State Bicycle Co Release Affordable Entry-Level Fat Bike
State Bicycle Co has released the 6061 Trail+ Fat Bike, retailing at just $999.99 USD. That's almost half the price of entry-level models from Trek, Fezzari, Kona and Giant. It's also $300 USD cheaper than Rocky Mountain's most affordable Blizzard, and $300 USD cheaper than the Surly Wednesday at its current sale price.
At such an attractive price point, it would be foolish to expect a boundary-pushing geometry, or cutting-edge components. So, do manage your expectations here.
As the name suggests, State's offering runs a 6061 aluminum frameset. Floatation over the snow is delivered by reasonably high-volume 26" x 4.5" tires, though many of the aforementioned models run 27.5" wheels for even better rollover capabilities. State has gone with Kenda Juggernaut tires, which appear to have a less aggressive tread pattern than some, putting rolling resistance over bite.
Tektro cable-operated disc brakes of the two-finger variety take care of speed management. It's an interesting choice of spec, given the freezing risk presented by sub-zero conditions, especially if under-maintained. Taking care of forward propulsion is a 9-Speed Shimano Altus drivetrain, with a clutch-less derailleur.
The State 6061 is available in four sizes; S-XL, said to accommodate riders from 5ft 2" up to 6ft 4". Reach numbers are short, even in the context of other fat bikes, ranging from 409mm to 443mm. The head tube angle is a conservative 71°, with the seat tube at 73°.
Riders looking to fully load their bike for shopping trips could be well accommodated, thanks to the mounting points for a rear rack, but those with ambitions of longer bike packing missions will want to consider other options. There are only two sets of bottle bosses on the front triangle, and the aluminum fork is completely bereft of mounting points. Sure, there are various hacks for mounting cages to forks that are sans bosses, but they are invariably less well-refined solutions with limited weight capacity.
Sure, it's not the most versatile fat bike out there, but the value for money is hard to contest. And, if it's the difference between getting out for a pedal, and not getting out for a pedal...
State Bicycle Co is a consumer-direct brand, shipping bicycles that are 90% assembled. The brand does offer a five-year warranty on all bicycle frames, so long as the owner is able to provide proof of professional assembly.
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In the silent snow covered woods of winter the sound of snow squeaking under your tire at zero degrees with the frost hanging on the bare branches of a Birch trees on a morning ride follow by a good hot sauna afterwards. Thats a nice place.
If you’re going to live where winter buries you in snow you have to have an outdoor hobby or you come to hate it, be it far bikes, xcountry skiing, snowmobile, ice fishing what ever.
Sorry bud, no fat bikers here on the west coast. I'll be riding my regular bike all winter long.
Don't mean to rub it in. haha.
Bought my Cube Nutrail back in 2016, converted to 1x11, Saints, dropper and 4.8 Maxxis FBF & FBR. It's been to Fort William, Glencoe (crashed & burned on the red!), Coed Y Brenin, Chicksands, Cannock Chase, Schladming bike park. I'm not exactly Danny Hart on it, but it's still fun at my level. Has also been ridden in the snow and on sand over here.
If my budget allowed, I would totally have an N+1 fat bike for when I don't want to adventure far or fast, just riding in the hood.
But none on the coast
Florianopolis/Brazil.
Surly intergalactic headquarters in Bloomington Minnesota has the Mississippi River bottoms out it’s back door soft loose sand left behind when the mighty Mississippi recedes from spring high waters. I’m sure that was one of the impetuses for the Pugsley OG.
Then after 6 years, I was loving it so much that I decided to build a realll custom bike, like I do for my mtn bikes! RSD frame but with an Mastodon fork (heavy but now can ride it 4 seasons, as I only have a big enduro bike for summer), light carbon wheels (mainly to switch summer/winter tires easily), etc. It was expensive but I love fatbiking as much as mtn biking (when not too cold lol). All that to say that you don't need a super expensive bike to have a looott of fun during winter!
