While up in Grand Marais, MN this past weekend, my wife and I rented a pair of electric fat tire bikes. Long story short, we came back home with one of them in the back of our van 🙂

If you’re ever in Grand Marais be sure to swing by the Fireweed Bike Co-op! Jay knows his stuff and was a pleasure to work with. When it came time to pay the bill for our 2 e-fat bikes for 2 hours, I thought he gave me half off and was only charging me for one of the bikes…nope! $15 for each bike for 2 hours – good luck beating that deal up the shore!

The groomed bike trails were pretty soft due to the warm temps but we still had fun and eventually got the hang of it. The bikes had three different modes:

• Normal – The rider gets no help from the motor. Due to the heavy nature of these bikes, this was a great workout.
• Pedal-Assist – The rider gets a little boost with each pedal. There are 9 different settings, where 1 provides the least amount of help, 9 makes you feel like a Tour de France rider!
• Full-Throttle – No need to pedal here! There is also a thumb throttle that essentially turns the bike into a scooter/moped!!

I noticed that even when pedal-assist is on I was still getting a workout and noticing a little fatigue. I noticed a lot of fatigue when I commuted to work on Tuesday in -15 degree temps and the battery died a little over half-way in to Duluth (17.5 mile ride one-way). It was a good experiment – I was definitely using too high of a pedal-assist setting right away given the chilly temps decreasing battery life significantly.

After charging the battery back up at work and deciding to only use the lowest pedal-assist setting until climbing Highland to Skyline, I was able to successfully make it the full 17.5 miles home!

Time to figure out some sort of battery-wrap that keeps it warmer even in cold temps – if you have any suggestions let me know!

In case you are wondering, I bought this bike. It is a blast!!! Thinking of upgrading to the 21 amp hour battery in the future, dreaming of even longer rides and using this thing for epic grouse hunting adventures 🙂

UPDATE (3/10/19): Created a homemade battery wrap using a foam sleeping pad, an old rain jacket, and some straps! Rode to work last Friday and made it without the battery dying! This bike is a lot fun!!