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We're getting closer to winter, and the calendar is starting to deliver some interesting options. There's meaningful news from the Polar Roll organizers, a fresh batch of fat-bike events, and a few things worth investigating on the equipment side. No major new fat-bike launches this week, but there's more to fat-biking than the next new frame.
Let's get into it.
The Big Stuff
Polar Roll Brings Back Its Original Point-to-Point Route
906 Adventure Team has announced some significant changes to the 2027 Polar Roll, and registration opens this Sunday, November 8, at precisely 9:06 a.m. Eastern. Nine, Oh, Six!
The biggest news is the return of the original 30-mile point-to-point mass-start route from Marquette to Ishpeming, Michigan. The organizers say they'll use this route regardless of how much snow arrives this winter. The shorter MS15 will start and finish in Ishpeming, with both distances starting at 8 a.m. on February 20.
The Ultra is changing, too. Instead of stretching the longest distance to 160 miles, organizers are planning a 135-mile route and a roughly 100-mile option. The Ultra starts February 22, with final route details still being worked out. The EX format returns January 1 through March 1 for riders who prefer a more independent winter adventure.
I've always found Polar Roll interesting because it manages to be both a serious winter endurance event and a pretty good gathering of the fat-bike community. Bringing back the original point-to-point route gives longtime participants something familiar to look forward to, while the changes to the Ultra suggest the organizers are still experimenting with what makes the event work.
Fat-Biking With a Naturalist? Why Not?
Here's a Global Fat-Bike Day event I particularly like.
The City of Bloomington, Minnesota, is hosting Fat Bike with a Naturalist on Saturday, December 5, from 1 to 3 p.m. Participants will ride along the Minnesota River Bottoms Trail, stopping along the way to learn about the natural environment. The route is no more than five miles, with relatively flat terrain and a few short climbs and descents.
The interesting part is that the city provides the fat-bikes and helmets. You don't need to own a fat-bike, know anything about winter tire pressures or have a garage full of cycling equipment. The program costs $7.50, is open to participants 13 and older, and requires registration.
I've spent a lot of my time on bicycles stopping to take photographs, look at something interesting or talk to somebody along the trail. A ride built around paying attention to the environment makes perfect sense to me. I'd like to see more introductory fat-bike events like this, particularly ones where the equipment is provided.
Bold St. Nick's Opens Registration for Global Fat-Bike Day
The 11th annual Bold St. Nick's Fatbike Race returns to Medora, North Dakota, on December 5, and registration opened November 4.
Riders can choose the four-hour Naughty List, two-hour Nice List or four-hour Reindeer Team category. The course will be determined by conditions, which seems like a reasonable approach to planning an early-December race in the North Dakota Badlands. Current advertised entry fees start at $65 for the four-hour race and $45 for the two-hour race, plus registration fees.
The North Dakota Badlands aren't necessarily the first place people think about when planning a winter fat-bike outing, but that's part of the appeal. This looks like a fun combination of serious riding and an event that doesn't take itself too seriously.
Gear & Bikes
Stealth Bike Bags Makes Custom Frame Bags Easier to Design
Anyone who's tried to fit a frame bag onto a fat-bike with unusual tubing, extra bottle mounts or an unconventional frame triangle knows that finding the right bag can be a nuisance.
New Zealand's Stealth Bike Bags has introduced an online custom frame-bag builder that lets you experiment with frame and bag shapes, colors, zippers, lacing and other details before placing an order. The bag is still custom-made rather than an off-the-shelf product, but the design tool gives you a better idea of what you're ordering.
This could be particularly useful for riders putting together a fat-bikepacking setup. The spaces inside our frames aren't always generous, and the last thing you want is a bag that interferes with bottle placement, cables or the way you actually use the bike.
Your Backyard Renovation List Is Missing Something
Every backyard renovation has a list. New deck. Better lighting. Maybe that outdoor kitchen you've been pinning for years.
Here's what usually gets left off: shelter. Without it, your brand-new patio is only as good as the weather forecast. A Hansø pergola fixes that.
Built from T6 aerospace-grade aluminum and engineered for up to 167 mph winds and up to 65 PSF snow load, it keeps your patio covered, comfortable, and in use from spring through winter. Motorized louvers let you decide how much sky you want, anytime.
Early Bird Offers EXTENDED: save up to 40% on pergolas, plus a $1,000 installation voucher, a Free Hansø ProCheck Care™ 10-Year Plan worth $950, FREE heater and more.
