You may have accidentally clicked on this article and found yourself wondering “what is a fat bike, and why does it have global relevance?” If that is you, only continue reading if you are willing to accept the proverbial risk of swallowing Morpheus’s red pill and following Alice down the rabbit hole.
Why do I jest so? Because every single person I have ever talked to who rode a fat bike said they could never go back. As such, fat bikers as a community are a friendly sort, and have petitioned the social media powers that be to name December 6th this year as Global Fat Bike Day. #winning!
Last year was my first year to partake in this collective foolishness, which I chronicled here. John Fisch also attended an event in Colorado Springs at the Venetucci Farm, and seemed to have a really good time.
In all seriousness, Global Fat Bike day is a day of awareness and togetherness. Fat bike enthusiasts get together to ride. Some cities have events, demos, prizes, and food. Many who attend have never ridden a fat bike and come out of curiosity. Most of the events that I have heard of literally have something for everyone who likes to ride bikes.
The problem is, it’s hard to get information on a lot of these events. Some are announced in mountain bike and even fat bike forums like the one found here or on a Facebook page, but many of them go unnoticed. Some of that is because traditionally fat biking has been a fringe sport. But manufacturers have shown that they no longer think that this is a fad that will evaporate in a couple of years. What was once a smaller demographic riding classic fatties from makers like Surly and Salsa has motivated almost every major manufacturer to produce an explosion of fat bikes this year.
So, the purpose of this article is two-fold (or dinglespeed, for those of you who know what I mean):
- Announce when Global Fat Bike Day is and invite you to join
- Ask all of you to contribute below and let us know what’s going on in your area
I plan to attend a couple of events in my city, and will write about those adventures afterwards. But we would love to hear from you beforehand, and help disseminate information for everyone to be a part of. So if you know of an event that isn’t on this list yet, tell us about it in the comments below, and we’ll continue to update this list as the events roll in:
Global Fat Bike Day events that have been announced:
- Anchorage, Alaska
- Denver, Colorado
- Buffalo Creek, Colorado
- Golden, Colorado
- Indianapolis
- Illinois
- Iowa
- Northern Minnesota
- Brainerd, Minnesota
- Nebraska
- New York
- Barrie, Ontario
- Pennsylvannia
- Black Hills, South Dakota
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont/Quebec Area
- Washington DC
- Wisconsin
- United Kingdom
