It seems that the fatbike arms race may soon be shifting away from who can build the lightest fat bike to who can build the best full suspension fatbike. This isn’t the first full suspension fattie as we’ve seen teases from Salsa, as well as actual bikes at NAHBS from Ti Cycles, and Black Sheep. The latest prototype comes to us by way of Nicolai bikes, as it appears their distributor from Helsinki may have worked up this replacement swing arm to make a Nicolai, well, fat. The rear swing arm appears to be capable of a full size fatbike wheel and tire, though the front fork looks like it required a narrower rim to pass through the fork legs. To this point we’ve seen quite a few options for front suspension fatbike forks from old Mavericks, to Sandman’s Javelina, to Leftys and custom truss forks – though we heard rumors of a major fork manufacturer entertaining the idea of a small run of Fatbike specific forks. When and if that happens – we expect to see a more, even squishier fat bikes.
Bounce past the break for another angle of this one-off Nicolai.
Clearly, with no chain or derailleur it’s not quite finished, but it looks rideable.
