Anyone have experience with this bike? I have one arriving at my door tomorrow, just seeing if anyone has ridden or put one together yet. I'll be building it from the box myself, will post here as I go.
Blue Philly
IndieinIndy
1 - 20 of 65 Posts
Joined
·
8 Posts
Anyone have experience with this bike? I have one arriving at my door tomorrow, just seeing if anyone has ridden or put one together yet. I'll be building it from the box myself, will post here as I go.
Joined
·
3,073 Posts
What the heck does this bike have to do with Philly? I live in Philly and for the most part, the mountain biking scene wants nothing to do with Fat bikes, so the name of this jawn is highly ironic... I wouldn't touch a fat bike named after this city; I'd rather ride a Blue Peoria or Duluth...
Joined
·
617 Posts
Also from just outside Philly - have lived there for 40+ years. Yep, not a fatbike region compared to other areas.
Actually naming stuff "Philly" other than cream cheese or cheesesteaks seems like a mistake to me, especially anything involving physical exercise to use.
Joined
·
42,655 Posts
I have a friend who ride a blue cyclocross bike. Seems fine.
This fatbike, though...mostly seems okay except for the gearing.
34t chainring and an 11-36 cassette? You'd be fine at places like Town Run with that kind of gearing, but f*ck that for Brown County or anywhere else with real climbs. For that matter, if we actually get snow here this year, and you try to ride in anything more than a couple inches of wet, heavy stuff (the snow we get most commonly), you're going to want a LOT more low end gearing. A couple of years ago when we had good snow, I'd find myself spending an entire 10mi ride in my 28x42 granny.
Thankfully that's easily fixable. Sunrace 11-42 10spd cassette or even just a 42t cog expander for the cassette the bike came with, and a 30t narrow/wide chainring and you don't have to change anything else. May not be super low gearing for a fatbike, but it should actually be usable.
This fatbike, though...mostly seems okay except for the gearing.
34t chainring and an 11-36 cassette? You'd be fine at places like Town Run with that kind of gearing, but f*ck that for Brown County or anywhere else with real climbs. For that matter, if we actually get snow here this year, and you try to ride in anything more than a couple inches of wet, heavy stuff (the snow we get most commonly), you're going to want a LOT more low end gearing. A couple of years ago when we had good snow, I'd find myself spending an entire 10mi ride in my 28x42 granny.
Thankfully that's easily fixable. Sunrace 11-42 10spd cassette or even just a 42t cog expander for the cassette the bike came with, and a 30t narrow/wide chainring and you don't have to change anything else. May not be super low gearing for a fatbike, but it should actually be usable.
Joined
·
3,073 Posts
I would add blunts to that, and maybe beer and roast pork hoagies,but that's about it. Philly is a cycling town and people are really into it, just about every form, but for the past 4 years that I've been riding fat, I've been feeling pretty lonely. I personally know maybe 3 guys with them and they're dilettantes at best. They may be fast as f@ck, but they're just not that into RiDing fat
Joined
·
8 Posts
Given the two options, which would you choose? New cassette could be in the near future, what kinds of adjustments does that mean in other places?
I'm a roadie/tri guy moving to Fat, so the gearing didn't really throw up a flag for me, thanks for the input. Anything else on the bike that you would flag as an issue, or a possible future upgrade?
Joined
·
42,655 Posts
Gearing is the only thing glaring that needs to change. I would like to drag the person who spec'd that bike behind my fatbike on Schooner Trace. Room to upgrade anywhere, but the gearing would be my number one. It is easy enough to do. It will require some adjustments to chain length and probably the b tension, but that is no big.
The problem with this bike is that it is just a bad 1x setup for most riders looking for an inexpensive fatbike. 34/36 is a yuge gear for a fatbike. I would rather see it with a 2x drivetrain to offer good low range for riding in the snow. It isn't really even close to what I would call good low range. Even a 34/42 is too big for ungroomed snow. I know guys who like 32/42 for their summer low, but they go 28/42 for winter. I just set up my bike with a 30/46 low gear and I was considering lower.
