In partnership with
No major new fat-bike launches this week, but there’s plenty worth talking about. We’ve got a great human story out of Alaska, a federal trail-access proposal with a public comment deadline coming up, some disappointing news from Michigan and several more winter events taking shape.
Let’s get into it.
The Big Stuff
Janice Tower Wasn’t Finished With the Iditarod
Anthill Films has released a new short featuring Alaska endurance rider Janice Tower and her history with the Iditarod Trail Invitational.
Tower began racing the ITI around age 40. The filmmakers caught up with her in 2022 when, at age 60, she completed the 350-mile route to McGrath. At the time, it sounded like that might be the end of her Iditarod adventures.
Apparently not.
In 2025, at age 63, Tower completed the full 1,000-mile route from Knik to Nome.
The new five-minute film is an excerpt from The Engine Inside, and it’s worth watching whether you’re interested in winter endurance racing or simply appreciate people who refuse to let age dictate what they’re capable of doing.
Experience counts for an awful lot when things get difficult. Tower’s story makes a pretty convincing case for that.
National Parks May Get a New Approach to Bicycle Access
The National Park Service is considering changes to the regulations governing bicycle and e-bike access within national parks.
The proposal would simplify the process park superintendents use when considering whether certain roads and trails should be opened to bicycles. It does not mean every trail suddenly becomes open to mountain bikes or fat-bikes. Individual parks would still make those decisions, and some natural-surface trail proposals would continue to require additional review.
IMBA generally supports the direction of the proposal but has raised questions about how conventional bicycles and different classes of e-bikes should be handled.
Access decisions affect fat-bikers just as much as other mountain-bike riders, and anything that makes reasonable trail access easier to consider is worth paying attention to. The public comment period closes November 2.
North American Vasa Drops Its Fat-Bike Race
Here’s one I wasn’t particularly happy to learn about.
The North American Vasa in Traverse City has announced that its fat-bike race will not be part of the 2027 event. The organization is also eliminating its 50K ski race and Bigfoot Relay.
The 2027 race-info page says the event will not include its fat-bike race this winter, even though the organization’s homepage still describes the Vasa generally as a festival of ski and fat-bike races.
We don’t know why the fat-bike event was dropped, and I don’t want to invent an explanation. It could be participation, weather trends, grooming, scheduling, logistics, finances or something else entirely.
What makes it interesting is the contrast. Over the past several weeks we’ve been finding fall mountain-bike and gravel races that continue to maintain dedicated fat-bike categories, while an established winter event is removing one.
I’d like to hear directly from the Vasa organizers about what led to the decision and whether there’s any possibility of the fat-bike race returning.
This one may deserve a separate story once we know more.
Gear & Bikes
Lezyne Adds a Brake Light to Its Radar Taillight
Lezyne has introduced the Radar Pro 300, a radar-equipped taillight that automatically increases its brightness when you slow down.
The unit can detect approaching vehicles from up to 150 meters away, has a 300-lumen daytime flash mode, connects over ANT+, charges via USB-C and has a claimed maximum runtime of 24 hours. The price is $179.99.
It’s obviously not fat-bike-specific, but plenty of us ride roads to reach trails, commute on fat-bikes or simply keep riding through winter when visibility becomes even more important.
The automatic brake-light function is interesting. What I’d really like to know is how the whole thing performs when it’s cold, wet and covered in road spray. An IPX7 water-resistance rating is useful, but it doesn’t tell us much about battery performance when the temperature drops into the teens.
Fat-Bikes in the Wild
Another Winter Event for the Calendar
The Frozen Fat Fondo Fest returns January 30 in Davenport, Iowa, organized by Friends of Off-Road Cycling.
The event also kicks off the organization’s 30th anniversary year, which is a pretty respectable run for a volunteer cycling group.
Local clubs and trail organizations rarely get much attention unless something goes wrong, but they’re the reason many of us have somewhere to ride in the first place. An organization lasting three decades is worth recognizing.
We’ll get this one added to the Fat-bike.com Events Calendar.
Around Fat-bike.com
The Events Calendar Is Getting a Cleanup
I’ve been going through the Fat-bike.com Events Calendar and comparing listings against current information from organizers.
We found several events that need to be added, including the Frozen Fat Fondo Fest, Fat Bike Loppet, Great Nordeen, Fat Forest Fourteen and the Iditarod Trail Invitational. There are also a handful of location, date and registration details that need correcting on existing listings.
That cleanup is coming.
The goal is to make the calendar genuinely useful whether you’re looking for a race, a social ride or an excuse for a winter road trip.
If you’re organizing something we’re missing, send it our way.
Target Hair Thinning Where it Begins—at the Cellular Level
There are many products for hair thinning on the market, but they don’t all deliver on their promises. OneSkin’s OS-01 HAIR SCALP SERUM is backed by clinically validated longevity science, and proven to improve thickness and density with consistent use.
Treatments like DHT blockers address pattern thinning, and minoxidil increases blood flow to the scalp. But OS-01 HAIR is the only scalp formula to specifically address the dysfunctional senescent cells behind age-related hair thinning.
Powered by OneSkin’s proprietary OS-01 Peptide™, OS-01 HAIR SCALP SERUM targets the spread of senescent cells at the scalp, creating the optimal conditions for visibly fuller, healthier-looking hair.
Address hair thinning where it begins. Make OneSkin’s OS-01 HAIR part of your longevity stack, and optimize your hair health routine.
