Anybody know if there's a shop that rents fatbikes in Edmonton in the winter? I live in Las Vegas but am coming to Edmonton to visit family during Christmas. I've never rode a fatbike, but would love to try one in real snow.
One of the shops used to do rentals as well, but I think they stopped (and I can't even remember which shop it was)
For a winter city it took a long time for fatbikes to show up here (last year was the first time I saw more than one or two). But even with that, they're still really rare.
Thanks for the info. I'll check, but doesn't sound promising. If I moved back to Canada, my first purchase would be a fat bike. It's not as though there's good skiing super close to Edmonton. I was hoping there might even be an Edmonton fat bike group, but that doesn't sound likely yet.
There's an interclub group that rides Sundays. Most of them have fatbikes now. I think there might be 6-8 regulars who ride on fatbikes.
The biggest issue with fatbikes, other than the cost, is the availability of rims and tires. Last year, rim and tire stocks that supplied the OEM's sold out in February, if I remember correctly. With Trek, Specialized, Norco, etc now offering their own fatbikes, you can expect that the bigger OEMs will looks to make their own rims and tires, thus negating the limited availability of the current crop of rims and tires (Surly, I think?).
We'll have snow for 6 months of the year, but we don't get huge dumps of snow compared to Ontario, Quebec or the Northeast US. I definitely want to try a fatbike, but for our conditions studded tires are probably more useful more of the time.
I think that's why fatbikes have been slow to take off here, even if they look supercool. (also, there's a huge markup on Surlys in Canada. I seriously looked at getting a Pugs 3 or 4 years ago, and it was going to be $2400 stock. The new brands will hopefully make things more accessible)
There is a shop in Calgary that rents Fatbikes (bikebike.ca). It might be worth dropping them a note to see if they know of someone who rents in Edmonton. Sean is very involved in the bike community and might just know where you might find something.
The other route is talk to Redbike in Edmonton. I don't think they rent but also may know where you can find one.
Thanks jpettit! That's most helpful and more promising. I'll check out Redbike, bikebike.ca and the google group you mention. Going to be in Edmonton for 10 days and I might get desperate not being able to ride something for that long (I ride almost every day year round in the desert where I live).
Where in Jasper rents fatbikes? Thanks a lot of this. The shop in Calgary mentioned above doesn't rent bikes in the winter and there's nothing in Edmonton. Probably a bit too much of a drive from Edmonton, but good to know.
I'll give them a ring today. No mention of fatbike, or even winter-bike, rentals on their website, but not surprising that some bike shops have have some non-advertised stuff available.
70 bucks for a Fatbike rental? Holy smokes. I live in a tourist town and its only 50. What kind of bikes are 70 for the day? Better be some high end carbon goodness with a bluto fork for that kind of Scratch
Hey, yahsper, is the valley of the five lakes ridable in the winter with the insurgence of fatbikes? Just wondering if it's worth my time to drive out one weekend for a snow ride or not.
Its been not a great year for Fatbiking with all the rain/ice. Bike of choice would have been a 29er with studded tires...That being said, you are a cyclist and I imagine you have very few bad days on the bike! I have ridden the valley but only the "snowshoe" trail which is parking lot around the lakes and back. Beautiful and fun!
Riding on the lakes and rivers has been great this year. If you do drive in stop at Jasper Lake and have a pedal. Check out Freewheels facebook page as some of our hardcores have been trying new things.
In a normal winter the Valley is hard to bike...Right now I'm sure you could.
Guys with studded tires have had a better go of it on the trails this year.
If it snows again Parks does some track packing. Up to Cabin lake and Pryamid which gives us access to try to push deeper.
Let me know if you do come and I will get some super current info.
Sounds good. Won't be this year. Just wondering about next year. I should have clarified that.
Our single track trails here in Edmonton are more packed down than some of the multi use (gravel) trails given the high fat bike traffic that we're generating this year versus last year. I heard rumors that Jasper was starting to groom some trails for bikes.
I'll keep Freewheels in mind and post up a message should a chance to get out there next winter arises!
And since I mentioned the River Valley Adventure Tours folks up top, they're not renting fatbikes (hopefully it's only a matter of time), but they are doing fat-tire Segway tours in the winter. I would think it would be really hard to stay warm on a segway compared to a bike, but who knows?
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