The peaks of Wyoming’s Gros Ventre Range might not be quite as photogenic as the towering, craggy summits of the nearby Tetons, but snaking through the Gros Ventres just west of the Continental Divide is something the Tetons lack – a substantial network of mostly-groomed winter trails. I didn’t know much about the trails, but looking at topo maps of the area, it looked impressively rugged terrain, much more so than other places where I’ve done longer rides on a fat bike. Last January, I was in the nearby Teton Valley, and looking for a change of scenery and trails, Kait Boyle and I decided to venture over to the Gros Ventres for a few days to see just what the winter riding was like.
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Radar Roundup: Otso Arctodus, Oyster Bar, Helix 24mm Cranks, Marin Gestalt X10, High Road, and Patrick’s OPEN
Our Radar Roundup compiles products and videos from the ‘net in an easy-to-digest format. Read on below for today’s findings…
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Iceland’s “Forgotten Coast Route” Part Three: The Route Within
For the final installment of our coverage documenting the Forgotten Coast Route – a bikerafting trip connecting all of Iceland’s southern coast – expedition photographer Ryan Hill writes a series of short stories recounting some memorable moments from the media team’s point of view. Follow along with Ryan and the rest of the team which includes videographers Bryan “Bobcat” Davis, Jeremy Bishop, and Icelander Sigurdur “Sigi’ Petur.
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Announcing The Radavist X Otso Cycles Collaboration Voytek
Otso Cycles and The Radavist have joined forces to share a special new Voytek. This is a bike that blurs the line between mountain bike and fat bike. It handles snowy Minnesota trails just as well as arid New Mexico singletrack with its adjustable geometry, versatile carbon frame design, and agile handling. A small batch of frames and complete bikes are now available in this limited colorway, with a portion of proceeds going to the folks at Protect Our Winters to help ensure snowy trails for generations to come. Check out more on this limited edition drop below!
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Riding Across the Ocean, Kinda: Fat Biking North Carolina’s Bald Head Island
In the deep sand, the bikes don’t seem to operate in accordance with the normal laws of bicycle physics. Turning right might send you left. Turning left may hold your line. And doing either, at any moment, can send you flying. And while falling off your bike on soft beach sand hardly hurts, you still feel like an idiot as you remount your bike while the kite flyers, frolickers, and shore fishermen lining the beach look on.
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We Either Make It, or We Don’t: Traversing Iceland on Fat Bikes
Below are a series of stories from a trip Gus Morton took across Iceland during winter on a fat bike with his friends Chris Burkard and Rebecca Rusch. They are reflections of what he was thinking and feeling in a particular moment and by no means an accurate account of the reality of any situation. Reflections which, as those present will likely attest, were probably far less dramatic.
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Radar Roundup: Oh, Brother, Seeing Sound, Escapism, Gryphon, and Fat Biking 101
Our Radar Roundup compiles products and videos from the ‘net in an easy-to-digest format. Read on below for today’s findings…
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More Than Just a Fat Bike: John Reviews the Otso Voytek
Fat bikes. They’re the cycling industry’s lost children. The forgotten ones. Remember when every brand under the sun had a fat bike in their catalog? Now there are only a few brands still putting in the PR&D required to make these bikes less cumbersome, less heavy, and more like a true-to-form mountain bike. One of those brands is Otso, whose Voytek is all of the above and more. I’ve held onto this bike for probably longer than they anticipated, cycling through the winter months, into the spring, and well into the summer. I’ve ridden it in its thicc 26″+ setup and now in its chonk 29+ form and have pulled together a comprehensive argument for why I hope that bikes like the Voytek will stay around for a while…
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Readers’ Rides: Nick’s Self-Made Fat Front Fixed Gear
Readers’ Rides aren’t meant to be all 26″ wheeled basket bikes and there’s nothing wrong with that. Part of the joy we get from running this segment is the home-made, garage-cooked creations. Take this submission for example. Nick couldn’t fit on any production frames so he built his own frame. Then to up the ante, he put a fat fork on the front for some winter shenanigans… Read on below for more!
