Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Velocity Gets Fat- Finally!

Velocity drops a hint on Facebook
Several years ago when I was going to attempt my third Triple D fat bike race, Velocity USA got a hold of me to ask if I wanted to try a pair of 26" Duallys laced to fat bike hubs so I could go tubeless. I said, "Sure!", and the next thing ya know I am rolling tubeless on a fat bike. It was revelatory, those tubeless rubber doughnuts, and I knew from that point on that tubeless tires for fat bikes would make a lot of sense. Probably more so than with any other type of bike.

I was asking the Velocity crew back then if they were going to get into fat bike hubs and "real" fat bike rims, but the answer was "not yet". Apparently "not yet" is 2018.

I ran across some Velocity fat bike hubs already on an online retailer's site. I had not heard any "official" rumblings of such a thing, and knowing Velocity, I figured that they would have trumpeted such a feat. I was right, it was confirmed when I saw that Velocity has now dropped this hint on Facebook and Instagram which are identical to the fat bike hubs I saw online.

Using the "Big" in the Facebook post and the font I see on the carbon rim as a hint, I am going to say that Velocity USA is teaming up with HED to offer fat bike wheels. This makes sense as HED is pretty stinky about how these rims of theirs get laced up, and Velocity USA is a pro level wheel house, so having them lace up wheels is probably a safe bet for HED. Velocity cannot extrude (yet) their own aluminum fat bike rims, so, again, it makes complete sense for them to source a fat bike hub, brand it, and lace it in-house to a HED Big Deal carbon rim. (Or a Big Fat Deal Rim)

I am sure they won't be cheap, but a set of these on one of my fat bikes would be so nice! I'll have to wait and see what is up with the details which are coming soon.

No comments: