Well, it finally happened: I jumped aboard the fat bike bandwagon. Surly Necromancer, limited edition yellow Rolling Darryl rims, Alfine 8 hub, 45 North Dillinger tires.
Drive side (pannier set as far back as possible because of serious heel strike):
Non-drive side:
Front side:
Backside (lol):
Puppy side (oh god that sounds terrible, like a poison made specifically for puppies):
See how nicely they're sitting? That's because this is at mile 5 of the 6 miles of single track that we run or bike every day out to the dog park and back. You want obedient dogs, you gotta wear the SOBs down (or DOB, in the black dog's case).
I've gotten by for over a decade now riding all winter with studded mountain bike tires and studded 'cross tires, opting to ski or take the bus on snow days, but this summer my commute went from 2 miles to 7 miles, which is farther than I'm willing to ski to work, my bus ride went from 10 minutes to 50 minutes, and 45 North (go Canada!) released a studded fat tire this season, the lack of which had been a deal breaker for me when considering a fat bike as a commuter. I'm incredibly lucky in that 6 miles of my route is on groomed ski trail, like this:
But the remaining street mile looks like this pretty much all winter:
Not to mention spring daytime melt/nighttime freeze conditions in the tunnels and underpasses (if it isn't obvious, that tunnel is solid, smooth, skate-able ice):
Seriously icy:
So yeah, studs are a must for me, and now they come in fat! This bike is so much fun, and there's loads of winter only single track around my end of town, so this has become one of my favorite winter toys as well as my daily beast of burden. The only thing it's missing is full wrap fenders, which is why it's so dirty; we're in full breakup here, 40's during the day and single digits at night, so it's a frozen ride to work in the morning and a slushy ride home in the afternoon. I tried the SKS grandmom and granddad clip on fenders, but they sucked, so I've got a set of full wraps on order from MK Fenders. He's really backed up though, 8 to 12 weeks for production and delivery, and it's been 9 weeks since I ordered; at this rate, they'll arrive just in time for the road bike to come out.