I have had the pleasure of having the opportunity to spend some time aboard a couple different Fatbacks recently.
Cousin Rye N was out of state for a while for work, so Biermag, Little and I made the most of his absence.
The icing on the fat cake is that March is one of the finest months to
be in Alaska: snow, bluebird days, warmer temperatures, no bugs, no
bears, no brush. Take it from me, this is the good life.
I had to bribe that little face in the trailer with some tortilla chips to get him in there. After that he was good to go for a two hour ride.
The Pistenbully rolled through heading the other direction during our ride, smoothing out the 5+ inches of heavy wet snow that fell the night before.
Experimented with my sunglasses as a filter in the bright sunshine, no instagram action here.
GSC took off for a little spring break and was kind enough to invite me to take his new steed out for a ride.
That steel fork looks (and rides) awesome if you ask me.
I dashed up to a permit only winter trail and spent about an hour climbing in a t-shirt.
Trail was in great shape, I had a huge grin on my face the whole ride down.
Both bikes were a treat to ride. I most definitely concur with
Gypsy Nicholas and
Sheldon Brown that the fatbike revolution we are seeing is the biggest thing to hit the cycling world since the early days of mountain bikes.
Nice ski trailer. We never got enough snow this winter for it to be worth the trouble to put some skis on my old Burley, as I had threatened to do last fall. Aren't you getting close to graduation? I think a fatbike is in order when you finish. It worked for me, and my Pugsley is my top choice for just about any day of the week, any season.
ReplyDeleteI am in absolute agreement with Nicholas and Sheldon that fatbikes are the future of off-road. However, I think they are also, not coincidentally, an important re-linkage to the origins of riding bikes in the first place: the pursuit of of fun and adventure. Coupled with your previous post, it looks like you're reaping buckets of both.
Those Chariot trailers (and ski attachments) are expensive, but they're quickly worth every penny. Especially when winter is easily 6months long, and their resale value is really high, even if they been well used and abused.
ReplyDeleteAt the moment we're keeping an eye on the craigslist market for a double wide.
I'd love to think that graduation is close, but there is a lot of work to be done, and it's looking like it might drag out longer than I'd like. It has long been understood that there is a fatbike incentive waiting at the end of it all, but having the 1x1 and regular access to full fatties I'm not sure how much of an incentive that really provides.
That said, I just emailed a friend of a friend about a large, pink fatback that he is supposedly thinking of parting with.
It'd have to be a bargain for me to get Mrs. to go for it, but you never know.
Thin the herd and bite the bullet. Reread the post above and tell yourself you don't need a fatbike. You do! and the little guy will thank you too.
ReplyDeletenicholas
Nicholas,
ReplyDeleteyou're right. Want to buy a bike or two?
Thanks for saying it.
Sometimes you can know something, but having somebody just come out and say it is what you need. . . .
that and I saw the pink Fatback in person today. Nicely spec'd and nice fit.
Alyssa was even more stoked on the color than I was, which is important.