One of the things people always mention about fat bikes is how heavy their wheels are. That doesn’t need to be true, sure some companies love to make heavy wheels and tell you that is what you need, but we want you to enjoy riding, so we created some lightweight fat bike wheels.
Just as in all forms of cycling getting a set of lightweight fat bikes wheels will be a revelation for your bike, especially if you’ve been riding a steel frame with heavy alloy rims. It is going to be as if you just went out and bought a new bike, or even went out and fitted a motor to your bike.
Getting lighter
When you’re out mountain biking, you’ll be forced to ride with lots of little accelerations and decelerations. Every time you do this, you’ll be very aware the weight of your wheels. Accelerating out of berms on a fat bike on a technical trail can quickly get very tiring with a lot of excess weight, going lighter makes this more enjoyable. In the second part of this article, we’ll look at some summer wheels for your fat bike. Wheels that will make roosting around bone dry trails in summer super fun on your fat bike.
We make our lightweight wheels out of Toray T700 carbon fiber. We use carbon fiber as it not only allows us to build lighter wheels but it also allows us to tune in a ride feel to your wheel rims. A good set of carbon fiber wheels will be super stiff on side to side movement, when you're pedaling, and be compliant to bumps in the vertical plane.
The ability to do this is the carbon ride feel you might have heard about from other cyclists. The stiffness of the wheels and lack of side to side movement also means that as soon as you press on your pedals, the back wheel is already starting to move. Acceleration is then a little bit easier, and more energy efficient than before.
Affordable carbon fat bike wheels
One of the reasons many people don’t buy carbon fiber rims or wheels is that they have traditionally not been affordable. We are trying to change that. We sell direct to you. There are no distributors or other middlemen all seeking to profit from our wheels. By going direct from the factory floor, your savings will be substantial over a similar big brand product.
Maybe we should now look at some of our wheels?
26er Carbon 90mm Fat Bike Wheelset F685
As you can see from the title, we did not come up with cool marketing names for our wheelsets. We name them exactly what they are to make it easier for you to purchase a wheelset if you buy our Carbon 90mm Fat Bike Wheelset 90c that is precisely what you are getting.
You are getting a 90mm wide and 26” in diameter fat bike wheel. The rim as you may also be able to tell is made from carbon fiber, Toray T700 to be exact. We use Toray T700 as it is possible to build in all the qualities we were talking about above that you want in a carbon fiber wheelset.
What you might not be able to tell from the name is that the rim on these wheels is hookless. A hookless rim makes going tubeless that little bit easier, and you’ll want help going tubeless on a fat bike. Hookless technology is the same as you would find on a car or motorbike wheel. It is simply a different way for your tire to clinch the rim.
26er Carbon Fat Bike Wheelset 65c
Given what you have learned about our 26er Carbon 90mm Fat Bike Wheelset 90c we are sure that you can work out what our 26er Carbon Fat Bike Wheelset 65c wheel is. It is another set of hookless tubeless ready carbon fiber fat bike wheels. Like the wheels above it is built out of Toray T700 carbon fiber.
With a 65mm width rim, we would recommend running tires of between 3.8” and 4.6”. For our 90mm rim, we would recommend running 4.0” to 5.0” wide tires. Our 90mm rims will then be better for those people who want to spend a lot of time on snow and sand whereas our 65mm rims will work well for trails everywhere and going off the beaten path to explore forgotten areas.
One of the reasons we build our rims out of carbon fiber is the weight reduction. Our 90c fat bike rims weighs in at 675g. If you compare this with a Surly Rolling Darryl, which is 8mm narrower, weighing in at 850g or the narrower Halo Tundra weighing in at 870g. You can see why we went carbon over alloy.
Outside of the carbon fiber rim both of these wheelsets come with CN Round spokes that are laced to Powerway M74 hubs. The M74 is a nice sealed bearing hub that will bring longevity and performance at a great price. The M74 hub also comes with either a Shimano freehub or an SRAM XD driver. They both come with a front hub with a 15 x 150 mm thru axle system, and for the rear, you can pick from 12 x 190 or 197 mm.
Our build allows us to build a front wheel that comes in at 1113g and the comparable Halo build weighs in at 1355g. Our rear wheel weighs at 1303g and the Halo rear weighs in at 1530g. Saving you almost half a kg in wheel weight on your bike.
Summer fat bike wheels
These wheels will undoubtedly give your fat bike a boost of speed and a nice weight saving but what about if you live somewhere that gets baked during summer? The trails become super dry, carving around throws up a cloud of dust behind you and you have to lather yourself in sunscreen before going out?
The secret to a great day of summer riding on your fat bike is to turn it into a plus sized trail monster for the summer. Some fat bikes you’ll be able to go 29er+ with and with others you will be looking at going 27.5”+. Either way, it’ll be a lot of fun. You’ll have a bike that feels very different from its winter guise and will also be great at sliding around berms. With our 50 mm wide rims we recommend tires that are 2.8” to 3.1” wide.
27.5er 50mm Fat Bike Wheelset
As you might be able to guess our 27.5er 50mm Fat Bike Wheelset are our wheels for converting your fat bike into a 27.5” (650b) trail bike. As with our fat bike wheels, you’ll find that our rims are made using Toray T700 carbon fiber and have a hookless tubeless design.
29er 50mm Fat Bike Wheelset
The 29er 50mm Fat Bike Wheelset is our 29er version of the above wheelset. Like our wider fat bike wheels, these wheels come with Powerway M74 hubs and CN Round spokes. We then have the same axle widths and also the choice of a Shimano freehub or an SRAM XD driver.
The main reason for changing to these wheels for summer is that you’ll be massively reducing your rotational weight. Not only will you save weight on your wheels but you’ll also save a load of weight on your tires. You’ll save enough weight that you’ll notice the difference.
The one thing you will lose is a bit flotation but in summer your probably not worrying about riding over snow, you’ll want to be riding those hardpacked trails. The plus size tires will make your bike feel much livelier and help you to twist and turn your way down more technical turns.
Rather than using the bulldozer method that works well when riding a fat bike you can start to be more artistic with your line choices. You can carve in and out of berms. Flowing through a trail rather than just straight-lining the downhill sections.
The ability to change wheels and have such a different riding experience is why fat bikes might just be the ultimate quiver killer for cyclists.
