It all started when we first got a glimpse of Vee Tire Co’s 2XL Monster Fat 5.05 inch tire last winter. The tire that launched the dream of designing and hand fabricating the biggest…fattest…… “Monster-Fat” bike of the current, modern, cycling world. Yes…..dare I say? The fattest fat-bike in the (blankity-blank) WORLD!
We previewed the Vee Tire Co. Snowshoe 2XL tire here – http://fat-bike.com/2015/08/product-spotlight-vee-tire-snowshoe-2xl-5-05-tire/
We previewed the Quiring Cycles Triple B Frame here – http://fat-bike.com/2015/09/world-premier-quiring-triple-b-1st-bike-designed-to-run-vees-2xl-tires/
And now it’s our pleasure to share the first shots of Scott Quiring’s personal Triple B. The first Vee 2XL compliant monster fat-bike all built and ready to roll.
Now I know the first question that we’d get, is how much does this monster weigh? According to Scott, his Triple B, comes in at 29 pounds. Sram’s GX drive train with a Raceface Turbine crank, Avid BB7’s and a Ritchey WCS rider cockpit, round out the build. One of the goals that Scott on this build, was to build a really lite and strong set of wheels. Scott chose carbon fiber rims for weight savings and the 100mm width to take full advantage of the 5.05″ girth of the 2XL’s. The idea was to mitigate the added rotational mass of the huge tire while taking full advantage of the increased flotation.
F-Bc Columnist and Fat Camp Co-Host, Ken Blakey-Shell, built the wheels for Scott’s Triple B. The wheels feature Industry Nine hubs laced to Carbon Fan 100mm double wall carbon rims. This is what Ken shared about the wheel build with me.
The hoops are by Carbon Fan. Very similar to the Light Bicycle Chinese rims but you can get them in a full 100mm width. I built Scott’s wheels as well as a pair for me and I am really impressed with the quality of the rims for the price and weight. We’ve had really good success with the rims from Carbon Fan. This is the first time we’ve tried the 100mm variety, but I have built a few dozen of their 35-50mm wide 27.5 or 29er rims and have been pleased with them all. The weight on the 100’s varied from 655-670g. Not as light as HED’s but for $280/rim it is pretty darned good. They went tubeless really easily too.
I talked with Scott about how the bike and the new tires rode and he told me, “It didn’t feel slow at all. It felt fast, well…as fast as my Ti (fat) bike with Bud and Lou on clown shoes. It didn’t ride sluggish at all.” Both Ken and Scott have had really encouraging things to report on the way the 2XL’s ride. Both Scott and Ken have shared that they think that the 2XL performs very well and is noticeably better than Vee Tire’s previous fat-bike tires.
Scott also shared that the design of the Triple B addresses both the width and the, proportionately larger, height increase that the 2XL brings to the table. If you try to fit a 2XL on a traditional fat-bike it will raise the bottom bracket significantly. Scott has taken all of that into the design of the new Triple B.
Flowbeist on a 100mm Clownshoe vs. 2XL on 100mm Carbon Fan – (Note the width and height difference)
So all of you that are asking yourself, “will these tires fit on my fat bike?” – A better question might be, even if they could fit, would I want to raise my bottom bracket even an inch? The answer is “Probably Not” – which is probably the answer to the question “will these tires fit on my fat bike?” as well….unless you own a Triple B.
I talked my way into a Triple B test ride, next month, at the Iceman Cometh. Scott and Christina will be in their booth along with the Triple B, for folks to check out at the Sram Icecycle Expo. I’ll be there with a cooler full of beer and a camera to capture those fat moments and bring them to the interwebz. Stop by the Quiring booth. Scott and Christina are two of the nicest people on the planet and you may see Ken & Andy from Fat Camp or the shy and elusive, Samsquantch (aka – Uncle Gomez)!
You can check out all of the details and (coming soon) the full build kit for the Triple B at – www.quiringcycles.net
You can see Vee Tire’s complete line of fat-bike tires at – http://veetireco.com/tires/fat-tire/