Another Fat Bike Adventure

 

I promise not to write a blog post every time I go for a fat bike ride, but it is still a pretty new thing for me and I have some random fat-bike-related thoughts, so please bear with me. This morning, I drove up to Bear Gulch with the intention of riding the Yellowstone Branch Trail along Warm River. There had been a substantial amount of snowmobile traffic southbound toward the Warm River Campground, but no traffic to speak of northbound so the trail was not really rideable beyond Bear Gulch.

Instead, I turned off on Forest Service Road 367 (also known as Wood Road 1) which had about two inches of fresh snow on a consolidated base. I turned east on Road 154 to Warm River Springs and then returned following Road 154 north and west to connect with Road 150 and eventually the Scenic Byway to return to Bear Gulch. Running late for an appointment, I opted to bypass the side trip to Upper Mesa Falls.

One thing that continues to make an impression on me about fat bikes is the very wide handlebar (about 30 inches). It is necessary to produce the leverage needed to control a fat tire rolling downhill through varying snow conditions. Going downhill on a fat bike is pretty amazing. Going uphill on a fat bike in snow, as you may imagine, is pretty heavy work. Fat bikes have some very low gears and I think it is likely most riders will use every one of them.

A standard recommendation for fat tire pressure is 5-15 psi.  At Kelly Canyon, on a less consolidated base, we were near the low end of that range. I was able to ride today at about 10 psi. There is a substantial amount of work involved in riding a fat bike even in relatively good snow conditions. I have not used a computer or a Garmin with my fat bike, so this number is a very rough estimate. I am guessing that it takes about the same amount of effort to sustain a 10-12 mph pace on a fat bike that it would take to go 18-20 mph on a road bike. Maybe someone can validate that estimate with an objective measurement.

While Rexburg languished today in fog, areas north of Saint Anthony had mild temperatures and the kind of bright sun that makes snow look like crushed diamonds. Fat bikes have an unusual relationship with snowmobiles. We rely on them to make our trails, but the two user groups are not 100% compatible due to differences in speed and various other issues. Weekday mornings are probably the best time to ride fat bikes in the Bear Gulch area. I did not encounter any snowmobiles until I was in the parking lot loading up after the ride.