Surly Moonlander; Dune Surfing and Rock Crawling...

The storm of Friday evening had passed over and there would be no harvest work for a few days after that downpour. With everything soaking it was time to head for the coast and i rode east to Tyninghame on the big Surly Moonlander under a big blue sky...

The Moonlander is quite different to ride to a 4" fatbike and not really enjoyable on the road with weird steering. But it is not for this but to go ride where normal bikes would fail to keep forward progress, not to worry though as soon be on the coast... -:)

A beast sleeps...

The feeder, Om Nom Nom Nom....

Even the Moonlander can be out Tyre`d...

What an amazing morning...

Time for some dune surfing...you will need to watch the film for that..

Onshore wind and the roar of some big tumbling surf...

Down on the coast and wet soft sand from the retreating tide, Moonlander magic... -:)

I rode along the tide line and came across something that  had revealed itself in the moving sands i have never seen before...

The remains of a wreck....

Never seen this wreck before, need to look into it.  On along the shore and some rock crawling to get on film before parking up...

Fatbikes are fatbikes, they are fun to ride and are for riding where you will not ride a regular MTB.
Be it here in the UK on the sand dunes and rocks and sandy trails on the coast, or inland up in the hills on peat moorland with out that much of a struggle to make it enjoyable.

The minimum footprint thing seems to be getting forgotten by many which is a good thing to emphasise on these bikes when you look at MTB erosion in sensitive areas like the Pentland Hills near Edinburgh.
Here in the UK there is little mention of low impact on the environment and also coastal riding on fatbikes, but a big marketing push trying to capture the mainstream MTB market to ride a fatbike that has `trail geometry` whatever that is!, i find that bit hilarious,  these bikes do not do anything the original Surly Pugsleys and Salsa Mukluks can do!

A  fatbike owner on the Internet  keeps banging on about this, that they are great for trail centres etc...
They will never replace a MTB for bombing around a UK trail centre. They are not better, or faster, or a replacement for a good MTB - but they are deft fun to ride anywhere for big grin factor, and that is something not to be confused.

29+ is what most people who do not ride near the coast on sandy conditions who want a fatbike should be rolling on, it is the perfect half way house between the rolling speed of  29" wheels, and the cushioning and float of a regular 4" fatbike. I have discovered this riding the Krampus rims /tyres on trails over the last couple of months. In time more tyre choices and cheaper rim options will probably become available for this
In time 29+  will become more mainstream...

Really enjoying some other fatbike owners blogs these days and seeing where they ride, also the various fatbike pages on facebook are good as folk are out there riding, good vibes on them pages -:)

I try to stay away from Fatbike Internet forum threads these days that are not ride reports or pictures, as most of my riding friends do, as sadly they are by the same folk on nearly every thread, and these people who wax lyrical about stuff  that they clearly seem to Know little about. blah blah blah... -:)
Get off the Internet and talking a good ride,  and go out and do it. You will learn more about riding a bike, control, and geometry that works for you from riding  than on any Internet forum..

Someone said that he would never buy a fatbike just for beach riding. I did and the Moonlander has proved one amazing bike when ridden on the coast where i have found even a 4" tyre fat bike struggles to hold a line,
Here is what you can get up to on 5" of fat tyre on 100mm rims, The Moonlander is still king on soft sand and makes riding a lot of rocky shoreline accessible as it crunches over anything in its path...

Song is `Spaceman (Continuous mix)` by Babylon Zoo
click on the cog icon to view in HD