If you are already a really strong rider, you may not need super low gears, but I don't know ANYONE in town running a 34/36 as their lowest gear on a fatbike. An xc race bike for a fast rider, sure. But fatties? No way. You could try changing just one at a time, but that could be more trouble than it's worth. If you do it in such a way that would require a longer chain at any point, that means you'd need to buy a new chain most likely. Better to just do it all at once.
Otherwise, you will probably see some nice performance improvements by getting good, reasonably light tires that match the conditions you will actually see. Also consider tubeless. That will likely cut a couple pounds of weight (fatbike tubes are HEAVY). But it may not be practical if the rims you have don't seal well. Sometimes you don't know that unless you try.
Joined
·
8 Posts
After a solid day and a half on this bike, and about 30 miles, I'm loving it so far. Had a slight calibration issue with the Tektro calipers, but once I got them dialed in I did't have any further issues. Stock bars feel a little wide, but not so wide that they're unusable. Easy change in the future.
The Duro Big D tires are surprisingly supple, I was a little worried about them to begin with. They've worn in nicely over the few miles I have on them. I'm mostly riding pavement right now, running 15-20 PSI, and I feel very bouncy. I'll drop that in the next couple of days and see how it changes. Otherwise I feel incredibly stable and confident in the bike, already jumping around on the little tiny ledges I've found, which I would have avoided like the plague on a roadie.
So far, the upgrade list includes the gearing change, possibly a bar upgrade to something narrower, and some studded pedals, as well as a pair of clipless for trail riding in the future. The included pedals are Wellgo metal platforms, good but uncomfortable. At this point I'm not ruling out a possible suspension fork at some point, but I don't have a good reason to get one right now. I'll try to upload some pics tomorrow, as soon as I can get myself off the thing! Every time I ride it I get this big, stupid grin on my face. Love it!
The Duro Big D tires are surprisingly supple, I was a little worried about them to begin with. They've worn in nicely over the few miles I have on them. I'm mostly riding pavement right now, running 15-20 PSI, and I feel very bouncy. I'll drop that in the next couple of days and see how it changes. Otherwise I feel incredibly stable and confident in the bike, already jumping around on the little tiny ledges I've found, which I would have avoided like the plague on a roadie.
So far, the upgrade list includes the gearing change, possibly a bar upgrade to something narrower, and some studded pedals, as well as a pair of clipless for trail riding in the future. The included pedals are Wellgo metal platforms, good but uncomfortable. At this point I'm not ruling out a possible suspension fork at some point, but I don't have a good reason to get one right now. I'll try to upload some pics tomorrow, as soon as I can get myself off the thing! Every time I ride it I get this big, stupid grin on my face. Love it!
That's the exact set up on my Fatboy. I have no problems with real climbs.
Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
Joined
·
42,655 Posts
I don't know what terrain you have, I don't know how strong of a rider you are, or how heavy your bike is. But if you're happy with that kind of gearing, I'm going to suspect that something is different about you, your bike, or your conditions than what I'm familiar with.
Things I do know: OP is local to me, so I know the terrain in question, as well as the common snow conditions (wet and heavy). As I said, some trails will be fine with that gearing, but others likely won't. OP doesn't need to run the same gearing I do, by any means, but most folks here running 11-36 cassettes are on doubles. Those using 11-36 cassettes on 1x mostly use 30t chainrings, and also tend to be strong, skilled riders.
Also, OP, now that someone else has posted a real life pic of this bike, you might start thinking about tires. The ones on it look like they'd be great dry trails tires (which would be great right now). But if it gets snowy this winter (who knows at this rate?), you'd probably not be happy with them.
Joined
·
11 Posts
got a nice jump on this post (no pun)
like the pics
like the pics
Joined
·
453 Posts
If you drop it to a 30T CR you will see a Big improvement in the gearing. My last fatty came w/32t CR and 11-36. Was like a boat anchor to climb with. I switched to a 30t narrow wide and it made all the diff in the world. That was a cheap and fast fix that made the bike a lot more fun for me.
Joined
·
58 Posts
I'm originally from out that way myself. I can't think of anywhere in Philly I'd ride a fat bike. South Jersey, maybe, or up near New Hope... If I was making a hooligan off-road motorcycle that looked stolen, I would name it The Philly.
1 - 20 of 65 Posts
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
