Fatbike

An early example is the custom three-wheeled in-line longtail-style bike with fat tires, designed by French cyclist Jean Naud in 1980 for desert travel.

[4] In the late 1980s, Alaskan frame builders began experimenting with custom components and configurations designed to achieve a large contact patch of tire on snow.

In 1989, Dan Bull, Mark Frise, Roger Cowles and Les Matz, rode the 1,000-mile (1,600 km) length of the Iditarod Trail.

In late 1999, Gronewald and another Alaskan frame builder, John Evingson, collaborated to design and build several bikes using Molina's rims and tires.

Gronewald's design featured an 18 mm (0.71 in) offset wheel and frame built to allow full range gearing, since he was using standard hubs and bottom brackets available at the time.

Also that year, Mike Curiak from Colorado set a record on the Iditarod Trail in the IditaSport Extreme race to Nome on a modified Marin bike with Remolino rims and tires.

The Pugsley frame, rim and tire offerings made fatbikes commercially available in local bike shops worldwide.

[11] The Pugsley frame, rim, and tire offering made fatbikes commercially available in local bike shops worldwide.

Other bike manufacturers have also entered the fatbike market recently including Trek, with the Farley, Salsa with the Beargrease and Mukluk, and Specialized with the Fatboy and On=One with the Fatty.

Since 2014, Dorel Sports has utilized their Mongoose brand to make fatbikes even more accessible to the general public, with models such as the Beast, Dolomite, Hitch, and Malus selling for around $250, considerably less than their higher-priced predecessors.