Interbike Outdoor Demo: Big Rubber

With temperatures in excess of one hundred degrees, riders were dying to try Moonlanders and Krampi.  I have been accused of a simpleminded approach to bicycle tires that “bigger is better”, but the Outdoor Demo at Interbike is proof that others are interested in big rubber.  It proves that others have the capacity to dream big and find use for fat tires.

Surly Bicycles are the center of the fat tire universe.  Designed to fit the Moonlander and other fatbikes, the new 4.8″ Bud and Lou tires are front and rear specific and join the Big Fat Larry as the largest tires available for maximum flotation, suspension and traction.  These tires also fit other fatbikes such as the 9zero7, Fatback, Salsa Mukluk and even the Pugsley, although drivetrain modifications may sometimes be necessary so that the chain clears the tire.  Several new tires from other manufacturers are filling the gap between 2.5-4.0″.

The Fatback crew from Speedway Cycles in Anchorage weren’t showing their bikes at a booth, but brought several premium offerings for casual display.  This stainless steel singlespeed model is particularly nice, with 90mm UMA rims and Big Fat Larry tires.

Greg Matyas’ personal bike featured a belt-driven Alfine hub and a Fatback branded (or just stickered?) suspension fork, apparently from a German manufacturer.

Vee Rubber featured an inspiring breadth of tires in incremental sizes and tread patterns.  Notably, the Vee Mission is available in a 26×4.0″ format, at almost 1800g (60tpi).  In the future, lighter models may be available.  Vee is the only other company making a tire in this size, as they also make the 26×4.0″ Origin8 Devist-8er.  The Surly and 45North tires are all made by Innova.

A 26×3.5″ folding tire called the Speedster comes in at a scant 1100g (60tpi), with a super grippy fast rolling compound.  This tire would stick itself to hardpack and slickrock, as well as urban terrain.

As promised, 45North has released a studded fatbike tire as I had desired all winter.  As fatbikes find their way out of the backcountry and onto icy city streets, a studded fat tire is a necessity.  An average winter commute in Anchorage might include six inches of fresh snow, icy rutted lanes, and crusty sidewalk singletrack.  The Husker Du Dillinger (1275g, 120tpi; 27tpi also avail.) does it all with 240 aluminum-carbide studs.  The Escalator (180tpi) will come pre-drilled for studs with the same tread as the Dillinger, and will allow a custom pattern of studs to be installed.  Finally, a winter tire that will do it all!

Spotted on a 9zero7 frame, also from Anchorage, Alaska: the new RaceFace Atlas 2-piece crank for 100mm bottom brackets and the 45North Helva pedal, designed with large pins for grip with chunky winter boots and an open snow-shedding design.

9zero7 released a new 186mm rear dropout spacing to fit 100mm rims, 4.8″ tires and a full mountain bike drivetrain all at once.  With 170mm systems, some drivetrain modifications are required to fit the maximum tires and rim combinations available.  ChainReaction Cycles (9zero7) no longer manufacture their FlatTop series of 80 and 100mm rims, citing the challenges of manufacturing and custom drilling.  ”The Surly rims are stronger and lighter” they say.

The Sun Spider fatbike cruiser from J&B Importers features a new mustard yellow color, which is incidentally similar to the new Pugsley paint.  This bike is the cheapest off-the-shelf fatbike at just under $800, and sports a Sturmey-Archer 2-speed kickback hub on an aluminum frame with spider pattern tires.

BionX was showing a multitude of popular frames with their electric hubs, including a Surly Troll, Civia Halsted and the Surly Pugsley pictured below.

Cass takes the new Salsa Mukluk 2 for a spin, shod with aggressive Surly Nate tires.  Reduce the pressure and ride; take some more out.  Ride.  A little lower…just right.  All Mukluk models for 2013 will come with Nate tires front and rear, which deliver maximum traction in the “standard” 3.8″ fat tire size.

Of course, the Krampus has created a cloudburst of excitement.  Test riders were lined up to ride the fleet of Krampi, with 1×10 drivetrains and the new 29×3.0″ Knard tires on 50mm Rabbit Hole rims.  The bike looks fun and has a levity both in spirit and ride quality, which I appreciate coming from 10 months of riding and touring on a Pugsley.   Cass noted the improved traction and the softened ride in comparison to his Ogre.  The Krampus claims relatively high trail numbers and short chainstays, paired with a short stem and a wide handlebar for a stable ride with tons of control.  Sit back and carve it like a waterski or shift your weight forward and dig the front tire into turns, like an ice skate.  It’s fun and rides like a bike, exactly as it was designed.

