It’s been a long wait for this part to arrive but it’s finally here and installed on the Trek Farley fat bike. I ordered the Trek Farley specific front rack at the end of April but supply issues kept me waiting a long and impatient 8-weeks – I’m far too used to next-day Amazon delivery – but finally it arrived today and five minutes later was bolted onto the bike. Though surprised it used 6mm bolts rather than the usual 5mm norm. I now have plenty of rack space for carrying all the bits and bobs you seem to end up carrying in the rucksack, something I never like doing. Interestingly, the two downward protruding knobs at the front are actually threaded but I have no idea what you would attach to them.
Now I need to find a front bag that will fit the rack. Nothing too large, just a few litres capacity will do just fine. In the meantime, I have the Alpkit Top Loader handlebar bag from the Ribble CGR and can use that until I find something more suitable. But I’m not stopping there and have ordered the matching Trek Farley rear rack as well. Both racks, as you can see, are available in lava, the colour that matches the bike. I’ll also need some rubber-coated P-clips are the Trek Farley 9.6 does not come with rear rack mounts, apparently because its supposed to be for racing. Plain daft if you ask me.
When you purchase a new bike, you would be a lucky cyclist indeed to find the bike perfectly fits your requirements and I’m finding that the Trek Farley needs a few improvements. Well, I think so anyway. I’ve already mentioned the addition of the front rack and ordering the matching rear rack. It will look really cool with both those installed. I’m a firm believer that fat bike should look purposeful, extremely gnarly and supremely capable of almost anything. In addition, I’ve also added a wee jingly bell, mobile phone mount, added puncture sealant to the inner tubes, two bottle cages, changed the hand grips and removed the un-necessary dropper post for a standard post.
Recent changes have been to the handlebars. I’ve found the existing handlebars a bit on the low side and have swapped the stock item with its 15mm rise for another set with a 50mm rise, or more accurately 48mm, and find that’s made all the difference to my riding position and comfort. The bars are Reverse Nico Vink Signature Series riser bars with the ends chopped to 720mm, my preferred length. What a difference a few millimeters make. Only downside has been less room for lights and phone mount, though 15-minutes of fiddling about got both installed. I should say that actually finding 50mm riser bars was quite difficult.
For additional luggage capacity and to leave the front rack free for strap-on gear, I’ve ordered a Topeak Trunkbag EX to attach to the rear rack. This will give me all the carrying capacity I require. However, this presents a problem in that the rear light mounted on the seat post will be obscured. To get round this I’ll use the two Knog Blinder Link rear lights I use on my other bikes. Will just need to install two additional mounting brackets on the rear face of the trunk bag, one at each side. All nice and neat.
One final project is the potential of converting the tyres to tubeless which sound easy enough but with the fat bike, there’s one major issue and that requires a sudden and sometimes high-volume burst of air to inflate the high-volume tyres in the first place. Fine if you have a workshop air compressor, but quite a problem if you do not. I guess more thinking required. I’m still not quite convinced this is a good idea on a fat bike. Mind you, going tubeless would knock about 1.00 kg off the bikes weight! Oh, need to look at mudguards as well, before winter sets in. I think an SKS Fat Board Set will perfectly.
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