Frey FAT 1000 2.0 first impressions

garyal1 · Aug 7, 2019

Just thought I give some first impressions after 100 miles on my new Frey FAT 1000 2.0 received a couple weeks ago.

Here are some photos of it, very dirty after a 25 mile ride along the levee system where I live.

I have both AM 1000 and HT 1000 from Frey. This newest ultra fat tire full suspension bike is so plush! I ordered with CST 26 x 4.8 tires and combined with the front and rear suspension this is an awesome levee runner. with the hard tail I looked for the washboard in the road in order to avoid it, with the FAT 1000, I look for these so I can be amazed how the bike eats it all up and I float over it.

The Magura 4 piston brakes work great and shine with the large wheels to slow down.

The Shimano 10 speed, M6000 with Shimano gears works great.

Top speed is a little less than the HT1000 and AM1000 both of which have more narrow tires. The FAT get my 225 lbs to 31MPH on paved roads. Overall first impression is very high.

Probably not the best choice for hard core single trackers (for that I would choose the HT1000) but totally awesome for running levees and national forest fire roads!

Love the rear rack with full suspension and the rear bright Run light / Brake light that work off the brake levers.

Grantmac · Aug 7, 2019

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you could drop in a set of 29er wheels on a fat frame right?

garyal1 · Aug 7, 2019

I am pretty sure you are wrong.

The hub widths are too wide and the fork arch is too close to axle centerline.

However, I am OFTEN wrong myself...…..

:shock:

efMX Trials Electric Freeride · Aug 7, 2019

drop, no.. build yes..

lucariffer · Aug 8, 2019

Q. Is your FAT 1000 2.0 Frey's "brand new full suspension fat bike model is coming out soon!" . . . per Frey website? What did it cost? Did your order it via email with Grace@Frey?

garyal1 · Aug 8, 2019

lucariffer said:
Q. Is your FAT 1000 2.0 Frey's "brand new full suspension fat bike model is coming out soon!" . . . per Frey website? What did it cost? Did your order it via email with Grace@Frey?

A: Yes it is per their website. Get the rack and the F/R lights; very nice, all lights work from handlebars and brake light works 24/7. I also got the shift sensor. Yes, I bought online thru Grace, on Alibaba. Price is posted there.

Delivered to address in Calif. about 4 weeks...

Bike runs to 30mph in 8th gear, 27mph in 7th. Pedals nicely in 10th at max PAS with good cadence can hit 32mph. Usually start in 6th with pedaling and throttle. This is great speed considering 26x4.8 tires have a lot of rolling resistance.

Deafcat · Aug 12, 2019

Anything that fits a 4.8" fat tire, will fit 29er tires, and often 29+ tires (typically just over 30" OD, similar to a 5.0" 26 fat tire).

In the 29.5" OD you'll find 26 4.8", 27.5 4.0", 29er.

thundercamel · Aug 16, 2019

garyal1 said:
thundercamel said:

E-HP said:

My original plan was just to go to 60 volts, since I'm really happy with my bike's performance when the battery is fully charged and for the first 10 miles of battery. After that, the sag makes it less peppy on acceleration or hill climbing.

Click to expand...

I'd say you should first confirm whether it's less peppy due to an overall lower voltage, or if the controller is getting close to it's low voltage cutoff point, and is starting to limit current draw.

This screenshot is from the SmartBMS on my wife's bike, which originally had some significant voltage sag from the Vruzend 3.5 amp caps being pushed past their limit. You can see the linear nature of the current limiting on the green line, as the voltage under load got lower. Once I rebuilt the pack with nickel strips spot welded, the voltage sag was greatly reduced, and that current limiting doesn't kick in until the pack is almost empty. The bike now feels like it has the same amount of power from 100% through 15% instead of the previous 100% through 40%.

I don't suppose you have any way to monitor current draw? What I'm trying to get at, is it's possible that a 52 volt battery that didn't sag much could produce your desired power level longer.

Click to expand...

Thanks to Thundercat for this post. It was the answer to my problem on my newest Frey Ebike! Great explanation and it was correct.

Glad I could inadvertently help! Is this thread the bike you were referring to? Did your problem turn out to be a low voltage cutoff in the motor controller doing current limitation?

garyal1 · Aug 19, 2019

Thunder camel:

Yes this Frey FAT 1000 2.0 is the bike with which I found reduced power for 2nd half of 21AH battery. It showed 0.5 volts low on it's display and only 97% charge on it's display. Before reading your post, Frey was leaning towards the Bafang unit and had submitted problem to Bafang.

