2020 Specialized Fatboy Review

CRAMBA had their yearly ¡Ay CRAMBA It’s Cold Out! at River Bends Park, where you are able to demo various fat bikes on actual trails.  I thought it would be a great time to take my 10 year old and introduce him to fat biking.  Long story short, I was right, he loved it…and actually so did I!

I demo’d the Specialized Fatboy and a Salsa Mukluk Carbon.  Out of the two, I instantly felt comfortable throwing around the Fatboy.  The Mukluk had very quick steering, which I didn’t care for.  That’s just my personal preference, I think most riders rather have precise, quick steering bikes.

The guys at KLM hooked us up at the demo event.  I ended up going there the following week and picked up a Fatboy SE for my son, and of course a Fatboy 27.5″ for myself..oops!

So onto a little about the 2020 Specialized Fatboy.  It comes in a few different builds, aluminum framed base Deore, a SRAM SX, a SRAM GX and, 2 carbon versions.  Some with 26″ wheels and others with 27.5″  The one I tested was the 27.5″ wheeled SRAM SX model in aluminum.  It was a blast!  I’ve ridden 26″ fat bikes in the past, and they felt heavy and slow.  The Fatboy was a different animal! It was so easy to toss around, and I was instantly comfortable on it.  This is a bike I could ride during the summer, on the tight, twisty trails we have around here!

I ride a medium sized bike and this Fatboy was no different, the reach was good, not too close, not too far.  It didn’t feel heavy at all, but I am guessing it’s somewhere around 30 lbs. The SRAM SX groupset is new this year, and from what I’ve read, it’s only available to OEM.   It’s similar to the NX groupset, but according to some sites, a step below, heavy duty that’s for sure!  It performed well, not the smoothest shifting I’ve had, but I have no issues with it.  The cassette is an NX version with the Shimano specific freewheel, not the standard SRAM XD driver. The brakes are Level T and worked fine for a basic hydraulic brake, the base model of the Fatboy have mechanical brakes.

The rest of the components are Specialized brand, wheels seemed nicely built and it came with Maxxis Minions. it seems all around a decent package, all work as expected, nothing looks cheap or flimsy. This model came with a Specialized carbon fork, it had  internal routing for the front brake hose.  If you never change out your brakes, this is a nice feature. If you do then there is going to be some brake bleeding in your future.

 

In the snow, to get some good usable traction, you will need to air these tires down some.   I took it out on during a snow storm where it was really coming down hard!  The trails were not groomed, and it was a little tough getting thru the 5″+ of fresh powder. Sadly, I was only able to ride it on the paved trails that were covered in snow.  It was just a lot of work with my 10 year old to ride the trails. I can’t wait to try it out on some groomed trails and in the summer on dirt trails.