Coming off a Salsa Spearfish test ride, Lael preferred the intuitive ride of the Krampus.  The large tires felt more stable and the ride, predictable.  Perhaps the Spearfish suspension could have been dialed more expertly for her weight; the narrower 2.2″ tires felt skittish on dry desert trails.  The Krampus has a sure footing, without a lead foot.

Chain clearance is good, with room for a double up front.

The Knard tires, made by Innova, have an all-purpose fast rolling tread.  Coming from standard width tires they offer tons of grip on the trail, but it took me a moment to get used to “skinnies”.  I may have a hard time leaving fat tires behind as my “fat year” comes to a close.

A non-endorsable suspension fork and Knard combination of an employee-owned Krampus.  Non-endorsable means some sandpaper was involved and you can do it at your own risk. Don’t contact them for the details.

WTB shows a redesigned Weirwolf for 29″ tires.  This 2.3″ model is voluminous and grips all the way through turns in a variety of conditions.  This is an awesome looking tire with some purposeful design features.  Note the terraced side knobs.

Vee has a full range of tires in 29, 26 and 20″ sizes.  Some lightweight 29×1.95-2.25″ tires with 120tpi casings would be optimal for fast dirt road riding.

And Lael’s new top pick for the Hooligan– the 20×2.125″ Vee Velvet.

Soaking up the sunshine and glitz for a few days in Vegas.  Wandering the halls of Interbike, I will have my eyes open for: big rubber, lightweight touring gear and luggage, dynamo lighting and accessories, comfortable handlebars, and oddities.  Should I look for anything in particular?

The promise of fat tires

Pneumatic tires and large volume rubber had been in use for almost a century when in the late 70′s a strong lightweight frame with adequate brakes and gears turned an average balloon bike– a klunker capable of country lanes– into a performance machine capable of climbing and descending off-pavement.  These were all-terrain bikes, later dubbed “mountain bikes”.  As sales of fat tires grew in the 80′s, bicycling magazines published forward-thinking expeditions to Everest Base Camp on Specialized Stumpjumpers, out the abandoned Canol Road on Ritchey frames in the Northwest Territory of Canada, and along the flanks and spines of local mountains everywhere.  Never before had bikes been able to ride these routes and riders were willing to dream new places to ride; as well, riders quickly found the limits of the new bikes.  The Canol Road, for example, is unrideable for much of the distance due to washouts, overgrowth and avalanche– and thus, the term hike-a-bike was born.  Still, prices for these new machines fell and consumers bought up “mountain bikes” by the millions, finding varied uses.  Many bikes became daily commuters on urban streets, cycletourists found larger tires and strong frames to be ideal for long distance travel on unknown roads, and some riders actually rode singletrack trails as pictured in magazines.  But many (or most) mountain bikes, like Jeeps and Ford Explorers, spend very little time in the Tolkein environment pictured in sales catalogs and magazines.   Consumers buy mountain bikes because they promise the ability to go places, simply because they can– it’s the promise of fat tires.

Winter endurance racing and sand-crawling cyclists birthed fatbikes over the past twenty years, and out of a slow stew of development the Surly Pugsley was born in 2006 as a mass-market option.  The purple Pugsley that I ride is the analogue of the 1981 Stumpjumper, a ready-made option to those curious about riding large-volume rubber.  In 2011, Salsa introduced a complete Mukluk build and Surly followed suit with a complete Pugsley– 2011-2012 has seen the explosion of fat tires as a result.  Being able to enter a shop, point at a bike and ride out the door is a boon to sales and to curious consumers.  A dismal snowfall in the lower 48 has done nothing to lessen interest in fatbikes this past winter, as curious and creative riders are finding new ways to ride big rubber.  That’s the promise of fat tires– new places to ride, and new ways to ride.  It’s more than just a snow bike.

Over the past few months I’ve explored the capacity of my Pugsley in reverse, finding that it can ride pavement and the graded dirt roads of the Great Divide and the Top of the World Highway on 2.35″ Schwalbe Big Apple tires.  I refit “ultralight” 120 tpi Surly Larry tires to the 65mm Marge Lite rims a few weeks ago and have been riding the varied terrain of the Great Divide Route through Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Colorado.  Skeptical onlookers point out that I’m still not putting fat tires to full use– much of what I’ve ridden can be ridden on a normal mountain bike– but the sandy soils of the Western Idaho Trail and the intermittent washboard of the Divide are minimized under large-volume rubber.  There are more instances where I am happy to have big tires than I curse the disadvantages– there’s more to gain than to lose.

