WIWTBT Vol. 11

Wow. Winter again. For some reason, while I'm enjoying beautiful mountain passes on my road bike or pristine singletrack on my mountain bike in the Summer and Autumn seasons here in Utah, I forget about Winter. Winter can really suck. If I do nothing, I get fat[er] and lazy[er] and, most importantly, slow[er]. What's worse, I never really got fast this year, so I know that if I let myself slack off over the winter months, I'll be super slow. This is not good.

Of course, there are things I can do. I can do some cross-training (read: not cycling). I can get on my rollers more often. Ultimately, of course, the best solution is to spend a lot of money to solve my problem.

Which brings me to what I currently want to buy. This:

(photo courtesy of Speedway Bicycles)

I give you, the FatBack. Yes, it is a snow bike. Very similar, in fact, to the Pugsley I reviewed a couple of seasons ago. There are a few differences, though. Most notably is the complete lack of asymmetry. That is, instead of using asymmetric wheels (with the stays and fork matching) in order for the chain to clear the tires, the FatBack uses a 160mm rear hub and a 135mm front hub. Wide. Fat. Good for snow.

But, I'm not really willing to stop there. Oh no. I also want to build up a second set of wheels (with similarly-sized hubs, of course). This second set, however, will be built with some Stans 29er rims (which would fit nicely in this frame). A second set of rotors bolted to these wheels would be nice, too.

See, it's hard to justify a bike just for the dark, dismal winter months. So, why not spend even more money to get a bike that's Mr. Hyde in the Winter, and Dr. Jekyll in the Summer?

Cue the evil laughter in the background.