Intro to Fatbikes: Don't Knock It 'til Ya Try One
Introduction to
Fatbikes
WORDS Jordan Carr
PHOTOS Tal Roberts and Will Snyder
Snow fell quietly as beams of sunlight scattered about in the cloud filled sky. As I crested the gradual, snow packed hill I excitedly anticipated the flowy descent with its layer of fresh snow. Approaching my favorite sweeping corner, I quickly transferred my weight, drifting both wheels effortlessly outward through the soft snow. As I hit the apex of the corner a smile plastered my face as I fought to keep the bike in control and prepared myself for the next turn. I was reminded of my friend's comment as I headed out of town, "Fatbikes are like fixed gears, accessories for hipsters and want to be hipsters." But little did he know how rides like this bring a new level of confidence to my riding and bike control and he is the one complaining about how it's such a bad snow year. Their massive, 4"+ wide tires give turns and descents a whole new level of uncertainty, especially in a few inches of fresh powder. It is no doubt that fat bikes are a niche that has continued to grow in popularity around the globe. Their unique looks, utilitarian attitude, and unrefined playfulness on the trail has brought them to a whole new level within the industry. Manufacturers from Specialized and Trek to smaller manufactures like Borealis and Fatback are offering a smattering of fat tired options with a multitude of price tags.
But what is the point of fatbikes and what do they have to offer the avid mountain biker?
With fatter tires, ranging from 3.8-4.8" in width, fatbikes offer a whole new experience on a bicycle by allowing riders to explore new environments and new seasons on two wheels. Sure, many hardcore mountain bikers either are lucky enough to ride dirt all year, or they hang up their bikes in favor of skis in the snowy months. But living in a mountainous region, especially with the recent fluctuations in winter weather condition, many of us are subject to growing shoulder seasons. Those times when the trails are wet or snow covered and either the skiing sucks or winter recreation isn't easily accessible. Riding in these types of conditions is not only a nice change, but it helps to hone one's bike handling skills, pedaling technique, while also keeping you in shape. With many fat tired options cropping up all over the market, we wrangled up three options to help educate readers who are curious about the trend. Though these seemingly simple rigs don't feature varying suspension designs, their geometry, rear hub spacing, and build specs combine to create very different personalities in each bike. The goal of this piece is to help broaden the perspective of Pinkbike readers, while offering a quick introduction to fatbikes and three options we were able to get our hands on.
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 The Borealis Yampa offers a sleek, clean looking carbon frame with understated graphics and thoughtful frame features. |
Borealis Yampa Carbon
Growing up in snowy Alaska, the birthplace of fatbikes, Borealis founder Adam Miller was initially involved with Anchorage based fatbike brand, 9 Zero 7, where he gained an extensive understanding of the wide rubbered machines. Soon after graduating high school, Miller moved to Colorado to attend college, and while continuing some outside work with 9 Zero 7 witnessed the rapid growth of the segment. After meeting his business partner and discussing his ideas, Borealis was transformed from an idea to a reality. Miller utilized his extensive fatbike knowledge to help up the ante of fatbiking with Borealis by pushing current technology of building materials and weights. Given the recent explosion of carbon fiber all over the bike industry, Adam chose to position the brand around high end carbon bikes, focusing mainly on working with expanding carbon use in fatbikes.
With the ability to capitalize on booming carbon manufacturing overseas, Adam was able to create his dream fatbike. This current dream bike weighs in at 21 lbs, featuring a full carbon frame, fork, and wheels - in short, a fatbiker's dream bike. Designed using Miller's expertise combined with development help from a variety of experienced riders, Adam explains the brand's continued development is done through riders. The Yampa is Borealis' first production bike and has developed quite the buzz within the fatbike community due to its low weight, geometry, and lustful appeal. But good geometry doesn't just happen; Miller spent many hours aboard a variety of fatbikes to develop his geometry. "I have ridden just about every 'fat bike' and 'snow bike' out there, and so I knew pretty quickly what I wanted. A slightly shorter head tube and longer top tube than some of the existing models so the rider is positioned more like a standard 29er XC bike’s geometry. Also, I believe our chain stay length is ideal," Miller explains. "A lot of the other snow-specific fat bikes out there have very long chain stays for extra stability, but this makes the bikes feel slow in tight, fast single track." But there are many other characteristics to consider that a different than a regular mountain bike. "It naturally handles much differently than a mountain bike because of the massive gyroscoping weight of a 5” tire and rim," Adam continues. "This requires longer chain stays than a standard mountain bike in order to maintain stability. I believe we have the optimal CS length that balances fast handling and stability for all types of riding."
