Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

Back to news
news
Video
Video: Chris Akrigg gets fat down on the beachChris Askrigg - The Shore Line screenshot

Video: Chris Akrigg gets fat down on the beach

What stops a bike with four inch tyres? Not much.
by John Stevenson
Fri, Oct 03, 2014 16:40
13

To put you in the mood for the weekend, here's Chris Akrigg's latest video, featuring one of those newfangled bikes with very very fat tyres.

It turns out they're not snow bikes or fat bikes, they're beach bikes, as Akrigg demonstrates in this video.

Snow/Fat/Beach bikes are supposed to be a bit slower and more ponderous than regular mountain bikes, the price for being able to roll over anything, but Akrigg doesn't seem to be much slowed down here as he tackles dunes, rocks, pools and the ocean.

Now all we need is for the weather to hold up for one last trip to the beach this weekend.

Chris Akrigg
John Stevenson

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

Add new comment

13 comments

Avatar
daveygftm | 10 years ago
0 likes

Great video ,
I ride a fat bike ,but it's not as easy as he makes out on the video .
You have to find the right consistency of the sand ,too soft and your going nowhere fast .great fun and very light to ride although they look rather cumbersome .On one fat bike ,great looking bike and one of the cheaper bikes .Love it . 41

Avatar
darrenleroy | 10 years ago
0 likes

I know this is a James Welsh track but for the life of me can't identify it and want it on my Spotify playlist NOW!

Avatar
KiwiMike | 10 years ago
0 likes

Agree feeling uneasy watching him rip up a dune area. Esp. having done a paper on longshore drift and coastal erosion mechanisms once upon a long time ago.

There's possible serious land management / access issues this might engender, such as an on-the-fence council/committee seeing a vid like this proffered by an anti-bike person/org as a possible outcome of opening a coastal trail to bikes. Exactly what access campaigners don't need.

Then there's the fact that this looks like / probably is rather hard work, bang for buck. So you'd think it was pretty limited to people A) flush enough to own a fatbike they are happy to ride in a pretty awful environment and B) fit enough to ride one up dunes - didn't see too much of *that*, did we kids?

...but if you look at Eurobike and the rise and rise of e-fatbikes, a 500-850W fatbike could probably be had for a few grand or so pretty soon. No limits as they are designed for off-road stuff...now I like a blat on a MX bike as much as the next guy, however legislation generally takes care of their use in fragile coastal areas. But e-fats would be all over dunes like this. *That* will be worrying, and it's a comin'...

Avatar
Cyclic | 10 years ago
0 likes

Up here in Aberdeenshire we let Mr Trump dig up a unique dune system for a golf course that is/was a SSSI. A couple of fat bikes are small change compared to bulldozers!

Avatar
Spangly Shiny | 10 years ago
0 likes

That bike is going to need some serious desalination!

Avatar
nowasps | 10 years ago
0 likes

That thing must weigh a ton.

Avatar
tomturcan | 10 years ago
0 likes

"Ah, my local beach. Lush, isn't it?"

Not for long if many people cut up the dunes like this guy!

Avatar
bendertherobot replied to tomturcan | 10 years ago
0 likes
tomturcan wrote:

"Ah, my local beach. Lush, isn't it?"

Not for long if many people cut up the dunes like this guy!

I'm not really convinced there's going to be a mass exodus to what is, in reality, a very small dune system.

Mind, highest dune in the UK is there and, once a year, there's a running race which takes on it and the rest of the dune system.

In fact it's a very popular walking and running destination.

Avatar
Hasis | 10 years ago
0 likes

Okay, fair enough it does look like fun but, [killjoy mode]...we do all know that dune systems are incredibly fragile and easily damaged ecosystems don't we?
Also, in some locations the marram grass root systems are the major natural structures that hold our coastal defences together. Let's think before we all go out and trash them eh?! [/killjoy mode]

Avatar
Redvee | 10 years ago
0 likes

Want one far more than I need one but when has that stopped bikes and bike related purchases?

Avatar
bendertherobot | 10 years ago
0 likes

Ah, my local beach. Lush, isn't it?

Avatar
echo17 replied to bendertherobot | 10 years ago
0 likes
bendertherobot wrote:

Ah, my local beach. Lush, isn't it?

Looks like Southerndown

Avatar
antonio | 10 years ago
0 likes

Wow! suspense without suspension!!

Latest Comments