Yes, I have a new member in my own little Dan B. family world. I bought this bike, which is some how called "the fat bike". It is in otherwords, a snow bike. This bike is pretty much a pedal bike with big huge 4 inch tires that goes over stuff like you wouldn't imagine. It can also go on sand so I wouldn't be surprised to see these at rental beach bike houses like in Hawaii, or Cayman Islands. They are popular in Alaska where there is dirt 3 months a year. Also people like to go on huge fat bike adventures on the Alaskan beach in the summers, then ride in the snow in the snow season.
I had my first eyes on these bikes from facebook friends from the Provo/Salt Lake area, like last winter when they first came out. Saw pictures and seem interested. I saw a fat bike in a bike shop in Provo on display and thought it was stupid and I now I watched youtube videos, and facebook friends post pictures and thought maybe this bike would be fun during the winter, and to keep me in shape. I saved my money, well at first I saved it all year for a Disneyland trip with my family during this Christmas but I guess it's been cancelled and so I had money and decided to buy this. I bought a Surly Moonlander. It's the only fat bike with the biggest tires than all the other kind of fat bikes like the Salsa Mukluk. The Mukluk was my first choice but I guess the guy I bought it from was just a Surly dealer and I really love this bike!
I went on a ride two days after I bought it, and the day after I got the bike, it snowed! I couldn't wait to try it out! I went out on some roads just outside of town and at the base of the foot hills. It worked great. It didn't slide and went over the snow easily. It was awesome. You probably can't go up steep hills or gnarly steep downhills on a snow bike but it works great on flat and moderately graded hills. I get enough workout that way too.
I used spd kind of pedals at first and they didn't do well clipping in with snow and ice on the cleats of my shoes. But I did some research and they say the Time or Crank Bros. pedals work great in snow and mud and are recommended for fat bikes. So I got the Time Z pedals. I haven't tried them yet so it's supposed to snow tonight and tomorrow and I will go biking tomorrow. I hope they will work great, and I have some snow booties for my shoes. I hope it snows a lot!
Here's a video I posted to get you an idea to see how fat bikes ride:
Yes, last ride I rode when there was a foot of snow on the ground, I had to put the pressure down at around 13 psi. On other rides when there was only an inch of snow, I had it at 20 psi. The lower pressure, the better traction you get on harder, technical stuff. Especially in snow and sand. The tires are so big, you don't even need to worry about pinched flats. Even a big guy like me, it'll hold up.
3 comments:
Neat! Looks fun. Do they say to run lower pressure in these tires than normal?
Yes, last ride I rode when there was a foot of snow on the ground, I had to put the pressure down at around 13 psi. On other rides when there was only an inch of snow, I had it at 20 psi. The lower pressure, the better traction you get on harder, technical stuff. Especially in snow and sand. The tires are so big, you don't even need to worry about pinched flats. Even a big guy like me, it'll hold up.
Even though the tires say for max pressure is 30 psi feels a whole lot of air.
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