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The Redesign of the fat bike

Lazarus Porter​

Lathrop high school​

Fairbanks Alaska 3/23/2019 ​

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What is the Problem

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  • Fat bikes have wider tires than normal bikes to improve flotation and control on snow.​
  • A normal fat bike tire has around 30 square inches of surface area touching the snow
  • this is double the surface area of a normal mountain bike tire.

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  • Even with such a big improvement fat bikes still have very big limitation on how much snow they can go through

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What solutions are already out their

  • This is way too expensive when a mid grade Fat bikes costs around $1500

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  • There is only one company that makes anything close to my idea.
  • There product costs $875

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The birth of the ski bike

  • my idea to solve my problem was to replace the normal fat bike tire with a ski.
  • This would both add flotation and control in deeper snow

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  • The ski I used would have 106 square inches of surface area.
  • With more then triple the surface area of a continental fat bike tire.

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Discussion

  • The ski exceeded the limitations of a fat bike tire by a lot.​
  • Flotation improved​
    • Extra surface area of the ski helped the flotation in fresh snow​
  • Control improve
    • Skis are designed to work in snow then tires
  • Price of raw materials
    • Aluminum $30
    • Ski $ 25
  • Like any first prototype there was things to improve.
    • Custom made ski could add more surface area
    • Lighter frame.
    • Better attachment of frame to ski.

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Next steps to brining this to market

  • Make improvements to prototype.
  • Bring the ski bike adapter to any fat bike or ski races for people to test.
  • Next go to local bike shops to ask them to display my fat bike ski adapter.

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THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME.

ARE THERE ANY QUESTIONS?

  • Sources

https://www.fatbikeskis.com/

https://fat-bike.com/