PART 1: Waiting Patiently For My Fat Bike

When I put a deposit down on a 907 Fat Bike, I knew it would take a few weeks to get all the parts and get the bike assembled. The only items that the bike shop had on hand were the Surly Holy Rolling Darryl Rims, Surly Nate Tires, Surly light tubes, and Surly Rim Strips. Every other component had to be ordered. The bike shop started ordering stuff immediately.

A beautiful orange 907 frame arrived from Anchorage, Alaska, in just three days! The Crane Creek headset arrived from North Carolina in four days.

The Hope Evo II hubs were made in Lancashire, United Kingdom, and arrived from the US distributor in Texas in 4 days.

The Race Face Turbine crank, stem and handlebars took a week to arrive from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

The Shimano XT drivetrain and XT brakes were made in Osaka, Japan, and arrived from the US distributor in Irvine, California, in 5 days.

From all parts of the globe the components for my bike have arrived. Why don't I have my bike yet? The DT Swiss Comp spokes the shop ordered have not shown up yet. Well, DT Swiss is based in Biel, Switzerland, after all.

Here is the ironic part. DT Swiss manufactures all their spokes in Colorado! Not in Switzerland, not in Canada, not in Alaska, not in Japan, not in the UK - the spokes are made here in my home state! The issue is that Fat Bike spokes are just a tad longer than spokes for a regular 26" mountain bike. The hubs on a fat bike are very wide and the rim is flattened so "normal" spokes won't work.

Rats!

I should get the bike sometime this week. I know it will be worth the wait.




PART 2: Really Cool Fat Bike YouTube Video

The guys at the Golden Bike Shop made a fat bike video. Fat bikes are not slow bikes.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=
QWkLO3irdSI&feature=player
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The music is by a local guy that is a pretty fair singer and guitar player.

I have done a lot of riding at Elk Meadow. This video shows a typical mountain bike trail in Colorado. The bikes in this video both have Surly Nate tires, which I have found to be the best for Colorado winter trail conditions.

The guy standing on the side of the trail that looks like a lycra death sausage is not having fun on his cross bike. I have ridden a normal tired bike on this type of stuff and had to go slowly. I also had to push the bike when the snow got too deep.

PART 3: Riding Anyway

I took my hardtail cross-country bike, Little Stumpy, out for a ride yesterday. There were some pretty tense moment on some icy sections. I took Little Stumpy because is has the stickiest tires of all my bikes.

This is a Maxxis Minion DHF. This is a very aggressive tire but no match for snow.

My 2006 Stumpjumper Pro is a pretty capable bike.

I averaged 9 mph and hit a top speed 24.6 mph, which I guess is not bad for a white knuckle ride on a pretty slippery trail.

I still want to get my fat bike soon.

Thanks for reading my blog.