The Inside Line Announces Tonton Fat Bike
The Tonton is our key to keeping the spark alive during the cold months.
PRESS RELEASE: The Inside Line
The desire to modernize the geometry of fat bikes is what sparked the inception of the Tonton. With the ride experience being paramount, we had to ask ourselves, what trails do we want to ride in the winter? The answer was simple, the same terrain that we ride in the summer! Thus the first iteration of the Tonton came into existence, filling a fat bike shaped hole in our hearts. After a successful season of snowy alpine adventures aboard the V1 Tonton, we devised a plan alongside our friends at Kruch Bicycles and Lone Tree Enterprises to improve what was already a unique design.
Fast and loose.
We began with a wide size range, allowing our friends of all shapes to share the ride! The new Tonton fits riders ranging from 5’ to 6’6”. The new frame is proportional to specific sizes, with chainstay lengths as short as 440mm. The headtube angle has been further slackened to 64 degrees while the headtube itself is beautifully tapered and size specific.
The new Tonton is optimized for 27.5 inch wheels. This choice has allowed us to make a number of improvements to the ergonomics and performance of the newest version of the Tonton. The width between the cranks, the Q factor, has been narrowed from 230mm to 206mm, removing some pressure and wear on the riders knees, resulting in a more natural riding stance and pedal motion. Speaking of pedaling, the chainline has been reduced to 66.5mm from an industry standard 76.5mm. The narrowed chainline results in better cog engagement and smoother shifting, especially in the climbing gears.
The frames are welded in Calgary. We used additive manufacturing to make our yokes, this process allows for a custom shape to accommodate more chainring clearance and results in less snow build up. Additionally, the additive manufacturing has come in handy when designing a UDH dropout for those looking to run a SRAM Transmission drivetrain.
Details and pricing:
• Material: 4130 Chromoly
• Wheel Size: 27.5"
• Fork Size: 120mm
• Head tube angle: 64°
• Seat tube angle: 76°
• Hanger: Sram UDH
• Frame: $2200 CAD
• Comp Build: $5200 CAD
• Pro Build: $7000 CAD
• Made in Calgary, Alberta
• Material: 4130 Chromoly
• Wheel Size: 27.5"
• Fork Size: 120mm
• Head tube angle: 64°
• Seat tube angle: 76°
• Hanger: Sram UDH
• Frame: $2200 CAD
• Comp Build: $5200 CAD
• Pro Build: $7000 CAD
• Made in Calgary, Alberta
The Tonton is available either fully spec’d or you can build it yourself from the frame up. With a user-friendly BSA 100mm bottom bracket, parts will always be easy to find and customization of your Tonton is limitless. An everything cage mount on the downtube is joined by an accessory mount on the top tube. You’ll be able to easily mount your light battery for those rides in the dark. The bike is polished off with Paragon cable guides and our very own ~doggo~ cable bobbins for the perfect Inside Line touch!
Build Options
Geo Chart
See you out there!
Our team at The Inside Line is proud of this bike, and we cannot wait for you to experience all that it has to offer!
For more information click here.
Author Info:
Member since Apr 26, 2019
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Oooph, definitely not my experience. I'm on a 1st generation Blizzard with Surly Bud and Lou, and as soon as you get a little fluff on the sidewalls or soft pack on the edge of some hardpack, my tires are diving in to eat cake.
The reason fat bikes have more conservative HTA's is to have a better balanced Trail to account for the larger contact area and slower speeds.
For example, have you not ridden your fat bike on dry pavement and felt how much feedback you get from the steering and front tire traction? now amplify that when you begin to add considerably more trail.
Take that same resistance you feel when riding dry pavement, and imagine that is the force you are applying to the snow when your trying to turn. The more trail , the more chance you have breaking traction in your corners.
As for HTA's
-My fat bike also as a 66 degree HTA
-My Chromag doctahawk with 275x3.0 with a (62 degree HT).
-My lowdown is 63.5 degree.
I'm all for slack HTA's but experience has proven to me that traditional HTA's make way more sense for traction in the winter and a better handling bike.
The Tauntaun is 64 degree HTA, which is alot of Trail for a fat bike. A fat bike tire 275x4.8 (8psi) has more then 2X the contact surface then a 275 X 2.8 (22 psi) mountain bike tire.
I'd argue that yes, one could tell the difference between a 69 HTA fat bike and a 64 HTA fat bike, but not so much between 66 and 64. 2 degrees isn't really a whole different ball game, lol.
