Is Chris getting back in the bike biz - 2014?

[Stingercut]

Originally Posted by DocChill

That's it - can't wait to get new "Blah blah blah" Shirts! Today I got a pair of classic Yo Eddy! gloves by a friendly Fat-Cog... my day is saved ! If somebody is interested to know what the germans think about Chris' comeback, please have look here !!! I believe everybody is very, very excited...

I think the Germans and the British must be the most ardent Fat fans outside of the US
The new Fats need to keep their 'cool' status at all costs. Sure many other mass production manufacturers would kill for their brand cachet

[Fat Boy John]

Having met up with ti-fat-man this Sunday at the Iconoclassic retro bike show as well as a few other Fat fans, I am glad to re-report that interest is VERY much alive and those of us who are true Fat nerds have already started to save our hard-earned in anticipation. By the way ti-fat-man, your Ti was definitely for me the bike of the show.

[fiatjeepdriver]

Originally Posted by Spikes

Oh man! Please no carbon! I know there are lovely bikes around made out of carbon, but a Fat Chance need to stand out from the crowd! Lightweight steel it should be...

I agree that steel, especially stainless, would be my first choice but after riding a custom built carbon road bike for a few years it's a good choice as well.

[yeag]

A stainless bike would be gorgeous! I can't imagine Chris would use carbon for a Yo.

[02mick]

I dont think those super thin stainless tube make for a durable mtb, i dont wanne be a party pooper but i dont like ur changes (;
Ti or steel but i would a steel with the same rear traingle as old, they where so pretty !

[I-ROBOT]

After Fat City Somerville closed, I went to work for a company in Danvers, Mass that designs and builds high-purity stainless steel piping fabrications for all the big drug companies. As nice as stainless steel sounds for a bike frame, I can tell you that the properties of most stainless alloys don't lend themselves to achieving the levels of torsional rigidity and tensile strength needed produce a ride like the Yo Eddy has. The expense of the raw material far out-weighs any advantage of corrosion resistance and sacrifices ride quality. You wouldn't even be able to find a stainless tube mill that would be willing to try to produce butted tubing - there is simply no demand. Stainless is great for all the bits on a bike, drop-outs, cable guides, etc. but to make a complete frame that was competitive in weight and had the ride quality you all desire would require an undertaking on the scale of the Delorean. We all know what happened to that.
Great fantasy but never a reality
Sorry to burst your bubble
Scott

[yo-Nate-y]

http://www.ifbikes.com/OurBikes/Road...s_Steel_Road)/

?

[laffeaux]

I have a stainless steel IF CX bike. It rides really well.

But to Soctt's point the cost of the material, and the additional cost of building a frame from stainless steel drives up the cost a lot over traditional steel. The cost is on par with a titanium frame. While stainless steel is a cool idea, I think that titanium would be more in line with a continuation of the Yo Eddy heritage.

[Stingercut]

Well...the dream of a Reynolds 953 Maraging steel Yo has died. Something made as well as an 89 Team Comp will suffice

[spindrome]

KVA, Reynolds, and Columbus are all doing butted SS tube sets. Everyone seems to position this material above titanium in both ride characteristics and even price.

Out of my range anyway, I would be happy with non-stainless steel.

[I-ROBOT]

OK I stand corrected!! But the IF price of nearly $4K just for a frame and fork illustrates my point - to a point
I have been out of the business for almost 20 years and, admittedly, have not kept up with all of the technology. I'm glad that the producing companies are giving it a go.
I will have to study up and then try to give a more informed opinion.

Thanks for proving me wrong!!

But remember, stainless steel is only corrosion RESISTANT. It is not corrosion PROOF!! (don't put it in salt water for any length of time)

Scott

[zonq]

For now it's nice to find the discussion & updates in one thread, but as this gets going, there'll be a lot of topics... perhaps a new subforum is in order?

The Fat Chance v3, the New Fat Chance, Not Your Dads Fat Chance, etc...

FatCogs may find itself with quite a bit more traffic once Chris is back in action.

[Stingercut]

Originally Posted by zonq

For now it's nice to find the discussion & updates in one thread, but as this gets going, there'll be a lot of topics... perhaps a new subforum is in order?

The Fat Chance v3, the New Fat Chance, Not Your Dads Fat Chance, etc...

FatCogs may find itself with quite a bit more traffic once Chris is back in action.

Don't be surprised to see Kim Kardashian featured riding one wearing only a thong and micro top My gut feeling is they will be the 'must have' bike when the first ones roll off the production line again.

[h1v9a8c8]

I can tell you I have had 3 stainless rhygins and all 3 cracked within 1 year. They sucked

[rody]

Originally Posted by I-ROBOT

OK I stand corrected!!

