Fat bikes are kid friendly with On-One's Baby Fatty, a 12-inch frame built around a 24x4-inch wide tire set to go on sale in November for £800 ($1,250).
Not so long ago all fat bikes were built around 26x4-inch tires. Then came Surly's Moonlander and its 26x5-inch tires, and over the past year Surly introduced 29+ and 26+ reduced fat tires that work with traditional hubs, cranks and rims. Now Baby Fatty's 24-inch fat tires expand the fat segment further.
"We don't overly promote fat bikes as snow bikes. We think they are just great fun bikes on any sort of trail," said Brant Richards, Baby Fatty's designer. "Baby Fatty's tires have the same rolling diameter size as a 26-inch wheel, or thereabouts: a 342-millimeter radius."
Richards said Baby Fatty should fit kids or small adults up to about 4-foot-8. While the frame is small, the fat tires are 4 inches wide, just like Mom's fat bike. Richards said the chainstays' 420-millimeter length did not impact shifting; there was plenty of chain-tire clearance. The tires are mounted on proprietary 24-inch single-wall 70-millimeter-wide rims.
Richards noted that the 24-inch fat tires could fit 26-inch full-suspension bikes, if there is sufficient clearance. And he admited he is thinking of other bike designs using the 24-inch fat tires.
Baby Fatty features the same CNC hubs, 6061 T6 hand-welded frame and SRAM X5 components as On-One's adult $1,450 Fatty introduced earlier this year. In the few months Fatty has been on sale, more than 500 have been sold, making it the company's most popular off-road bike.
