Why are they important? Well we’re not sure but everyone who rides them seems to have a smile on their face.  They seem to capture the mountain biker’s spirt of adventure.  They go anywhere and do anything as the big tires float over impossible terrain like snow, sand, rocks, mud, loose dirt. It seems to take us back  to the old days of discovery where we see what we can tackle with these new machines and designers rush to see what they can create for us.

These bikes are a slam dunk in Alaska and the Northeast regions where the trails are simply impassable as they get covered with snow.  But beyond that, we’re starting to see a bunch of these bikes in the West Coast as well.  One of my buddies has a Jeff Jones bike with a fat tire in front. He goes anywhere I go and he can kick my tail on the uphill and downhill.  He rides the tire at 9 psi with no suspension and he just flies through the rough stuff.

And just like the invention of the mountain bike, the next frontier is the full suspension fat bike.  Up to now, it’s been a all hardtails with rigid forks.  But you know full suspension is inevitable. Salsa has been busy  with some prototype work as you’ll see below.

From Salsa Cycles: