Fittings And Fat Bikes

The ped/bike bridge across HWY 58 in Cedar Falls

It was sometime last week. I was driving "The Truck With No Name" in downtown Waterloo when it happened. All of a sudden like. A crack. Right in front of my very eyes. A crack in my windshield twelve inches long.

No rocks, nothing..... Weird!

So, that precipitated my having to source a company to repair this. I know some folks would "just let it go", but not I. It isn't safe anyway. So, I was thinking this was gonna hurt financially, but thanks to Cedar Valley Auto Glass, I was able to get it done for a little more than $200.00.  Nice! I love small, local businesses.

So, anyway, I had to drop it off and I decided to ride back home, which also meant I had to ride back over when it was finished later that day. This afforded me the opportunity to see some of the bike paths over on the West end of this area I never had checked out before. The big highlight was the pedestrian/bicycle bridge over Highway 58, not far from where I had the work on the truck done. So let it be written- let it be told! If you cities and towns out there build the infrastructure, it will get used. All year long. I'm a good example of that. Plus, even on a cold, blustery November day, others were out on the paths too.

People who think bike paths are only used in Summer think that because they don't go out there once the temperatures drop below 60°F. Look.......you don't see us, so you don't get it. Rant over. I just love it when people think they have it all figured out about how this sort of stuff is "wasted money". Whatever.............

700 X 2.1"ers in there, with room for mud!

After that 20 mile fat bike ride was over I fitted the Breezer RADAR Expert I have here for a bit with bigger shoes. Breezer says this bike will take 29"er X 2.1" tires. Well.......whatta ya know! It just so happens that I had these Michelin Wildgripper 29" X 2.1" just laying around. So, I figured we'd put Breezer's claim to the test. And guess what? Well......you already can see it worked. 

There is proper room for mud here, but you aren't going to shoe horn in a bigger tire. The frame design really wouldn't allow it. But yeah...... That's rad. Almost Gen 1 Fargo "rad". To my mind, the Gen 1 Fargo is this bike's distant cousin.

Some might call it "monster cross", and some may say, "Well, it is a 29"er after all." Pfft......it is a drop bar off-roader adventure vehicle. It kind of defies classification. Just like that original Fargo did. But trying to classify this rig as something or another is really a waste of time. Just ride it! It is a fun bike, despite some of its "lower end-ness". If this were my rig to play with, well........ You folks that read this blog know exactly what would happen, don't you?

There would be different wheels, a new seat post, a different stem, different tires, an upgrade to Gevenalle shifters/brake levers, and who knows what else. It would end up becoming a gravel rig, and basically "another Gen I Fargo" in my stable. Yep.......

But back to reality. This rig fits 2.1's and that makes me smile. I like that versatility. The next mad experiment will be to see how this rig does with 650B X 47's......... Stay tuned......