Are Australians missing the point?
Wikipedia states a fat bike is a bicycle with over-sized tires, typically 3.7" or larger and rims wider than 44 mm, that are designed for riding on soft unstable terrain such as snow and sand.
Fat bikes have been around for over 30 years with origins from the Sahara desert, Alaska and Mexico.
So why snow and sand, fat bikes has so much to offer other than just snow and sand, Australia may be a bit slow on the uptake, but it offers so much fun to be had on a one of these machines.
Some of the biggest names in the bike game are starting to take on this craze and bring it to the rest of the world, manufacturers from Pivot, Specialized, Foes, Norco are all getting on the bandwagon.
This is my fat bike story, after the last 15 years on an 8” plus DH rig, riding DH freeride and Oxy falls jumps, a move to northern NSW and lack of challenging tracks put me in search of other bike options.
With so many trendy bikes styles to choose from, one stood out from the crowd. Fat bikes! Why, they are just cool!
There are so many on the market and most untested, lack of information and only northern hemisphere reviews available.
A long story short I ended up with a Diamant f3 Mammut from www.fatbike.net.au run by Outdoors International. The decision was made easy when I received replies to emails (something almost unheard of these days) to my questions. James from Outdoors International hooked me up with an upgrade from the f4 to the upspeced f3 with dropper post and rockshox bluto folks. James has been easily contactable after the purchase to help me out with technical questions and bike set up.
The frame had appeared to have great geometry (although a steep head angle which all fat bikes seem to run to help with the steering).
I love the way the sloping top tube almost flows into the seat stays with only a 5 degree change of angle, great clean welds and hard as nails matt black paint finish that barely needs protection, edit I have since found out the frame is sand blasted anodized (hence the tough finish).
Trihub Southport QLD, by Macca, built the bike. This is the first bike I have purchased where I have not had to pull the bike down and rebuild. I went to the shop a week earlier for fitment (the first time in my life I had this done). When I picked up the rig, the fitment and build was spot on from the get go.
The bike was taken on a few short local trails to get a feel; it was solid, and a few teething issues with cable stretch allowing poor front derailleur shifting. The chain had been lubed with the top synthetic triathlon goo, this could possibly be the worst product to use in sandy conditions, the chain and running gear looked like a kids fairy floss stick at the fun park.
I cleaned up the bike and applied a muk off degreaser and reapplied rock n roll chain lube along with electing to change the standard grips from C4 foam to Odi ruffians and upgrade the rotors to 203mm hopes, this was overkill but I wanted to keep the fat going over the whole package.
I took the bike into one of Sydney’s leading bike shops and was greeted with “finally an interesting bike to come into the shop”. No not expensive in the scheme of things but it sure does turn heads.
The real testing began; I thought I was going to be riding a Clydesdale but as it turns out this fat has a lot of standard bred in her and pieces of thoroughbred if pushed.
It turns out that the fat can be ridden on most, if not all disciplines, so why are these bikes marketed as a second bike or a fun ride. The fat can be used as an XC steed to enduro and surprised us all as a great jump rig.
I feel that with all the northern exposure being ride your fat in winter, we are missing out on all the fun a summer fat can provide.
Tyre pressure is a big part of the ride; those who have ventured off road in a 4WD will verify how important tyre pressure affects performance.
The alloy 6069 triple butted frame was stiff but suffered some bottom bracket flex where the chain stays make room for the massive tyres.
The tyres are of a snow origin running these at below 10psi and trying to dodge rocks resulted in some side wall damage exposing the casing plys. The 103mm rims suffered some rock damage but stayed true through out the solid 2 weeks of test abuse. No punctures received.
The Rockshox Bluto 100mm fork with a tapered head tube 15x150mm Maxle Lite, these are of a basic nature; the set up is simple, set the air pressure on the top of the left leg to match the rider’s weight and ride. The rebound on the bottom of the right leg. The compression knob and the top of the left leg had 5 steps of adjustment including lockout, I found the first step was great of xc work but bottomed badly on anything bigger than a 300mm drop and on the face of jumps at the jump park (setting 3 used here), the lockout function designed for climbing bypassing the compression circuit has a floodgate if the fork has a big hit, I tried this on a few small drops, it works but not as predictable as setting position 4 on the compression circuit.
