Money no object, what fat bike are you buying?

OK... I wasn't looking to do a no holds barred build but it kinda happened. My 17 year old son outgrew his large 907. I was on the waiting list for an XL Surly Ice Cream Truck. After waiting well over a year, one of my friends in a shop called Surly and asked when and they said 2023. I decided to get my son something else. I whittled it down to Growler, RSD or Wyatt. He liked the Growler best. He chose the color scheme and a few days later, it shows up at our house. Plan A was to use a Surly ICT fork on it and transfer all the parts from his old bike. I was on the phone with Growler for some reason and they asked which fork I was planning on running. I told him and he said it's a no go. He SAID there are no rigid forks long enough for that frame. I have to use the extended Manitou. Great. I order that. The seatpost is different, the head tube is so high that I had to order flat Jones bars it as we had the riser ones on his last bike. Icing on the cake, it fits 27.5 x 4.5" tires. ALL of our current stuff is 26" so now I'm building new wheels for this thing as well. Currently it's wearing his 29+ wheels. Fat pics coming soon.
I also found the Wren carbon rigid fork is long enough for this so next year I'll get that so we don't use the Manitou on the beach.
What was originally just going to be a re frame ended up costing more than I ever thought.
Oh yeah, this frame is an XXL. That 80mm stem was way too long. I have a 40 on there now and it's great.

Interesting question, at first I was thinking practically, as one does by default. Hmm, American made steel fatbike from a small frame builder with the geometry I want.

Then I realized, the questions is actually "What's the most ridiculous thing you want more than anything that you would never buy for yourself?"

Black Sheep 🤤

Jut depends on what you want in a fat bike.

I regretted selling my now discontinued Norco Ithaqua carbon, so I put in an order for my Pivot LES Fat carbon to replace it. Waited 8 months to get it. Makes my old Pugsley or our Specialized Fatboy feel like riding a tractor by comparison.



That said, I do think Pivot should have done better on the wheel set for the price. Will upgrade, later. Other than that, changed to carbon bars and ditched the Maxxis Minions (not a fan) for the much easier rolling 27.5x4 CEs. No other bike I have will keep up with it on hard-packed snow. Would buy, again.