We’re easily convinced that 29″ tires make obstacles “smaller” (despite statistically significant evidence to prove their efficiency), but many riders are calling fat tires a fad, and even worse, sacrilege.  Admitting the obvious penalties of weight and rolling resistance on pavement, fat tires improve upon all three features of the pneumatic tire: traction, suspension and flotation.  If you don’t need it, you don’t need it; but if you are curious and can dream up new ways to ride then it’s available through your local bike shop.  It’s 1984 all over again, and in addition to the refined custom options, Surlys and Salsas are filling the floors of shops all over the country like Stumpjumpers and High Sierras.  With the assurance and insurance of big rubber, I can plan a trip of unknown routes through the mountains and deserts of Colorado, Utah and Arizona.  I’ve passed-by and turned away from enough rough-stuff riding opportunities in the past to know that I need a bike with some teeth.  With new riding opportunities ahead I can point and shoot without limits, as my fatbike has teeth.

The direct comparison of fatbikes to “normal” bikes is often unfair.  First, the riding conditions in which they are compared is necessarily biased towards a typical mountain bike, unless you’d previously included a lot of loose sandy hike-a-bike in your rides, snowy commutes, muddy trails or deeply rutted roads.  Secondly, comparing bike weights of a refined mountain bike to a base model fatbike is also unfair, even at the same price point.  Comparing bikes based on cost benefits the mass market offerings with “normal” 26″ and 29″ wheels; much of the additional cost and weight of a fatbike comes from specialized componentry, mainly rims and tires, which are expensive due to limited production.  Rim weights have been cut in half in the last half-decade of fatbike development and the new Surly Marge Lite rim is only 690g (the 50mm Jeff Jones rim is 660g), both of which approach the weight of standard-duty XC rims.   The weight and price of fatbike equipment is only coming down.  Within the year, I suspect the Surly Pugsley will lose the 1150g DH Large Marge rim from the stock build; another tire manufacturer will enter the game, undercutting the weight of Innova tires and reducing rolling resistance with more advanced casings; and non-utilitarian offerings such as the new Salsa Beargrease (28.5 lb XC and race-oriented model) will change the way we think about these modern day klunkers.  A studded fat tire, no matter the price, will be a panacea for dedicated winter commuters in Alaska and other consistently wintry climes, where a single commute can include fresh snow over hardpack, glare ice and icy rutted lanes.

Looking ahead even further, the leap to 3.7-4.5″ tires has left a huge gap, and the Surly Krampus arrives soon to fill it.  Large volume tires in more practical everyday sizes and weights will continue to roll in, as will the frames that can handle them.  Expect to see more lightweight (non-DH) 2.5-3.5″ tires in the future.  The Krampus is betting on a lightweight 3.0″ tire on a 50mm-wide 29″ (622mm) rim, and I’m all in.

In Kremmling, CO a local raft guide rides a new Surly Pugsley with 45North Husker Du tires.  He’s owned full-suspension mountain bikes in the past, but never enjoyed rebuilding suspension parts and linkages after a season of hard use.  On a whim, he hopped on a fatbike.  Of course, he bought it!  He’s devoted several upcoming months between the rafting season and the ski season to play, and his first-ever cycling trip will be on a the new white Pugsley somewhere in the west.  I’ve lent my Great Divide maps and assorted state highway maps, which I’m hopeful will get some use.

On another note, my Schwalbe Big Apples tires have made their way to Anchorage via USPS where they have again found a home on the Surly Man’s Big Donkey.  A modern proverb states, “it takes more than one man to wear through a Schwalbe”.   Below, mountainous snowbanks persist though late March in Anchorage, conquered only by the mighty Mukluks.  The snowbanks would not disappear until sometime in May.

The “promise of fat tires” was realized late at night as an indirect rebuttal to a recent article on Mike Varley’s Black Mountain Cycles blog.   A favorite cycle-centric digest, Mike reflects expertly on old bikes, new technology and practical tire sizes.  Check out the BMC Cross frame, which features the largest tire clearance of any non-suspension corrected steel 700c/29″ bike available.  With a fast-rolling 1.9-2.1″ tire, this frame would make a real dirt road scorcher!

