When Surly ran that mad sale last month, I decided to buy a Pugsley. Well, I impulsed/bought one. The thinking was something along the lines of: local desert riding, maybe it’ll snow this year, bike packing machine, lotsa wheel/tire options, international travel, what the hell/why not.
Then it arrived when the rains did, and then I was on a plane back east for the holidays, and then when I returned home El Nino happened, and then …
It was time to baptize the bike:
Somewhere around 8-12 inches of snow in San Diego’s Laguna Mountains, depending on tree cover, drifting, whatever … and only an xc skier and a set of footprints were tracked out in front of me. Fat tires be damned, that ride kicked my ass. I was out only for an hour or so. I maybe covered 5 miles, the first half of it was all about breaking trail and feeling like my lungs were gonna die inside my chest.
The smartest thing I did was turn around and rode back on what I had broken in, and it was sooooooo much better!
Were finally getting snow here in the Alps. We have a local rental shop with electric fat bikes. I’ve never used an electric, but I imagine in the snow, they could be quite handy.