Overall the forks are functional, but not exceptional, you need to set them up for the days style of riding and live with the result. The 32mm uppers have a lot of flex with the unstrung weight of the fat tyres and steep head angle.
Rockshox provide bottomless tokens these can be placed in the air chamber to increase a progressive rate throughout the forks travel, on our test these became unscrewed from the top cap and caused the fork to rattle (possibly not installed correctly from factory, 5 minute fix).
The Lev dropper post came with great reviews, its simple to use, the actuator lever is a little hard to reach when using a 2 x 10 set up. Are dropper posts overrated and just show lack of ability to move around the bike? Possibly. But it was nice to have the seat out of the way when jumping and doing drops.
The VP pedals and the 2x10 XT running gear worked as expected. I lost the chain a few times on larger jumps when I landed out of shape, I would run a 1 x 10 if jumping was my primary goal, the small chain ring is a blessing when the going gets steep.
Overall I have had a great experience with my fat bike, the rear cassette could have a better take up, there is a bit of unwanted free play when you hit the cranks. The Magura brakes have not missed a beat and are overkill with the 203mm rotors, but they do stop the fat tyres, which measure the same as a 29 running 2.3” tyres.
The fat it is now my primary ride. It allows you to cruise roads at close to 30km/h and 20km/h on the beach; you can ride off the soft stuff and over the dune if you have the legs to push it.
Wikipedia defines Quality “as how well the thing performs as expected”. The diamant f3 decently is a quality ride.
I hope that all the heads I have turned riding this rig and all the questions from the young grommets can only lead to fat bikes in Australia have a great future.
After riding my fat, I might not be the fastest, it is definitely a great way to get fit in a short period of time and when I come home and feel like a 15 year old boy who has just watched his first stick flick, no Strava to worry about here just satisfied with the ride!
So give the fat a go, do it do it!
I am 170cm tall, 70kgs and am riding the following:
Frame medium
Fork 100psi
Xc lowest compression settling 15psi
Enduro 1 or 2 click of the compression 12 psi
Jumps 3 clicks 15psi
Drops and bigger hits 4 clicks
Tyre pressures
Soft sand 8psi
Hard sand 10psi
Rough and steep climbs 10psi front 12-psi front 10psi rear
Wikipedia states a fat bike is a bicycle with over-sized tires, typically 3.7" or larger and rims wider than 44 mm, that are designed for riding on soft unstable terrain such as snow and sand.
Fat bikes have been around for over 30 years with origins from the Sahara desert, Alaska and Mexico.
So why snow and sand, fat bikes has so much to offer other than just snow and sand, Australia may be a bit slow on the uptake, but it offers so much fun to be had on a one of these machines.
Some of the biggest names in the bike game are starting to take on this craze and bring it to the rest of the world, manufacturers from Pivot, Specialized, Foes, Norco are all getting on the bandwagon.
This is my fat bike story, after the last 15 years on an 8” plus DH rig, riding DH freeride and Oxy falls jumps, a move to northern NSW and lack of challenging tracks put me in search of other bike options.
With so many trendy bikes styles to choose from, one stood out from the crowd. Fat bikes! Why, they are just cool!
There are so many on the market and most untested, lack of information and only northern hemisphere reviews available.
A long story short I ended up with a Diamant f3 Mammut from www.fatbike.net.au run by Outdoors International. The decision was made easy when I received replies to emails (something almost unheard of these days) to my questions. James from Outdoors International hooked me up with an upgrade from the f4 to the upspeced f3 with dropper post and rockshox bluto folks. James has been easily contactable after the purchase to help me out with technical questions and bike set up.
The frame had appeared to have great geometry (although a steep head angle which all fat bikes seem to run to help with the steering).
I love the way the sloping top tube almost flows into the seat stays with only a 5 degree change of angle, great clean welds and hard as nails matt black paint finish that barely needs protection, edit I have since found out the frame is sand blasted anodized (hence the tough finish).
Trihub Southport QLD, by Macca, built the bike. This is the first bike I have purchased where I have not had to pull the bike down and rebuild. I went to the shop a week earlier for fitment (the first time in my life I had this done). When I picked up the rig, the fitment and build was spot on from the get go.
The bike was taken on a few short local trails to get a feel; it was solid, and a few teething issues with cable stretch allowing poor front derailleur shifting. The chain had been lubed with the top synthetic triathlon goo, this could possibly be the worst product to use in sandy conditions, the chain and running gear looked like a kids fairy floss stick at the fun park.
