BikeRadar took a detailed look at Salsa's Beargrease earlier this year. Back then the full carbon fat bike was still a prototype. We've since had a visit from UK distributor Ison and taken the chance to give a production Beargrease a proper inspection.
For the £2,799 retail price, the Beargrease features a full carbon frame and fork, a drivetrain consisting mostly of SRAM X9 components and Avid BB7S mechanical disc brakes. Finishing kit is mostly from the Truvativ stable.
The wheelset makes use of Surly's huge Holy Rolling Darryl rims, these are laced to Salsa hubs and, as you'd expect, the axles are seriously wide – the front fork uses a 15x142mm through-axle, while the rear takes a mammoth 12x177mm hub. All that width is used to ensure a proper chain line from the 121mm bottom bracket, there's even a direct mount front derailleur adaptor, for easy and clean installation of either a 1x or 2x setup.
Tyres are provided by cold weather specialists 45NRTH and are unstudded versions of their Dillinger ice/snow tyre. At 4in, wide these were never going to be cheap to replace, but the actual retail price of £185 (US$165.99) each will probably stop you from skidding on tarmac!
This complete Beargrease tipped our scales at 13.18kg (29.05lb). There's even an extra pimp XX1 build available for £4,199!
It certainly has split opinion here at the BikeRadar towers, with "That's the biggest waste of carbon I've ever seen" probably being the harshest comment the Beargrease has received.
It will always be an acquired taste, although with a winter like last year's in the UK it could make sense for a few days… maybe?
The tapered carbon fork has room for up to 4.8in of rubber!
