By Brian Mohr and Emily Johnson

Fat Biking 101

Stowe Trails Partnership encourages bikers to be a good ambassador for the sport by following these basic guidelines.

• Be sure to use a bike with larger 3.8-inch fat bike tires, as opposed to regular 2.5-inch tires.
• Pay attention to tire pressure. It should often be well under 10 PSI to allow you to float over the snow, rather than sink into it.
• Ride on the packed and firmest part of the track (with the exception of tracks groomed for classic skiing when present).
• Avoid riding during warm weather, especially if your tires are sinking into the snow and leaving a rut deeper than 1 inch.
• Watch out for snowmobiles. In many of the places you might encounter them, they have the right of way.
• Be aware of posted signage. Follow all trail rules and respect closure signs.

After three days of relatively warm and rainy weather, followed by a very cold night, the deep, mid-winter snowpack was firm and flat. The conditions would certainly make skiing challenging—yet we awoke with a glimmer in our eye. The smooth surface was firm enough to support a fat bike: a rugged bike with wide, often studded 4- to 5-inch tires that provide tremendous traction on slippery snow, ice, and mud.

In this weather, we could pedal freely on fat bikes across fields, through open woods, and even down snow-covered stream beds. After a successful earlymorning scouting misson to test the conditions, we shared our excitement with our daughters, Maiana, 11, and Lenora, nine, and hatched a plan for a sunset adventure when they got home from school.

As the demand for year-round cycling has grown, the evolution of the fat bike has followed suit. Many models feature attachment points for racks and cargo bags, and can be equipped for multi-day adventures. A bike light or two, combined with the reflectivity of snow, makes night riding incredibly fun as well. But if you don’t want to spring for new gear, simply reducing the air pressure in your bike tires can work well to enhance traction. In late winter or early spring, when the days are warm but nights are still well below freezing (think: ideal maple sugaring weather), the morning snowpack might keep your tires afloat for a few hours before the rising sun softens things up.