The history of the modern fatbike includes two contemporaneous stories of development in Alaska and southern New Mexico. As mountain bikes arrived in shops in the 1980s, customizations for riding on sand and snow were quick to follow. In 1987, the first Iditabike event challenged riders to travel 200 miles of Alaskan backcountry in winter, following snowmobile and dog mushing trails. The course followed the first section of the historic Iditarod dog mushing trail to Nome, another 1000 miles further. Conditions along the trail range from rideable frozen crust — the result of daily freeze-thaw cycles — to a mélange of soft snow, glare ice, and liquid water overflow. Harsh conditions, and lots of walking alongside a bike in the snow challenged riders to improve their equipment for next year. A wider tire footprint was essential…
Read more and comment on the Adventure Cycling Blog.
The Adventure Cycling Association celebrates Fatbike February every year, highlighting fatbikes and winter cycling. Also, today is Winter Bike to Work Day (and St. Valentine’s Day), which is a good opportunity to ride outside of your normal routine, exploring new possibilities by bike. Winter riding, and the riders, in Anchorage are proof that year-round cycling is possible anywhere. Get outside today and ride!
Keep up with #FatbikeFeb on the Adventure Cycling Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages.
gypsy by trade 
Great article!!!
Hey Nick!
i stumbled upon a old post on your blog about tools you carry. someone mentioned a hypercracker, while stein doesnt produce that model anymore they have released a new version of the portable cassette tool. pretty sleek and after reading that post i ordered one for my kit. available through QBP. you probably are way ahead of me on this one, but i figured i would shoot it out there for any readers that could use it.
-Landon
Boston, MA
Landon, I’ve known about these for years. I usually don’t go looking for things online unless I absolutely need to, and since most shops don’t stock such things, I’ve never owned one. However, the shop I work at has four of the new Stein mini-cassette lockring tools on the shelf right now. I will certainly be bringing one on the next trip. Thanks for the alert.