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Throw the Parts Bin at It: Morgan’s 26+ Surly Pugsley
Considering I’ve reviewed three Surly bikes and have loved every one of them, it’s a bit surprising that I don’t have one of my own. Thing is, we live in a two-bedroom apartment, and our family collection—not including cargo bikes—has room for three bikes apiece: one slow, one medium, and one fast (and, these are probably still slow by many folks standards).
Review bikes come for tryouts, but in the past two-and-a-half years none have been able to displace any in our collection which includes: my Kona Unit (slow), our Soma Wolverines (medium), and my humongous Rock Lobster (ok, actually pretty fast). There’s a slim chance that a bike could be added, but for the right bike it is possible, and that’s where this story begins.
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Frostbite in January, Amputate in June: The Long Lost Lofoten Story
Author’s Note: This article was originally written almost 4 years ago, but was shelved after thinking I had lost a majority of the photos to a failed drive. After I managed to find many of the lost photos on an old SD card, I figured it was still worth sharing the last trip that inspired me to quit my job and travel the world by bike…
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Pivot Cycles: Les Fat Gets a New Color and Shimano 12 Speed for 2020
With colder temperatures and snow on the horizon, Pivot has given their Les Fat a new look for 2020 with a midnight blue paint job, a new build kit that features Shimano’s 12-speed drivetrain, with the option of either a rigid carbon or color-matched Manitou Mastodon suspension fork. Be it the snow or the sand, the Les Fat can do it all. Pricing starts at $2,899.00 for a frame and $4,199.00 for a complete. See more at Pivot.
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Sam’s Self-Built 135-Millimeter Rohloff Fat Bike
Remember that sick Black Sheep we shared last week? Well, the owner of that bike, Sam, has been tinkering in his garage and building some really unique bikes. Granted, he calls them “hunks of steel” and “kinda weird,” but as a cycling photographer I couldn’t pass up shooting his 135-millimeter-spaced Rohloff fat bike.
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Terrene Tires is Ready for Winter with the Johnny 5 Fat Bike Tire
Available in both light studded and non-studded, the Johnny 5 is the newest tire to come from Terrene. Designed to plow through fresh snow at an extremely wide 5″, the Johnny 5 is designed with optimum float and traction in mind. See more at Terrene!
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Stephanie’s Surly Wednesday With Studs and SimWorks
Stephanie’s Surly Wednesday represents layers of history, each meaningful and useful in their own right. When studying architecture and art history, I learned that such layers of history are referred to as a palimpsest. Rome is the classic example of a palimpsest, a city in which successive generations have built on top of what came before. New additions have been built on top of existing infrastructure, though the original shape and character still shines through.
Stephanie’s Wednesday has been successively repurposed over the past couple of years, moving away from its original life as a fat bike with trail geometry, to where you see it currently as a cold-weather commuter with signs of its enjoyment along the way. Used and adapted, used some more, collecting nicks and character throughout. Our bikes are where we layer our history: through experience, they become greater than the sum of their parts.
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A Death Valley Prospector’s Pack Mule: Erik’s Desert Sand Fatboy
On this expedition, Erik, Dylan and John were prospectors…
“For over a hundred years, Death Valley has had its minerals extracted by machine and mule. Not just for gold and silver, either. Prospectors scoured the mountains for antimony, copper, lead, zinc, and tungsten, packing out their load by mule. We are modern day Prospectors, however, we are not seeking riches, yet experiences, of which will be beaten into our soul by miles of washboarded and rocky roads. Our mules are our bicycles and we’ll take only photos, leaving no trace, taking nothing from this land. It’s given enough over the decades and its scars are still visible on the surface.”
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North Coast Watchman
Duluth’s trails are something I’ve yet to experience and while they’re ripping all summer, as Advocate Cycles proves in this video, their Watchman fatbike is more than capable of making even a winter trail session lots of fun.
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For Those of Us Not at NAHBS…
Photo by Morgan Taylor
John’s busy pumping out photo sets of all the radness at NAHBS, but the rest of us can still get out and enjoy the weekend!