You can washout on a snowy corner easily and hit the deck quick on any fat bike. 1ft (sorry, 305mm) out of line to the right or left can have you sinking in the shoulder and/or tucking the front faster than you can blurt your favorite expletive. Groomed snow, like maple syrup, is less predictable in this sense as its quality ALWAYS depends on how the cold it got overnight. It may be completely firm, firm in the middle and soft on the sides, or just too soft to ride. Fresh powder is less grippy yet more consistent and therefore more predictable downhill. But sucky to climb on.
The reason I point this out is, on FIRM GROOMED snow, and studded tires (even on my old unstudded Cake Eaters), I've never had a problem cornering the Blizzard. It's the mixed, unpredictable conditions that will catch you out. And whether you prefer to be proactive with a steeper, but maybe more twitchy HTA, or reactive with a slacker HTA and longer wheelbase to catch a slide, is all up to your riding preference and terrain. In my case, I love the Blizzard for my terrain in VT. It also makes a fun summer trail bike in 29+ mode. Where I'd also prefer a slack HTA.
TLDR, a rambling fat dad dreams or riding his fat bike again.
jejeje
www.pinkbike.com/forum/listcomments/?threadid=210736
I have been having a blast on my Motobecane Sturgis bought second hand. It's doubled my on trail days annually. Some of the best riding I get to do is when it snows too much for normal size tires and I get the whole trail to myself (most trails near me a stupid busy in the summer)
And that's indeed a very cool looking fat, a Honzo ESD with fat tires as another comment says.
(But I also appreciate the less bike-nerdy/more human articles, like Quinney's article about grieving, or Cathro's ADHD diagnosys. It's just that I had more than my fare share of crap in life so I totally focused on nerdity :p )
Pinkers are slow on the uptake today.
The other nice change is the Q-factor. The stock Blizzard cranks (at least until the '24 models) have a Q-factor >220mm (227mm on the A10). The Fat5 cranks the Tonton comes with have a Q-factor of 206mm, which is much more pleasant. And they come with 170mm cranks, while I think the Rockys come with 175mm cranks. Pretty minor changes but they make a big difference.
I only sold is as it was a size small and I really should have been on a medium. I wished it had a modern 197 thru axle rear end. Mine was setup with the heavy stock steel QR fork with 135 hub, full 2x XT drivetrain and BB7 brakes. So a bunch of annoying outdated standards that contributed to the decision. I loved the split top tube look. It has actual 68 deg HTA as it was rigid and it was just so much fun to ride everywhere. It was my snow bike, but it was a blast to take it out every once in a while in summer just cause it was so different. The modern Sasquatch that followed was good, but it just never had that same playful fun and confident feel. Both were 68 HTA, but with the Bluto the Sasquatch was 70+ as soon as you sat on it. It just did not made any sense financially to modernize the Fatty with 1x, hydraulic brakes and dropper considering the not ideal sizing and old standards. It is still the only one from the three fatbikes that I miss. If it was a medium I would still have it despite all its shortcomings. It was the original Fatty v1, not the Fatty Trail.
www.foesracing.com/bikes/mutz
A Trek Farley C frame is $3200cad and a Salsa Beargrease carbon frame is around $2500cad.
This is a small batch, handmade frame made in Canada. Right around the same price as the Chromag frames that are welded in Canada.
Good examples.
Good catch regarding that front hub! That was an honest typo. It is a 15x150mm front hub.
The Otso (and suzie-q) take an interesting approach at reducing q-factor by using narrower DH standard bb shells with 177 rear ends. We chose to use a Sram GX fat bike "4 inch" crankset instead. These have a 66.5 chainline, and 6mm offset chainring, and a 206mm Q-factor. They strike a nice balance of low q-factor and more inboard chainline to create better chain performance in the granny gear, yet maintain enough tire clearance for 27.5 x 4.5 tires.
Furthermore, one of our objectives with the Tonton v2 was to use the most common standards, since many of our customers are swapping build kits from other fatbikes. I'd love to keep answering your questions, happy to take a phone call about the bike any time. You can reach me (Cam) at the shop at 403-270-3256
Regardless, definitely cool looking bikes.
Maybe a wider tire (if you want to go 5" wide) makes more sense at the front where the snow is less packed, and a less wide (4.5) at the rear as it will mostly roll on the same path as the front wheel ?
No skin tracks. Not enough snow most of the time for touring where the riding is happening.
Roll back to last winter there should be some more pics and a few videos.