The Yampa frame and FF1 fork is the lightest fat bike frameset currently on the market and is comfortable to boot, with its thin yet wide seatstays it is relatively plush vertically, yet very stiff laterally. At 26lbs, the stock XX1 Yampa is extremly light for a stock fatbike with tons of room for further lightening, this minimal weight translates to easier maneuverability on the trail in the variable conditions often encountered when riding in winter. 3 water bottle mounts and rear cargo rack mounts offer versatility for carrying gear on longer bike-packing adventures or for equipping your Yampa for winter commuting. Versatility continues with the compatibility to run any fat bike tire and rim combination, including 29+, as well as up to a 36tooth single ring up front. Our test bike featured Borealis branded aluminum rims, though we were hoping to get a chance to spend some time aboard the carbon/tubeless rims Borealis is known for. With a retail price around $5500 USD, the Yampa is far from a cheap starter fatbike, but a top notch carbon frame combined with quality components makes it the seasoned fatbiker's dream rig. Available in sizes S-XL in Black/White and Black/Red color options. Weight: 26lbs - Medium w/o pedals MSRP: $5549.00 USD (Full XX1 Build). www.borealisbikes.com
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Pinkbike's Take:
 | You're right, $5k+ for a fatbike may be a bit absurd, but like anything, if you can't afford it, it's not for you. But the Borealis Yampa offers a ton of benefits for seasoned fatbikers and weight weenies. Its light frame paired with a SRAM XX1 build kit creates a racy, monster truck feel with surprisingly nimble handling. Its balanced geometry created a feel more similar to that of a traditional XC'ish mountain bike, allowing for an easier transition than other fatbikes. Like to get loose and drift corners? The Yampa brought a new meaning to this as we were able to skim its 4" wide tires through our favorite trails with little effort in the right snow conditions. The angles seemed well thought out and the bike fit us nicely. The wheelbase is short enough that the bike feels playful and nimble, while featuring a longer chainstay to accommodate extra clearance 5" tires. This combo lead to extra stability, but at the expense of wheelie fun. For smaller riders, or those with a narrow stance, the 190 rear end is a bit too wide and a few friends I lent the bike to complained of this. We swapped the stock 100mm stem for a 70mm, which we found gave the bike an even more playful feel we were preferred with the bike's 604mm top tube. At the center of each wheel, thru-axles provide even more stability and stiffness. The Yampa is the creme de la creme of fatbikes, but its price tag obviously reflects that. There is no comparison for ripping around on a 26 pound carbon Yampa on your favorite local trail with the addition of a few inches of fresh snow. Aboard the well-equipped Yampa we felt comfortable and in control no matter how drifty things got. The Yampa combines fun trail riding with a fatbike's versatility, and it definitely got us hooked on pushing around big tires with endless traction. - Jordan Carr |
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Trek Farley
Based in the Midwest, where fatbikes are showing an extensive growth in popularity as of late, it was only a matter of time before Wisconsin based Trek released their first fatbike. With the brand's massive development resources, we were excited to spend some time aboard Trek's first fatbike offering. Launched for 2014 production, the Farley is a relatively simple jaunt in to the fatbike market for the billion dollar plus brand. Opting to spec Surly rims, hubs and tires, Trek chose not to invest as much development money in to their first fatbike, though its frame development did see plenty of design and engineering hours. Constructed around an Alpha Aluminum frame, utilizing what Trek classifies as their most sophisticated tube shaping, the Farley is designed as a speedy, race oriented fatbike. Up front, a tapered suspension corrected fork is mated to the short E2 tapered headtube. The Farley comes standard with the 82mm wide Surly Holy Roling Darryl rims, 135mm Salsa alloy front hub, 170mm hub on the rear and Surly Knard 120 tpi 26x3.8" tires. The wider rim offers a nice solid platform for the narrower 3.8 tires."The overall bike design and the geometry are a reflection of our commitment to performance race bikes. We wanted to emphasize a fast, race-oriented geometry that would still be versatile," explains Ross Rushin, Trek's Asst. MTB Brand Manager. "We