What Are My Choices For A Fat Tire E-Bike?

Jim1348

Active Member
I live in Minnesota on a gravel road. Once we get snow, the gravel road is dangerous for e-biking. However, I am not that far from asphalt. I am considering a fat tire e-bike for casual winter riding. What are some of my better choices?
 
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I live in Minnesota on a gravel road. Once we get snow, the gravel road is dangerous for e-biking. However, I am not that far from asphalt. I am considering a fat tire belt-driven e-bike for casual winter riding. What are some of my better choices?
I ride in winter snow and Ice. A real issue is snow and ice can build up in the drive and freeze solid. See my avatar and banner when you hover over it. I ride on gravel roads and a packed limestone rail trail. With the ice and snow buildup comes gravel and dirt buildup. Chain cuts through the ice and dirt, but derailleurs can stop functioning from ice, which can prevent you from changing gears. Not too big a deal, most winter riding I'm not riding fast, and I usually pick a gear and stay there. I've had on occasion had to free up the derailleur.

One of the worst things for belt drive is gravel and dirt. The buildup can stop you in your tracks. In addition, it can damage the belt and pulleys. You'll get a lot of snow, ice and small gravel buildup riding in winter. Bad combination for expensive toothed belts and pulleys.

This is my black bike; it was clean before one 34-mile roundtrip commute in winter slush and snow.


winter bike commute 1.jpg
 
Look at Luna Eclipse but you would need different tires because mine came with Slicks. 2000 miles zero problems.
 
I removed the "belt-driven" part.

My wife and I were at the Minnesota State Fair today. I kept my eyes open for e-bikes and the two brands I ran across today are Denago and Rambo.

The Denago I saw stated it was a Hunting 1 model. Further, it stated it is a new mid-drive mountain bike designed for the outdoors. The approximate price is $3,799. I didn't see it on their website, but maybe I just missed it.

The other one was Rambo. There were several different models of Rambo ebikes there. In fact, when I look on their website, I see some that are AWD that "...give you the ability to switch between front wheel, rear wheel or AWD to best match your riding needs..." Interesting. Spendy. That might be handy in the snow!


 
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Jim
Take a look at this one, I run the the MD 750 fat tire and it is a tank and will go just about any where if you can stay on it. I ride 4 season and mostly off road cow/wild horse trails, sandy washes etc etc, with just over 960 miles on it. I have Flat out in the tubed tires, knock on wood, no problems so far..........
These hunting type bikes are on the heavy weight side, getting close to75/100#'s,
make sure you check the stand over height, as they don't know how to measure, I think.
I like a throttle, and use it just enough to get me thru the rough areas, as it makes for better riding in the rocky tough sections, I can keep my big outboard riggers (BIG FEET) out and keep from crashing/burning and dinging my bike up from the rocks around here.
I would look for dual battery's, I am getting between 80/120 miles on a charge now, 99% pedaling and just a smidgen of throttle when needed.

HtH's,
Don
 
They don’t refer to you as Minnesnowtans for nothing now do they? I’ve only ridden my Norco Bigfoot VLT for a couple of months since acquiring last March but those times that I had it out on the snowy single tracks proved its worth. Definitely looking forward to more riding this winter.

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