand by for his ‘most excellent’report below. I also contacted Travis at Trek HQ […]
A trail fat bike? I thought fat bikes were only good for snow and sand! Well, Kona is out to prove the naysayers wrong. The Wozo is a beautiful mix of the trail-shredding Honzo and the Wo fat bike that Kona offers. With its aggressive geometry, Schwalby Jumbo Jim tires, 100mm Bluto fork, […]
The same crew that founded Wolf Tooth Components are launching Otso Cycles, which is a new bike company focused on bringing innovative bikes to the mountain bike and mixed surface road markets. They’re coming out with 2 bikes and the one that we’re going to focus upon is the Voytek. The Voytek is a carbon fiber hardtail mountain bike […]
The man behind Blackjack Bikes, Jack Neilsen, and I, go way back to the 90’s. I met Jack at the 24 Hours of Nine Mile up in Wausau. Jack was recovering from a broken collar bone and was helping out as the pit crew for a solo 24 hour racer. Jack followed the BMX pathway to […]
Hi there Fat-bike.com readers. I’ve recently been given the opportunity to test ride Specialized’s Hellga, their new women’s specific fat bike. Please read on to see what my initial thought and impressions are of this bike are as I relay to you a little story of a mis-adventurous weekend spent at a mid-west mountain biking […]
I’m old enough to remember the 90’s, when mountain bike brands would occasionally build a bike for a trade show, it would be boggling at sub 24 pounds in weight, it would be made of unobtanium, paper-mache and hope, and it had a rider weight limit of not very much. It was still […]
We first introduced you to the Dirt Thumper carbon wheel set back in late March. The bad news (for me) is that it has been a very wet spring in my neck of the woods – keeping me from weeks of riding all the excellent local mtb trails. The good news is that hundreds […]
At the end of February, I shared my first impressions of the Borealis Fat Bikes, Crestone and now I’m very sad to report that our test bike has moved on and left a rather large void in the old fat dash bike dot com stable. My previous article took a look at primarily snow […]
Porn. It’s all over the Interweb. If those on the moral high ground are to be believed, it will distract you at work, cost you money, erode existing relationships and create unrealistic expectations. I received some porn recently on the Internet, in the form of an email from Uncle Gomez, Baron of all […]
RAD Bicycle Company is a small, one-man (Matt Craig) frame builder operation out of SE Michigan. RAD’s stated mission is “I want to put people on a USA made product with above over-seas quality at a fair competitive price. Something an Average Joe can afford and ride. Something light enough and strong enough for […]
