Fatbikes at Sea Otter 2013

I saw a couple of new fat tire bikes at the Sea Otter expo in Monterey, California last weekend.

The first was the “Fatty” from British bike company Planet X / On One.


On One Fatty w/ 4 inch fat tires

The complete 1×10 bike equipped with SRAM X5, Avid Elixir disc brakes, CNC hubs, On One “fatty” wheels with On One branded “floater” four inch tire weighs 34 lbs and will set you back about $1450 in the USA, which seems like a screaming deal. Available frame sizes are 16, 18 and 20 inches. Planet X is an online retailer only; shipping on this bike is from Portland, OR (I think — that’s their USA office location, anyway).

I then saw two guys ride their shiny, brand new Fatback bikes onto the Sea Otter Expo grounds. I want to say their names are Greg & Jake, but I lost their cards. They started Fatback bikes in Alaska.


Fatback fatbikes at the Sea Otter Festival 2013

Fatback fatbikes at the Sea Otter Festival 2013

Fatback frames are made in the USA and ship from Bend, Oregon, with prices on their aluminum framesets starting at $850 and complete bikes starting at $2500. Like Planet X, Fatback is online purchase only. That’s a five inch tire on that red bike.

I had maybe a total of 10 minutes on all of these bikes, and no wolves or other wild man-eating creatures tried to hunt me down, so what can I say? They draw a crowd, they’re a ton of fun to ride for at least those few moments, and the ride is plush.

I have video of Planet X product manager Bre Rue trackstanding like a boss on her fatty bike. I’ll dig it up and maybe upload it to YouTube by this time tomorrow.

A few people mentioned the Specialized Fat Bike seen with Ned Overend last month. I asked Specialized about it but they were coy. I’ve seen plenty of one-off custom stuff from Specialized built just for their sponsored riders so the appearance of this rig doesn’t necessarily mean Specialized plans to get into that market.

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