Scott,

Don't give up so easily...the offerings from KVA and Reynolds have not proven themselves worth the effort, so even though you are 20 years out of the game, the material has not progressed that much.

The XCR from Columbus, however, is high quality and builds a very fine frame. The process is identical to Ti and cost just as much, so for the consumer, a ti frame really is a much better value in the long run.

cheers,

rody

[DocChill]

Originally Posted by rody

...a ti frame really is a much better value in the long run.

Cheers,
Rody

...I would love to see similar quality signature welds again in 2014 (Thanks to Scott ! I'm not sure, but I think he made my FAT Ti frame...):


Cheers,
Daniel

[Stingercut]

Originally Posted by DocChill

...I would love to see similar quality signature welds again in 2014 (Thanks to Scott ! I'm not sure, but I think he made my FAT Ti frame...):


Cheers,
Daniel

Typical ! Any excuse to show off your toy

[Spikes]

Not to spoil anything, but it would surprise me if a return would be successful... The market for mountainbikes shows a lot of competition, mainly from Asia. Furthermore, there are quite some boutique brands to choose from currently. IF and Firefly for instance have direct connections with former Fat Chance and still struggle for their existence. There are many other great brands and many have closed their doors (Serotta).

Obviously everybody is very exited about the fact that Chris had great plans. One is myself. But to be quite honest, I think it is a great risk.

Now about the type of bike: I sense that this forum is very positive towards steel and titanium. Quite obvious, since these are the "original" materials for Fat City Cycles. But what would really add something to the current available lineup of high-end bikes? And didn't IF try something similar with the Deluxe Redux? And how many did they sell of those? Not a lot I suppose (although I bough a lavender one :-) )

We'll see what happens and foremost I wish Chris all the best with his plans!

[DocChill]

Originally Posted by Stingercut

Typical! Any excuse to show off your toy

...what I'm doing, is only publicity for Chris' work !!!

But I have to say that I agree with "Spikes", that Chris' comeback is a risk - all together we are a crowd of long time FAT enthusiasts but only a very, very small piece of the whole bicycle market... but I really hope, that the comeback will be successful! Like "Stingercut" said... "many other mass production manufacturers would kill for their brand cachet !!!"

Cheers,
Daniel

[Stingercut]

Of course its a risk. Those of us who are/have been involved in our own business ventures, know all about the risks and the rewards, as I'm sure Chris does. I doubt he's doing it to get rich, IPO etc. I'm guessing he just loves what he does best, building better bicycles with that something special about them. Hopefully he will make a decent living or much better. Merchandising is the key really. He needs to re establish Fat as an Uber Cool brand. Maybe the right celeb endorsement, high profile exposure in the media but all done by modern viral means.

As they saying goes, if you do what you love doing for a living, you will never work another day in your life

[nader]

I believe in Chris and I'm sure he will again produce a very qualitative Bike comparable with Yo Eddy from early nineties.
But one thing he should know, a newly manufactured Yo Eddy will achieve the status of 93 Yo Eddy first in next 20 (or more) years!

[zonq]

I just spoke with Christopher Iglehart, and he sounded pretty optimistic about Chris C putting new frames out too. If Chance comes out with fatbike frames, I'd bet he could easily get Iglehart to build up some width-adjusted Big1" forks for them.

[Pog Mo Thoin]

There was a FB update today, sounds like a big announcement tomorrow

[Retro Dude]

Website has been updated & looks like they are having technical difficulties.

[chefmiguel]

Interest waning

[zonq]

There was enough interest to crash the web hosts server in only 20 minutes of the update going up, so that's something.

Did anyone see what it was? XC frame? Fatbike frame? All I see is the old pic of the Orange frames on the FB page...

It'd be nice if whoever is doing Chris's web/pr stuff would make an appearance with some info on here, this being a very conveniently consolidated heap of dedicated fat chance fans & all.

[zonq]

For anyone stuck trying to get thru:

"As many of you already know, we attended Interbike 2014 in Las Vegas. Our goal was to spread the word about the resurrection of Fat Chance Bicycles and connect with friends, old and new, in the bike industry. We are so humbled by the outpouring of support and enthusiasm we received from everyone we encountered at Interbike. We want to thank everyone from industry players like Dave Earl (Praxis Works) and Andrew Herrick (Intense Bicycles), to the hundreds of Fat Chance fans who took the time to share their insights, stories and general good will. Interbike was a huge success and inspiration. Thank you!

Since Interbike, we have been analyizing the outpouring of feedback we received through the website, social media channels, phone calls, and personal meetings. Thousands of Fat fans have provided their input on what they would like next Yo Eddy to be and we are excited to announce the results. The vast majority of votes were for a steel trail bike. However, wheel size was split down the middle between 27.5” and 29”. So, instead of choosing one over the other, we are going to procuduce both. The first round of limited edition frames are going to be a steel Yo Eddy with trail geometry, your choice of 27.5” or 29” wheels, plus modern updates like a disk brake mount, larger head tube and 140mm through axle.

