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| Text from N.Y. Roll |
Remember these fat bikes? The Raleigh Rumson. Or how about the Fuji Wendigo? No? Well, how about the Heller Bloodhound, or the Jamis Roughneck? Surely you recall the Fat Cad with the Lefty fork and the Coast Bikes full suspension fat bike, don't you?
Hmm.....all bikes gone by the wayside these days. Fat bikes fell off a cliff in terms of sales by the late twenty-teens, and by the pandemic they were nearly relegated to only the long time brands in the space like Salsa Cycles, Surly, and Fatback Bikes. Most brands who had jumped in around 2014 - 2015 were out of the game by 2020.
Now fat bikes are pretty much gone from the performance/human powered cycling space. But they are thriving for the brands which attach motors to frames which can handle big, corpulent tires. Since little regard has to be given to weight when motors are involved, these fat bikes are heavy. Since they dominate the market, manufacturers are trending toward making stuff for them. Not so much for the human powered fat bikers.
Try finding a variety of 26" x 4.0 tires with tubeless ready casings and fast tread design. You'll run into exactly what I mean. Lots of wire bead, heavy, non-tubeless e-bike fare. The market for those 26"er fat bikes that can handle around a 4" tire is getting pretty thin.
Bring back the Black Floyd!
Only half kidding there. But anyway, fat bikes are not dead as in "not around anymore", but their development is non-existent. I mean, how many seasons has Salsa trotted out the exact same bikes as the year before donned in a different color? Same with Surly.
In this sense, fat bikes are 'dead'. At least you can still get a 100% human powered one.
13 comments:
I agree with the “everybody who wants a fatbike has a fatbike” line of thinking. I also think having a fatbike and riding it in the snow reveals the limitations of the type of bike (the nicest fatbiking is often on hard packed snow that would probably be fine in a big 29er tire). This, owning a first fatbike (old-school Blackborow in my case) hasn’t led me to think “gosh this is great and would be even better if it was lighter/slacker/had suspension/internal cable routing etc.etc.” So there’s not a big demand to upgrade. I love my fatbike for what it is and it’s there to take out on the days it makes sense to ride, but that’s it- unless it breaks I don’t see wanting another one- riding car n the snow will
Always be hard, variable, and slow (and in competition with ski season for me).
I started out fat bike curious with a Motobecane hardtail frame and a Salsa fat fork.I tried that thing out in many guises, including having a drop bar. It was HORIBLE in deep sand as you would just drag that rear skinny 29er around as it dug in. lol
I had a 2nd gen Mukluk which was mostly used on long gravel rides, but did get some good deep sand at Lake McConaughy which it did pretty dang well in. I did the front fork recall upgrade to a carbon fork with a thru axle - first time ever using a thru axle and MAN did that make the front of the bike track corners better!
Then I got a Trek Farley 9.6 which I raced mountain bike courses on, and in general it replaced my MTB. I ended up putting a Lauf fork on the front which turned that thing into an amazing gravel bike. Rarely used it for sand, did get some snow on it.
Then I got my current Giant Yukon which I put some carbon wheels on as the stockers just would NOT setup tubeless to save my life. Still ride this thing at times, but mainly in single track.
The heyday of fat bikes was a really interesting time. So many new and fun bikes to look at, and all sorts of tires. The magic isnt gone, I just don't dip into it as much anymore.
I recall having some significant snow for a few winters around 2013-14, which had to contribute to the interest in fatbikes. Lately, not so much? Also, most new trails are smooth, wide and flowy and do not require fat tires at all. Old school chunky trails are still so much fun on big, fat tubeless Lou tires.
As a person who owns multiple single speeds and fat bikes, I'm not sure how to take NY Rolls comment. I don't know what to say... may need to go build up a single speed fat bike and reflect on my choices in life. ;P
My Ti Watchman and drop bar Singular Puffin are forever bikes, so I'm good to go...
Yes!!
He left out the comment before, I asked if him are fat Bikes dead? I was grousing about how the tire selection is gone, companies are cutting them out of their lines. In short, are fatties niche again, and do not go expecting wide support.
