So I'm just a boy, a boy with a dream, a dream of 'converting' one of my bikes (https://archive.raleighusa.com/archiv.../backalley-11/) into a half fat-tire bike. Currently it has 700 x 28c , buttt I just found out about the Salsa Enabler fork (https://salsacycles.com/components/ca...s/enabler_fork) which would allow me to slap a fat tire on there..... I think?

Therein lie my questions: Is this possible on my bike? I would probably get 35c on the back tire, but that's still a huge difference between front and back. Besides the fact that it might look super stupid, are there any other reasons why I shouldn't or couldn't do this?

Won't that make your headtube angle something silly like 60 degrees?

Hmm.... what would that mean?

Without trying to be rude or critical, why?

You also need to think about what this might do to the geometry of the bike and thus how it might affect the handling. There didn't seem to be any numbers on the fork link so some extra digging will be required to answer that.

why? Really just that I like the fat tire. Are you saying it would be very unstable? I was tryin to read up on head tube angle and that's what it sounds like but I guess I'm having trouble picturing it.

It might even be a halfway workable idea if you were starting with a mtn bike, especially a 29r, and could stuff at least a 2.35" tire in the rear, but on a street-oriented bike... it would just be wrong. Look wrong, negatively effect steering, etc...

Seems like a good way to spend money and accomplish nothing to benefit the bike or you. I've heard of people running one or two width sizes up on front tires for bikes they use for both road and off-road purposes but your idea takes it to the extreme.

just spend your money here: https://www.bikesdirect.com/products/fat-bikes.htm

Ok. it was just a dream.....but how would it affect steering? That's what I don't get.

You're effectively changing your headtube angle and fork rake, changing the trail of the bike.

Or really, just changing everything that results in a steering difference.

I think that because it would be funny is a perfectly adequate reason. You're not going to wind up with a perfect bike but that wasn't the point, right? I don't think it will jack up the front as much as some of these guys think. It's longer for sure but the fat bike tires and wheels are 26".

26" with a 5 inch tire.

You need to know the axle to crown measurement of the fork coming off the bike, compared to the same on the new fork. Chances are, it will be greater on the replacement fatbike fork, which puts the headtube of the bike higher off the ground than stock.

Add the fat tire to it and you further increase the distance of the headtube from the ground

That slackens the angle of the headtube leading to slower steering. A function of that slack head angle is also an enormous increase in trail, which makes things stable, but also slower turning.

If you want to get a taste of what you'd be getting into, find a 26" wheel that fits your frame, swap things over, and see for yourself what happens to handling.

It will end up looking something like this https://rat-patrol.org/BikesChop/cont...ing_large.html

To give you an idea, the window between very "comfortable" steering and very "race-y" steering is about 2 or maybe 3 degrees. The center of the distribution is something like 71 or 72 degrees.

It's not impossible, but it is inadvisable.