Meanwhile, I read your post and it described my symptoms exactly. So I swapped out the 21AH with the same battery from my wife's Frey AM 1000. Suddenly I had full power all the way down to below 15%. A simple test, I should have tried in the beginning! Also this suspect battery get hotter after a hard run than other batteries.

I did figure out that Bafang has large variations in display screen readouts. I tried three on this bike / battery: Original showed 53.8 volts / 97%, next showed 53,8 / 100%, last showed 53.7 volts / 93%. Quite a variation by just plugging / uplugging display screens! All three showed 100% / 54.3 volts on the other Frey supplied Bafang units.

thundercamel · Aug 19, 2019

Sounds like mystery cells used in the battery packs

I wouldn't worry too much about the variation shown in voltage readings between the packs.

KeyMachine · Sep 8, 2019

What's the difference between the Fat1000 and the FF1?

Are they both still in production or just the Fat1000?

garyal1 · Sep 17, 2019

thundercamel said:
Sounds like mystery cells used in the battery packs

I wouldn't worry too much about the variation shown in voltage readings between the packs.

Actually, I have had good results with other batteries from Frey. This one remained problematic and Frey agreed to send a replacement and stated they have upgraded to 40 amp BMS for all future 21AH 48Volt and 17.5AH 52 volt. Korean 35E cells...

thundercamel · Sep 18, 2019

Good! I wonder if they would ever offer a smart BMS now.

garyal1 · Sep 19, 2019

thundercamel said:
Good! I wonder if they would ever offer a smart BMS now.

No smart BMS is available yet. Hopefully this will be available soon.

At least with a 40 amp BMS, we will not be pushing the BMS to the limit and it will improve performance of the battery with a 30 amp draw on the battery.

speedsix · Feb 7, 2020

Hallo Guys, I am writing you (from Italy -Rome) because I am quite interested to buy two new frey fat 1000 (for me and my wife).
We are a couple of 50 years old and I am searching for one of the best comfortable bike and I think that a full suspended fat bike could be one of the best option.
Unfortunately I saw very poor information about this bike on the web, nobody wrote about this bike.
My idea is to buy those bike and to have a 12 /14 days trip with my wife on the Santiago de Compostela route. It is raffly 1.000 km from France to Spain on dirty roads.
I contacted Ivy from Frey bike and she suggested me to buy two new CC models because they are comfortable as well as the fat.
I am a little bit confused about and I do not know if the new CC is better then fat 1000 on order to travel for many days.
Take in consideration that we like to go on dirty path but we do not like to jump or downhill.
What do you think about?

Inviato dal mio Mi 9T utilizzando Tapatalk

FlyingFinn · Feb 8, 2020

speedsix said:
Hallo Guys, I am writing you (from Italy -Rome) because I am quite interested to buy two new frey fat 1000 (for me and my wife).
We are a couple of 50 years old and I am searching for one of the best comfortable bike and I think that a full suspended fat bike could be one of the best option.
Unfortunately I saw very poor information about this bike on the web, nobody wrote about this bike.
My idea is to buy those bike and to have a 12 /14 days trip with my wife on the Santiago de Compostela route. It is raffly 1.000 km from France to Spain on dirty roads.
I contacted Ivy from Frey bike and she suggested me to buy two new CC models because they are comfortable as well as the fat.
I am a little bit confused about and I do not know if the new CC is better then fat 1000 on order to travel for many days.
Take in consideration that we like to go on dirty path but we do not like to jump or downhill.
What do you think about?

Inviato dal mio Mi 9T utilizzando Tapatalk

Another happy owner of a FAT1000 here. As you can see nothing prevents you from installing a 27.5x3 normal mtb wheelset as well for city and hard surface use. The swap between wheelsets takes 5 minutes.

Fatbike is the most comfortable thing for your type of use. In Santiago De Compostela- route nothing can beat the huge tires that litterally eat the small rocks inside their softness. Fatbike isn’t at it’s best in aggressive riding or taking jumps. Where it’s best suited is a relaxed cruising in adverse terrain conditions. Pumping the tires rock solid gives even a decent road experience.

speedsix · Feb 8, 2020

Wow!
You convert a fat 1000 in an AM 1000! Great!

