MTB Zebra F.F.B. : Freaky Fat Bike

The front triangle is rather straightforward, with flowing shapes and not many sharp edges to avoid tension points. As you can see, « simplicity is the ultimate sophistication ».

But I struggled on the rear triangle as I lacked knowledge on carbon resistance (or at least how it would look). Also the fat tire and belt didn’t leave much design freedom.

I think I would do everything a bit thinner nowadays. Or even a lot. With a steeper seattube and a slacker headtube. But the tubes are big to fit with the big tires (4,8" on 24" rims for better handling, supposedly).

The bottom bracket may not be that high anymore when you add tires' sag to suspensions’ sag... Or the suspensions could be set firmier as the tires would handle small bumps.

The rear suspension is handled by a not so massive shock, because I only recently realized that it’s about 85% the size it should be. I'm not talking about the shock's stroke, but the actual mesh...

... because my reference picture four years ago was probably of a longer stroke shock. Beginner mistake... So the spring should have less coils. I was inspired by Nicolai for the link.

A four parts, 30mm direct mount Hope stem. It exists but I think it never went further than prototype stage.

Massive tires, massive fork, massive brakes… massive handling troubles ? The rims are large carbon rims by Nextie.

It only had one front brake at first, but at some point I realized the fork may not appreciate the bending constraints caused by the brake side. And no, the real XTR disk doesn't exist with 6 holes, only as centerlock.

In case you didn’t notice the big fork yet, here’s a focus on it, but the real one isn't available for fat bikes, and while the tires exist as 26", they don't exist as 24".

The zebra stripes are running on the fork's arch and on the seattube. Maybe I should add an "oversize load" sign.

The whole frame should be stiff enough... maybe too much...

I've seen full suspended fat bikes. Fat bikes with DH fork. Fat bikes with 2 disks front brake. 24" fat bikes. I put it all together, with a gearbox for good measure.

This is NOT a penny-farthing ;)

It was once equipped with a more classic looking saddle, but I replaced it with the bold looking Fabric.

The gearbox wasn't yet available with a trigger shifter when I did it. It was the old shifter with two cables.

The original color scheme.

With the colors inverted on the fork. Notice how it changes the overall feel of the bike, less front heavy.

With a fully green frame the rear triangle looks weird as it's snaking its way around the big tire.

Not bad, but could be better.

Classic black & gold.

Murdered out, down to the shock knobs. On a white background the black color would thin out the frame and make the tires look "ginormous".

With the JSB color scheme… Not bad, but the flat color emphasizes the large look of the tubes. The frame would need more refinement or more blue decals.

Rather classy and sporty in white with red brakes.

Never two without three.

I thought those huge tires could carry a lof of dirt, so the massive one-part seatstay is protected by a metal insert.

The frame seems to have better proportions without the big wheels. Maybe I should keep the style and adapt it to a "normal" bike.

I can’t remember why I did the chainstay that long, but I could probably make it 2cm shorter. Maybe it was a belt length issue. And last but not least, thanks to my buddy Fred Treq for his ever valuable opinion.

So... green ? - Yeah, super gre... no wait, where's the water bottle ?! xD