Fat Bikes What did I do!

[Joel]

So I have been looking at fat bikes for a couple years. Last few months I have been looking at what's out there again. I noticed a lot of bikes went from 26" wheels to 27.5", that's OK but then they also reduced the max tire width, I wanted to be able to do a minimum of 4.5". I looked at Framed, Canyon, Salsa, Rocky Mountain, others....

All seemed to miss something. The biggest thing I saw over and over was no rack mounting provisions, or too narrow of a tire size. I looked at the Trek offerings and really liked the Farley 9.6 but thought for that price point is should have better than SRAM GX. The Framed bikes seemed to have the best bang for the buck, but the new model year with the 27.5" wheels went too narrow.

I went back and looked at the lower end Treks and decided the Farley 5 was marginally OK price point vs component level. It does have 27.5" wheels with 4.5" tires and looks like there's room for more.

I went and test rode one, was surprised by how light it was for the build. Also very surprised at how well it peddled, did not feel like I was spinning big heavy wheels.

After riding it, this happened,

Of all the bikes I looked at, it also happened to be a color I like.

Let it snow!

 

[Pierre]

Welcome to snow bikes. They are a lot of fun.

 

[firebanex]

The only build option I have issues with on the Trek's is the dropper post but keep in mind that my point of view is from interior Alaska.. and dropper posts and suspension doesn't really work for the bulk of our winter riding. Otherwise it's a fantastic bike and we've got a couple year old Farley 7 for my wife's main 4 season bike. Loving the paint on this years in particular, makes it look like it should be a much more expensive bike than what it is.

 

[Tom K.]

Nice @Joel! I was in your shoes a few weeks ago, and tried so hard to find a Farley 9.6 but none to be had in XL.

Ended up with a Salsa Beargrease (but I wanted 27.5 x 3.8 for my purposes, esp after back to back test rides). Having a blast. Double the most fun I dared hope it would be, and what a godsend during the shoulder season!

I swore I wasn't going to go down my usual rabbit hole of bike bling upgrades, but bikes are my #1 diversion, so.......carbon wheels arriving today or Monday. What can I say?!

It will be great to have another FatPugger in the conversation. Gotta run and trademark "FatPugger" now....

 

[Ron]

Welcome to the club! (sorry, I just found this thread.) the Farley is an awesome bike, In my article I wrote a couple of years back, the Farley, Why Cycles Big iRon and one of the Borealis' were the only 27.5 bikes that could run a 4.5 (actually larger) Those Gnarwhals are really good tires, I just got those for loose snow and was very impressed with them.

 

[Joel]

When I built my HD5 last year and put 2.8/2.6 tires on it, they seemed huge. As I wheeled the Farley past the 5 to put it away, the 2.8/2.6 combo now seems small. Now, when I look at the HD5, the tires just seem tiny. No worries though, the HD5 is still my summer MTB, looking forward to getting some snow rides on the Farley.

@Tom - yeah, I figured the comps on the Farley are good enough till something breaks or wears out. I'm already looking at parts to make it a 12 speed. I thought I had a box with a spare XTR 11 speed shifter and derailleur, but can't find it, 12 speed, yup, that's the ticket...... I also looked at the Beargrease after looking at some of your posts, but really wanted the wider tires.

 

[Ron]

yeah, 10-50 with a 30 or 32 up front.

@Joel you were very fortunate to find that Farley! around here, there aren't any to be found and Trek is saying you can order now for A June delivery!

 

[Ron]

The only build option I have issues with on the Trek's is the dropper post but keep in mind that my point of view is from interior Alaska.

Such different terrain! I use my dropper all the time.

 

[Joel]

Scheels in Loveland is close to me, saw they had the 5 in a large. While I was in there, saw what looked like a 7 but not sure what size it was.

Bikes are as much of an obsession for me as skis. At least I know how to ride, still pretend to ski.

yeah, 10-50 with a 30 or 32 up front.

@Joel you were very fortunate to find that Farley! around here, there aren't any to be found and Trek is saying you can order now for A June delivery!

 

[Ron]

wow, those would be sold in a couple of days up here.

 

[firebanex]

Such different terrain! I use my dropper all the time.

I would too for some of the trails.. it's just they straight up don't really work in the cold. Or they work really well and never un drop.

Fat bikes are impossible to come by up here as well, the only thing that was working in our local shops favor was the fact that winter starts so much sooner up here and they were able to stock up. Well stock up as well as they could given the world situation.

