Fifteen Years Of Fat Biking

Shot taken on January 22nd, 2011

 Hard to believe it, but it has been fifteen years since the first turnkey fat bike, the Salsa Mukluk, came into my life. This bicycle was many people's first introduction to fat biking. 

It also is kind of difficult to understand the impact this bicycle had on cyclists, and even non-cyclists in this community and online. 

First of all, look at this 2011 Salsa Cycles Mukluk and you might think it is pretty unremarkable. The tires do not look all that impressive. The rear caliper is mounted on the seat stay? And what is that..... A triple crank set?!! What kind of dinosaur bike is this anyway?  

But our 2026 perspective belies the reality of what was 2011. Then a fat bike was rare. Most people had never seen one before. A 26" x 3.8" tire was huuuuge! I used to get folks stopping in traffic to watch me roll by. I even had someone film me on their camera phone circa 2014 while riding home from work one day. 

The fat bike was truly an oddity then, and if you did not like attention, well, a fat bike wasn't the bike for you! I got asked a zillion questions about the bike, and most were a variation on a theme which was, "Isn't that hard to pedal?" 

Running tubeless tires on Velocity Dually rims with 26" x 4.0" tires in 2013. 

I was enamored of fat bikes back then. It was an option which opened up cycling in Winter for me. I ended up buying a 2012 Ti Mukluk within a year of getting the first one. I was entering the Triple D fat bike event. I was plunking around frozen trails, sand bars, and in the mud in Summertime. 

I often feel as though the fat bike development curve was one of constant innovation until about 2015. Then it all kind of fell away quickly. It seemed as though all the air got sucked out of the sails and everyone who wanted a fat bike now had one. 

I've owned four fat bikes and built up two for my son. I still have the Ti Muk 2, The Snow Dog, and the Blackborow DS. I also still have one of my son's old fat bikes. I probably only really need one! But the original Mukluk, the one I call the Snow Dog, was a birthday gift and the Blackborow does things nothing else I have will do. I guess if it came down to it, I would let those two go and keep the Ti Muk 2. My son's old fat bike could go as well, although I've had folks say I should keep it. 

Today fat bikes are no big deal. No one gawks at you when you are cruising to the woods. I don't get many questions at all anymore about my fat bikes when I am out on them. Maybe because they do not have electric motors.... 

The Snow Dog 2026

I was a bit amused last Fall when I was riding my Ti Muk 2 home. I have a slight hill going up West 2nd Street and I heard a buzzing noise behind me getting louder and louder. Then suddenly a younger looking individual sitting and not pedaling went whizzing by on a fat bike with an electric motor. 

He probably thought my pedaling a fat bike was rather quaint and arcane. The mere thought of a fat bike you had to pedal. How does that work?

Sometimes I wonder if the fat bike was truly the last innovative bicycle design. The last bicycle which was so different people would stop you on the street to see what it was you were on. Nothing like riding a "gravel bike", and these new 32" wheels won't draw attention either. 

Oh, you might think a 32"er would draw attention. I don't think so. I rode a 36"er which Ben Witt let me borrow for a few months. I commuted on it and not one person reacted to it as being different. No questions about it at all. No side glances. Nothing. 

But ride a fat bike the next day and I was going to know the difference. 

Besides, fat bikes did things no other bicycle could do. They still do those things, but now "those things" are not novel. So, I really do think fat bikes were the last bicycle which made a new category with possibilities to do things older bicycles could not do. Truly an innovation. 

Don't even come at me with the motorized bicycle thing!  

Bonus Content: I reviewed my original Mukluk "with perspective" last year. Read the review here.