Snow bikes (AKA “fat bikes”) are becoming increasingly popular in biking, and for a good reason! In addition to extending a cyclist’s season (and avoiding the dreaded trainer), fat bikes make you feel like a kid again – you’ll giddily smile and giggle once you ride one! Suitable not only for winter snow riding but also for rocky river banks, sand beaches, and technical summer singletrack.

Fat bikes are off-road bicycles with fat tires, typically 3.8″ or larger, and wide rims are designed for low pressure to allow riding on unstable terrains, such as snow, sand, bogs, and mud. Wide tires can be inflated as low as five psi for a smooth ride over rough terrain.

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Origins

Fat bikes have existed since the early 20th century, but the first modern versions were developed in the 1980s by three men on opposite sides of the globe.

Icicle Bicycles owner Steve Baker needed a bike to handle Alaska’s snowy terrain. So he began by welding two rims together, mounting two tires side by side, creating a double-wide tire measuring 4.4″ wide, and experimenting with custom components and configurations designed to achieve a large contact patch on snow. A frame was then welded together to fit the fat wheels, and the first fat bike was born!

A fellow Alaskan, Simon Rowaker, saw Baker’s idea and developed a 1.7″ (44mm) wide rim called the Snowcat. Many adventure cyclists used this rim in the early 90s as the largest production rim.

Meanwhile, adventure cyclist, tour guide, and frame builder Ray Molina were exploring new terrain in southern New Mexico. In the dunes and arroyos, Ray welded two Snowcat rims together to make the first 88mm (3.2″) wide rim, along with a 3.5″ tire called the Chevron. At the Samalayuca dunes in Chihuahua, Mexico, he made several frames to accommodate the new equipment. It was a game-changer to have extra wide tires and rims. Molina produced Remolina rims and sold a sand bike by 1999.

The Iditabike

The first Iditabike was introduced in 1987 and required riders to traverse 200 miles of Alaskan backcountry on trails varying from rideable frozen crust to soft snow, glare ice, and liquid water overflow. There was a lot of walking with bikes, which caused equipment improvements the following year.

In 2000, Mike Curiak of Colorado won the Iditasport Impossible race to Nome, riding and pushing his bike over 1,000 miles in just 15 days, six days faster than the previous record. A custom Willits frame built by Colorado builder Wes Williams was fitted with Remolino rims and 3.0″ tires. Fat bikes may have achieved their greatest proof of concept with this achievement.

It was the Surly Pugsley that made fat bikes more readily available. In 2005, the Purple Beast had 2.6″ wide Large Marge rims and 3.7″ Endomorph tires. By distributing fat bikes through Quality Bicycle Parts (QBP), Pugsley brought fat bikes to local bike shops worldwide. After receiving the frame and fork, riders completed the build with standard mountain bike components.

As soon as Pugsley became popular, several other companies entered the market. Fatback bikes of Anchorage, Alaska, introduced ultra-wide hubs (165mm, 170mm, 190mm) and rims (70mm and 90mm) in 2007 that provided more float with less weight. Surly and Salsa released complete fat bikes in 2010, providing another leap in accessibility, and sales continued to grow.

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Fat bikes today

With lightweight wheels and tires, front and rear suspension, trail-based geometry, and high-end components, fat bikes are fast and maneuverable while still being able to roll through terrain that ‘regular’ mountain bikes can’t. Trek created the Farley, Salsa created the Beargrease and Mukluk, Specialized developed the Fatboy, and On-One created the Fatty. Rocky Mountain, Felt, Kona, Pivot, and many others followed.

It was only clear what the Pugsley was for if you were from Alaska when Surly released it in 2005. Most people didn’t think fat bikes were necessary unless they wanted to ride in the snow. Then, after several years, other manufacturers started making their fat bikes, and it became clear that fat bikes aren’t just for snow. They go where neither bike has gone before nor where all bikes have gone before.

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