The list is long. Make sure the most important thing is on it.
Fat-Bikes in the Wild
Triple D Celebrates Twenty Winters of Questionable Ideas
The Triple D Winter Endurance Race returns to Dubuque, Iowa, on January 16, 2027, and the organizers are leaning into the event's history with the tagline Twenty Years of Cold Questionable Ideas.
The race dates back to 2007, when a small group set out to ride through a Dubuque County winter. The modern version offers 70, 35 and approximately 20-mile options, along with a noncompetitive poker tour. Organized by the Tri-State Mountain Bike Riders, the event raises money that supports the club's trail-building and maintenance work.
I appreciate an endurance event that celebrates how it started. There's room in fat-biking for highly organized races, but some of the best traditions began with a few people getting together and deciding to do something that probably sounded like a bad idea at the time.
FIRFAR Returns for an Eighth Edition
The Flannel Iowa River Fatbike Adventure Ride, better known as FIRFAR, returns to Steamboat Rock, Iowa, on Sunday, November 15. This year's ride is called The Hateful 8, marking its eighth edition.
Organized by Wolf Creek Cycling Company, the event offers approximately 20, 30 and 40-mile mixed-terrain routes through the Iowa River greenbelt. The surfaces include gravel, dirt trails, grass, unimproved roads and assorted other opportunities to discover whether your tire pressure was a good decision.
The ride starts at 10 a.m. outside Happenings in downtown Steamboat Rock, with riders encouraged to regroup and enjoy the day at whatever pace suits them. The recommended entry fee is a new, unwrapped toy for the local holiday toy drive.
I like this one quite a bit. It's a fat-bike ride, a community get-together and a fundraiser, without needing to make everything more complicated than it has to be.
Around Fat-bike.com
Pigs Can Fly: The Bike Farmer Goes Fat-Biking
We published a good one this week from Dave Schlabowske about his friend Andy “Bike Farmer” Quandt, a man who once declared fat-bikes stupid, slow and pointless, and insisted he'd never own one until pigs could fly.
Apparently, the pigs have learned to fly.
During a trip to Maine, Andy ended up on a titanium Carver Omega Beast for a 60-mile bikepacking adventure with Mark Sirek and friends. Rather unexpectedly, Andy liked the bike enough to have it shipped back to Wisconsin. That led to another outing on the Valhalla Beach Party route in northern Wisconsin, where sand, waterfalls, Lake Superior scenery and a Salsa Blackborow carrying a hot tent and wood stove all made appearances.
The story includes photos, route information and videos from the rides. It's also a reminder that sometimes the best way to change somebody's opinion about a bicycle is to hand them one and go for a ride.
Ornot Adds Wool to Polartec Alpha
We've also got a new article about Ornot's Alpha Wool Pullover, which combines Polartec Alpha insulation with merino wool. It's made in the USA, available in men's and women's versions, and is aimed at the sort of changeable conditions where regulating body temperature matters more than simply piling on insulation.
I've also been spending time with Ornot's Fog Eater rain jacket and Mission Pants. Those are still in the early stages of testing, but I'm interested in how well this sort of clothing works both on the bike and as everyday wear.
Quick Hits
COROS DURA 2 Solar is now available. The second-generation GPS cycling computer features a 3.5-inch screen and a claimed 120 hours of GPS battery life, with solar charging to extend that under suitable conditions. The price is $499 without a mount or $549 with a standard mount. I'd be more interested in seeing what happens to that battery life on a long winter ride than what it does on a sunny afternoon.
Fargo has a Global Fat-Bike Day ride planned. Flatlands Cycling has scheduled a group ride for December 5, from 1 to 4 p.m. Details are still being finalized, but it's another community gathering to add to the growing list.
New England Expedition Riders is planning a full winter-fat-biking weekend. January 15–18 in Gorham, New Hampshire, will include group rides, winter riding clinics, camping instruction and lodging options ranging from a heated yurt to sleeping outside in the snow. The latter is one way to find out whether your sleeping system actually works.
Intergalactic Fat Bike Day is shaping up nicely. The December 5 ride at Cuyuna Lakes in Crosby, Minnesota, will feature a social ride through the Yawkey Unit, fat-bike rentals from Red Raven, a Wolf Tooth giveaway, food and hot drinks. Registration is required but the organizer hasn't opened it yet.