That's what my 2 favorite trails look like! Flowy trails in winter are suuuuper fun!!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b2XFNAn1fw
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpN6Gsv_uto
Here’s our local propaganda video.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=4WGTOAPnjUI&pp=ygUYVGlvZ2Egd2ludGVyIHRocmlsc2Vla2Vy
And stop using those Sun Ringle rims, they don't hold scellant and the hubs are pretty cheap.
Look at the RM Blizzard C50: 4400$ or Panorama Torngat Ti: 5600$ (and they're way cheaper options), they're not as slack, no suspension but if you ride fatbike, you know 64 HTA and supension are useless in winter as everything is smoother and slower on snow.
The Tonton would make a good year-round bike for someone who does'nt enduro in summer, but still $$$$$
I'd like to own the Tonton. It's good looking, as cool numbers and is surely niche but it also seems overbike and overprice for a fatbike.
To each is own
RM Blizz and other Carbon fat bikes are all mass produced in Taiwan so you can't compare the price. Also those bikes are finally keeping up with modern XC geo numbers. All other fat bikes are rocking geo numbers from 7+ years ago. Lastly suspension is a damn near needed out here in the Rockies.
Just fixating on 64HTA is silly without factoring in everything else. Look at the CS and STA numbers eg. This bike rips on XC trails too FYI.
Quality costs money. Something we've lost site of with the proliferation of cheap, future-garbage that we rapidly consume. While it is expensive, the price of this bike is perfectly fair for what it is. You are not paying for a name, you are not paying for clout or prestige - you are paying a price that accurately reflects the costs of designing/building the thing and the resultant quality.
So it becomes a question to the buyer - this is a fair price, is it worth it to me? And people get to make that judgement value. For some people, many Hondas are too expensive.
But, it would be unfair to say that bikes made in Taiwan are garbage.. Over the years, North American bike companies have given the Taiwan workers the opportunitie to build massive expertise. And most of those bikes last longer than the market trends. Marketing transforms usable things into garbage. "Slacker is better"
what made me laugh was the $1800 up-charge that only gets you a Comp > Pro fork (on a Mastodon...), Guide RSC instead of R, different tires, headset and seat.
I guess what I'm missing is the overlap of: 1. enough snow to warrant tire wider than 3" and 2. a bike that necessitates a 64 degree headtube angle. That's less than my brand new overforked bike I race enduros on.
Our summer trails are not the same when covered in snow
As much as it sucks to say, the key to keeping that spark or whatever alive in the winter would be to speed up climate change or move to a state that doesn't blow ass. Not buy a bike for descending to get you through that season where you might even have to pedal on your way down.
The Taiga geo is not worlds away from this and it has been out of production for several years. They had reach number comparable to current trail and enduro bikes before current trail and enduro bikes all caught on and 66 degree head tubes and 75.5 seat tubes years before rocky or norco started to get a little more progressive. With the 120mm bluto on it it's even a little slacker. If I were replacing my Pole I would get this, but the Pole is still a great bike. Part of it might be the 470mm rear center for my 191 cm height. If you look at the number on the bigfoot VLT and assume the next gen bigfoot will have the same numbers it will be pretty close to this and the most progressive production fatbike.
Far as this bike, guess I need to ride it. Still not seeing how a slacked out bike does much for what are effectively flat and mellow trails here in MN.
I kid I kid, just messing with you Calgarians! Have plenty of friends and family there and you do have some pretty fun trails in your Rocky Mountains!
If you don't want the grooming, there are plenty of trails that don't groom. (Leb, etc.) Most the trails in the state aren't groomed right now, anyway.
Seems very rare then.
I use Dewalt power tools and I think it's about 30% loss of total capacity around 45F. Not sure about as it gets colder.
Although I have had AAA and AA batteries quit producing power around 0F and had to go to a headlamp with an external battery pack to put inside my clothes to keep warm.
It seems they gained so much market share with transmission, and even a lot of the 'don't want batteries' crowd seems to have accepted it as it's so good.
I think they only really care about the premium market or they would have fixed NX a long time ago.
TL;DR: T-type is quicker hence cheaper on the OEM bicycle assembly line. Regular drivetrains are cheaper if the mechanic isn't paid much or for the aftermarket where the rider assembles the bike hence doesn't mind a few minutes adjusting things (whilst boasting about using workshop level tools).
All factors that I suspect means most of that tech will never (can never?) trickle down to a mechanical group. I am unsure if I would expect SRAM to do much of anything with the direct mount that isn't electronic.
But that's just my thoughts.
You are not the target demographic.
ah nevermind, I just checked your last few comments, all that you have to say is full of negativity. Maybe you should try biking more