I cleaned up the bike and applied a muk off degreaser and reapplied rock n roll chain lube along with electing to change the standard grips from C4 foam to Odi ruffians and upgrade the rotors to 203mm hopes, this was overkill but I wanted to keep the fat going over the whole package.
I took the bike into one of Sydney’s leading bike shops and was greeted with “finally an interesting bike to come into the shop”. No not expensive in the scheme of things but it sure does turn heads.
The real testing began; I thought I was going to be riding a Clydesdale but as it turns out this fat has a lot of standard bred in her and pieces of thoroughbred if pushed.
It turns out that the fat can be ridden on most, if not all disciplines, so why are these bikes marketed as a second bike or a fun ride. The fat can be used as an XC steed to enduro and surprised us all as a great jump rig.
I feel that with all the northern exposure being ride your fat in winter, we are missing out on all the fun a summer fat can provide.
Tyre pressure is a big part of the ride; those who have ventured off road in a 4WD will verify how important tyre pressure affects performance.
The alloy 6069 triple butted frame was stiff but suffered some bottom bracket flex where the chain stays make room for the massive tyres.
The tyres are of a snow origin running these at below 10psi and trying to dodge rocks resulted in some side wall damage exposing the casing plys. The 103mm rims suffered some rock damage but stayed true through out the solid 2 weeks of test abuse. No punctures received.
The Rockshox Bluto 100mm fork with a tapered head tube 15x150mm Maxle Lite, these are of a basic nature; the set up is simple, set the air pressure on the top of the left leg to match the rider’s weight and ride. The rebound on the bottom of the right leg. The compression knob and the top of the left leg had 5 steps of adjustment including lockout, I found the first step was great of xc work but bottomed badly on anything bigger than a 300mm drop and on the face of jumps at the jump park (setting 3 used here), the lockout function designed for climbing bypassing the compression circuit has a floodgate if the fork has a big hit, I tried this on a few small drops, it works but not as predictable as setting position 4 on the compression circuit.
Overall the forks are functional, but not exceptional, you need to set them up for the days style of riding and live with the result. The 32mm uppers have a lot of flex with the unstrung weight of the fat tyres and steep head angle.
Rockshox provide bottomless tokens these can be placed in the air chamber to increase a progressive rate throughout the forks travel, on our test these became unscrewed from the top cap and caused the fork to rattle (possibly not installed correctly from factory, 5 minute fix).
The Lev dropper post came with great reviews, its simple to use, the actuator lever is a little hard to reach when using a 2 x 10 set up. Are dropper posts overrated and just show lack of ability to move around the bike? Possibly. But it was nice to have the seat out of the way when jumping and doing drops.
The VP pedals and the 2x10 XT running gear worked as expected. I lost the chain a few times on larger jumps when I landed out of shape, I would run a 1 x 10 if jumping was my primary goal, the small chain ring is a blessing when the going gets steep.
Overall I have had a great experience with my fat bike, the rear cassette could have a better take up, there is a bit of unwanted free play when you hit the cranks. The Magura brakes have not missed a beat and are overkill with the 203mm rotors, but they do stop the fat tyres, which measure the same as a 29 running 2.3” tyres.
The fat it is now my primary ride. It allows you to cruise roads at close to 30km/h and 20km/h on the beach; you can ride off the soft stuff and over the dune if you have the legs to push it.
Wikipedia defines Quality “as how well the thing performs as expected”. The diamant f3 decently is a quality ride.
I hope that all the heads I have turned riding this rig and all the questions from the young grommets can only lead to fat bikes in Australia have a great future.
After riding my fat, I might not be the fastest, it is definitely a great way to get fit in a short period of time and when I come home and feel like a 15 year old boy who has just watched his first stick flick, no Strava to worry about here just satisfied with the ride!
So give the fat a go, do it do it!
I am 170cm tall, 70kgs and am riding the following:
Frame medium
Fork 100psi
Xc lowest compression settling 15psi
Enduro 1 or 2 click of the compression 12 psi
Jumps 3 clicks 15psi
Drops and bigger hits 4 clicks
Tyre pressures
Soft sand 8psi
Hard sand 10psi
Rough and steep climbs 10psi front 12-psi front 10psi rear
