The Mid-Fat or Semi-Fat Tire Revolution has Begun!

 

Want to put your fat bike on a diet for the summer and have more fun than you've ever had on a bike? Consider putting some of our new 27.5+ or 29+ size rims and tires on your fat bike with some 3.0 or 3.25 tires which are available now from all the big tire manufacturers.

 

Why Bigger Wheels?

So your fat bike wheels are 26" wheels, but by the time you put the huge fat bike tire on them they really become a 29er size. If you try to put small tires on your fat bike wheels your bike will be too low to the ground and you will hit your cranks constantly... so go up to the 27.5 or 29er size wheel and this brings the bike back up to where it should be with plus size tires which are 3.0 or 3.25" width. There are a lot of different names for the plus size wheels: 650b plus, 650b+, B+, B Plus, 29er+, 29er Plus, 9plus etc... we like to just call them mid-fat because its more similar to riding a fat bike tire, just not nearly as fat and slow.

 

What's it Like Riding Mid-Fat?

Its amazing! You can climb much faster due to the increased traction, especially on dry or sandy conditions. I raced the bike pictured below at Sea Otter in the XC Cat 2 race and literally dropped about 40 riders on the long dry uphills. Sure about 20 of them caught back up to me on the flats, but then I dropped most of those guys again on the downhills as these tires are, of course, way way way faster on the descents. The semi-fat tire allows an average to good rider to drift the entire bike in turns securely... riding these tires makes everyone faster, which then translates to your skinny tire mtn bike for race day should you choose to go back to it. Beyond racing, these tires are just way more fun to ride as you float over everything due to a wider contact patch, basically the best aspects of a fat bike tire without the slowness: A super nice feel, the ability to corner like never before without scrubbing speed braking... really fun, really fast, really amazing!

 

Advantages to Wider Rims

Wider rims were how mountain biking started, then the road pros got into racing and their sponsors convinced race organizers to make courses a lot easier so the road pros didn't crash as much. And, of course, the pros knew they could make up a lot of time on the uphills, so they wanted the lightest, most narrow rim possible, which is why we have the little mountain bike rims & tires we have today. The wider rim stretches out the tire more properly, allowing the side knobs to do their job while at the same time preventing flats by creating a more secure grip of tire on rim.

 

Why Hookless Bead

Our rims, along with all the new rims coming out of Asia by all the main manufacturers, are the new hookless bead style, which means a much stronger side wall without the hook system. All modern tubeless tires are built to work with the new hookless bead system and, in fact, work much better with this system... super easy to air up tubeless and they stay on perfectly. This is the same technology that motorcycle and car wheels use.

 

Can I Ride Semi-Fat Tires on my Bike Now?

You will not be able to fit the semi-fat tires on your standard mountain bike, although many of the big manufacturers like Specialized and Trek are now coming out with plus bikes, but you can certainly ride them on your fat bike, which is what we have set up in the picture below. LaMere Cycles does have a plus size bike, for those that can afford to have a garage full of bikes, but for those that don't, just buy our fat bike and kill 2 birds with 1 stone!