9/25/2014

Fatbikes at Interbike!

So despite being in Las Vegas for other reasons entirely, and thanks to a cancelled meeting, I was able to attend interbike for the first time in more than 12 years. I walked up to the registration table on Friday, the consumer day, paid $20 and got a badge and in I walked.

And as I walked in, this was the very first bike I saw.

That is an Atlas Cargo Trike with 4" tires and a ebike front hub. There. That is Interbike 2014 in a single bike. Read no further.

Wha? Still here? OK, there was actually lots of good stuff at interbike, but lets go through a small fraction of the fatbikes I saw. I decided to take pictures of all of them, but got a bit tired of the whole project. I pretty much skipped all the carbon fat bikes, and I don't really care about fat bike suspension, so no photos there, but lamentably, I did not document the really nice Surly Ice Cream Truck, nor the nice looking new fat offerings from Swobo and Twin Six. I am sure there were more, but you can google around and see what else was there and I missed.

Ritchy had a very nice looking "Commando" fatbike. Steel. No camo paint, but still looked pretty good.

Then there were the kids fat bikes.

Pirannah 20" fattie

with these 20" 406 Chao Yang Tires

If that was not enough, German brand S'Cool had both 20" and 24" fat bikes

QBP had an enormous amount of floorspace dedicated to a (QBP centric) History of Fat Bikes. There was no exhibit guide, or collectors book though. Get on that QBP.

There was a nice Remolino prototype fatbike in the exhibit, which I did not photograph, google it, first modern looking fatbike (as opposed to stiched together rims or double tires or smaller hanebrink type fat tires). As well as a variety of QBP bikes, Older Surly Fatbikes and newer Salsa's and the neat looking Cogburn hunting and fishing bikes.

There were so many new fatbike tires out there, from lower end tires to high end light weight tires. Schwalbe had a sub 1000g 4" fatbike tire, the Jumbo Jim. Which sounds great, until you realize that each tire is a Kilogram. But then you think, how much do my fatbike tires weigh? The answer is your tires, Tarik, weigh 1.6 kg each. Oh! Well then, sign me up for 1000g tires!

Blackburn had a really impressive array of racks and bikepacking gear, notable in this context, they had a nice looking fatbike rear rack, the Outpost

Like I said before, the Surly Ice Cream Truck looked fabulous what with its through axles and 4.8" tires, I am sad I did not photograph it. It was sparkly! 4.8" tires make sense if you ride in loose or deep snow and or sand at all. But I did photograph the even more fantastic, and my pick for the Moscaline Fatbike of Interbike 2014, the Curtis Inglis made Retrotech curvy 4.8" through axle love

Look at those stays!

Finally, there was a nice lot of demi fat stuff all over the place, from 29+ to 27.5+ to 26+, I think outside of snowy lands, this might be the ticket for a good fun as hell all purpose trail bikes. I regret not making it over to see the WTB 27.5x2.8" tires which might fit in the space of 29x2.4" tires, like on my singlespeed. My personal favorite not quite fat bike was the Surly SNS coupled World Troller. Sporting some 26x2.6" meats and couplings, this would be a great travel single speed/ all terrain travel touring frame, etc. etc. Bordering on too useful. I have lots of potential bike projects coming up, but a single speed just like this would slot right into my burgeoning quiver quite nicely.

OK, I have a couple more posts of interbike excellence if I get to em. Stay tuned.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

almost as good as being there...almost...

thanks

meade