As we sit under a blanket of a few feet of snow you may be thinking “well there goes my riding for a couple of weeks until the snow melts” but it doesn’t have to be that way, if you’ve got a fattie… a Fat Bike that is. While fat bikes have been around in some form or another since the 80s, they didn’t really rise in popularity until the last few years, as more and more manufacturers have offered a wide selection of models and price points.
Fad or Trend?
Once considered merely a bike made for snow or sand, fat bikes really are just great all-around bikes that offer an added dimension over their MTB cousins. With tires greater than 4.5 inches wide these bikes make easy going of the roughest terrain, slippery mud, deep sand and fresh pow, think of them as a human-powered monster truck able to go where no bike has gone before. But going beyond the extreme (weather & conditions) fat bikes are just plain fun to ride all year long and in all conditions.
Since the release of the first production mountain bike by Surly in 2005, fat bikes have become a prevalent section of the bike market as even the big manufacturers, Scott, Cannondale & Specialized have jumped into the Fat Bike game. With that you can walk into just about any bike shop and find a fattie to bring home. In recent years we have even seen front suspension pop up, as Rock Shox has entered the fat bike suspension game with the Bluto and is being sold the Big Ed by Scott.
Even with the deep snow you don’t just have to sit there this week pining to be able ride the the great white outdoors. Head over to your nearest bike shop and check them out. For those here in Culpeper, VeloConcepts has ’em and more on the way.
More Fun Than You Can Handle
If you think they just can’t be that much more fun that what you have already check out this video from the first night of Winter Storm Jonas!
