Experience something new… what better way to follow up a morning of skiing than an afternoon on a fat bike adventure in the snow?

Fat tire bikes have gained a fast following in recent years, and for a good reason! They can be taken just about anywhere in the world, from the pavement to the sand and even in the snow! The idea originated from the development of mountain bikes back in the 1970’s and 80’s. When the new concept was brought about getting off the road and into mother natures beautiful surrounding mountains and rugged trails. After a few years of mountain biking people already began to experiment with a bike that could go literally everywhere. Thus the fat tire bike idea was born, but not with out a few trial and errors first.

Before the big impressive bikes that have people turning their heads as they pedal by, people were attempting to modify their traditional Mountain bikes with limited resources. Individual rims were pinned or welded side by side with two tires. Some People even experimented with a technique called the “Six Pack” where they used three rims and three tires on both the front and back side of the bike. As you can imagine with all this extra metal and rubber not only were these bikes absolute “tanks”.  Which you had to pedal around and attempt to steer with two or three tires which made it near impossible to.

Jumping  forward to the 2000’s as attention slowly caught on and sales and demand began growing, custom frames and rims were being mass produced with hub sizes as wide as 170 mm and rims sized at 70 mm allowing for 4″ tires. This revolutionized fat tire bikes into the future that we now see today. Taking them from a heavy steel, six wheeled “tank” to a light aluminum two tire bike that could float through the sand and snow! This year Northstar has picked up on this uprising trend of fat tire bikes and included this activity in their Cross Country Center.

If you are interested in trying to pick up a new exciting winter hobby Northstar’s cross-country center is located Northeast of the Vista chair.They offer state-of-the-art rental equipment, daily lessons and tours, including great package deals, and over 35 kilometers of carefully groomed, scenic trails. If snow bike isn’t your thing, but exercise is, then come on up to the Cross Country, Telemark + Snowshoe Center where you can check out skate skiing, snowshoeing, and telemark skiing!

Learn more about it here: http://www.northstarcalifornia.com/tickets-and-passes/cross-country-passes.aspx