906 Adventure Team is putting money back into trails. In its November update, the organization reports contributing $50,408 to other nonprofits during 2026, supporting trail organizations in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It's worth remembering how much of the infrastructure behind our favorite riding events comes from people and organizations doing the work between race weekends.
On the Calendar
FIRFAR: The Hateful 8 - November 15, 2026
Steamboat Rock, Iowa
The eighth annual Flannel Iowa River Fatbike Adventure Ride offers 20-, 30- and 40-mile mixed-terrain routes. Bring a new, unwrapped toy for the local holiday toy drive.
Global Fat-Bike Day - December 5, 2026
Worldwide
The annual informal celebration of fat-biking returns. Cuyuna Lakes in Minnesota, CAMBA in Wisconsin and Flatlands Cycling in North Dakota are among the organizations planning group rides.
Bold St. Nick's Fatbike Race - December 5, 2026
Medora, North Dakota
Two-hour, four-hour and team racing in the North Dakota Badlands. Registration is open.
Fat Bike with a Naturalist - December 5, 2026
Bloomington, Minnesota
A guided ride along the Minnesota River Bottoms Trail with fat-bikes and helmets provided. Registration is required.
Triple D Winter Endurance Race - January 16, 2027
Dubuque, Iowa
The event's 20th anniversary brings winter endurance riding, multiple distances and a poker tour back to eastern Iowa.
Fat Pursuit - January 8–10, 2027
Island Park, Idaho
The winter endurance event returns with 30K, 60K and 200K distances in the Greater Yellowstone region.
More races, rides and gatherings are listed on the Fat-bike.com Events Calendar. If you're organizing something we're missing, let me know.
Partner Store
Winter riding has a way of reminding us about the equipment we meant to deal with last spring. Tires that have seen better days, dried-up sealant, dead light batteries and frame bags that don't quite fit are all easier to address now than when the first real snow arrives.
If you're looking for tires, bags, lights, clothing or other fat-bike equipment, take a look at the Fat-bike.com Partner Store. We've collected links to companies and retailers we work with, and purchases through participating affiliate links help support Fat-bike.com without changing what you pay.
One More Thing
Whatever Happened to Full-Suspension Fat-Bikes?
A recent discussion on Reddit asked a question I haven't heard in a while: Are there any full-suspension fat-bikes still around with reasonably modern mountain-bike geometry?
There was a time when companies like Salsa and Trek were experimenting with full-suspension fat-bikes. The Bucksaw and Farley EX demonstrated that big tires and rear suspension weren't necessarily mutually exclusive, but neither became a long-term fixture in the mainstream market. Today, most new fat-bikes seem to be rigid or hardtail designs, leaving full suspension as something of a niche within a niche.
They're not completely gone, though. Foes still lists its American-made Mutz, a full-suspension fat-bike with six inches of rear travel and clearance for 26 × 4.5-inch tires. The company updated the platform with more modern geometry, including a 65-degree head angle and 76-degree seat angle. ICAN also offers its SN04 carbon full-suspension fat-bike platform, with builds using 26 × 4.8-inch tires, although the smallest frame size has a lower tire-clearance limit.
I've always found the concept interesting. A modern trail bike with genuine fat-bike tire clearance could make a pretty entertaining year-round machine, especially for somebody who wants one bike for rocky singletrack, sand and winter riding. The obvious questions are weight, complexity, tire clearance and whether the market is large enough to keep such bikes in production.
Maybe it's a niche that deserves another look. Or maybe enough riders have decided that a big tire at the right pressure provides all the suspension they're looking for. Either way, it's a discussion worth having.
The Full-Suspension Fat-Bike Discussion on Reddit
Foes Mutz Full-Suspension Fat-Bike
ICAN SN04 Full-Suspension Fat-Bike
That's the Dose
Polar Roll's revised routes and the growing Global Fat-Bike Day calendar are the stories that caught my attention this week. I also like seeing events such as FIRFAR and Bloomington's naturalist ride finding different reasons to get people out on fat-bikes. There's plenty of room for all of it.
If you've got a Reader's Ride, custom build, event or other fat-bike story worth sharing, bring it over to the Fat-bike Lab or just hit reply. I'm always interested in seeing what people are riding and where they're taking their bikes.
See you next week.
Greg
Fat Dash Bike Dot Com
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