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 […]
Fatter by the Lake January 6th, 2019 – Zion Illinois How often do you get to be the poster gnome for a fat-bike event? No not the gnome in the left-hand corner the rider way out there on that sandbar might just be your weird uncle gomez. This is a group ride run by our […]
A couple of weeks ago we launched a little foto gordo contest and we’re here to thank everyone that entered and announce the winner! David Lieble sent us this shot taken at the 2018 Polar Roll up in Marquette. Everyone that entered the contest is getting a sticker pack sent out to them and David wins […]
Not many people drive across Michigan. It’s not on the way to anywhere. It’s the anti-Iowa in the way that I’ve driven through Iowa a dozen times to get to a destination but never had the pleasure of staying overnight. Michigan, like Florida and Maine, is a destination location, unless one is driving to Cuba, New […]
This week’s video comes to us from the talented specialists at Superior Social Mgmt. The clip really captures a truly great day of racing. The video combines scenes and interviews from the USA Cycling Fat-Bike National Championships at the Cannonsburg Ski Area just outside of Grand Rapids Michigan. Management and Distribution: Austen Reno www.superiorsocialmgmt.com contact@superiorsocialmgmt.com Video […]
I spent the weekend over in Michigan at the USA Cycling Fat Bike National Championships at the Cannonsburg Ski Hill near Grand Rapids. The race was run by our long-time amigo and all-around cool cat, Nate Phelps with the help of the Westen Michigan Sports Commision. The Cannonsburg Venue was quite a nice upgrade from last […]
The Triple F Fourteen, two-thousand eighteen is happening on February seventeen. Just click the flyer to be whisked directly to the grimba.org webpage. You can tell by the look in the eye of the lumberjack in the flyer that this is going to be a fun event! Check Out the Fat-Bike Event Calendar We’ve been […]
This week’s WW really ties the whole room together, man…..if you’re into what we have coming up later this week. Our longtime Bike Black Ribbon Test Pilot and the C0-Host of the Fat Camp Podcast, Ken Blakey-Shell, is also a member of the crew at the Big M Groomed Fat-Bike Trails, where another of our Michigan […]
A couple decades back, my friend Cale and I started a bike gang called the Bike Black Ribbon Society and over the years BBR established chapters all over the US. When we started to need help with testing bikes for fat-bike dot com, we established the BBR Test Pilots from BBR Chapters and their known […]
Welcome to episode 27 of the Fat Camp Podcast all you gnome hunters out there. It’s time to settle in for part deux of KBS’s recap of his August bikepacking adventure on the Colorado Trail. In this episode of Fat Camp, Ken shares his stories with Andy on second half of his trip which […]
The Fat Camp is back again for another techy discussion of fat and plus bikes and this time, it’s all about geometry. No, not the class you had to take back in high school, where you sat next to smartest kid you could find, so you could pass the class. We’re talking frame geometry […]
The dog days of summer brings the return of Fat-Tribe Thursday. This is where we like to show off some of the photos sent to us by our readers. We’ve been getting so many great photos in from out in the field that we thought we should go ‘old school’ and share a few. Let’s […]
Today Sherman, we set the way-back machine to: March 17th of Two Thousand and Twelve – Destination: Gaylord Michigan! Yes – St Fattys Day returns to the fat-bike event radar screen to punctuate the end of the winter (that wasn’t) of sixteen/seventeen. Coming Next Week – It’s Spring!
Congratulations to all of the new Fat-Bike National Champions! Both the men’s and women’s Pro/Elite Champions, Amy Stuart and Cole House will be guests on Fat-Bike Radio and….you can check out all of the results and all of the new National Champions here – https://www.usacycling.org/results/index.php?year=2017&id=3
I sit here and write this while psyching myself up for another 3-4 hour ride of breaking trail on the Cannolis. It has been a good winter here on the west coast of the northern lower peninsula of Michigan and we have already gotten over 5′ of snowfall. We got the okay from the National […]
It is kind of funny, last year/season we saw a flood of similar “me-to” fat bikes from manufacturers trying to jump on the fat bike bandwagon. Everyone seemed to want to pile on the fat bike craze. From those heady times, we have seen some really interesting and fresh bikes emerge for the 2017 season. […]
I think these tires are Rad. Not in a “I am going to ride these on every ride!” kind of Rad. Rather “these things are really good at a few things and are really fun to play around on but I don’t want to ride them all the time” kind of Rad. Allow me to […]
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 […]
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 […]
Terrene is a new name on the fat bike block but is a company that brings some street cred to the neighborhood. Terrene is managed by Tim Krueger who previously worked as a brand manager for Salsa Cycles and is the founder of Advocate Cycles. Terrene recently came out with three tires: the Wazia which […]
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 […]
This is only “kind of” a mid-term report on my Quiring Triple B. There really was never an initial report on it but if you follow the Fat Camp Podcast here on Fat-Bike.com you will undoubtably have heard me talk about it and it is tough to talk about the Vee Tire 2XL tires […]
Just when you start doubting the inevitables as inevitables, they inevitably happen. Winter did finally arrive to northwest lower Michigan and Uncle Gomez hooked me up with another sweet fat-bike to test. It’s been quite some time since a big bike box was pulled off the little brown truck at the end of […]
