Global Fat Bike Day celebrated in the Valley

BUTTE — Though Global Fat Bike Day was started three years ago by a pair of British blokes, the origin of the bikes themselves trace their routes back to Alaska as much as anywhere.

For the first two years, the event was celebrated most locally in Anchorage, but for the first time last Saturday, the Mat-Su Valley joined the fray with upwards of 40 people turning out for a festive ride.

“I would say riding in snow was how it started, but I don’t think it’s that way anymore,” said Tony Berberich of Backcountry Bike and Ski in Palmer. “There’s so many people riding fat bikes, and now they have plus-bikes, which is kind of a fat tire bike.”

California and Colorado are among the other states that claim some credit for the advent of the bikes, which give away some speed for superior traction and dominance of trails even where there aren’t trails, but Berberich said they can all take a back seat to Alaska.

“Is this the birthplace? Hell, yeah, and I wouldn’t just say Palmer, but Fairbanks has got a lot of guys out there, too.”

The inaugural Mat-Su crew met up at the end of Sullivan Road, just past the raceway and rode in the single-degree temperatures, dark and snow, an hour out to the Knik River and back. That was followed by hanging out with beers next to a barrel fire, the flames shining through a stencil cutout that read “Backcountry.”

“Once you get moving, you’ve got layers on and you’re pedaling, so there’s no problems with the snow,” said Jennifer Bostick, one of several to ride fat bikes lit up Christmas tree-style. “And if you fall in the snow, it doesn’t hurt that bad, but you do need snow.”

Usually fat bike riders keep their tire pressures low, which allows the bike’s tires to grip and traverse rough trails like a glove, and allows them to, theoretically, ride atop the snow.

“That’s the idea, you’ve gotta get the air pressure right,” said rider Stacey Kolstad. “As they say, ‘when you’re in doubt, let the air out.’ If you’re sinking, that’s the secret… That, and the layers.”

With drier and icier winters becoming the norm, these riders say they’ve universally taken to buying studded tires, just the latest necessary accessory for year-round fat biking.

“We’ve got the hot packs, gloves — I like the lobster gloves, and we have the pogies (warming gloves attached to the handlebars),” Bostick said. “We have (hot packs) for feet, too, for wimps… I’m a wimp.”

The off-season for the next Global Fat Bike Day starts next Wednesday night and every Wednesday night at 6:30, hosted by Backcountry Bike and Ski at various locations.

Call (907) 746-5018 for more information.