Playing In The Puddles Again.

Tarmac may not be what fat bikes were designed for, but at this time of year, the fatter the tyres the better, at least on the rural back roads.

Mind you, setting off along my beloved Tregassow Lane, a motorboat might've been more appropriate, as once again, the road was flooded in a few places. Cycling still brings out the big kid in me though, and rather than dodge the floods and puddles I bomb into them with great enthusiasm, and rather wet feet too, but still.

To really make the most of the conditions (or was it just an excuse to make repeated runs through the water?) I fished out the selfie stick and dangled the GoPro where normal cameras should never venture to get some watery action shots. Dicking about, that's what I was doing, dicking about on the bike and dicking about with cameras. I may not be the world's greatest on a bike, or with a camera, but it's all good stimulating fun. Dicking about is very underrated in my opinion and is to be indulged in whenever possible, the world would be a much better place if more folk dicked about.

You get quite some bow wave from a fat bike.

But back to the ride and I also had another venture off the beaten track and into the greenery along a remote footpath, and it just proved a reminder of how much fun these fat bikes can be. I normally have to ride along this path fairly carefully, as the ground is uneven, all off camber and full of holes and divots. On Fatty though, I was blatting along without a care in the world, it inspires so much confidence with it's sturdy feel and forgiving nature.

One heck of a bunnyhop was needed to get over this recently downed tree...

But it's fun on the muckiest roads too. Further round my loop where the road is particularly grotty, with pot holes, gravel and broken tarmac making for a hammer drill ride, and with a thick lane of gloop up the middle, I recently passed a roadie on a very tasty looking bike coming the other way. He clearly wasn't enjoying this part of his ride at all, being very circumspect in speed and body language.  On Fatty I was hammering along, the tyres absorbing the chatter from the messy road surface and reveling in the conditions. It's just the same on my other two mountain bikes mind you, but Fatty just makes it even more fun.

It was on this stretch of road that I passed the roadie, not the ideal conditions for a thoroughbred racing bike really.

So two rides in and I'm still thoroughly pleased with my decision to go full fat instead of half way with a 27.5 plusser. I'm not even bothered that my shiny new bike is now rather blathered either. I always keep whatever vehicles I own clean, and hate getting them dirty as a rule (and yes, they are mountain bikes), but to hell with that with Fatty, I just want to ride the thing and not worry about cleaning it afterwards - riding it in the mud and filth is just so much fun!