chose to stick with 4" tires to stay true to our racing focus, keeping the weight and rolling resistance as low as possible." Trek product managers and frame engineers spent months riding a huge variety of different fat bikes in a variety of conditions on several types of terrain before settling on the desired handling characteristics, finally deciding to implement short chainstays (440mm) with a steeper, 70 degree head tube angle, in order to keep the handling of the bike nimble and lively. Designed as a go-fast "race" fatbike, the Farley fits another niche within the already nichey fatbike segment. Available in sizes: 14.5", 15.5", 17.5", 19.5", 21.5". Both complete bike and frameset options are available, the frameset offers two color options, Black or Powder Blue. Weight: 31.2lbs - 17.5" w/o pedals MSRP: $2629.00 USD. www.trekbikes.com
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| Color coding gives the Farley a nice look but sleek touches like internal cable routing show Trek's forethought with the bike. Custom matched RaceFace cranks house the 2x drivetrain up front with a SRAM X9 10-speed setup in back. Opting for a suspension corrected geometry, Trek hopes to be ahead of the trend, though the bike's handling suffered because of the fork's offset. |
Pinkbike's Take:
| Out of the box, the Farley offers a nice stealth color scheme with green accents throughout. Our size medium (17.5") test bike we received seemed extremely small at first glance, but once set up, the bike offered a comfortable geometry with a nice low standover height and tight cockpit. The former of these traits proved effective in softer snow, where we found the Farley much easier to hop off in a pinch than other higher standover fatbikes. Once out on the trail, we noticed the Farley's nimble front end, this is due in part to its offset suspension corrected fork. Standing up climbing felt a bit awkward but after a bit of shift in weight, we found the sweet spot for out of the saddle climbs. Though we found ourselves sitting and spinning most of the time aboard the Farley, we still had a bit of an issue with this unique design characteristic as there are currently no fatbike specific suspension forks available. Trek explains they are just hoping to be ahead of the curve with the suspension corrected geometry. On slow techy trails, the Trek was fun to ride, due to distinctive attributes like its shorter 1090mm wheel base and 44mm chainstays, it was very maneuverable at low speeds. With a 603mm top-tube our 17.5" test bike was much smaller than the other two medium bikes we rode, we found ourselves wanting a little more length when it came to comfort aboard the Farley. This could be as simple as sizing up to a 19.5" frame, though the dimensions on the larger frame look a touch too long. Overall, the Farley is a great choice for riders looking for an entry level fatbike. It features a quality 2x10 build, full Bontrager components, and a decent geometry. If you plan to spend more time shredding snowy singletrack or techy dirt trails, the Farley is the bike for you. Riders looking to get out and spend hours slogging away on wide open groomed trails may find the Farley lacking in stability and all day comfort. - Jordan Carr |
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| Sporting the widest, knobbiest tires mounted on the widest rims in our test bunch, we were drawn to the monster truck looks of the Fatboy. |
Specialized Fatboy Expert
Not the Specialized BMX bike you had as grom, the Fatboy is Specialized's first step into the fatbike market. Developed around large 4.6" tires, the Fatboy features custom Specialized Ground Control tires with the largest contact patch of the three bikes previewed here. An M4 aluminum frame with 190mm rear end and FACT carbon fork gives the Fatboy a stout yet well balanced aesthetic. A custom e*thirteen 2×10 crankset with Pressfit30 bottom bracket with a 100mm spindle bottom bracket offers a stiff pedaling platform, while a XO 10-speed rear derailleur rounds out the drivetrain. GripShift shifters provide easy shifting whether the riding is wearing big winter gloves or mittens. Stopping power is provided by Tektro Draco 2 hydraulic brakes with a 180mm rotor out front and a 160mm rotor in back, offered a nice lever feel and ample position adjustability. 90mm hookless rims give the Fatboy a monster truck look especially when paired with the monstrous Ground Control tire. Available in two build options, the Fatboy starts at $2000 for a entry level model with a lower component spec while we tested the $2600 Expert version. Both builds feature the same frame, fork, and wheels. Weight: 30.4lbs - Medium w/o pedals MSRP: $2600.00 USD. www.specialized.com
