I've been MTB-ing for about 5 years now and obviously love everything about it, other than falling off shinnies but that's neither here nor there. Anyway, I bought a fatty (gravity bullsey monster five) to get me started and went out today on the real snow. AND HOLY SHIT IS IT EXHAUSTING! Lol. I had to get off the bike like 5 times on a pretty flat trail that usually takes me about an hour to do (about 13 miles) but in snow it took me 1.5 hrs and I even cut it short! I mostly rode on top of snowmobile tracks but even that was soft in some spots. Looking forward to getting out again but man, what a workout!
by keytoarson_
3 Comments
I’m challenging myself to bike every day as a commute and we finally had a good dump of snow so I took the fat bike for a spin.
First day took me almost 45 minutes… regular bike and pavement takes me 20. I had to walk for a couple minutes gasping on that first day.
One week in and I made it in 32 minutes and it’s less of a nightmare. Still a good workout and challenging with more snow but it gets easier!
Work on playing with your tire pressures. A single PSI can make all the difference in the world. It can be the difference between cruising comfortably and being stuck spinning your wheels. And not only does it change from day to day, it will change throughout your ride.
Fat biking is almost-but-not-quite-entirely-unlike-mountain biking.
And ya, even if you do get the pressure dialed, it is still exhausting compared to MTBing.
Judging how the snow is sticking to your tires, the snow is either fresh or it’s above freezing. The snow needs time to settle. Also it’s best to snowshoe the trails before you ride. Here in Alaska we have a community that snowshoes the trails and after a few days, it’s near mountain bike speeds on singletrack