My go-to bike for bikepacking is my Trek Farley. I love this bike. It doesn't make my fingers or you know, "down there" go numb. I can ride it for hours. Indeed, to get anywhere I have to, given my slow pace. But I've been thinking that the fat tyres are best for soft stuff like moorland trails (I almost never ride on sand. Afraid of the salt), while most of my riding is on harder surfaces, so I'm dragging those big wheels around unnecessarily most of the time.

Would it be worth getting a set of 650b+ wheels? Would it be possible even? Or should I just get another bike? ( I mentioned this to My Lady. Now I've got to get the cat-ladder out and replace some slates on the roof )

Should work fine Lou, although it depends how much you want a new bike

That's encouraging, Stu. Any suggestions that won't break the bank? I'll admit I like the idea of still having the option of changing back to the big wheels if the fancy takes me.

What are the hub spacings Lou?

I take it you mean between the drop-outs. Front is 135mm with QR. Rear 175mm with 12mm bolt through QR. Dunno what this is called but here's a picture.

When I looked to buy new wheels when I had a fat bike it was more cost-effective to buy another bike tbh. I was looking at 150 front 190 rear through at the time so yours could be cheaper but it wasn't worth the cost to try it when a new bike could had in my case. I ended up selling the fatty too in the end

I'm not sure there'll be anything ready built off the shelf, so probably need to have something put together.

I've just built some 650B+ wheels for my OO Fatty using second hand parts and cheap bits from eBay. Cost under £180. If you've never built a wheel, dont let that stop you. There are millions of tutorials on ebay. The hardest thing is getting the right length spokes.

I took it out today for its first proper ride and it's pretty good. It handles much the same just loads lighter, and without the front falling in at low speeds, or the bump steer you get from fat tyres. Still has bags of grip too, though I need to do some more spoke fiddling as the rear feels a little baggy. Even after just one ride, I suspect the big wheels will only come out once or twice a year now.

frogatthefarriers wrote:I take it you mean between the drop-outs. Front is 135mm with QR.

I have a virtually new Velocity Dually rim with spokes for a 135mm Fatsno hub I am about to list, I pinched the front hub for another wheel build I am afraid. Also have a VeeTrax Fatty 27.5 x 3.25 and 27.5 x 3.0, PM me if they are of any use to you.

I have a set it them very same hubs, bought very reasonably on eBay,
Managed to change the rear 12mm to a normal q/r with some Bontrager
End caps through lbs and a Trek dealer in Holland, just lacing them to some
27.5 hoops so I've got 3 tyre size possibilities on 2 sets of wheels, 26+ x 2.5,
26 x 3.8 and 27.5 x 2.8's I'm the same and love my fat bike too, tried
Another bike but wasn't happy with it so I've made my fat as adaptable as I can.

Can I change from fat to thin(ner)

Of course you can... just follow the link

http://bearbonesbikepacking.co.uk/phpBB ... f=7&t=9019















I will get my coat.....

Thanks for the replies. It looks like I should be able to find a front wheel OK, but not the back. I could maybe have a go at building one up (actually, they said on the telly yesterday morning that the best way to stave off old age is to try doing new things ), but from a quick search of the 'web, 175mm hubs are unobtanium. I must be missing something - do I get something a bit smaller and make up the space with erm, spacers?

Right, back now to gridrefs, memory map and wheresthepath.

Are you sure it's not 170mm Lou, that'd be much more common and usually matched to a 135mm front like yours.

Are you measuring the hub width or the frame width between the dropouts? Frame will easily pull in 5mm.

Is it not like 135qr translates into 142mm when using a thru-axles as there are 3.5mm recesses in the drop out for the hub to sit in? So 170mm is in fact 177mm when a thru axle?

Here you go, even have a Farley as the example!

https://www.lightbicycle.com/Hand-built ... tible.html

Like before,I have a pair of Farley hubs and the rear is 170mm

johnnystorm wrote:Here you go, even have a Farley as the example!

https://www.lightbicycle.com/Hand-built ... tible.html

Nice, but have you seen the price? That's more than another bike, as someone posted earlier. There's the very thing in the for sale section but it's a bit far away and if I buy another bike I'll have to sell one of mine - I've already got too many. And I like my Farley, it fits me.

I'll be looking on eBay for parts I think. Ooh! Wheel building. A new experience. And if it doesn't work out, there's always the LBS.

Thanks again chaps.

Plenty of uk based wheel builders.
My local is http://www.spokesmanwheels.co.uk/ who is also on ebay but cheaper direct.
Very helpful if you need advise.

frogatthefarriers wrote:My go-to bike for bikepacking is my Trek Farley. I love this bike. It doesn't make my fingers or you know, "down there" go numb. I can ride it for hours. Indeed, to get anywhere I have to, given my slow pace. But I've been thinking that the fat tyres are best for soft stuff like moorland trails (I almost never ride on sand. Afraid of the salt), while most of my riding is on harder surfaces, so I'm dragging those big wheels around unnecessarily most of the time.

Would it be worth getting a set of 650b+ wheels? Would it be possible even? Or should I just get another bike? ( I mentioned this to My Lady. Now I've got to get the cat-ladder out and replace some slates on the roof )

What Wheels and tyres are you currently riding? I have had long chats with several people both here and in the states about wether I would benefit from riding skinny (29er) wheels in place of the 26+ 82mm DT Swiss Rim and 4/4.8 JJ's I normally run. The bottom line was there is very little advantage in it. One example was last year's BB200, I have the 4.0's on and just ran them higher than normal at 11-12 psi. On the road sections you could see that only approximately the middle third of the tyre was actually in contact with the road. On the off road stuff they engaged fine still and I could still gain great traction on the off road sections.

Before you spend a small fortune on another wheel set, let us know what rims and tyre combos you have currently as possibly by swapping/adjusting them, you might get to where you want to be.

dlovett wrote: What Wheels and tyres are you currently riding?

Wheels and tyres are what came with the bike, 'cos I don't know enough about it to think about swapping stuff around.

Rims are 82mm and tyres Hodag 3.8, changed over to tubeless. I don't know what pressures I run them at, just go by the thumb-test. I do pump them up quite hard for (long) Tarmac sections though. I've tried comparing rolling resistance to my mates 29er hardtail, (start side-by-side on the same hill and see what happens) and mostly I'm faster/roll further than he does. A bit of a surprise that, given the reputation fat tyres have for poor rolling.

More advice will be appreciated.

I run my Muk on 47mm Rockman rims, at that size I can easily run either
26+ 2.5 tyres or my Larrys/endo 3.8s, I've never needed anything wider.
I do have some 82 mm Surly rims but never felt the need to lace them,as
Previously mentioned I am building 27.5 + wheels for it at the mo as I've
Picked the parts up Relatively cheap and I'm building myself....

More as a heads up, I was in my LBS and they had a notice up about a recall on farleys, 2014 and 2015 models. Something about a fault where the steering tube becomes detached from the frame....

Might be worth ensuring your not affected.

http://www.bikeradar.com/mtb/news/artic ... all-48520/

FlyingFox wrote:More as a heads up, I was in my LBS and they had a notice up about a recall on farleys, 2014 and 2015 models. Something about a fault where the steering tube becomes detached from the frame....

Might be worth ensuring your not affected

Thanks. Mine's already been done late last year

Cheap set of fat bike Novatech hubs from ebay and build on those, something like a Stans Flow rim which means you could use a 2.6/2.8 29er tyre to use a smaller tyre?

The other advantage of getting another bike, eg a 29er is that it too could be fitted with smaller tyres/slicks and give you a bike that further broadens your capabilities.