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| Up front Specialized's carbon fork mimics the aluminum frames stout stature. Mid-level SRAM gripshifts allows for easy shifting with winter gloves while Tektro Draco 2 hydraulic brakes offered ample stopping power. |
Pinkbike's Take:
| It goes without saying that Specialized probably put some development dollars in to the Fatboy and it was obvious out on the trail. At first glance, the Fatboy looked true to size and offered a quick easy setup. The enormous tires and rims give the bike a burly look that we appreciated. Once on the trail, the Fatboy's trail manners came alive as its wide tires gave us traction and kept us afloat in most conditions. Meaty, with tons of grip, the Ground Control tires were a nice departure from the semi slick tires on the other rigs and we appreciated the additional volume they offered. Geometry on the Fatboy was aggressive yet functioned really well on the trail. With a longer chainstay (a touch shorter than the Yampa), the Fatboy tracked well on the trail and kept us confident on both ups and downs. Though we understand the obvious choice for GripShift, we preferred the trigger shifters found on the other bikes. Spot-on geometry and big tires, paired with a modest build and quality frame give the Fatboy many great qualities in our eyes. Dropping more than $2600 on a Fatbike is a huge commitment, but the Fatboy offers top notch design and geometry with a reasonable price tag. It is a great option for riders looking to try out the fatbike trend, without plunging entirely into the deep end. - Jordan Carr |
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Member since Aug 7, 2013
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www.vitalmtb.com/photos/features/New-Downhill-Bikes-at-Eurobike-2012,4249/WHAT-THE-Santa-Cruz-V10-Fat-Bike,41635/bturman,109
/s
oh, and dont ride these in the spring in New england. It pissess off the trail guys. these things make big ruts
Like it says don't knock em till you try them
The article incorrectly states that no suspension forks are available. Many companies have been selling/rebranding what some people call the fork of many names. It's an inverted fork that companies like carver sell.
They are also fun in the sand, not only snow.
Cheers.
When you get tired of so much snow come to México, lots of beautiful places to ride and with the canadian dollar exchange rate you guys are close to rich.
They do look cool, though. There's something fun about the fat tires -- especially the ones named after one of the greatest American punk bands of all time.
funny how they hinted at the narrow-mindedness of the general anti-29er, anti-650b anti-change pinkbike community
Enduro colors and everything :-)
Also, if the guys at Harley-Davidson were anything like Specialized, they would sue the big S for using the name "Fatboy".
www.bmxmuseum.com/bikes/specialized/969
1) They cost too much. Not too much as in I'd never pay that much for a bike. Too much as in I can get so much winter gear (snowboards, jackets, boots, bindings, goggles, etc.) for the cost of these rigs. Or just forego the FatBike in favor of a nice FS rig to use all year long!
2) A normal HT MTB can do just about everything these bikes can and get you there without the extra weight. After living in Boston for a few years, I got used to riding in the snow and even my feeble 2.1 in. tires on my old hardtail got me through everything just fine. Heck, there were guys on fixies slicing through the snow on their tiny tires. Granted that was on pavement, it paints a picture. I think the weight weenies for the first bike is especially absurd since depending on the conditions your riding in, a few ounces here or there just aren't gonna help you.
Side observation: Since these bikes are built for riding in snowy, muddy conditions, why aren't there any fenders? Surely you can add some after market fenders to any MTB, but these are built to ride in the mucky stuff, so I would think they'd be included to keep all of the crud these massive tires are going to sling in your face and all over your back. Just a thought.
I work at a shop were we sell a lot of them over winter (most of the time fully kitted out with dumb accessory pouches and stuff like that) and have a really hard time seeing how average joes can actually enjoy riding them, they are a freaking workout just to push up the hill...
Tyre = circular rubber rings within which wheels roll.
bet its fun to ride ........
This is what I call being a f*cking idiot.