Global Fat Bike Day 2020

For those of you who ride the fat tire the first Saturday in December is a holiday, those that do not likely see it as just another Saturday on the Calendar. Global Fat Bike Day, as near as I can tell, started in 2012 and was the brain child of the folks over at Fat-Bike.com as a way to get riders together and celebrate the new found popularity of the fat bike. It's also my annual reminder that I have received a life time ban from their Instagram page, the ban is coming up on it's third anniversary here shortly. Not entirely sure what I did but I have a suspicion it revolves around a few Pugsley pictures I shared that they accidentally let slip a wee bit earlier than Surly wanted them to do so. Wasn't done in malice as I didn't know at the time I shared them that they posted early, nor did they ever actually say anything to me about it but shortly there after... poof, Fat-Bike.com's Instagram account ceased to exist in my world. I reached out to them once to see what the blockage was all about but after their initial response saying they were looking into it, crickets. Much like Nebraska, I guess I'm not for everyone.



I didn't get into fat bikes or Global Fat Bike Day until 2015 so I missed out on the first three but to be honest I don't remember there being a bigger, sponsored and organized event in eastern Nebraska until we put that first one on. Over the years we've had some really fun events and even added a chili cook off on our second rodeo. The prizes and the chili cook off I feel really bumped things up from a ride to an actual event, not only did the event attract riders but it also started to attracted chili slingers looking to pit their best recipe against all comers. Add a few kegs of beer, a fire pit or two and you had hours of fun after the hours of riding. This year being what it is most of that went away and we pared it down to just a ride. I was a little apprehensive on what that would do for the ride but as it turns out we still ended up with a good group of folks looking to get their fat biking on.




Not sure what the turn out was going to be this year we planned a fairly short ride down to Van Dorn Park for a few laps but not before we hit up the Dockhorn SAG stop for beverages and donut holes.




VDP was a blast and it was pretty cool seeing so many fatties in there on the trails all at one time. Not sure I've seen that many riders in there at one time since the old CX races that used to be held at VDP not too many years ago. VDP is rapidly becoming one of Lincoln's favorite parks, much like it used to be decades ago and with all the new trails, a new water refill station coming next year, a push to get native grass and flowers going in to replace the evasive species in there now and new playground equipment there is plenty to get excited about. 







Since the day brought fantastic weather and an adventurous group, we decided to head through Wilderness Park for some additional miles and smiles. Managed to get in the entire east side, well as much of the east side you can ride minus the small sections rerouted around due to bridge outages. Even managed a few trails I hadn't been on in years.




With the official ride over and the unofficial bonus miles also over, the numbers started to dwindle as the numbers do but those of us still in it for the long haul found ourselves enjoying a beverage at Saro before closing the door on another great GFBD and heading home.

 

Global Fat Bike Day 2019

Saturday was Global Fat Bike Day and our 5th annual GFBD ride at the shop, everyone has been a blast and everyone has been slightly different from the one before or after it, you just never know what you're going to get. Like a giant donut on a 24 Pack Rack or two dudes staring at each other while they share a bit of said donut but it happened and if you weren't there, you missed out.


2015 I bought my first Fat Bike, the Trek Farley 6 which was only made for the one year as a alternative to the spendier Farley 7. The following year the Fat Bike would really blow up and Trek would offer what seemed like 8-10 different models. GFBD 2015 was a bit of a warmer affair and the trails were no good so we stuck to the pavement... and forgot to get a picture at the start so we took this one midway through and probably missed a few folks.


2016 was a cold one but had promised to stay dry, little did we know that this would end up being the most idyllic GFBD of them all so far. A mile out from the single track Mother Nature decided to start dropping big, wet snow flakes on top of us and the ground was covered with a fair amount of snow by the time we got there. We did however remembered the pre-ride photo this time and stared the Chili Cook Off as part of the festivities.


2017 was a really warm winter up to this point, I remember it being dusty on the way to Wilderness Park. We had a big crowd that year, the weather probably played a lot into that but the Fat Bike was also the king of the bicycle world as far as new bike sales went. This was just before the industry started turning toward the next big craze in the way of the gravel bike, it seemed like everyone owned a Fat Bike in 2017; the fire sale on Pugsley and Ice Cream Trucks probably helped that cause.


2018 was cold and wet which kept the crowd down to only the hard core Fat Biker. While it was a smaller bunch it was also the die hard, rowdy crowd so what it might have lacked in size it made up for in good times.



Now that the little recap is out of the way, it's on to this years ride. The importance of a tasty beverage or a mascot cannot be underplayed in their importance for a great ride and we had both so it was almost like we couldn't go wrong.


With the blessing of the dog and the Fireball a decent group of riders did in fact show up for the ride. Temps were supposed to get into the 50s but with a pretty brisk wind out of the south, it never did feel overly warm.






Since some folks are the single track kind of people and some aren't, we had two different routes but both of them headed out through downtown and then to the bridge behind Good Life Fitness.


Fireball was dispensed to the riders on the bridge, initially by tossing them but as it turns out folks who ride bikes cannot necessarily catch flying liquor so they were then handed out at a more personal distance. Thanks to McColgan Photography for the mid air shot.



We did this same route from the bridge a couple of GFBD rides ago and I still love the two lines of Fat Bikes snaking down the trail in a long procession.





Wilderness was in pretty good shape, would have been a little better a few degrees cooler but the few slick spots that were out there were easily avoided.





A little more single track and a regroup on the southern end of the route before heading back seemed like a perfect place for a trail beer. Since it was a bunch of Fat Bikers there were several varieties to choose from at the stop.



Once back on the pavement and heading back, we did have another regroup when a train decided to cut our group in half.





A few more paved miles and we were back at the shop for the rest of the festivities.





Beers (courtesy of White Elm), brats, chili and cake were on the menu for the hungry and thirsty riders.


Bonus points were given if you could do most of them at the same time.





After socializing and eating it was time to get the results of the Chili Cook Off from the judges and announce the winners.


Third place claims to have not known his chili was called so he was not pictured but it's possible Mark was just camera shy. Second place went to Rick and Debbie for their great offering.


The first place winner was Jason with his white chicken chili and it was a fantastic tasting chili with just the right amount of heat; if you didn't get it quick then you didn't get any because it went fast.





After the winners were announced some folks decided to take a self guided tour of the upcoming Containers on Vine. While they might look a little small on the outside a walk through the inside showed them to be more spacious than they appeared and I could definitely see a few beers getting drank while sitting on that top patio on a warm summers night. Cannot wait to see the finished product since we've watched them grow up before our very eyes. Thanks to everyone who came out and rode, made a chili or did both; it was a great time and you all are the main reason for that. Let's regroup and do it all over again next year, everybody start doing your snow dance now and maybe we can get some more of that white stuff next year.

**Edit**

I almost forgot the short little video of us rolling into downtown.


Aaaaaaannnnnddddd I finally got my Academy Award that I was promised at the Groveler Race weeks ago but it didn't come from the race organizers; instead it came from Joe. Thanks, Joe... I'd like to thank all those who helped me win this... or NAH!