Where sleeping monsters lie: Knik Glacier

Knik, not like Nick; the k is not silent. About ten miles up the Knik River Road is a bridge across Hunter Creek. From there, it’s about 8 miles on snowmachine trails along the floodplain to the foot of the glacier, where iceforms dwarf cyclists in icy blue shadows and light. The trail is well traveled and frozen through the morning, and we approach the ice within an hour and a half of departure. Like an icy Bryce Canyon, we explore slots and cracks to their end, climbing over frozen bridges and saddles, and through towering corridors. Sliding across glassy refrozen meltwater and down the sides of giant ice marbles, we are kids in an absurd moonscape. A sunny day in the middle of nowhere full of childlike wonder–the best bike ride ever.

The final bend, a different place
no hubbub, no wind, not cold.
A space frozen, but not unmoving;
Shhh– sleeping monsters in momentary grace.

Cyclops, a Yeti, the Lochness and a puddle of melt;
A boy’s club of scary faces and stalactites for teeth.

It’s a wax museum or a monster’s graveyard
Joints are frozen, but the eyes are wide
They’re here, but no worry
Eyes like a hawk but
The teeth are fiction– just icicles

Retracing our tracks, we gain momentum from the imperceptible dowstream slope and the glee of an afternoon well-wasted. Lael rides her Pugsley with new gold VP pedals, Tamra rides my purple Puglsey with Nate, and I ride a borrowed Salsa Mukluk 3. Lael finds a moose leg on the trail and is insistant that we take it home, exhibiting it’s uses as a prosthesis and a kickstand; Tamra draws the short straw and straps it to her rack.
The Knik River floodplain is colored pink in this rendering. We rode from the wide braided section left of center, up to the big white glacier on the right. A nice ride; eight easy miles each way, if snow conditions are favorable.

Ride at night

Light til 9, but we still ride in the dark. A group of eight met in the Jodphur parking lot at Kincaid for some sinuous singletrack, some of which is groomed by Herculean riders pulling a worn automobile tire. Lights, bikes, fat tires and friends; Fatbacks, Mukluks and Pugsleys.

After racing around the woods in circles, I raced the fifteen miles home in sub-zero temperatures for a midnight dinner.

The getaway Mukluk

Harold probably doesn’t know who Levi or Lance are, not that he should. In a season of record snowfall in Anchorage, the average Motiv or Magna isn’t enough to confidently crawl around town, and the fat tires piqued his interest as a sure-footed all-weather ride. To the cycling enthusiast, a fatbike allows an escape from midwinter blues and too much time at the office or in front of a computer. To Harold, it’s an altogether different escape.

He’s more like Red Green or Grizz (from Jeremiah Johnson) than a “cyclist”, but he was paying his way toward ownership of a blue Salsa Mukluk 3, in spite of our preconceptions. For a week, Harold shared his satisfaction through toothless grins and grunts. Big tires roll over anything, he said. On Tuesday, he brought the bike in for some adjustments, including a new rear reflector and declared that he would be cashing a check to pay for the bike in full, “if I don’t get arrested”. What does that mean, we wondered? He left the building on foot and as he turned onto the sidewalk, police cruisers swarmed. That’s what he meant.

According to police, Harold kicked in the window at the local bank and used his new Salsa Mukluk as a “getaway vehicle”, giving new meaning to Salsa’s brand motto Adventure By Bike.

“Harold” is an alias for the purpose of this article. We are heartbroken over Harold’s misfortune, although not without a chuckle. This makes the list of “really bad decisions before noon”.

A new Salsa brand strategy calling to Tour Divide racers, Iditarod Trail bike-pushers and Harold:

Salsa– What are you running from?

So simple

Your mom probably doesn’t ride a bike. Most days, mine doesn’t either. Your parents and their parents probably want a few simple things in a bicycle; a wide comfortable seat, large cushioned tires, simple controls and a comfortable upright riding position. Accidentally, the Salsa Mukluk does just that.

See the positively upright position on the XS framed Mukluk. A stack of spacers on an uncut steerer ensure that the bars are high. Unfortunately, the stock seat wasn’t comfortable for the duration of our ride, which wound round the city for nearly twenty five miles.

One bike for all seasons

Twenty years ago, modern fatbikes were a vision manifest as a few crude bikes in a few faraway garages. As I understand, at least one was in the valley at Wildfire Designs, in Mark Gronewald’s workshop in Palmer, AK; while the other was in rural New Mexico, in the garage of Ray “El Remolino” Molina. One design was born from snow and Iditasport racing, while the other from sand-crawling and desert riding. For the most complete “recollections” of fatbike history, this thread describes a lot of failed attempts and semi-successes on the path to the modern fatbike standard. Other fatbikes were being developed simultaneously in Alaska and the sand dunes of the Oregon Coast.

