Looking for a fun winter activity that gets the blood pumping and the adrenaline flowing? Fat biking might be just the thing!
With the cold New England weather hitting hard this season, many have a tough time finding an excuse to get some fresh air and outdoor exercise. Fat biking provides an excellent excuse to get outside on the awesome woodsy trails New Hampshire and Vermont have to offer while maintaining optimum fitness goals year-round.
Fat bikes are very different from regular mountain bikes in a myriad of ways. With one look at a fat bike, the frame alone stands out in a crowd — it’s equipped with wide tires between 4 and 5 inches and thick tires that are tough to miss on the trails. Cyclists typically run fat bikes at low tire pressure, making it easier to ride on snowy or sandy terrain. The large, wide tires help with grip, floatation and consistency, and offer the unique ability to travel on surfaces otherwise inaccessible with a regular bike. Fat bikes add a whole new dimension to off-road riding, racing and exploring; they go where other bikes can’t.
Fat biking is great for snowy terrain. New England has plenty of that, so it is a rather popular activity here in the Granite State. Every year, Northfield, N.H. holds a Winter Woolly fat bike event at Highland Mountain Bike Park. This year’s event is taking place on Feb. 6. The bike park offers miles of groomed trails for the event, a DH (downhill) fat bike race, beer tastings, a guided ride from the summit all the way into town, and fun for folks of all ages. In accordance with CDC guidelines, this year’s event is reservation-only with limited spaces. It’s already sold out for this year, but make sure to get some practice in for next year’s event!
Before hitting the trails, it’s important to know what kind of bike and gear to buy. Depending on location, there are several stores in the Southern Vermont/New Hampshire area that can offer some insight to new riders. Keep in mind that with the pandemic still in full swing, some of the local businesses have had unprecedented amounts of business this winter season, so make sure to call ahead before heading anywhere specific.
Stores such as Norm’s Ski Shop in Keene have a shortage of fat bikes right now this year due to high demand. Many folks want to spend some time outside while following proper social-distance protocol, and activities including mountain biking and cross country skiing offer that kind of safe and healthy fun.
365 Cycles, also located in Keene, carries everything from kids’ bikes to accessories, bike apparel and tools, and has a friendly and knowledgeable staff to walk customers through the process. MeesCo Cycles, a mobile bike shop based in Williamsville, Vt., is an option for those residing in the southern region of that state and beyond. They tout 25 years of experience and offer a variety of services from tune ups to suspension to overhauls, and everything in between. MeesCo Cycles travels around southern Vermont, southwestern New Hampshire and northwestern Massachusetts.
The New England Mountain Bike Association (NEMBA) highlights a large community (at least 7,000) of mountain bikers in the region and offers some insight as to where the best trails are, what to expect on those trails, and which ones work best, depending on the bike style. During a regular season, NEMBA typically leads a thousand mountain bike rides and offer skills clinics or trail building options for those wishing to hone their off-roading skills. Members of NEMBA are also staunch environmental advocates, who typically devote a combined 8,000 hours a year to volunteering at local parks, forests and maintaining trails to ensure optimal riding conditions for everyone.
NEMBA’s website (nemba.org) offers some insight on where the best trails are in the greater Keene/Brattleboro area. Trails including Drummer Hill and Goose Pond in Keene, Moody Park in Claremont, and the Retreat Trails in Brattleboro are all excellent options for bikers of all skill levels. The trail details delve into what bike works best for the trail at hand, how groomed the trails generally are, and the level of difficulty each trail offers. Make sure to check out the NEMBA’s COVID-19 guidelines before heading out onto any trail with a larger group of people — the organization recommends keeping a mask on your person at all times, riding with no more than 10 people in a group and maintaining three bike lengths between each rider. These rules not only ensure physical distancing on the trails, they also reduce interruptions to other trail users and keep the overcrowding to a minimum.
The great thing about fat bikes… they aren’t primarily for the winter season; investing in a fat bike can bring year-round adventures for all sorts of terrain. Depending on the fat bike, there are accessories for cargo space (for camping, fly fishing, off-the-grid exploring, etc.), speed (for racing), and general exploring.
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