And covered in salt on the drive home. My fat bikes (wifey and mine) are where our summer drive trains go to ease into retirement
As for the geometry, 71/73 is very out-dated for a fat bike angles and the top tube length and reach numbers are also similarly out of date for the frame sizes.Most likely they lucked into a batch of frames someplace that the manufacturer couldn't sell to anyone else.
As to the components, one of the worst rolling fat tires and one of the cheapest groupsets they could get (as Shimano is dumping Alivio due to excess inventory now that their new Cues lineup is getting all the big brand OEM attention). But they don't identify what the dropout spacing is and that's an important consideration when it comes to longterm fat bike ownership. Its obvious they're QR open dropouts but what's the spacing ? Is it 170/135, 190/135, 190/150 ? And what's the BB shell width of the frame ? What chainline is it designed for ? It looks an awful lot like a repainted version of the defective On One Fatty Trail frames that had the 170mm dropout spacing but the chainline was that of a 190 bike, and the chain stays were so wide that very few cranksets fit properly (SRAM Fat cranks don't, the arms smack the stays). And square taper BB and cranks at this price point is ridiculous.
Finally I get to commenting about the price tag... the Rocky Blizzard for $300 more gives you modern slack fat geometry, 27.5 wheels, a 10 speed Deore group with clutch derailleur, tubeless ready Sun Mulefut 80 wheelset, tubeless ready and studdable Terrene Cake eater tires that roll better and provide more traction than those Kenda Juggernauts, 197/150 thru axle dropouts, a proper external bearing crankset & BB and is a whole lot more fun bike to ride. And there are cheaper options that are at least as well equipped available in North America from Mongoose so I fail to see why anyone would even consider this model from State Bicycle. The Dolomite ALX (which is essentially identical to the Argus Trail listed on the Mongoose website except for the paint color) is available from Walmarts USA for $598USD and when Walmart Canada had them in stock last they were $598 CAD. For that you get a 135/190 spacing 6061 alloy frame and fork, similar wheels, better rolling and lighter tires, a microshift 2x8 drivetrain with a better gearing range (but they're easily converted to 1x setups as its a HG spline freehub body on the rear), slightly more modern geometry, and you save $400, which is plenty enough to have a bike store mechanic go over the assembly if you're not mechanically inclined enough to do it yourself. Or get the bike delivered in the box to your door and assemble it yourself.
I was looking at similar options when I was looking with idea of getting into winter biking, I am glad I spend 2,5 times on a Trek Farley 5 because I got at least 2,5 times better bike
Also - if you are thinking of biking in the winter, just do it
You should use your energy to become a better person rather than trashing someone trying to help. Your mom agrees with me
Also because STATE omits so many important details on the bike from their website and also weren't included in this review, we don't know how easy or hard upgrades might actually be. If the seattube isn't 30.9 or 31.6 for example, fitting a dropper isn't going to be an easy peasy thing to do. Like the author of the review couldn't even be bothered to take a tape measure to tell us while she had the bike in her possession, or remove the seat post and read the diameter printed on it to include in her write-up.
Given that I'm the guy who wrote the extensive original reviews of the Northrocks and other the sub-$1000CAD Fat bikes which are held up as the reference bibles for modifications by people across Canada and the USA, I know a thing or two about what makes a fat good for the entry level rider, and for the money, these aren't a good choice. Maybe during the pandemic shortages 2 years ago they might have been viable at the price point, but not going into the winter of 2024 when there are so many better options both new and on the used market (like FB Marketplace or here on Pinkbike in the buy-sell section).
(unless you use the absolute cheapest, crappiest old cataloge frame you could find of course)
$1000 for a crap package is still $1000, probably better off buying a nice used fat bike or some XC gear.
So, yeah, good geometry truly is free.
If the State were charging $600 (which is much closer to what it is actually worth), you might have a point. At $999 plus shipping, there are better options.
The difference between the 2 bikes is night and day. I sure don’t miss the ol’ beast that was nervous as heck and not much fun to ride down anything challenging.
