The best thing about my experience with suspension on a fat bike is that I'm able to run more pressure in my tires, negating fat tires' tendency to autosteer at low pressures. For a 4" tire I'm talking like 9 psi front, 10 psi rear.
Many people run their fat tires with less but I can't stand the unpredictable handling, even at, say, 7 and 8 psi respectively. Of course, that's a 20% difference in pressure, which would make a tire of any size fold and autosteer. Imagine running your 2.3s that you'd usually put 23 and 25 in at 18 and 21 instead. No bueno.
Suffice to say, a pressure gauge that's consistent at pressures below 10 psi is crucial to get the most out of a fat bike.
On the wheel swap topic, we built 27.5+ wheelsets for both of our fat bikes, which allows us to run 2.8s or 3.0s. I feel like this is a more natural step than going all the way to a 29" wheelset with narrower tires. The 27.5+ wheels from Stephanie's Surly Wednesday will fit the Bucksaw, if you want to give them a go sometime.
Jan. 4, 2018, 8:57 a.m. - Morgan Taylor
The best thing about my experience with suspension on a fat bike is that I'm able to run more pressure in my tires, negating fat tires' tendency to autosteer at low pressures. For a 4" tire I'm talking like 9 psi front, 10 psi rear. Many people run their fat tires with less but I can't stand the unpredictable handling, even at, say, 7 and 8 psi respectively. Of course, that's a 20% difference in pressure, which would make a tire of any size fold and autosteer. Imagine running your 2.3s that you'd usually put 23 and 25 in at 18 and 21 instead. No bueno. Suffice to say, a pressure gauge that's consistent at pressures below 10 psi is crucial to get the most out of a fat bike. On the wheel swap topic, we built 27.5+ wheelsets for both of our fat bikes, which allows us to run 2.8s or 3.0s. I feel like this is a more natural step than going all the way to a 29" wheelset with narrower tires. The 27.5+ wheels from Stephanie's Surly Wednesday will fit the Bucksaw, if you want to give them a go sometime.