Fatbikes change lives... no purchase necessary.

‎I suspected this over the past several weekends -compiling evidence piece by piece, from anecdotes and in-person while skiing from the West Bragg trailhead: there seemed to be a presence of Fatbikes beyond the reasonable bounds of my imagination.

I started to wonder: what effect would these miniature steamrollers and their newly-liberated snow pilots have on the winter mountain bike trail system?

It finally came to the point where I could resist no more‎, so I recruited Kate and Craig to see for ourselves if Fatbikes had ironically rendered themselves redundant in the quest for accessing winter singletrack...

We parked at the West Bragg trailhead and headed up Braggin Rights, Merlin, ‎re/disconnect and telephone loop to the far backside of Long Distance. All perfectly packed and tractable under our 29" mountain bike tires. Hypothesis proven - the trails were primo winter dirt and finely packed snow, courtesy of our fine fat friends.

Winter trail riding is a slightly different and addicting experience. The trail is at once smooth and invites you to roll with maximum speed, whilst in the back of your mind knowing that traction is treacherous at every corner and off-camber. It is a thrilling ride.

It was at the backside of Long Distance where my trail buzz cooled slightly - despite minimal snow we were the first tires to track the trail this year. In spite of this, 50% was still rideable‎ - leaving the remaining half for pushing and silently cursing the laziness of the self-touted fatbike winter adventurers... Only when we reached the summit did the fat trail resume.

We are not new to winter cycling‎ as a group, accustomed to pushing though any combination of gravel, foot & animal trail, and crusted fields to make progress. So, this new reality of easily-ridable mountain singletrack is new and exciting. Actually, its a game changer for winter riding fun. So part of me is dissapointed to see the limited ambition of new fat bikers to explore and take advantage of the new terrain opened by these bikes. 

I guess buying a new bike doesn't add skills or ‎legitimacy to cyclists anymore in winter than the summer. For now, I am happy to have the side effects afforded to us by Fatbikes - but I think I will be sticking to the skinny tires for a while to come.