But yes, build a SS Fattie, follows N+1 mantra
Fat bikes are not dead where I live in the Northern Rockies, but there are less casual fat bikers than there were 8-10m years ago. I ride mine exclusively (except commuting) from November/December - March. I started on the black and red Mukluk 2 in 2011, bought a Ventana ElGordo that takes 5" tires in 2015 and I am still riding that same bike, as Ive seen no reason to upgrade, even thouygfh Ive been through 4 trail bikes since then. I also havent had to look for tires for 5+? years since I got sets of studded and unstudded Johnny 5's and they last forever riding on snow. As long as I can buy a Mukluk and Johnny 5's for the foreseeable future, I'm set.
@rth009 - Your comment outlines very well what I was trying to say in the post. Fat bikes are "dead" in the sense that no new development is being noted (in the 100% human powered type) and those who have them are - as you say about yourself - "set". Which is saying the market is also "dead" for such complete fat bikes.
Still have my Pugsly, still love it. The tire situation is ridiculous.
Other than last year's Surly Moonlander, there's been nothing new in fatbikes for a while. So I agree with the "dead" part from a development standpoint. Hopefully we can still get tires and rims for them, but at some point, I see those supplies drying up.
I agree it is dead. Surprisingly, Revel re-released the Big Iron. The thing of it though is my argument for bicycles made for regions versus worldwide sale. This goes all the way down to components, especially gearing, featured on globally/nationally sold completes. I thought fat bikes sold on the Carolina coast with Jumbo Jims or Nobby Nics was super odd considering how the sand works out.
Oh man I have so many thoughts about this.
I live in Detroit, which is very hit or miss with snow, though we have a very dedicated winter grooming community. If I go a bit north there's a whole lot of amazing snow to ride in the winter. And in the summer there's a bunch of spicy sandy ORV trails that are a whole lot of fun to ride on a fat bike.
I think they are a few primary things going on:
1) Fat bikes were primarily sold in the same way plus bikes were sold, which was that they're great for everyone no matter what. But really fat bikes are for nerds that are willing to carry a low pressure tire gauge and continually faff with their tire pressure, and don't mind swapping tires based on conditions. I don't mind wrenching on my bikes, but I have chosen to make my life easier by switching to TPU tubes instead of tubeless so that I can swap between ultra knobby studded tires and faster rolling studded tires in the winter.
2) Fat bikes are best on terrain that is hard to ride, be it snow or sand. And most people would rather just ride What You See Is What You Get terrain, whether that's a pre-made gravel road route or a IMBA-style flow trail. Also, if you don't have a robust trail grooming community, it's not all that fun to go 4 mph in sugar snow.
3) Most fat bike geometry kind of sucks. I had someone modify a Surly Ice Cream Truck fork with BMX style dropouts to have a 76mm offset (a la Jones or Stooge) to make the handling better on both my REEB Donkadonk (which is now for sale) and Stooge R-Buckle. It's night and day in both winter and summer. The lower trail figure from the fork makes it 100x easier to track a narrow ribbon of packed down snow in the winter, without all the wheel flop of the giant wheel. And in the summer it keeps the big pneumatic trail figure in check. The added fork flex from the dropout is quite nice too when ripping bumpy singletrack.
As was mentioned above I too think that 29 x 3.25" tires can do a lot of what proper 26 fat and even 27.5 skinny fat can do. But I defer to Mike Curiak when he says that 26" Johnny 5s are still the best for off-piste snow scrambling. And I'd still love to try a Moonlander 2.0 or at least the Molendas on 120mm rims on some sort of bike for extreme off-piste shenanigans.
That being said, I'm fortunate to be in the Upper Midwest where fat biking is usually more fun than our limited alpine skiing. We also just have so many groomed trails, especially if you head to the Upper Peninsula. Riding in Marquette is as fun in the winter as it is in the summer tbh. But if I lived in the mountains I'm not sure I'd care so much about riding fat because I'd be skiing.
(btw hit me up if anyone wants to buy that REEB Donkadonk!)
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