Quick Hits
The Iditarod Trail Invitational starts February 28. The 2027 race leaves Knik, Alaska at 2 PM. If Janice Tower’s story gets you thinking about winter ultras, this is the serious end of that rabbit hole.
Great Nordeen returns February 27. Mt. Bachelor in Oregon will host a 15K fat-bike race alongside the Nordic ski events.
Fat Forest Fourteen is scheduled for February 13. The GRIMBA-organized event returns to Cohasset, Minnesota. Registration details are still worth watching as the date gets closer.
Polar Roll is getting closer. Michigan’s tourism calendar lists February 20 for the mass-start event and February 22 for the Ultra, with registration expected to open November 8.
Shimano reports improving component sales. Bicycle-component sales were up 4.6 percent through the first nine months of 2026, although the company says North American complete-bike sales remain weak. The bicycle business may be improving, but we’re not declaring victory yet.
Tiny electric pumps are getting more capable. Singletracks recently compared ten portable electric inflators and found significant differences in battery life, inflation speed and noise. The test used 29 x 2.4-inch tires, so we’re still waiting for somebody to torture-test these things on a proper fat-bike tire.
On the Calendar
Global Fat-Bike Day - December 5, 2026
Worldwide
The annual informal celebration of fat-biking returns with local rides and gatherings around the world.
Cuyuna Lakes MTB is hosting Intergalactic Fat Bike Day in Crosby, Minnesota, while CAMBA is planning its own celebration in the Hayward, Wisconsin area.
Tuscobia Winter Ultra - January 1–3, 2027
Park Falls, Wisconsin
The Wisconsin winter ultra returns with 80- and 160-mile routes under new organizers Kari Gibbons and Erik Raivo.
Norpine Fat Bike Classic - January 8–10, 2027
Lutsen, Minnesota
A full weekend of winter riding along Lake Superior, with Saturday racing, a Friday evening Dark Sky Tour and a Sunday group ride.
Frozen Fat Fondo Fest - January 30, 2027
Davenport, Iowa
A winter fat-bike gathering from Friends of Off-Road Cycling as the organization begins celebrating its 30th anniversary.
Fat Bike Loppet - February 7, 2027
Minneapolis, Minnesota
30K, 20K and 10K events on groomed winter trails, including routes normally reserved for skiing.
Iditarod Trail Invitational - February 28, 2027
Knik, Alaska
One of the biggest challenges in winter endurance riding, with competitors traveling by fat-bike, foot or ski.
Partner Store
Winter is getting close enough that it’s worth checking the boring stuff before it becomes important.
Lights that haven’t been charged since March, sealant that has either dried up completely or turned into a gooey mess, missing tire studs, dead batteries and gloves you swore you’d replace last winter are all easier to deal with now.
Also, can’t remind you enough to take out your seatpost and lube that thing!
The Fat-bike.com Partner Store has links to companies and retailers carrying fat-bike gear. Purchases through those links help support Fat-bike.com without changing what you pay.
One More Thing
The Dead Sailor
Here’s a custom bike with a name and paint job that are considerably more interesting than most model-year color updates.
Nova Scotia framebuilder Fluent Frameworks built the Dead Sailor, a rigid 29+ singlespeed originally intended for the 2020 North American Handmade Bicycle Show.
That show never happened, so the bike has spent a few years waiting for its moment.
The Reynolds 853 steel frame was designed around rocky East Coast Canadian trails, but the paint is what immediately grabs your attention. There’s a sinking coffin, seaweed, dead fish and a hand reaching up from the depths, with the colors layered to give the impression that you’re looking upward through seawater.
There’s also a familiar component-industry frustration buried in the story. Some of the 29+ tires originally used on the bike have already been discontinued as manufacturers move their attention somewhere else.
Anyone who has tried to find a favorite fat-bike tire several years after buying the bike probably understands.
The bicycle industry remains remarkably good at introducing the next wheel size before everyone has finished buying tires for the previous one.
That’s the Dose
Janice Tower’s Iditarod story is the one I’d make time for this week. The national park bicycle-access proposal also deserves a look before the November 2 comment deadline, and I want to find out more about why the North American Vasa dropped its fat-bike race.
Meanwhile, winter events continue to fill in and the Events Calendar is getting some overdue cleanup.
If you’ve got an event we should know about, some gear worth checking out or an opinion on anything in this week’s Dose, bring it over to the Fat-bike Lab.
Join the Fat-bike Lab - free, no algorithm, just riders helping riders.
See you next week.
Greg
Fat Dash Bike Dot Com
Some links we share may be affiliate links. Purchases made through those links can help support Fat-bike.com at no additional cost to you.
Keep fat-bike.com going
This newsletter, the Micro Dose podcast, the Fat-bike Lab, and 15 years of fat-bike.com content are all independent and community-supported. A few ways to help:
Forward this email to one person who rides fat. Subscriber growth is the single biggest thing that keeps this going.
Join the Fat-bike Lab at fat-bike.com/community - free, no algorithm, just riders helping riders.
Buy me a beer at ko-fi.com/fatbike if you want to throw a few bucks directly at the cause.
Start something of your own. This newsletter runs on Beehiiv, and I genuinely think it's the best platform out there if you've been kicking around the idea of starting a newsletter for your club, shop, or riding crew. Free trial, 20% off your first 3 months if you upgrade. Check it out at beehiiv.com?via=GregSmith1
Some gear links in this newsletter are affiliate links. Clicking costs you nothing extra and helps keep the lights on.