My new bike was delivered this morning. I was in a meeting, talking about Terms & Conditions at the time. I came downstairs to be greeted by the curious smiles of my colleagues and a huge cardboard box with “wiggle” written on it.
I’m going to have to refer to this bike as a “he”, because he’s called Fat Boy. So, here he is:
My Shiny New Fat Boy
The wow factor for me was noticing that I have a remote lock-out on the forks, which I can activate from the handlebars. That little extra has made me a very happy man! I’m so easily excited 
Unfortunately, I’m taking a load of seminar gear to a Golf Club this afternoon, for a seminar we’re delivering tomorrow morning. This means that I have to rush my new friend home in the car, get back and start packing our stuff.
Tonight’s job will be to stick the handlebars & pedals on and get out there in the rain to test him out. I’ll let you know how we do.
What do you think of him so far?
She’s a beauty – sorry Phill but ‘He’s a beauty’ doesn’t have that same twang and makes me feel slightly uncomfortable.
I know exactly what you mean. I shudder a little when I consider riding my Fat Boy. But he’s a Boy, it says so on the frame. Such a joy to ride though, whatever the gender.
[...] Recently, the lovely people at Wiggle sent me an email to tell me that if I sent a review for my new bike, they’d enter me in some prize draw or another. I kinda skipped the “prize [...]
I’m considering buy’ing that same bike! Can you recomend it???
Hi Mogen, welcome to the blog!
In the couple of months since buying the Fat Boy, I’ve only had to touch it to wash it and to fix my self-inflicted puncture. The setup by Wiggle was first class.
For the money, I would definitely recommend it. It laps up my easy trail riding and was excellent on a couple of mtb trail centre trips too. The components are good, and I have no complaints at all.
At the price point, I think it’s a cracker. Let me know if you take the plunge!
Hi Phil, just about to purchase the Fat Boy. How does it handle on the road?
Thanks for the comment Lawdie, and welcome to the blog! Hope you like it.
My usual 10 mile loop is half on the road and the Fat Boy handles really well. I’m also planning to do a 60 mile Manchester to Blackpool on it too, so I’ll probably just throw some 2.1″ slicks on it to reduce to rolling resistance. Being a hardtail, it’s reasonably light so I like the way it goes on tarmac. Also, the fork lockout on the handlebars makes it very easy to stop the front bouncing when you need the pedalling energy transferred into forward movement, not up & down!
So I’d say yes, go for it, the Fat Boy is a good road muncher if you’re going to do some mixed surface riding. Let me know if you go ahead and what YOU think.
hi Phil i just saw your review on here and on wiggle, just wondering… how does it handle Downhill? ive seen loads of reviews for trails and roads but not proper downhill,
Thanks Caeron
Hi Caeron,
It’s a great bike and I still love it, but if you plan on doing a lot of downhill, it might be a bit skittish for you. The geometry is set up as a fairly “sat up” bike and the fork angle is a little too steep for flying down hills. Also, the forks probably wouldn’t handle the sort of travel you’d need to soak up big hits. I don’t think twice about bouncing down a few steps and I’ve been our on the trails with it, dropping off a few roots and enjoying some woody singletrack, but I’m not sure this hardtail is suitable for aggressive riding on a regular basis.
If I was going to fly downhill a lot, I’d invest in a bike with a less steep front fork angle and some rear suspension if I could afford it. Can you stretch to a 120mm travel front & rear set-up? Makes like Kona seem to do affordable, aggressively-styled bikes to suit.
I hope this helps. I’m no downhill expert!
Phill.
[...] though, Wiggle never sleeps. I spent some money on a bit of bling for the Fat Boy and invested an hour in some minor upgrades. #gallery-1 { margin: auto; } #gallery-1 .gallery-item [...]