I met Ray Molina in the Copper Canyon last spring at the 7th Copper Canyon Ultramarathon. He was excited to meet us and talk about bikes, and was the only person in town unsurprised that we had actually ridden there. The conversation quickly diverged to his distaste for Surly bicycles, for they had “ripped off his design” (paraphrase). Lael’s Long Haul Trucker prompted the discussion, although he didn’t recognize the bike in it’s refinements and without it’s decals. I was hearing about the difficulties of manufacturing wide rims in Mexico in the 80′s and the joys of riding sand dunes on a homemade bike in Chihuahua– most of what I and was hearing was too far off to comprehend, or to believe. Not until six months later when I was inspecting the wide rims on Mike Curiak’s Iditasport snowbike displayed at Absolute Bikes in Salida, CO, did I realize that Ray was not entirely crazy– they were labeled “Remolino”. Indeed, some of his history was accurate and in fact, his 80mm rim was an essential step in offering a lightweight flotation bicycle. The tires displayed on Curiak’s bike appeared to be 3″ DH style tires, splayed by the wide rims to a respectable footprint capable of riding over loose surfaces.

Ray has been mountain biking in the Copper Canyon region for decades, and was crafting huaraches on the sidewalk in town with the Tarahumara in the days leading up to the ultramarathon. A few dozen Americans and an assortment of international runners had descended– over 5000 ft– to Urique. Ray had brought a load of premium materials to the Raramuri (Tarahumara) for the soles of their sandals from the States– worn out automobile tires. The following day Ray participated in the race wearing his custom cushioned huarache sandals, despite claiming to be “not much of a runner”. It’s a good thing it’s not much of a run, but a 50 mile hike through the desert heat and canyon terrain, with over 9000ft of climbing. Apparently, Ray thinks he can do anything, and whether it is riding a bike in sand or running 50 miles on dirt, he’ll make his own “shoes” for the task.

The viability of the modern fatbike as an all-season adventurer is becoming well known partly due to the dearth of snow in the lower 48 this winter, and through the remaining three seasons. Mostly, many fatbike owners are finding the bike too fun to let alone the rest of the year. The availability of wide doublewall rims and even wider singlewall rims– Ray’s quest– is also supporting the growing market. Production frames and complete bicycles are available from Surly, Salsa, Fatback, 9zero7, with more from Origin8 and On-One in the near future. Custom and semi-custom fatbikes are avaialble from Vicious, Moots and others, as new fat tires are rolling out from a new QBP brand 45North, with another tire due from J&B Importers. This new rubber joins the five Innova tires from Surly and the Spider from J&B, also manufactured by Innova. Beaches, abandoned railroad trails, loose-dirt ATV trails and barely-there cobbled Incan roads are some of the places fatbikes go when it’s not snowing. In my dreams a fatbike with the new smooth Black Floyd tire makes the best casual summer town and trail bike; more comfort than a Schwinn balloon tire bike and the capability to go more places than many mountain bikes. It’ll roll 15 mph on pavement as well.

But what if you don’t have time for Hope to Homer and bashing your chainring on beach boulders or grinding up and over the Andes with half-a-dozen water bottles sounds like hell? The non-offset frames available with 170mm spacing from Salsa, Fatback and 9zero7 lend themselves well to strong symmetrical wheels, and a 29er wheelset could transform a snowbike into a summer bike of a more typical breed, one that could be fit with suspension and knobby tires for trail riding, or a rigid fork and fast rolling Nanos for dirt road touring, or Schwalbe Marathon Mondial tires for mixed terrain touring with plenty of pavement, or studded tires for winter hardpack. Consider the Salsa Mukluk, designed for 4″ tires: transformations could be made to replace the need for three other Salsa models, with some mild compromises– the Fargo, the Vaya, and the El Mariachi. It’s not likely that a single owner would need to replicate all possible permutations in the span of four seasons, but a fatbike in the winter and a rigid dirt road tourer, a la Fargo, would satisfy me. Others may wish to be riding a Mariachi-like suspension 29er through the sunny season, and still others may prefer a faster riding Vaya-type commuter or tourer with medium width tires and racks. A bike with tires to fit exact clearances has a smart appearance, but a fatbike frame with seasonal personality is brilliant. Imagine, lessening the number of bikes in the house allows you to splurge on the titanium model. Now, you have a titanium snowbike, tourer, and mountain bike.

