Soft Fat Tired Bikers in Spain

Barry and Margaret Williamson
December 2016

Walking in the hills near Pamplona just before Christmas, we met an expat Englishman, Bob Hussey, who runs a bicycle business near Valencia on Spain's Mediterranean coast. Unusually, and uniquely in our experience, he imports 'fat bikes' from California and is opening up a new market for them in Spain.

What is a 'fat bike'? It's more or less the opposite of a fast road bike or good long-distance touring bike. Its main characteristic is very large soft tyres, wide forks, all-round suspension and, sometimes, a single front fork. What' sit for? Riding on soft or very rough surfaces such as snow, mud, grass, gravel, rocks, the edge of the sea. The soft tyres reduce the risk of the bike sinking into soft surfaces and, along with the suspension, absorbs bumps and shocks.

Bob and his Spanish friend were looking for some snow to put their fat bikes to their ultimate test, but there was none to be found.. We talked bikes for some time and swopped emails and website addresses.

Before we parted, they let us have a go on their bikes, one of which had only a single front fork. A very strange experience. But for a brief moment, and using the American spelling for 'tyre', we became 'Soft Fat Tired Bikers'.

Speaking fluent Spanish and living in the country for many years, Bob is typical of hundreds of thousands of expats throughout mainland Europe left in uncertainty and confusion following the UK referendum on EU membership and the accession to the throne of Mrs May. Who wants to be an unintended consequence?

Bob has the following presence on the World Wild Web with many photographs, videos and explanations in both English and Spanish:

Bob's Website: www.fatbikes-espaņa.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fatbikesspain/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fatbikeslasafor/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo-hCjW1f1P8hCsqfTD6tJw

Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/fatbikesspain

Below is a rare photograph of the two of us and shared by Bob through his Instagram account: 

https://instagram.com/p/BPm8qG_AQep/

Two Soft Fat Tired Bikers. Note that Margaret's bike has only one fork!!