Salsa Cycles recently teased this fat bike full suspension idea on its blog. (Image courtesy of Salsa Cycles)
Thoughts On Fat Bike Full Suspension: by Guitar Ted
Fat bikes, like the Salsa Cycles Mukluk I reviewed recently, have become immensely popular with a core group of folks not afraid of winter and cyclists finding out that fatter than fat tires can open up a huge range of riding possibilities that they may not have considered before. Why now? Well, that is best answered by the fact that marketing and availability at a lower price point have triggered a wave of folks buying into the concept of flotation bikes for winter and beyond. A few years ago, finding a complete fat bike on a dealer show room floor was a rare occurrence.
Many fat bike innovations were refined or developed by Alaskans like Greg Matyas of Speedway Cycles, shown above.
The Purpose: Most fat bike design features were born out of a need to float over snow. The Alaskan Iditarod event fostered many innovations in snow bike/flotation bike technology once the event organizers started letting cyclists compete on mountain bikes. Because the genesis for fat bikes came from this avenue, many still think of the genre as “snow bikes”. Once Surly started pumping out Pugsley frames, legitimate tires and rims, and making it all easily available, some folks found out that the “snow bike” actually could be ridden in a lot more places that didn’t feature snow. Still, almost all fat bike technology to this point is driven by one singular purpose: To float over snow, sand, or mud when other bikes flail and falter. That all has changed now.
Salsa Cycles introduced this concept fat bike with a highly modified Spearfish looking frame this past week and the flood gates of ideas has been unleashed. To be fair though, some individual modifications to 29″er full suspension bikes, and On One’s prototype fat bike “rock crawler” have also stoked these fires to a large degree. That said, what in the world does a fat bike tire have to do with a full suspension platform?
On One's fat bike prototype is not being singularly designed for flotation duties like other fat bikes have been.(Image courtesy of On One
Oh, I know… why not? It would be “cool” to have a bike like this. I do agree that having a fat bike tire in a full suspension design is intriguing, but little is known about just exactly what would make such a beast tick. Consider, if you will, a front suspension fork. At present, there are three choices, one is out of production, and a poor performer, one is a modification to a design that has some niggling limitations, and the other, while being a good fit and decent, (by all accounts), performer, is rare and very expensive. This doesn’t even begin to account for rear suspension design, the stresses on the frame, and the constraints that a fat, 3.8-4 inch wide tire places on all of that.
The point is, much is unknown, and much needs to be learned. Salsa Cycles admits as much. Also obvious- Much of what has become standard in fat bike technology may not be suitable for a rider crashing through a rock garden at speed, dropping off three footers, and slamming into “G-outs” at high speeds. Flotation rims and tires really were not designed for this, and the effects of the grip and weight of the tires and rims on other components in these harsh, aggressive riding styles is not at all known.
A selection of Surly fat bike rims: Not really designed for AM abuse!
Finally, one has to ask the question: “What does a fat bike tire in a full suspension setting do better than a current 26″er or 29″er full suspension trail bike?” It is a fair question, and one that needs to be looked at seriously. Obviously, these fatter tires, rims, and frames that go with them will weigh significantly more. They also should provide better grip, and stability, but the trade offs are not well understood at this point.
I think the final analysis is well off into the future for this concept, and the potential for something really good to come of it is definitely there. What that will end up looking like will most likely be a far cry from what the image above hints at. I think one thing can be agreed upon by most mountain bikers though, and that is, “it sure would be fun to try one and find out what it is all about.