Below, a Salsa Mukluk 2 with Nokian Extreme 294 studded tires on a Salsa Gordo 29er rim, and red Salsa hubs. The fork is suspension corrected, and exhibits greater vertical clearance

Aside from the financial benefit of owning a single versatile bike over a stable of specialized breeds and the satisfying minimalism of making a lot out of a little, riding a single bicycle with two sets of wheels through the year may benefit that which is most important, the rider. A rider accustomed to a single bicycle may develop a familiarity with the machine and develop skills specific to riding that bicycle– it’s fit, its geometry and steering– in all conditions. The feeling of being on a new bicycle is exciting to most people with new features whose powers can be harnessed, but riding a new bike most often reminds me of my High Sierra, whose level of familiarity is unparalleled in anything I have ridden. Rather, I have never spent as much time with anything. As a result, I feel that I can do anything on it, short of floating over loose sand and snow. I’ll match paces with roadies and mountain bikers in the same day on my High Sierra, but with a “fatbike for all seasons”, I could add the Susitna or White Mountains 100 to that list. On the same bike, one could ride snowmobile trails in Alaska, tour the paved AlCan Highway south, the dirt tracks of the 2700 mile Great Divide Route, and continue west along the ACA’s paved Southern Tier Route to Florida as fall approaches. With fat tires once again, one could ride the beaches of Daytona or St. Augustine, scoping the surf or the hotel swimming pools.

A few caveats of riding a fatbike all year:

The 100mm bottom bracket width spaces the cranks further apart than on typical road and mountain bikes. I haven’t noticed any discomforts as a result, and am questioning the wisdom that insist narrow cranks are kinematically more kind to one’s body and more efficient to pedal. It may just be another antiquated French obsession.

The 170mm rear hub is not widely stocked by bicycle shops.. The current offerings are mostly high quaility hubs with common sealed cartridge bearing sizes and standard freehub bodies. As a result, short of hub body failure, parts are all standard. At the moment, most 170mm hubs are more expensive than even an XT quality hub, which is laughably cheap in a work of two thousand dollar wheelsets. Internal gear hubs are suited to offset frame designs if desired, as they maintain 135mm spacing. Salsa makes a spacer for the rear end of the Mukluk to accommodate internal gear hubs or owners with existing offset wheels (from a Pugsley, for example).

A 26″ (559mm) fatbike tire almost exactly shares an outside tire diameter with common 29er tires, preserving most handling characteristics in the wheel swap. Theoretically, a smaller tires would lower the bottom bracket height, and quicken the steering as geometric trail decreases, assuming a smaller outside wheel diameter. Twenty-niner tires (622mm)– smaller in volume (as opposed to 4″ fat tires)– would also lessen the experience of pneumatic trail, in which a tire operating at lower pressures resists a change in course, mimicking the experience of geometric trail and thus similarly named. I have ridden 40mm-622 Schwalbe Marathon Winter tires on a Mukluk and was pleased with the result. Tires less than 40 may begin to negatively affect the steering of the bike, although pedal clearance still may not be an issue due to the higher bottom bracket on most fatbikes. Get in on the ground floor as next year’s bike craze is certain to be some combination of low-trail steering geometry, rigid 29ers, and fatbikes.

Finally, with a variety of rigid and suspension forks available, steering geometry could even be honed to specific needs.

Other notable links:

Not my first wheel size experiment, check this 26″ to 650b conversion on the Velo Orange Blog.

The now-famous beach ride from Hope to Homer on a first generation purple Pugsley and Lil Ray, the only bike built by Ray Molina on the internet.

John Evingson of Anchorage has built one of the nicest fatbikes I’ve seen, before 4″ tires were available. Nice racks.

An interesting history of Snowcat rims, the original 44mm wide, lightweight singlewall snow rim, which can extend the range of any mountain bike.

The Salsa Enabler fork features the appropriate dimensions to run a fat tire on the front of a suspension corrected 29er, which is gaining strength, and the moniker “half-fat”. This steel fork would also be a worthy 29er fork for touring with it’s multiplicitous mounting locations.

A custom flat black powdercoated Mukluk, showing parts compatability from a Specialized Hard Rock commuter with rigid Surly 1×1 fork. A new rear wheel, bottom bracket and seatpost were required. With Schwalbe Marathon Winter tires, this bike will complete this season as pictured, and will get a new pair of shoes next fall– Surly Clownshoe rims. Note: kickstand, rack, dynamo and upright bars– a solid winter commuter.

For further discussion of alternative fatbike setups, continue to “A bike for all seasons, Part   2″.