Big tire mountainbike shootout

(First of two parts)

Over the weekend, we set out on another bike adventure in Cagayan de Oro City. Day 1:Around the mountains of CDO along the private lots of the Pelaez family.  Day 2: Take it 1,300 feet above sea level to the mountains Bukidnon and Dahilayan Mountain Resort.

The Bikes: A 29er full-suspension Giant trance, 29er Hard tail Niner One 9 bike,  26 Mongoose FAT BIKE rigid fork with LX group set and Salsa FAT Bike Xt Group set with rock shock fork.  Both Fat Bike is fitted with a 4” Fat Tire which would have a slight bigger total tire diameter from the 29er bike.

The Cyclist: Yours Truly, Ramon Rodriguez and Terence Fernandez.

The mongoose FAT bike

Day 1: I took on the challenge to take the FAT bike. At first glance, the FAT bike looks heavy because of its humongous tires. It was like a Harley bike without a motor. We started on to a 13km of paved road flat and uphill and climb more than 600 feet altitude. At this point, I ate their dust, as the lighter bikes and smaller tires were clearly faster during an ascent on a paved road. I had hard time maneuvering the fat bike. It seems that it is forcing its tire to stay center and straight, so on tight corner you should rely on banking and make it turn faster. But once we hit the rough road, it was a different story. The rougher it gets, the faster the fat bike becomes. On the descent or downhill, all the loose gravel and debris would fly away from the bike. But I lack some guts on the downhill section, which I was not familiar with the route. I just had to slow down for safety purposes but still faster than the other bikers. One disadvantage maybe is because the tires are heavier. You will have to pull the tire more just to jump across the ruts but maybe I don’t have to pull the tire and it could have eaten the ruts. But I was not willing to take the risk.

But what surprised me most on this bike is its handling capability. On a steep technical uphill and its humongous tires makes it very stable, its wide tire contact on ground prevents it from spinning out of traction. It just keeps on going and going. And this is one heavy Mongoose fat bike. At one instance, I even had the shift to the leftmost part of the route, and navigate thru deep ruts, rocks and loose gravel. But to my surprise, it keeps its traction and ate them all. The bike even stood upright when I stop pedaling, giving me time to asses which line to take. But you need leg power to turn those pedals. I pedalled and finish the technical portion even able to overtake some of the bikers who were walking and pushing the bike up.

One downside though on this Mongoose Fat bike is its wide bottom bracket as you have to open up your hips while pedaling, which is a different style from what we are accustomed on our road and mountain bike. The rims were just too wide and  made it harder to turn the bike. So on a paved downhill, you have to be extra careful on sharp corner and curve. And the headset started to loosen and you can feel the play every time you brake. Maybe a few adjustments would make it better in terms of its controlability.

Next week, we will continue our bike shootout adventure for Day 2. It’s a BIG Tire showdown between Salsa FAT BIKE, GIANT trance Full suspension and Hard tail NINER.

Sideline: Goodluck to all triathlete competing for 2nd 8080 Triathlon on San Remigio. Goodlcuk to Metafit Cebu Tri team. Fritz Co, Zusette Co, Lemuel Co, Jon Ouano, Pimco Pimentel, Michael Manabat, Donafel,PJ Canedo, Dandy Maturan and Jeffrey Coro and yours truly.