Sunday, November 17, 2013

More fatty love

Dawn and I went for a ride yesterday. I just got some new tires for the fatty, so I had little choice but to take that bike.

I did not know this before buying a fat bike, but there's this phenomenon called "self-steer" with fat bikes. On hard surfaces, where the tires get the most traction, the bike seems to have a mind of its own on where to go and it seems like you're fighting the handlebars to keep going straight. Since I don't really ride much on hard surfaces it really shouldn't be an issue for me, but it also shows up when you're riding rocks, of which there are many around here.

I've seen a few explanations for what causes it, I really don't know for sure what the real answer is, but the fatty with the original Vee Mission tires on it was almost dangerous when you came up on an off camber rock. The wheel would turn into the rock as you rolled up on it. I guess once you get used to it you can prepare yourself for what's going to happen.

I got myself a pair of On One Floater tires. These are the tires that were on the Pugsley I borrowed from MojoK. I noticed self-steer on that bike, but I only had a few rides on it and it was the first fat bike I had ridden, so I wasn't sure how they really compared to my current tires.

First ride on the new tires was fantastic, huge improvement over the Missions. Yes there is still a little self-steer, but nothing like the old tires. Traction on the dry leaves yesterday was pretty darn good. If you think wet leaves are slippery, you should try bone dry oak leaves, its almost like ice. So great ride and the weather was fantastic.


These next two shots are of a little roller we cleared out. It looks pretty lame in these pictures, but it took a bit of thinking to get my head around rolling off it. There was another roller we cleared out, I can see that its doable, but I just couldn't get the roll going. Maybe it will look better on my RIP9, but I doubt it. 




Off to Switzerland for a 3 day trip, right after I get a ride in this morning. 

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