Hi_Im_Will profile

If you managed to enjoy first tracks in deep snow, you'll love everything else about fat bikes.  It doesn't get much slower or more painful than that.  Next up try downhill- rumbling past an Enduro bike on a sandy blown out blue trail is special kind of satisfaction :) 

Those wheels are excellent, but a b* to set up tubeless.  Fill all the little drain holes in the bead seats with something (caulk, silicone, epoxy, bubble gum...) before you try.

Blue-stripe Schwalbe Jumbo Jims set up tubeless roll faster than many trail tires.  On tight or sandy trails a fatty on those can be quicker than an XC race bike.

I like it, polypropylene makes a lot of sense for a rim tape. Do you have to multiple loops to get enough width?  

My favorite right now is DOT tape (super reflective bling!) as the rim strip, with 2 layers PET plater's tape cut to cover full width (lip to lip). And still plug those stupid drain holes. No issues with tire changes, holds air great, seats easy.... Just remember to put extra tape over the spoke nipples if you run an insert, or it will wear thru. 

Tried Gorilla tape, and it held air great, but was silly heavy and got messed up every time the tires were taken off. Fatty strippers were even better and lighter, but same story with replacement every time the tires removed. Ringle's stock stuff never held air more than a couple days.

I almost made my inserts from 2x rimpact, but got scared off by the price.  Ended up using 4" closed cell backing rod instead  Super excited that somebody else had the same idea and ran with it though!  Notice any big changes in pitch response or effective rear spring rate?  For me with the backing rods they added just enough support to go fast at lower pressures, like 5-6psi, and the confidence to do truly stupid stuff without worrying about smashing a wheel.  Stuff like hitting a rock garden at full speed, or hucking it onto some roots. 

I love leaning the fat bike way over, only way it turns and great training for the skinny.  And I still love flying down the flow trail as fast as possible, but fun comes from more from the rumble and the twitchiness than the magic carpet speed.

I think the mindset is kinda like slow car fast vs fast car slow.  I'd much rather be sideways at 30mph sliding a lifted Miata around a dirt parking lot than cruising the highway in a Lambo.  I'll let you figure out which one is the fatty with a dropper and downhill brakes.

Fatty strippers, or get some caulk/epoxy/goo in a small syringe.  Those Mulefuts have a bunch of anodizing drain holes right in the bead seat that make tubeless setup a nightmare if left un-plugged.

Most fun I've ever had on 2 wheels was a rigid fat bike with a 170mm dropper, Hayes Dominions, rigid fork, and 26x4.8" tires with homemade inserts on one of the janky-steep overgrown sand-dunes that Michigan calls a bike park.  Silly grip with handling just sketchy enough to make you giggle. 

Not bad on the twisty/sandy trails around here either, there's a couple tight flattish ones where I'm faster on the fatty than on a xc tired hardtail. 

Fast flow trails and larger drops are best described as an acquired taste though.

Join us 😁

Not always the fastest option, but almost always the funnest.  And magical on the overgrown sand dunes Michigan calls a "bike park".

From the perspective of a driver who really likes to spot bikes/pedestrians early and leave lots of room:

Reflectors are background noise.  They're not any brighter than the rest of the stuff on the road, including lane markers, and are hard to recognize as a bike at a comfortable distance.  I'll see the bike, but be very unsettled by how little time there is between recognizing it and having to react.  Not useless, but close. 

Tail lights are better, but they're still somewhere between a reflector and a single tiny car tail light.  Can still blend into the background.  Most of the ones on the road are probably garbage. 

Light-up running vests like the one below are big, bright, and obvious from far away.  First time I saw a jogger wearing one I went home and bought one for myself,  and I wear it anytime I'm outside near a road in the dark.  It's clearly visible as  "large thing - give space" and the dumb lizard half of my brain immediately recognizes it at such.  Plenty of time to switch lanes or slow down.  No chance of the driver being surprised- by the time they pass they've been slow rolling for a quarter mile trying to get a better look at the bling. 

All of the above is even better. 

Nothing is going to stop every idiot on their cell phone from being an idiot, but those of us trying to spot the bikes early and leave lots of room appreciate big/bold/obvious. 

https://www.noxgear.com/tracer2

Also, glad to hear you're doing fine.  Hopefully the police follow through, or the driver was at least shook up enough to learn a lesson.

Another 16mm on those Kona drop outs is going to result in a pretty long/spindly cantilevered arm between the hub and the seat stays.  Would that seat stay/dropout joint survive the extra load?  Probably fine for a lighter/gentler rider, but I'd worry about the welds on the seat stays cracking with more abuse....

Go for something like standard Bar Mitts. The heavy stuff like anything Revelate Designs or 45nrth makes is awesome for trudging through snow, but too hot for hard riding in any warmer than 25F imo. 

https://barmitts.com/products/mountain-commuter-pogies-flat-bars

1. Anybody else notice that a flat pedal rigid fatbike seems to enforce good technique, but not in a try to kill you kind of way?  As in it doesn't really turn without weighting the front and leaning the bike first, but corners aggressively when you do, bit of bounciness with the flats strongly encourages heels down, and the rigid fork plus bounce reminds you to consider you lines when you do something dumb.  I feel like I improve every time I ride the fatty, then get sloppy and lazy after spending time clipped in with suspension.

2.  The fatbike market needs a good tire insert, take some of the fear of bike damage out of drops or coming up short on a jump.

3.  Nobody mentioning that tire in the "Free doesn't mean value" post?  As a guy who came to MTB as a cheaper alternative to race cars, that's a lot worse than worn out.  Yes alignment was off, and it looks chronically under inflated too, but that big flat spot doesn't occur without a tire lockup.  Either ABS no longer works, or somebody has been doing handbrake turns.