Another light dusting of snow today. The capability of a fat bike is impressive along with just being fun. I put a studded tire on the front to see the difference before I installed the rear studded tire. Helps on ice and maybe, maybe not on snow.
Any draw backs with a higher riser bar? I mostly ride drop bar in the summer so no experience so all of the straight bar options.
by No_Bonus_856
2 Comments
If you’re riding singletrack fast or heading to lakeville for crits you probably don’t want it too far up. Fun rides at the river bottoms or boopin around trails and town: rise to your heart’s content. It’ll just put you in a less engaging ride position which can make fast cornering feel less in control… and a little less aero so you’ll catch more cold wind in open areas.
I would suggest no more than 40mm though. Looks like that bike comes stock with a 20mm rise. You’ll notice 15mm added to that. I do suggest carbon as well. That way you’re not grabbing on an aluminum heatsink in sub zero temps.
Otsos site hows a stock bar diameter of 31.8mm. Most mtbs are moving to 35mm bars… just fyi if your bar shopping. Verify what’s on your bike vs trusting OEM spec.
If it’s 31.8mm and you don’t feel like changing the stem as well: check out the PNW Loam 31.8 w/ 38mm rise. Freewheel should be a PNW dealer but I’m sure Catfish and others are as well. If you’re gonna spend the money anyway may as well support your local shop whereever that may be.
But it also looks like there is some spacers above that stem. Double check any guidelines from Otso but I’d expect you should be able to get away with just the top cap of that spacer kit… assuming that’s their (Wolf Tooth) top cap with the integrated 5mm spacer…. And that’s just if their fork steerer even specifies that there should be a spacer above the stem. So you may be able to get some free rise just by rearranging your spacer stack.
Enjoy the beautiful weekend! Plenty o group rides tomorrow to celebrate global fat bike day and make some friends or ask fat bike questions to. I’m waffling between sabo bridge or tonka cycle. Party.
What PSI are you running? Vermonter here, I went out and skied my local trails this morning after about 4” of fresh snow (at 14 degrees it was light and dry and very unconsolidated) then dropped by psi to 3. I still slid around and wiped out once but put in 7 miles. I am curious what psi you ride and your average mph. My elevation is 150 ft per mile and I averaged 4.5 mph. Sooooo slow but still fun and a hell of a workout!