Fat fork finished

For anyone that hasn't ridden a fatbike: It is much like riding a suspended bike. At 7-10 PSI, the tires soak up roots as well as any FS bike, and they float on top of sand, mud and snow. They don't accelerate as quickly, and taking quick/last second turns is tougher than on smaller tires. But the ability to ride up and down sandy/muddy banks and through swamp trails is a huge benefit.

these Origin8 4" tires float pretty well, and have 120 TPI (the best thread count available) but I am curious about the larger ones. I might try some 4.8"s in the future.

'spension corrected 24ork

dunes

When the beaches on the creek haven't had foot traffic they are hard packed enough to get rad. There are usually natural berms, banks and step downs. I need to make some tougher forks because there was a 15 foot gap step down and I couldn't trust the light weight supertherm fork that I built. They are more than strong for normal riding but the possibility of hitting a soft spot of sand after a big gap attempt had me a bit cautious... Anyway, a good excuse to make a fatbike dirtjump fork.

 This is the first fork that I've made with offset legs (I would usually just adjust the dropout offset on jumper forks). They are 1.5* offset from the steerer and have clearance for a bigger tire than the last fork. 

aaaaaaaaaaaaah

Came up on a two foot copperhead while on the trails.

Emoticon 20"

Max's 22" fork

Kishmar's 400 ATC fork

I spent some time making an insert that fits snug in this one. My one piece steerers are 3mm thick where this one is 2mm (plus the 1.2mm thick insert). This may sound overkill, but this is a fork that can fit a 26" wheel, so it needs to be tougher than a 20" BMX steerer. A mistake that I have seen on other's fork designs is to use a thin steerer with a short insert that ends about halfway in the steerer. The problem with this is that the actual bending force occurs over the entire midsection of the steerer, not just that lower 1/4 section. Case in point, a 1.5mm thick steerer plus a 3" insert:

Five at a time aint bad

 Jackson from before the rain

 Today's shots: Sean getting ready for the shark fin

 Me getting used to the jumps again

 Sean's first hits

Still haven't made the coating rig for doing more than three bars at a time. I'm worried that it might literally take all day to coat 20 bars.

Skipped work Monday to get super seasick on my grandfather's boat. I just about had a heat stroke and got pretty burnt despite sitting under the shade. At least we came out with the limit for our group in only about seven hours on the gulf. I brought up two of the snapper and the king mackerel.

A Kingfish before and after: 

 After work repair and sundown rides over at Hilltop. All of that rain did a number on the lines but its looking sunny for a while.

I still use acid to clean most frames of subtle surface rust. It also reveals any missed welds that can be camouflaged in the oxidation of the heat affected zone.