No stupid self steer, The slack steering makes it go straight. The vertical seatpost keeps it from being a wheelie king up hills.
they likely get a good deal on this frame, and have some cheap parts to throw at it, to flog some fat bikes for winter.
Theres nothing obsolete about the geo, dont be so dramatic, you can literally go and pedal this bike all day if youd like.
Jokes aside, glad to See fatbikes still, but prefer 27.5/29" for Real World biking, Not only city Powers.
Shocked by the fact that a hardtail with shimano altus and shitty mecanic brakes at 999$ on a directtoconsumer brand and still Considered a bargain..
I'd better Buy a Surly for that price, much better Retail value and company ethics
I have these Tektro mech brakes and they work as well in the cold as the warm, which is to say not great in any condition, but don't seem to be affected by the cold. The cheap freehub is a different story; I've had two freeze up and then shred the pawls under load. Of course these cheap wheelsets have integrated hubs too, so after 2 under warranty I expect I'll be paying for the next one. Also the thought of buying a new set of tires is a little scary - I should start looking for deals now.
As long as you keep the pavement riding to a minimum, stay on snow, and don't air them down too low, preventing sidewall damage, fat bike tires will last many winters. The not airing them down too low can be a costly lesson.
Have a good season!
My wife's fat bike has the same Tektro as this State bike and on really cold days (-20 celsius or less) they works better than my Shimano hydro brakes. No wandering bite point too!!
What freezing risk? Is there a freezing risk for the cable operated mech? Mineral oil brakes have way more risk of getting crappy in the cold as the oil thickens.
There is nothing quite like seeing the 7 psi tyres become 4 psi tyres by the time one has pedalled from the 13ºC garage to the -15ºC trail.
I don't agree with this statement; geometry is "free". It doesn't cost more to make a bike slack than it does steep. Look at the Rocky Mountain Growler; cheap and cheerful, but slack and aggressive.
I haven't used mine for a couple of years since selling our mountain cabin, but I can't be bothered listing it as it probably won't sell, or the price would have to be a 6-pack of cheap lager.
But the fact remains, there's just no market for them anymore - at least in the south where I live where proper snowy winters is very rare now. We're still doing night rides sans studs, just came back from one.
A wild guess - my excellent alu 26" fat, 1x11 GX drivetrain, Bluto fork, dropper post, 4.8" Jumbo Jims, SRAM levels would get me maybe USD 250-300 now. And it's done one ride since a full service incl BB, brakes, drivetrain, wheels.
The equivalent is on offer now at 1000 USD....
moosebicycle.com/collections/fat-bikes/products/fb1-2023
Also I'd say that choosing a "catalog frame" is a legit spec choice for manufacturers offering low-mid range bikes. If it qiuacks like a duck it is a duck
Then they post this absolute dumpster fire of a bike shaped object as a representation of the sport.
This is not a fatbike... this is a town bike some dingus brand manager put together with bottom of the bin parts they need to get out the door.
Try harder!
I blew up my freehub last year and haven’t been able to afford a new wheel.
Over 2.8 begins to be too Flexy and prône to punctures though
People would better off accepting that fat biking is fat biking and mountain biking is mountain biking. There are quite a few things that are shared but it is essentially a totally different discipline.
Is this bike 443 years out of date?
Fun fact for nerds: The thru-"axle" in 148 boost hubs isn't even technically an axle anyways. It's a draw bolt with the sole purpose of providing clamping force between the dropouts and the hub-axles. The thru-"axle" itself doesn't see any radial load. And a QR skewer can do the same job just fine.
Skewers are absolutely not designed to take a radial load, but a thru-axle isn't either. A hollow 12mm tube made from mild aluminium could definitley not withstand the forces from bottoming out the suspension on a heavy landing. It would shear off (or permanently deform at the very least).
Yeah, I understand the appeal in countries with a lot of snow. In the UK, you'd be better off with a gravel bike.
Scotland does not get enough snow to warrant a fat bike.