Around here we are deep in heart of winter with consistent cold and frequent snowfalls which make conditions on the roads ever changing. We've got sheer ice, black ice, packed snow, plowed snow, loose snow, fresh snow, icy snow, piled up snow, cookie dough snow, blacktop, and any combination of which is different every, oh I'd say… 10 feet or so. Yet we ride. I'm lucky that I have a great town to ride in and some great gear to do it with.

Over the past few weeks I've been alternating bikes on my commute. My Surly Moonlander with aggressively knobby (bud and lou's) non studded 4.7" tires @13PSI and my Cross-Check with studded Nokian 106's 35mm @45 psi on the same route, same clothes, general conditions, and times of day. Surprisingly according to my Garmin 200, on average the Moonlander is faster than the Cross Check. Yes, faster. Not a ton, but faster. The fat bike has the ability to simply roll straight over anything, no need to pick lines or swerve around or get bogged down. You just put the power down and ride straight through. The only day that the Cross-Check was a better choice was after a freezing rain coated every surface with ice and the studs were essential. Riding the fat bike is not just more fun, but honestly it's less stressful and arguably a bit safer.

I know a lot of people look at fat bikes with 4"- 5" wide tires as clown bikes and oddities, only good for limited uses at best and assume that they must be terribly inefficient. Then they ride one, and they can't top smiling. Then they can't stop thinking about buying one. Then they buy one and they can't stop riding it all the time because they do so many things so well all year round. Then they start threads about them on bike forums…..

I own a small collection of really great bikes but the fat bike has become my favorite one of all. If you are trying to avoid having an N+1 moment, do not test ride a fat bike.