Mac5 Winter Fat Tire Festival Test Run

As mentioned in my previous post, tomorrow there is the Mac5 fat bike mountain bike race here in Webster at North Ponds Park.  There's a lot of snow out there but the race organizer, Eric Eagan of Trail Methods, has been doing a lot of work to make it rideable.  Still, I wanted to get out there and try it before committing.

This afternoon I drove to the park to check it out.  Eric and company were there doing their final work.  It's a warmer day so the snow is softer and that's not good for riding.  I brought my fat tire uni and did a test lap.

My fat tire undoubtedly enabled me to ride what I could. Every part was more work than dirt trail muni but the softer parts were much more difficult... nearly impossible even.  I found myself dismounting way too often than I like and sometimes it took about 10 tries to remount.  For most of the difficult parts I was saying to myself, "This isn't going to be worth racing."

 

However conditions will likely change by race time.  It will be colder overnight and in the morning so the snow should be more solid.  There are actually two races, each 60 minutes.  The first is for fat tires only and the second race is open to any tire widths, though it sure seems like a fat tire is required, though I don't really know what bikes are capable of.  I'm planning to ride the second race.  Looking at the current registration, there are few riders in the second race for me to get out of the way of, but more importantly, I'm hoping the racers from the first race will help flatten and solidify the course.

So contrary to my own thoughts during my test ride I'm going to give it a try.

My test lap took me about 26 minutes.  I did a lot more stopping and standing around than I usually do and expect to ride faster.  Also I cut a corner by mistake, but stopped and tried to figure out the right way.  So I'll likely do three laps in the 60 minutes I have.

Fat Tire Uni - Nimbus Oregon

Over the past few years "Fat Tire Bikes" have been skyrocketing in popularity.  Mountain bikes with extra wide tires allow riders to continue their passion in regions that have snowy winters. Much like snowshoes, they help prevent the bike from sinking in, smooth out the bumps, and give better traction.  Fat bikes have wider forks, frames, rims and obviously fatter tires.  People also ride them in sand.

In the unicycle world, there are only a few choices for a fat tire setup.  Unicycle.com offers the Nimbus Oregon, or if you're lucky you can get a custom fat tire frame welded up by a young entrepreneur, Jakob Flansberry, in Quebec, Canada.  Years ago Surly, the sort of household name in fat tire bikes, rims and tires, sold a fat tire uni, but they don't anymore.

This year I wanted to get either a fat bike or fat uni to get myself out on the trails more.  Working out in my basement is a huge help, but actually pedaling and sitting in a seat is important too.  I thought a fat bike would probably allow me to get out in even more difficult snow terrain than a uni, but ultimately I decided the uni would be better training for me.  The uni option was also cheaper, I think maybe.

Flansberry made some frames last year but he stopped for a bit and now he has a dozen back-ordered and has yet to start building again.  Since I wanted one yesterday, I didn't want to wait, and that narrowed it down to the Oregon.  It's a pretty sweet V-frame design and has a Surly Marge Lite rim and Surly Nate 3.8 tire.  The frame is wide enough to go even fatter if I want to.  Also, it comes with a disc brake, which I've never had.  She's a beaut!

Unicycle.com has a 15% sales this month, which might not seem super crazy, but historically it doesn't get much better.  So I ordered one on Monday and got it today!  I upgraded the seat from a Nimbus saddle to a Kris Holm Free Ride and the cranks to KH Spirits.  I figure it's what I'm used to and at least with the cranks I might end up swapping them onto one of my Schlumpf hubs because the older KH Moment cranks seem to keep getting closer and closer to the frame when I swap/re-tighten them to spec.

I'm looking forward to my first fat tire uni ride.  Hopefully this weekend!