May 15, 2026

Articles by Greg Smith

About Greg Smith

Greg Smith, known to many site visitors as Sven Hammer, founded Fat-bike.com in 2011 and the site quickly became the #1 online community for all things Fat. A lifelong rider and storyteller, Greg has been covering fat-biking since 2011—sharing news, reviews, art, and adventures from the trail, beach, and back alley. Based in Milwaukee, he blends cycling culture with a punk rock edge across podcasts, blog posts, and community events.

Fat-bike 101 – Rims

April 11, 2013 Greg Smith 26

This article is part of the Fat-bike 101 series and is intended to help new fat-bike owners, and potential fat-bike […]

Fat-bike 101 – Tires

March 28, 2013 Greg Smith 61

This article is part of the Fat-bike 101 series and is intended to help new fat-bike owners, and potential fat-bike […]

Now Available – Origin-8 Crawler

March 21, 2013 Greg Smith 10

Now arriving at bike shops around the country is Origin-8 Crawler fat-bike. The Crawler uses a hydroformed aluminum frame coupled […]

Fat-Bike 101 – Frame Types

March 14, 2013 Greg Smith 23

This article is part of the Fat-bike 101 series and is intended to help new fat-bike owners, and potential fat-bike […]

Boot Studs from Grip Studs – Product Intro

January 28, 2013 Greg Smith 4

Having studded tires on your fat-bike is great! In appropriate conditions studs, whether traditional studded bike tires like the 45NRTH […]

Grip Studs – Mid Season Report

January 21, 2013 Greg Smith 2

Back in November we sent avid Detroit commuter and all-season cyclist, Chris Cunnington, a set of Grip Studs to test […]

Salamandre Custom Fat-bike Build from France

January 3, 2013 Greg Smith 8

Thierry from Bike-A-Lot in France has been working with Yann from Salamandre (We’ve done a couple of other stories on […]

Grip Studs – Customizable Traction

December 6, 2012 Greg Smith 5

Grip Studs recently sent us for review a couple of packages (250 studs total) of their tungsten carbide, screw in […]

Schlick Cycles Northpaw Rohloff

December 3, 2012 Greg Smith 11

Greg from Schlick Cycles sent us these photos of a custom-built Northpaw fat-bike with a Gates Belt Drive, a Rohloff […]

Old Man Mountain Sherpa Rear Rack

October 22, 2012 Greg Smith 1

I’ve wanted a great rear rack solution for my Nuvinci N360-equipped Schlick Northpaw for some time and had previously used […]

Scoop! – Sandman Bikes 2013

October 10, 2012 Greg Smith 2

We recently shot off a note to Conrad at Sandman Bikes in Belgium to learn about their plans for the […]

Paul Component Engineering Disk RHUB 170

October 6, 2012 Greg Smith 6

Lookie here what we got in for testing! The new Paul Component Engineering Disk RHUB 170 is designed for symmetrical […]

Carver Ti O’Beast Fat Bike Fork

September 6, 2012 Greg Smith 2

Thanks to Carver and Bikeman we had a super special deal on the Ti O’Beast fat-bike fork for our newsletter […]

New Product – Schlick Cycles Northpaw-S 47mm Rim

August 13, 2012 Greg Smith 7

Schlick Cycles today announced their new 47mm Northpaw S rim designed for all-season fat-bike riding. We had a chance to […]

Portland Design Works Fat-bike Fenders

July 23, 2012 Greg Smith 1

Portland Design Works has introduced two fenders designed specifically for fat-bikes. The Dave’s Mud Shovel™ front and rear fenders feature […]

NuVinci N360 Gates Carbon Belt Drive Fatbike

June 18, 2012 Greg Smith 9

In an article a month or so back we looked at the NuVinci N360 as a fat-bike friendly hub with […]

Chris King Introduces Bottom Brackets for FatBikes

May 17, 2012 Greg Smith 9

Chris King announced two new BBs. An 83mm version and a 100mm version. While the 100mm is a no brainer […]

NuVinci N360 Fat-friendly Rear Hub

May 15, 2012 Greg Smith 7

We first saw the NuVinci CVP continuously variable hub at Interbike back in about 2007 and were impressed by the […]

Business Profile – Barking Bear Bagworks

April 27, 2012 Greg Smith 5

While Gomez and I were in Northern Michigan’s Mitten for the St Fattys Day event we had the opportunity to […]

