Today marks one year since I bought my Pugsley from Paramount Sports in Fargo. It's one of those things that I still enjoy immensely after a year. I still giggle about something every single time I ride it. Today was no different, in fact today was just plain awesome.
It's December 11th, there's no snow, and it's 40 degrees outside. An odd combo, but I'll take it. Today I decided to go explore the riverbanks. With no snow (or rain!) the river is down low and there's plenty of moon-like dry dirt and clay to go ride on. In fact, in the 12 miles I rode today, less than 1 mile was on pavement. I'd say 8 of those miles are on surfaces and paths I've never ridden before. A whole new realm of riding possibilities have opened up, and I'm freakin' stoked.
I saw deer, wild turkeys, squirrels, and even a raccoon! I've never seen a raccoon in the wild before. It made my day! To have a bike that can go ride these surfaces is amazing. There's no way any other type of bike could have ridden on most of the stuff I rode on today. For that alone makes owning a "Fat Bike" worth while, because that's what it's all about. Riding places that other bikes can't. Snow, beaches, river banks, mud, etc. There's just not much that can stop it. It's that monster truck mentality that appeals to my inner child, inspires giggling, and makes riding fun. Fun in the sense of childhood riding fun. Remember that freedom and excitement you felt when you first went out on your own? Exploring the neighborhood and showing off to friends? It's that kind of fun. When you have kind of enjoyment, the price of the bike seems cheap.
I've changed a lot on this bike since I bought it. Not that it really "needed" changing, but I just love to tinker. I can't help it. The latest addition was a new wheelset. I really wanted to build up another set of wheels since my last ones came out so nice, and this was a great place to improve Pugsley's performance. Took over 2 pounds of rotating weight off the bike and added 17mm of width to the rims. Lighter weight = faster, and more width = more footprint, to keep me out of ruts and hopefully floating on top of snow easier. Plus they look bad ass.
I can change out the rim strips to whatever color or pattern I want! It'll be a cheap and fun way to dress up the bike. Now it just has white, with some reflective tape in spots. Hopefully the gap in between reflective areas will make for a flashing effect when riding at night, instead of a solid white stripe. We'll see. It'll be fun to experiment. In the meantime it can stay as is, because me and my friend Pugsley still have lots of exploring to do.
2 comments:
Are these the Big Apple tires you mentioned back in O8' in your bike forum post? If not what are they? Also looks like the tires require bigger rims? What size are the rims? How is riding uphill with the bigger tires - much different? Your mtn. bike looks great! best regards, James.
My 26x2.35 Big Apple Tires are on my Xtracycle "Truk". Pictures are probably in older blog posts. These tires are 26x3.8 rear and 26x4.7 front. Huge! These rims are 82mm wide, whereas "normal" mountain bike rims are about 22mm wide. It doesn't ride much different than a regular bike, it's just much more fun. It has so much traction, and low gearing, that it'll climb anything.
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