fat tire vs suspension

1KW

1 kW
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Jul 24, 2013
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lots of fat tire bikes now days...however how does it compare to a good dh bike with 5-6" of travel? On top of that fat tires are pretty pricey...how do they hold up with thousands of miles on the street and trails?

im either going bbs02, gng, or mxus 3000kw and looking at the plus and minus of each setup..
 
Fatbike tires yield at most the equivalent of about 3" of suspension travel. But it's different than mechanical suspension. Fat tires are a lot bouncier than mechanical suspension (imagine riding on basketballs), but on the other hand they're responsive to a whole spectrum of shocks and vibrations that mechanical suspension is no good at.

Fat tires dramatically increase available traction, but they also increase rolling resistance versus narrower tires inflated to much higher pressure. Fat tires allow riding on surfaces that are otherwise too soft to roll over (like sand and snow), and they help reduce damage to trails, turf, and other unpaved areas.

Fat tires don't do quite the same job as mechanical suspension, but they are a viable alternative whose side benefits include simplicity, reliability, stronger wheels, and usually less weight than pivoted and hydraulically damped suspension. They're easier to tune for different conditions, just by changing their inflation pressure.

Generally speaking, mechanical suspension is superior for attenuating large bumps and smoothing transitions in the surface level, but soft tires are better at masking the texture of the riding surface and making small obstacles disappear.
 
Fat tires don't compare to a DH suspension at all. One is a giant rubber airbag with ~3 inches of travel, the other is a sophisticated gas/hydraulic system with 5-8" of travel, valving that can differentiate between fast and slow impacts, and control rebound and pedal bob.

However, compared to a hybrid or cruiser with 1-3 inches of travel, they are similar, with a list of trade offs on each type. I prefer large tires over a suspension at normal bicycle speeds on the street. It makes for a lighter, more responsive bike with often a much smoother ride over the small bumps.

Fatbike tires don't last too long. At the speeds the BBS02 will go you should get a reasonable amount of wear from them. At the speeds the MXUS 3000 can go, expect maybe a couple hundred miles from them.

You will likely have more luck with the sub-fatbike tire sizes, 3" to 3.5". Many of those have true street tread patterns and should hold up longer.
 
Either way, don't make the mistake of lumping bike shaped object suspension, with real suspension that can cost $1000 just for one fork.

The good stuff is really good, the shit stuff we call pogo sticks. I was a very strong fan of full suspension for street riding, but lately I ride a large tire beach cruiser, that rides nice because it's a long tail.

Above all, what really works good is getting your ass off the top of the rear wheel. Sit at the pivot point, and the ride is very nice with only a 2" beach cruiser tire. However, if I would go back to riding 30 mph all the time, I'd want the quality full suspension back.

So in a way, for me, it's a matter of how fast. 30 mph on up, suspension is desired for damn sure. Ever stood a bike on it's front wheel at 40 mph? It's real exciting. :shock: That was an overlooked manhole cover bump. Shocks would have prevented that high speed reverse wheelie.
 
dogman dan said:
...". Ever stood a bike on it's front wheel at 40 mph? It's real exciting. :...
..yes !...I watch those motoGP riders do that every race , at nearly Every corner ! :shock:
400lb of bike and rider balanced on the front wheel at 100+ mph , whilst turning into a corner, is real impressive !..you have to respect that !
.. But un planned, on a Ebike , on a street with traffic ?.....no thanks , not at any speed ! :eek:
 
I rode a mongoose fatbike around for about an hour once and felt that the gyroscope effect of the tire weight on a lage diameter made it feel sluggish during cornering. It really felt like it resisted leaning. Not "flickable" for technical riding. I havent really heard anyone else complain about it so maybe it isnt a big deal. It did make it feel like high speed quick manuvers or panic stops would be out of the question. Like a bike version of a truck.

I will say that it was very stable running over rocks and curbs even at strange angles that would have probably crashed a narrow tire bike even with a suspension. For instance you can ride a fat tire bike up a curb that you are more parallel to compared to the more perpendicular approach required by a narrower tire bike even with suspension.

I think real fun could be had using 3" or 4" wide 17" diameter motorcycle tires and rims on a fatbike frame. This seems like you would get all the stability and traction without the awkward rotational inertia of the huge diameter fatbike tire. Guess thats not really the question here though. Sorry.

Under 30mph for just crusin or in really soft terrain its probably a better deal than thousands of dollars worth of downhill suspension.
 
Ride fat bikes where they are designed for. Snow and Sand. Perfect beach bike. Not the bike for the rock staircases single tracks.

Likely 90% of people buying fat bikes, will ride them around on the street looking as stupid as the jacked up 4x4 truck with mud tires on the street.

longtail bike with cruiser tires, that's a great street tool.
 
Due to increased weight I believe rotational inertia would actually be much worse if using moto wheels/tires.

Fat thing is cool and has it's purpose but much like off-road styled SUV's that never drive off pavement.

Certainly places it would be welcome - hell, the other day one of my skinny 27.5” tires got caught in a fairly wide groove/separation in the road surface. Damn near took me out.
 
Yes its more weight but:

moment of inertia is = mass x radius^2

Without knowing actual weights its hard to tell but it would seem that where you put the weight has more effect than the total weight.

But I do admit that I have not tried them both. I can tell you that my old 70cc minibike with 10" tires feels easier to lean than that fatbike I was on.
 
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