The idea is not quite new. Held In Alaska there is the annual Iditarod Endurance Race on snow where the wide mountain bike tires were simply not fat enough. After some decades the unique segment of mountain bikes has evolved. Fat bikes are now offered by many mountain bikes producers. We got an opportunity to ride a Author Su-Mo on 4’’ balloon tires.
In the city the bike looks awesome. Every kid watched us while riding the streets – people even turned their heads to see this beast better. But this bike is for snow, so there was no any way other than to go to the mountains.
Our almighty vehicle
To get there we chose Jeremy Clarkson’s ‘favorite four wheel drive’ – the Skoda Yeti powered by a 2.0 turbo diesel engine with 103 kW output. The body styling after the latest facelift is very attractive and looks more adult than before. In spite of exceptional driving performance Yeti is sometimes accused of having minimal space for passenger’s belongings.
However we found no problems putting our mighty Su-Mo bike into the trunk. It was snowing, the traffic got stuck in many places. In the mountains we came to a place where the traffic maintenance car couldn’t go further to remove fresh snow, but this was no obstruction for 4×4 Yeti.
First ride
We asked our mountain biking ambassador Richard Gasperotti to have a first ride on the bike. First of all he enjoyed the attractive design. Black alloy frame and bright yellow rims make nice contrast. The fat tires look heavy but in reality the bike is surprisingly light. It has enough gears to get you up the hill. This is where the fun begins.
While normal mountain bikes get into big troubles in the snow – carving deep into the snow and bailing you over the handlebars – fat tires just flow on the surface. You can ride it almost like the ski.
You just turn and enjoy the sliding. Maybe it’s too difficult to drift with a car but on the Su-Mo bid you’ll become Ken Block after just a few rides. For the price of around a thousand euros you can enjoy biking all year round, even on snow. It’s very possible that after some time competitions will emerge for a new biking discipline. Let’s see in the future.
