Salsa

2013 Beargrease Complete Fat Bike

I've had a few rides on the Beargrease now and have succumb to the Fat Bike fever. I've been riding my 29er FSR the first few weeks of winter and a buddy picked up a Mukluk 2 from Free Fort Bikes in early January. After struggling to stay in the saddle on a ride where the snowpack had begun to thaw a bit, I took his Muk for a ride and easily motored through everything that gave my 29er trouble. I was sold. Now to choose a bike. I had read about the Beargrease and the thought of a lightweight Fat Tire intrigued me. Most of the fat bikes on the market were pushing 40 pounds and, as a Clyde, pumping a heavy bike through my favorite track didn't sound like fun. At 28.5 pounds fully dressed, the Beargrease was as light as a stock build fat bike could get. I found out I was lucky to find one coming to Tree Fort Bikes as Cherri let me know they were expecting a shipment in the next couple days. As I checked around, every shop within 150 miles had no size Large in stock and didn't expect to see any for months. Craig took the order and Casey did a good job building it up as soon as the box hit Tree Fort's door. The stock component kit is reasonable and I'm reticent to change much except perhaps to take some more weight off here and there. How does it ride? Terrific! It took a bit of experimentation to get the air pressure sorted out for snow, slush and mud and to reduce the pogo-stick bounce typical for fat tires and the light Husker Du tires have proved to take a little more air pressure than I expected. Perhaps that is due to the more supple sidewall of the 120tpi HDs. A soft sand pit in my favorite track would challenge my 29er as it sucked in and tried to wash out the tires. I would have to keep my weight balanced and pedal hard to push through the section. On the Beargrease, I just coast through the section without thinking... it's amazing. The wider handle bars took some getting used to and I have to be more careful with narrow tree gaps but I am grateful for the extra leverage when those wide tires take a serious grip on technical sections of frozen dirt. And light weight? My buddy swears the Beargrease is 10 pounds lighter than his Muk2 even though we both know the difference is closer to 6. It's really noticeable when you do a side by side comparison. The Beargrease feels like the tires must be filled with helium. I hadn't really though about racing the Beargrease but the weight advantage makes me want to test it competitively. Let it SNOW!