Fat biking will titillate fans of the bicycle. What I associate with fat biking: snow floating, smiling despite cold teeth, envious snowmobilers, national forest, winter quiet, mountain shenanigans. We hit Wanoga Sno-Park with two Fatback bikes while I was in Bend researching an article (to which I will post a link later). These gnarly-wheeled bikes on steroids are so fun.
There are a couple of companies who make a line of fat bikes, like Surly and Salsa. Fatback Bikes, an Alaskan company who have a headquarters in Bend, make a small-batch line of fat bikes. There are about 10,000 fat bikes in circulation in the world…and that number is growing big time.
The folks at Fatback were nice enough to let us borrow these bikes for the day (thanks, Nick!). I thought I’d include a couple of bike-geeky shots from their awesome warehouse. They are near the bottom of the post.
I thought I’d also include some shots from Chuck Hood, a QBP sales rep, who uses his fat bike for bikepacking. Those pics are at the bottom of the post. These photos get my creative touring juices flowing…bike touring to a fire tower in the winter? Hut to hut bike touring?
Enjoy the photos!
Nice tent – I’ve got two of them! Haha… I know this post is about fat bikes but shizz I dunno… There is no snow for Portland this year and I’m certainly not riding a fat bike out of town to find it (no car). I’m perty happy with summer riding and my Schwalbe Big Apples (phat tires) for now. Ask me again once I get my ass back up to Alaska for some riding.
Looks like you guys had a sweet time – I’m jealous you got out into the snow.
We did, Caroline! It was a blast and highly suggested. I hear people love these bikes for trail riding, too. Super stable and easy.
Are they heavy? Can you rail berms on them? Catch sick air? (Can you tell I’m mesmerized?)
Caroline,
You can certainly rail berms and catch sick air. However, they are a bit on the heavy side. The Pugsley builds out a bit over 30lbs, some of the alloy frames can be built lighter. But 80mm rims and 3.8″ tires add some heft. Well worth it for fun sand and snow riding, maybe a bit less so on the trail. But you have a trail bike already, yes?
This sounds great! I would love to go snow biking! Do they rent these bikes in Bend?
Unfortunately, no. Bike shops can’t even keep them in stock.
Check out Crows Feet Commons for demo bikes.
Thanks, Fatback. And Crows Feet Commons is in Bend and serves beer, FYI.
Great photos, Ellee!
Thanks!