Winter is coming, grab a FAT Bike
Fat biking has transitioned relatively quickly from a fringe novelty
to a central facet of the mountain bike experience. In my opinion, fat
biking is the single biggest innovation to shake up the industry since I
started mountain biking–which means it’s more important than 29″
wheels, 27.5″ wheels, dropper posts, thru axles, and a whole host of
other innovations that have happened in the industry over the course of
the last decade. But just in case you haven’t drunk the fat bike cool
aid just yet, here are 5 reasons why you need a fat bike:
1. No end to the mountain bike season.
While granted there have always been a few key locations around the
globe where the mountain bike season stretches 12 months per year, the
vast majority of riders live in places were snow and ice historically
made riding a bike all year round either not very much fun or simply
impossible. But with the advent of fat bikes, all of that has changed!
Fat bikes more-or-less originated in the cold white north of Alaska,
and caught on quickly in places like the upper Midwest. These locations
have always experienced long, cold, snowy winters, and they were quick
to adopt fat bikes. Mountain biking quickly became a 12-month-per-year
sport for these early adopters, instead of just a 5-month-per-year (or
less) sport.
If you ever wanted mountain biking season to last longer, start
sooner, or simply never end, buying a fat bike is the magic key to
making those wishes a reality!
2. It puts the fun back in mountain biking.
While there are definitely some lightweight carbon fat bikes with
mind-bogglingly low weights, most fat bikes are a bit on the heavy side,
and aren’t really intended for going super fast. But sometimes–maybe
even most of the time–it’s nice to forget about mashing around your
favorite loop at top speed. Instead, just go for a spin, smell the
flowers, take in the view, drink a beer, and have fun. Fat bikes are
helping thousands of riders remember how to chill out and enjoy the
moment.
3. You’ll ride places you never thought you’d be able to pedal a bike.
Yes, you can ride in the snow at times you never thought you’d be
able to ride before. This even includes riding in the high alpine in the
middle of winter, instead of inside the normal 3-month summer window!
But even when you’re not rolling on snow, fat bikes open up a whole host
of possibilities.
Riders are using fat bikes to traverse muddy, sandy, rocky shorelines
in epic adventures. You can even tool around sand dunes in the desert,
mud pits in never-dry locations, and much, much more. Fat bikes are
definitely mountain bikes, but they’re so much more. It might be more
appropriate to refer to these pedal-powered behemoths as “all terrain
bikes,” as they allow you to–quite literally–ride anywhere.
4. Rocks are so easy, it feels like cheating!
More and more riders are shredding their local singletrack trails
aboard their fat bikes, during the summer. In fact, shredding through gnar feels almost too easy on a full suspension or Bluto-equipped-hardtail fat bike. It almost feels like cheating somehow… but it’s not.
5. You need an excuse to buy yet another bike.
Let’s be honest, here: if there’s one thing that we mountain bikers
drool over, it’s the latest-and-greatest crop of bikes that rolls out
every year. But it can be hard to justify to your significant other–and
your check book–purchasing a bike every year, or even every several
years. But if you don’t have a fat bike, ah ha! Here’s a completely new
type of bike that you’d be more than justified in purchasing! I’m sure
you can find the cash in your budget for a new rig that will allow you
to ride all year long–and will, more importantly, give you yet another
bike to lust over and continuously upgrade.
Elevation carries NORCO Big Foot FAT Bikes and has the ability to get suspension bikes. We will also service your bike. Let us know...
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