There has been some great press coverage about the relaunch of Fat Chance and the release of a new Yo Eddy. Please see the links below to a few of the articles.

We are currently in the process of designing the frames and setting up production. The first round of frames will be available directly from Fat Chance. Sorry to all of the dealers who have already reached out to us, this is going to be a short run, we’ll have bikes for dealers soon. Please stay tuned for more information about the new Yo Eddy and how you can get yours."

[laffeaux]

I can't wait to see a new Yo Eddy 29er in Grellow.

[mainlyfats]

Anybody know if he gets them built by a reputable jobber does he still have to submit one of each size for CPSC qualification?

[DocChill]

...I'm a bit disappointed that no 26" wheels will be available... I think that I'm a bit to small for these modern "big wheels" ! I hadn't expected that so many people like them...

[Spikes]

So, a trail bike it is. Front suspension only I presume. The wheel size option is cool obviously, but why no XC hardtail? I never saw a trail bike coming, but that could be my old skool mentality?

[laffeaux]

Originally Posted by DocChill

...I'm a bit disappointed that no 26" wheels will be available... I think that I'm a bit to small for these modern "big wheels" ! I hadn't expected that so many people like them...

Have you tried 650b? Unless you're really short (under 5'0") there should be no issue fitting on a 650b frame.

29ers (700c) require riders to be a bit taller to fit them. Although if you're willing to live with negative rise stems and toe overlap they can fit small rider too.

[Retro Dude]

Originally Posted by Spikes

So, a trail bike it is. Front suspension only I presume. The wheel size option is cool obviously, but why no XC hardtail? I never saw a trail bike coming, but that could be my old skool mentality?

What's the difference between XC & trail bike?

Guess I was out on the trail and missed the memo when mountain bikes were divided up into different categories.

[Zamfir]

The voters have spoken, and so shall it be.

Sounds like they took the safe path with wheel size and geometry, which i'm glad they did. Why swim against the current?

What i'm really interested in seeing are the construction details; dropouts, gussets, welding, paint, ect.

I'm still hoping for a rigid fork option (segmented of course) and swinging dropouts to run ss.

[IF52]

Originally Posted by laffeaux

Have you tried 650b? Unless you're really short (under 5'0") there should be no issue fitting on a 650b frame.

29ers (700c) require riders to be a bit taller to fit them. Although if you're willing to live with negative rise stems and toe overlap they can fit small rider too.

I agree. And even for taller than average folks like me, 650b is a blast. I'd never go back down to 26er.

Re. 29er, what's Rebecca Roush, like 5' 6" or 5' 7"? and she kills it on a 29er.

[laffeaux]

Originally Posted by Retro Dude

What's the difference between XC & trail bike?

Guess I was out on the trail and missed the memo when mountain bikes were divided up into different categories.

"XC" has kind of been assigned to geo designed solely for racing - super light weight, short travel (80-100 mm) steep angles.

"Trail" has become more of a "ride all geometry." Slacker angles, a bit more travel. "Trail" is slotted between "XC" and "Enduro."

I'd not be surprised if the Yo Eddy came with a 120mm fork given a "trail" designation.

[Retro Dude]

Cool, thanks for the descriptions

[tvcreative]

trail yuck

XC good. steep and fast

i am not a big fan of a long fork

my two cents.

[mainlyfats]

Originally Posted by Zamfir

The voters have spoken, and so shall it be.

Sounds like they took the safe path with wheel size and geometry, which i'm glad they did. Why swim against the current?

What i'm really interested in seeing are the construction details; dropouts, gussets, welding, paint, ect.

I'm still hoping for a rigid fork option (segmented of course) and swinging dropouts to run ss.

Have you thought about how much a new Yo frame is worth to you? What about a fork?

I'm curious because nothing would surprise me. If it's expensive - yup - but if he makes something a ton cheaper; a good, simple, production steel bike, I'd think yup as well.

[Zamfir]

Originally Posted by mainlyfats

Have you thought about how much a new Yo frame is worth to you? What about a fork?

I'm curious because nothing would surprise me. If it's expensive - yup - but if he makes something a ton cheaper; a good, simple, production steel bike, I'd think yup as well.

I've thought about that and personally i'd order one if the frame sells from $1-$2k. Anything more might be a tough sell, for me.

BTW, I wouldn't pay that much for alloy or carbon. They just don't have the longevity of steel or Ti.

Forks would look a bit wonky if sus corrected, but they are such a classic FT design I would like it see them as a option.