We asked our crew of test pilots to send us a report of their GFBD celebrations to share with all of you out there in the big fat world. So without further adieu, here’s a glimpse into how some of the Bike Black Ribbon Society celebrated Global Fat-Bike Day Two Thousand and Fifteen! Dave Krueger – […]
It all started when we first got a glimpse of Vee Tire Co’s 2XL Monster Fat 5.05 inch tire last winter. The tire that launched the dream of designing and hand fabricating the biggest…fattest…… “Monster-Fat” bike of the current, modern, cycling world. Yes…..dare I say? The fattest fat-bike in the (blankity-blank) WORLD! We previewed the […]
Straight from the Quiring Cycles Skunk Works we have the very first photos taken of Scott Quiring’s new Triple B (BIG-BAD-BIKE) fat-bike frame. Quiring specifically developed the new frame around the Vee Tire 2XL – 26 x 5.05 fat bike tire. The new 2XL is both wider and taller than any other fat-bike tire, previously available. […]
After Labor Day and into fall is an ideal time to beach ride along the shore of Lake Michigan. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways: The lake is still warm making early morning starts 10-15 degrees warmer and a heck of a lot nicer There are generally still a lot of warm, […]
Last week, I made good on a long standing plan to continue my exploration of the Lake Michigan Shoreline, just north of where I left off on a trip in 2012. The plan was to explore the area north of Ludington to the river town of Manistee. Over the years, I’ve visited and written […]
Guest writer Dave Lunz, AKA “Puck”, wrote this account of the 906 Polar Roll Fat Bike Race which was Race 7 in the Great Lakes FatBike Series. Not your typical “this guy won the race and here is his cool bike” type-story, Puck takes us to the back of the pack where the event is all about […]
Let me just get to the point and write that these tires are da bomb. They are fairly light (for a 3” 29er tire), the tread design rolls well, grips like a slot car in most conditions, seems to have good durability and has awesome tubeless characteristics. If you are looking for 29er+ tires, I […]
On or about, one earth year ago, I took possession of a Raw Aluminum 190mm Fatback that I spec’d out with the owner of Fatback (and cool cat) Greg Matyas. I asked Greg to make the bike all silver, black and white, like the Oakland Raiders. I wanted to run Umma Rims with Bud and Lou. I […]
My goal for this holiday season is to make sure more women get Fat…seriously, we need more women riding Fatbikes, and the Framed Minnesota 2.0 Women’s Fatbike is just the Fatty to do so, at a darn great price. For only one easy payment of $899 you too can get this sweetly equipped beauty, and […]
Before Fat-Bikes were around, the Iceman Cometh Challenge was the culmination of each year’s mountain bike race season around the Great Lakes. Now that (midwest) fat-bike racing is in it’s 4th season, the Iceman has become the pivot point between mountain bike race season and fat-bike race season. (Even though Fat-Bikes are Mountain Bikes). Located in the beautiful […]
I recently had the pleasure of stopping by Quiring Cycles World Headquarters in Freesoil, MI and picking up our new fat tandem. We asked Scott to build up the frame to fit the widest tires and rims available because Wifey and I are planning to play on this beasty during all four seasons. On a […]
The Maxxis Chronicle was a tire I was super excited about as soon as I saw pictures of it on the interwebs. Luckily, it hasn’t disappointed and riding it has been a case of love at first corner. All of that said, this isn’t a tire I would run on both ends of my bike […]
I met Pat Smage at this year’s Mountain Bike Prom back in June. I seem to remember that he hopped his Mukluk with the skill and grace of a bicycle ninja. He sent me some great shots of he and his amiga on their fat-bikes, but this one really captured my imagination. The scores of rock […]
Earlier this month, on a trip to Michigan, I stopped in to see Jim Degracia at Jade Cycles in Holland. Jim is a real entrepreneur and runs two bike brands out of his shop. We featured a story about their rims and hubs, back in March, that you can read here. Jade’s Fat Rim is […]
We reached out to our amigos at Sarma and asked if I could come and ride their new Shaman Carbon Fat-Bike. I got a reply from the co-founder of Sarma’s US division, Steve Chaffee, with a big ole’ red carpet attached. Steve asked me where, I’d like to ride and I said that I’ve always […]
Gene from Michigan took one of the Ice Bridges to Mackinaw Island recently on a 5-person fat-bike expedition. If any of you has been to Mackinaw Island during the summer I’m sure you will recognize some of these shots. For those of you who don’t know, this Island in between lower and upper Michigan is […]
One of our readers sent me a shot of his Jade Cycles Ti Fat-bike last month. To get some background on the bike, I contacted the owner of Jade Cycles, Jim Degracia and found out that they had lots of new fat-bike goodies in the pipeline. Jade is located in Holland Michigan, right across the big […]
ST FATTY’S DAY GROUP BIKE RIDE MACKINAC ISLAND April 12, 2014 April 12, 2014 marks the 3rd St Fattys Day. One of the very first Fatbike Events in the midwest, St Fattys Day has always been a participant-first and fun-focused event. This year, They’re switching it up a little bit. It’s a ride, a party, […]
The day that I unpacked our Fatback 190, that we eventually named Otis, I made a template to guide Michigander, Jason Snell, in crafting one of his custom sailcloth Barking Bear Bagworks frame bags. I like to keep a frame bag on my fat-bike to store ride essentials or the ubiquitous puffy jacket. A frame bag […]
