Want Fat Bike Advice

[tjg]

I have my 2014 Salsa Mukluk 3 alloy (not the current Mukluk model which was revised a year or so ago) listed for sale on the ‘Marketplace’ portion of the forum, however, I decided that I need to collect additional information on Fat Bikes.
I live in the mountains of Idaho where we have yet to receive any snow. So, I’ve been taking advantage of the bizarre weather to get more into single track mountain biking again. I forsook all forms of suspension (for religious reasons) several years ago, but my Mukluk never inspired me to mountain bike, so I pretty much stopped. Recentally, a friend loaned me his Salsa Beargrease (alloy) and showed me some great new trails. I loved the speed and intuitive handling of the BG. This has caused me to begin a new quest for that ‘one quiver’ mtn/snow bike. I’m even considering springing for a carbon frame (also usually against my religion, but...). Interestingly, I’ve been starting to really enjoy the Mukluk on the single track. It’s not as light, fast or intuitive, but it’s getting the job done. I have wondered how much difference a lighter wheel set and faster tires would make on my Mukluk, or if I would still wish for something more along the line if a BG. I will welcome any thoughts or opinions.
Or offers on my Mukluk!

[cetuximab]

https://www.canyon.com/en-us/mtb/dude/dude-cf-8-0-us

Medium size bike is 12 kg

I have a carbon frame and carbon rim-24 lbs. fits 4.8 in wide tires.

I started of with a Bikesdirect fat that weighed mid 30lbs. It was a fun bike. The experiment convinced me to upgrade to a bike it would fit the wider tires.

[sw3759]

I have a specialized fatboy carbon mostly stock but the single best mod imo is converting to tubeless (fatty stripper) not much cost and took 2lbs of rotating weight and transformed it from a really good bike to a great bike.

[tjg]

Thank you both for responding. The BG I rode was also tubeless. That answered another question I’ve had.

[p nut]

I'd just ride your Mukluk, but make some changes. Set up tires tubeless. There are many ways to do this. Easiest was with fattystipper latex rim strips. Easy peasy. This will take out over a pound of rotating weight. This also allows you to go ultra-low psi in deep snow. I've had mine down to 1psi or less.

Second, those Nates are great for snow. If you're not riding on snow, I'd suggest Jumbo Jim's or Husker Du's. Something lighter and faster rolling. If budget allows, you can pick up a second wheelset and mount these on there as a summer set up.

Having said this, I got rid of my other fat bikes for one reason - Q factor. Just too wide and started to aggravate my knees. There are fat bikes out there that minimize this:

Rocky Mountain Suzi Q
Otso Voytek (same guys from Wolftooth)

Both seem quality. Both more trail oriented than your Mukluk (akin to BG). And Q factors from ~183-189mm (depending on cranks you choose)--no more knee pain for me at 183mm! They both seem like great bikes.

Yeah, we need snow. I'm just south of you in UT. Worst is, trails seem to just stay wet despite the lack of precipitation, so they're unridable unless I get out at 5am...

[ElHardeen]

Agree that tires and how they're setup are going to make the biggest difference. A light semislick setup tubeless has potential for some serious grip at speed if you obsess over tire pressure long enough to find what works for you.

Wouldn't get into the carbon wheels though. Weight savings against quality aluminum will be negligible, the real benefit of carbon in the MTB world being stiffness. Stiff rims with 4" of squishy rubber on the outside doesn't make for the most economical investment. You could save a couple grams sure, but considering a fat bike properly used will have a couple pounds of mud/snow/slush stuck to the tires...

[p nut]

Wouldn't get into the carbon wheels though. Weight savings against quality aluminum will be negligible, the real benefit of carbon in the MTB world being stiffness....

I don't know.... My favorite summer aluminum rim is a Marge Lite (~700g). I was looking at carbon just for kicks, and the same 65mm rim is 500g. That's a good bit of difference.

Word has it that Surly is possibly developing a newer tubeless version of Marge Lite. I'm hoping it will also come in lighter.

[tele]

Tubeless should be mandatory on any mtn bike imho.

I have a Farley 9.6 carbon frame and just went back to the carbon fork. I had a bluto on it for about 18 months. In a similar quest to have 1 mtn bike to rule them all, I even went plus this past summer. Plus wheels were somewhat faster than the regular fat wheels but lowered the bb enough where I was getting pedal strikes a lot. After getting a real trail bike early this fall I realized how ****ty the bluto is/was. I have heard way better things about the mastodon.

Bottom line: if you don't know any better the fatty is fine for all year riding...just dont try a real trail bike!:no:

[ElHardeen]

Have set up plenty of non-tubeless rims without tubes. Throw a couple layers of Gorilla Tape on there and believe.

Made a point to add the word "quality" in front of aluminum rims. Surly makes some good stuff, but it's on the lower end of the market, just below, and in the same family, as our Salsa's. Stans Hugos are under a hundred gram difference to high end carbon, plus they have the best tubeless bead on the market. If you really want to be a weight weenie, there's always a Dremel.

[mtb_frk]

With the fatty strippers, can you swap tires or would that damage the rim strip? I have one set of wheels set up with studded D5s and another I switch back and forth between ground controls and dunder/flos.