 

[Slim]

The only build option I have issues with on the Trek's is the dropper post but keep in mind that my point of view is from interior Alaska.. and dropper posts and suspension doesn't really work for the bulk of our winter riding.

Why do dropper posts not work? They do for me, and all though it is mostly much warmer than by you, we do get some -30F days occasionally. Agree on the suspension in cold temps.

Use a mechanical one with a coil spring, not air sprung and not hydraulic locking.
I used the Gravity Droppers for years, and just bought a TransX Kitsuma Coil. Cheap too.

 

[Slim]

@Joel , nice bike!
I would try and avoid upgrading to much. Get your bikefit/touchpoints dialed and set up the wheels tubeless.
Get a front fender, at least one of the thin folding plastic ones, like Muckynut.

Get a rear fender too, Davesmudshovel is good if it fits, unless you get a rear rack, then use that with two of the mucky nuts front fenders combined:

If you find you are lacking brake power, put some bigger rotors on, that’s cheap. I try to get by with a fairly small rotor though, since it will heat up/wipe off water quicker than a larger one though.
(As opposed to summer mtb, where I go big for cooling).

No need to upgrade the drivetrain, these days you can buy wide range cassettes with big cogs for any speed driver train (even 9 speed).
That said, 12 speed Shimano can be had cheap and performs great.

In fact I prefer to run a cheapish drivetrain on the fatbikes as it wears so much faster with sand from beach riding and salt from winter roads.

 

[Joel]

The brakes are the first thing I'm changing. No snow rides yet but just around the hood, the basic SRAM Level feel like poo. I had been an XT brake fan until my HD5 build where I used Magura MT7s, absolutely like the way they feel doing everything on the HD5. I ordered a set for the Farley, hope they feel as good there. I'll stick with the 160 rotors for now. I have the adapters to go to 180s in the future if I feel the need.

As far as the rest...... it's a disease, can't help myself.

 

[firebanex]

I've been drooling over the shop guys and the Magura brakes they have on their bikes, I'm not cool enough to know which model but they have carbon levers and just look sweet. In addition to telling me that they work more consistently to lower temps compared to other options from SRAM or Shimano. The reservoir and hose routing plays nicer with poagies than the other brands do. I have a set of SRAM Level T's and 160 rotors on my bike, they are sufficient at stopping but they straight up stop working below -30. They are also obnoxiously noisy despite anything I've done to them.. I call them my moose deterrent.

@Slim just like most suspension, most hydraulic droppers stop really working below 0. It's just easier to not have to worry about another point of failure on your bike. They also don't play well with the large saddle bags that are pretty popular after a frame bag. Spring droppers would work just fine and I have considered looking into one but have not taken it beyond just thinking about it.

 

[Slim]

@firebanex , totally agree about hydraulic/air droppers.
And if you are riding Snowmobile/mushing trails, I would probably not bother either. Keep it cheap, light and strong (although I did recently break a seatpost saddle clamp for the first time in my life, but it was 15 years old on a computer bike).
But for mtb singletrack, and creeks with steep rapids etc, I love droppers.
Since I am 6’5” and all legs, I can still use a seat bag

 

[Slim]

@Joel , I was going to write, don’t put 4 piston brakes on a fatbike. Too late.

The problem is cold weather makes the square seals that the pistons slide in, stiffer, and corrosion (from road salt) makes the pistons sticky. 4 piston brakes (normally?) have 2 different sized pistons, so there is always more force on one pair of pistons than the other. Combine that with the poorer movement in cold dirty conditions, and 4 piston brakes are way more likely to rub/have issues with pad retraction than 2 piston ones.

Normally you fix a sticky piston by holding the moving one, to force the sticky one to move as you squeeze the lever. This is much harder with 4 piston brakes.

I have pulled two pairs of 4 piston brakes off our fat bikes when I couldn’t get them working good anymore. Replaced with 2 piston brakes.
Besides wanting to keep it cheap, I am confident that if it does get a bit sticky, it’s much easier to fix a 2 piston brake.

If you don’t ever ride on roads (with all the salt that is there), and seldom in frigid temperatures, this is far less of an issue.

 

[Ron]

for cold weather winter riding, the last thing you want on your bike is Shimano brakes! I run Sram RSC's with 180 rotors and have never had any issues with them and the stopping power is excellent. I am going to look into carbon levers though.

 

[Tom K.]

As far as the rest...... it's a disease, can't help myself.

Present!

I lasted two weeks, then new wheels, studded tires, and tubeless conversion.

My wife expresses no surprise whatsoever!

 

[Tony Storaro]

This is gonna be fun...