Hrrrm, we’re scratching our heads a little. We’re not sure if we’ve been tricked, or if this could actually be quite cool…
You see, we’ve been a bit ‘unsure’ about the whole Fat Bike thing, to put it delicately. Unless you live on a beach, a desert or in the snow, we’re dubious about their place in the world. But the Surly Krampus isn’t really a Fat Bike, not in the true sense of the word.
You see, a ‘real’ Fat Bike runs 26″ wheels with 4.5″+ tyres, often on 100mm-wide rims. The Krampus is what Surly have sneakily called a 29+, meaning it runs 29er wheels but with big-ass tyres and comparatively narrow 50mm rims. It’s kind of like a gateway drug to Fat Biking.
When compared to your regular Fat Bike, the Krampus is also much more singletrack friendly, with geometry that’s much closer to a normal mountain bike than your standard plods-in-straight-line Fatty.
Rigid bikes with big rubber aren’t new to us – one of the Flow team regularly rides a rigid 29er with 2.3″ tyres – so perhaps this isn’t as big a jump towards weirdness as it first appears. At present, we’re a little bit scared that we might like the experience. And then what’s next? Unicycling?