Before the Debate, Opted Outside on a Fat Bike
Hope you got a good ride in too….
Turns out, after all the evangelizing of wider, even fat tires I do, I hadn’t ridden a fat bike (generally mountain bikes with 4-to-5+ inch wide tires) with the tires inflated above 4–7 PSI. That’s because I’ve only ridden fat bikes in the snow where low pressure makes the ride possible. 9–10 PSI is even more fun on dirt roads and single track.
With a front suspension, it’s even funner, like double-stuffed Oreos, dipped in milk chocolate fun. I rode the Methow Valley Community trail, and climbed up to Fawn Creek to descend back down. And, then made a new friend with a Forest Service employee who rescued me from the side of the road. When he dropped me off at North Cascade Cycle Werks, I said, “Thanks for making America greater!”
Cycle Werks is where I rented the Fatback Rhino and recommend you do too; it’s also where Sora the chihuahua hangs out building a wall with Ellis the shop cat.
Flats are rare on tires with so much rubber. I blame it on how rad I was getting. The Fatback also had a Rockshock Bluto on it, which enabled maximum radness, until the sadness of flat. Going from rad to sad in one ride, was a bit emotional. With a clear head though, I was mentally prepared for the shitshow broadcast around the world.
Another reason I was clipping along so well on a bike so fat, is the low-rolling resistance Schwalbes. The Jumbo Jims use a 127 TPI folding casing, that’s the same as their racing mountain bike tire. Much innovation has happened in a very short time with fatbikes, road bikes on dirt, plus bikes too. A few weekends prior, I rode the same stretch of Fawn Creek on a road bike with 2.1 slicks. It was good times with both bikes, one was just fatter than the other.
This is what happens when bike design departs from racing and new possibilities emerge. Try a fatbike with fast tires at 9 PSI. I promise the perspective of what you can ride where will change.
Deciding to turn right and up a steep single track trail was a gamble. I hadn’t done that before on a fatbike, didn’t know if it would climb well. Besides the obvious grip and bounce from the high-volume tires, I could’ve been on any high-performance bike.
The climb was well worth it, even after a flat.
Issue 40 of our magazine, drops this week. It’s about gambling…..