I think that couldn't possible to convert an AM 1000 into a fat 1000

FlyingFinn · Feb 10, 2020

speedsix said:
I think that couldn't possible to convert an AM 1000 into a fat 1000

You are right. 27.5x3 or 26x3.5'ish are the biggest AM1000 can accomodate. That's why I bought the FAT. Two wheelsets to swap according to conditions is the best option here. Now it's February but snowless ground! No issue... just swap to summer tires

speedsix · Feb 10, 2020

Did you buy 27.5 directly from FREY together with AM 1000? or you buy after?

Inviato dal mio Mi 9T utilizzando Tapatalk

FlyingFinn · Feb 10, 2020

speedsix said:
Did you buy 27.5 directly from FREY together with AM 1000? or you buy after?

Inviato dal mio Mi 9T utilizzando Tapatalk

Bought the carbon rims separately from Xiamen Farsports and made them custom built to 150x15 and 190x12 DT Swiss hubs. Total cost was around 800€ including spokes from which 650€ was materials and 150€ was labour cost.

headstash · Feb 20, 2020

I don't see the FT1000 on the Frey website. Does anyone know if these bikes are available for order?

speedsix · Feb 20, 2020

headstash said:
I don't see the FT1000 on the Frey website. Does anyone know if these bikes are available for order?

https://m.alibaba.com/product/60739643526/detail.html?

I ordered two fat bike in brilliant yellow with decals of AM 1000 2020

Inviato dal mio Mi 9T utilizzando Tapatalk

FlyingFinn · Feb 23, 2020

FAT1000 converted to AM1000. I’ve been really happy for the conversion and the possibilities it brought to me. The two wheelsets can be swapped in 15 minutes.

3.0” wide tire is the best for dirt roads and asphalt. 4.8”s are housing studded tires ATM. You never know when it’s going to be icy and snowy again. Meanwhile been enjoying ”summer conditions” in the midst of winter. F*cking climate change...

Matar9000 · Mar 1, 2020

FlyingFinn said:
FAT1000 converted to AM1000. I’ve been really happy for the conversion and the possibilities it brought to me. The two wheelsets can be swapped in 15 minutes.

3.0” wide tire is the best for dirt roads and asphalt. 4.8”s are housing studded tires ATM. You never know when it’s going to be icy and snowy again. Meanwhile been enjoying ”summer conditions” in the midst of winter. F*cking climate change...

FlyingFinn, I saw you posted a picture of your bike on the top of a cold mountain. I'm in Canada where it gets pretty cold in the winter and would like to ride my bike all year round. How do you say it reacts to cold temperatures (breaks and suspensions)?

And, how cold was it, here it often gets to -20°C and sometimes -30°C, do you think the bike would still ride well at those temps?

Matar9000 · Mar 1, 2020

garyal1 said:
Just thought I give some first impressions after 100 miles on my new Frey FAT 1000 2.0 received a couple weeks ago.

Here are some photos of it, very dirty after a 25 mile ride along the levee system where I live.

I have both AM 1000 and HT 1000 from Frey. This newest ultra fat tire full suspension bike is so plush! I ordered with CST 26 x 4.8 tires and combined with the front and rear suspension this is an awesome levee runner. with the hard tail I looked for the washboard in the road in order to avoid it, with the FAT 1000, I look for these so I can be amazed how the bike eats it all up and I float over it.

The Magura 4 piston brakes work great and shine with the large wheels to slow down.

The Shimano 10 speed, M6000 with Shimano gears works great.

Top speed is a little less than the HT1000 and AM1000 both of which have more narrow tires. The FAT get my 225 lbs to 31MPH on paved roads. Overall first impression is very high.

Probably not the best choice for hard core single trackers (for that I would choose the HT1000) but totally awesome for running levees and national forest fire roads!

Love the rear rack with full suspension and the rear bright Run light / Brake light that work off the brake levers.

Thanks for that awesome post! Do you have any new insight of the reliability of the bike after couples more miles on it? Also, have you tried it in cold temperature / winter?

I'm interested in buying one but would like to know if it's a bike that require a lot of maintenance and if it rides good in winter with the brakes and the suspension at cold temperatures.

Frey FAT 1000 2.0 first impressions

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