Fat Bikes, Through Axles & BoB

 The first Fat Bike was ridden in the Sahara from Zinder to Tamanrasset in 1980 by Jean Naud. Using Michelin prototype tyres his journey is recorded in his book Trois Rous Pour Timbouctou. If anybody knows of an English translation of this book please let me know. The fat bike we know today sees its' roots in Alaska and New Mexico between Simon Rakower of All Weather Sports in Fairbanks Alaska and Ray Molina in New Mexico. Ray wanted them for his guided desert tour business. Simon's interest came from being involved in the tech support for the then Iditabike Race across the snows of Alaska. Mainstream availability comes in 2005 with the emergence of the Surly Pugsley frame. Since then we have seen most major brands bring a Fat Bike to the market and tyres appear in standard catalogues.

The history of the Thru Axle has yet it appears to be written, even in the Wiki Book of Lies. A far from extensive search discovered two patents raised in 2006 & 2008 neither from a major manufacturer. The RockShox Psylo has been around since 2001/2 so I can't really illuminate much here. Fair to say the various specs are established in the MTB world, rapidly arriving in CX therefore road thru axles are only a matter of time. Ben Delaney's article in BikeRadar points to the age old saw that the manufacturers want a standard system to allow customer choice. Historically in my experience this ends up with a number of differing standards. (Think BB30)

Where does all this fit in with us here at Amba? Well fairly regularly we get asked if there is a way to fit a Bob trailer to a bike with a rear thru axle. Until late last year the answer had always been no. I then fell across the Robert Axle Project and I finally had an answer. I followed them on Twitter to see what they were up to and was pleasantly surprised with a follow back and an email to the office asking if we'd like to distribute in the UK. Sadly this is too niche even for us so we declined the offer but the thru axle brigade have a BoB trailer attachment solution.

Fat bikes reared their head this week with a customer wanting to tow his BoB with his Surly Moonlander 29er with 5” tyres. Unsurprisingly this is all too much for the 28” fork version of the BoB trailers. A short web search threw this answer up on the MTBR forums. A neatly engineered solution. Further down the thread is a link to Coastkid's blog from 2011 where he has radically modified a BoB to work with his fatbike.

Two solutions for the dedicated fatbike rider in a week and one for the thru axle crowd I thought that was worth putting fingers to keyboard.

Waterproof Rating Systems

Overboard iPad Case

Did you ever start researching something then almost instantly regret it?  With Amba Marketing distributing Overboard waterproof kit to the UK cycling world I thought it apposite to gen up on waterproof rating systems and how they relate to each other.  This could get as messy as light output was!  

The ISO in all its' wondrousness deals only in packaging, electrical components in motor vehicles and exposure to radon.  Waterproof standards are there for materials and almost everything else I could imagine but water resistance of a non safety specific manufactured item no.  Footwear gets one and it doesn't seem a massive stretch to take that to specialist outdoor goods but apparently not.  Looking through the clothing listings shows that the vast majority of spec's are, quite rightly, for specialist safety clothing.  It does beg the question, if boots and safety clothing are covered, surely it's a bit of a cut and paste exercise to use the knowledge from existing spec's and apply them to outdoor clothing/luggage?  

On the high street my less than forensic investigation reveals the standard we usually see is actually the waterproof rating of the material not the finished item.  So while a standard we can work with it tells you nothing about the quality of the seams.  My first “waterproof jacket” had great material but after extended use the seams seeped.  I have owned a jacket with zip on sleeves which was considerably more waterproof than my early visit to waterproof clothing.  The figures we usually see relate to the ISO regulation let's take a 10K or 10,000mm material. To end up with this figure you place a square tube over your fabric of choice you have to be able to fill your tube with water  to a height of 10,000mm without water passing through the fabric.  The IP53 used by Ortlieb is an electrical specification for dust and water ingress and you have to start somewhere.   

Seam sealing, sometimes referred to as seam taping, covers the tiny holes made by the needle in the sewing process so the seams don’t leak using a heat application of thin waterproof tape. Sometimes seams are bonded together using glue or heat, but typically they are first sewn then taped. Garments can be either “fully taped” or “critically taped” – the difference is that a fully taped garment has every seam taped, while a critically taped one has tape only on high exposure areas like the neck, shoulders, and chest. Luggage on the whole is fully taped or even welded. 

Welded seams have replaced traditional sewing in many manufacturers.  They look better and have a better in use life however, it is a more expensive process than sewing.  Last year the US Navy were reported to be investigating having welded seam uniforms made.

Overboard have taken on all the above information and decided to use Roc Gear's WSRS (Waterproof Store Rating System) to rate their equipment.  ROC assert it is, “fast becoming the accepted standard for all types of waterproof containers.” On this point I refer the reader to Mandy Rice Davies.  This does not deviate from the value of a system that is meaningful to both retailer and customer. If ISO ever take on a standard then I think this isn't a bad place to start from.  The reader will notice that both Roc and Overboard refer to the WSRS Rating System, this pedant will not be seen using PIN Number for all the same reasons.

While not the most devastatingly entertaining of posts I hope this article has been of help to you.  I would have included ISO's definitions but at £50 a pop there are more pressing things to throw money at.

Overboard waterproof bags are now distributed to UK & Ireland cycling retailers via Amba Marketing.  If anybody has pertinent information not here or if ISO would like me to help in the outdoor kit testing facility please get in touch.