Hope FatSno Pro2 Evo Hubs

March 20, 2012 Greg Smith 14

The new fat-bike specific Hope hubs have arrived in the US and we’ve got our paws on a set! No, […]

Review – Carver O’Beast Carbon Fat-Bike Fork

March 7, 2012 Greg Smith 4

Alex Roskin sent in this review about the Carver O’Beast Fat-Bike Fork. I really love the Fatbike format since I […]

Product Preview Watson Ti Handlbars

February 27, 2012 Greg Smith 2

During our recent interview with Andrew Watson of Watson Cycles about his Great Divide Fat Tire fat-bike Andrew mentioned that […]

Product Preview – Magura MT2 Hydraulic Brake

February 23, 2012 Greg Smith 8

The Magura MT2 is the entry level hydraulic brake from the venerable German brake manufacturer and we’ve got a set […]

Mini Review – Kamik Canuck Boots

February 20, 2012 Greg Smith Comments Off

Fat-bike riding friend, Tony Berger, wrote up this review of his now favorite fat-biking boots, the Kamik Canucks. Thanks, Tony! […]

Kurato and Fat-bikes in Japan

January 16, 2012 Greg Smith 3

I’ve been corresponding recently with Kurato from Aichi, Japan and talking, of course, about fat-bikes. He is a big fan […]

fyxation Mesa Pedal V2 – New and Improved

January 14, 2012 Greg Smith 4

Nick from fyxation sent us a note that their new version of the Mesa V2 pedal will drop on January […]

Pogies – Keeping the Digits Warm

January 11, 2012 Greg Smith 9

Updated 2-16-26 Keeping the digits warm while fat-biking in the cold is one of the most important parts of winter […]

Tire Weights for Fat-Bikes

January 10, 2012 Greg Smith 37

More weight info for you weight weenies out there. Cut to the chase, you want light and fat? Go for […]

45 NRTH Husker Du – Rock ‘n Roll Tires du jour

January 9, 2012 Greg Smith 5

The 45NRTH Husker Du was available for a couple of days and the initial batch is now out in dealers […]

Alex’s Custom Fat-Bike Car Rack

January 6, 2012 Greg Smith 8

Mukluk riding New York friend, Alex, wrote this piece about a cool rear rack that he constructed over the Christmas […]

Tested! – Pedal Bondage – Pedal and Strap Combos

January 5, 2012 Greg Smith 7

Thanks to our contributor from Rockford, Craig Smith for this test report on a couple of pedals and retentions systems! […]

Fat-Bike Wheel Information for Weight Weenies

December 6, 2011 Greg Smith 5

Fat-bikes are, obviously, not the sveltest of rides but that doesn’t mean there aren’t folks out there who wouldn’t like […]

Wallpaper Wednesday – Fat-Bike at the Elroy – Sparta Tunnel

November 16, 2011 Greg Smith 1

I shot this while I was on vacation with the family at the Elroy – Sparta bike trail in Western […]

Fat-Bike Wallpaper Gallery

November 7, 2011 Greg Smith 4

The Gallery below is a collection of fat-bike photos we’ve found to be especially suitable for wallpaper on your computer […]

Watson Cycles Great Divide FAT Tire

October 26, 2011 Greg Smith 4

Watson Cycles Great Divide FAT Tire From the Watson Cycles Website: The Fat Tire tames otherwise un-rideable terrain. Designed to […]

Surly Marge Lite

October 24, 2011 Greg Smith Comments Off

The new Surly Marge Lite is 65 millimeters wide just like the Large Marge but the Marge Lite shaves a […]

Moots FrosTi Fat-Bike

October 14, 2011 Greg Smith Comments Off

After seeing Moots’ race fat-bikes, built for ultra endurance racers like Eric Hindes and Mark Curicak, at Interbike the past […]

Surly Rolling Darryl

September 20, 2011 Greg Smith Comments Off

The Surly Rolling Darryl is an 82mm wide fat-bike rim that has proven very versatile for either symmetrical fat-bikes or […]

surly pugsley

Surly Pugsley

May 24, 2011 Greg Smith 1

While other Fatbikes were around before the Surly Pugsley the Pug is likely the fatbike most people have seen first. […]

Vicious Cycles Graceful Fat Sheba

March 8, 2011 Greg Smith Comments Off

The Graceful Fat Sheba FatBike rims from Vicious Cycles are 80mm width, as Vicious says, “It’s Larger than Marge….”. They […]

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