Anyone tried it? for general trail riding and bikepacking?

Looks like you need a 29er rear wheel to make it work so I'd be into a new bike anyway...

sorry fella but i don't know what you're talking about?

sorry, 26X4" fat bike tyre up front, 29xnormal rear tyre

like this -

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o312 ... G_3911.jpg

ooooh, nice.

so, if i'm hearing you correctly, you're saying that i should keep my Karate Monkey and fit a fat-compatible fork on it and then run it single speed with a fat(ish) tyre on the rear as a new 'half-fat' bike.

i am already sold on the idea - i knew that slimming down to only 3 bikes wasn't the way forward!

the perfect winter snow bike (at least until my full fat-bike arrives).

(this can't happen but in my head i've already figured out which components i need to swap out from other bikes and what new bits of kit i'll be needing to procure).

yeah go on then tell me how it rides

My Inbred as semi skimmed ... only got a 50mm rim on there so the tyre isn't 'pulled' as much as it could be.

how was it?

how was it?

In all honesty I couldn't really see the point. The idea that the front tyre will form a track for the rear to run in, didn't really seem to work. I've found that narrow spiked tyres work better for me in the usual Welsh ice and snow.

in the absence of anyone wanting to buy my Karate Monkey frame my previous idea seems now to be coming to fruition!

it's looking like i might be riding a SS (or 1x9) half-fat bike around the Ardeche mountains this coming winter (assuming the back ever recovers!).

anyone got a pair of Salsa 'Enablers' for sale?

also, does anyone with more fat-knowledge know if i'd be ok pairing-up a rear 135mm fixie hub up with a 26" trials rim and a 4" tyre to use as a front fat-wheel...???

finally, Stuart, from what i've read the fat-bike (or half-fat) idea seems much more suited to actual snow than to the British slush/ice and so it's not surprising that you didn't find it so impressive.

finally, Stuart, from what i've read the fat-bike (or half-fat) idea seems much more suited to actual snow than to the British slush/ice and so it's not surprising that you didn't find it so impressive.

I hear what you're saying but I still think unless you can get the rear wheel to track the front the benefits aren't great ... what it will do though is make you smile and chuckle to yourself when you look at it

Can't see a reason wht a fixie hub won't work but won't you be wanting a disc on there?

The 48mm - 50mm wide trials rims are okay but they don't 'pull' a 4" tyre out to anything like the proper size ... what you need is a nice Clown Shoe rim.

http://www.billys.co.uk/english/group.p ... -clownshoe

don't know if these will help??

I have a pair of salsa fargo v2 29er forks for sale same as these.

http://www.charliethebikemonger.com/sal ... 1382-p.asp

What's special about them is they are professionally sprayed in RAL5014 which is Swift blue by an automotive sprayer and baked.

All the screws have meticulously detailed as well, they are superb see the pics

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48247502@N ... 732020468/

Never fitted after being sprayed.

Only selling as I have sold my Swift

email me on valleydaddy@hotmail.co.uk if interested

s8tannorm wrote:I hear what you're saying but I still think unless you can get the rear wheel to track the front the benefits aren't great ... what it will do though is make you smile and chuckle to yourself when you look at it

fair enough, that makes sense - on more twisty stuff the lines'll be too different.

s8tannorm wrote:Can't see a reason wht a fixie hub won't work but won't you be wanting a disc on there?

my mistake it's a SS hub not a fixie and is disc compatible.

s8tannorm wrote:The 48mm - 50mm wide trials rims are okay but they don't 'pull' a 4" tyre out to anything like the proper size ... what you need is a nice Clown Shoe rim.

oh sure - but they're waaay too expensive for me right now. the trials rim i can pick-up for £25 and build up myself (as this would make a good first wheel-building project due to the lower stresses a fat-wheel would be under).

valleydaddy,

if i were juts looking for a rigid 29er fork then that'd be perfect but i need something that's going to fit a fatty in there.

thanks though will keep in mind if this whole half-fat thing doesn't pan out!