The Motobecane Boris X5 Review

Reviewing my first Fat Bike, A Motobecane Boris X5

The Motobecane Boris X5, a proven snow bike and a bargain fat bike

I'm excited, really excited about this bike. I honestly don't know where to begin. This is the first bike I buy brand new in a really long time. This is also the first bike that I buy from Bikes Direct. I have been hovering around their website for many years, checking out the cool bikes that they sell but had always been afraid to pull the trigger on purchasing one until now. From the time I purchased this bike until now it has been nothing but grins and giggles and this has been a fun bike to ride. The following is a review on this bike and the experiences I have had on it.

As readers of this blog already know, I have been following the Fat Bike trend for a while now, hoping to one day put enough money aside to buy one and get in on the action. I had my eye set on the Motobecane Lurch fat bike as it had the biggest tires, a tapered fork and boasted a rugged steel frame which I am a big fan of. The price, even at around 1K, is still prohibitive for a guy like me and I had a hard time convincing my wife to let me buy a bike at that price point. The Motobecane Boris, starting at $599.00, seemed like a more realistic option and after selling another bike that I owned, I was able to get into it for about $200.00. 

I ordered the bike over the weekend and it arrived at my doorstep the following Tuesday. Bikes Direct has super fast shipping and the product arrived well packaged and without defects. Don't let the negative reviews out there influence your buying decision on this bike or any other bike from Bikes Direct. They make quality bikes built to last. Their bikes are just as nice as bikes that sell for 4 to 5 times the price. Out of the box I had to install the handlebars, front wheel and seatpost as well as adjust the mechanical disc brakes. After that, the bike was ready to ride.

This bike is the perfect bike for off the beaten path trekking. 

So, how does it ride? I can tell you that it is different than anything that I have ever ridden. It doesn't perform like a cross country bike on singletrack the way a 29er or a 26 inch wheeled mountain bike would perform. As far as using this bike for XC racing, the traditional options are still better and handle quicker through twisty trails. On the other hand, this bike can still ride over anything a regular mountain bike can, albeit a bit slower. It has the additional benefit of being able to power through loose terrain where the wheels on a regular mountain bike would normally get stuck. Some people describe the ride like a "tractor" feel; slow and steady yet powerful and grounded. Like a tractor, tight and fast turns tend to cause the front wheel to oversteer to one side or the other. Some claim that replacing the tires with more studded tires will eliminate this, however fat bike tires can cost around $90.00 per tire so it's not a cheap fix. It's better simply to ride the bike knowing what it can and can't do. Riding a Fat bike over the course of a few hours is a great upper body workout because the rider is usually having to do more steering from side to side to prevent the bike from oversteering and sliding out.  Here are a couple of videos of the Boris riding through my local mountain bike trails.

  

Fat bikes were originally intended for use in snowy conditions. The original Fat bike movement started in places like Alaska, Canada and Michigan, as a way to solve the problem of inactivity and transportation during the winter time. So having said that, this bike really came alive during the past week of snowfall here in Texas. I was able to run errands to the store and ride my bike around town while most people couldn't even get out of their driveway. The bike handled superbly in the snow and even the oversteer was less pronounced riding through these conditions. Even with snow as deep as 2 feet in some places, this bike had a bunch of traction climbing the snowy and icy hills around town. The super low gearing made sitting while climbing possible, hence allowing me to put my weight on the back of the bike so that the rear wheel did not spin out. Check out some of my snow videos from the past week of riding.

This bike really shines in snowy conditions.

  

While researching fat bikes I read reviews claiming how a fat bike rides like a full suspension bike and how fat bikes can go anywhere and ride over anything. As good as this sounds and as much as I want to believe this, the truth is that this bike has it's limitations. This is not a bike that I would do downhill or freeride mountain biking on, for example. This is not a replacement for a full suspension bike just because of it's wide tires; this bike lacks the maneuverability of a traditional full susser and the speed of a traditional cross country mountain bike. What this bike can offer is a new dimension of riding and one that most people have not seen before. This bike doesn't require groomed trails or hard packed soil. In fact, it shines above the rest when the terrain is rocky, sandy, snowy or muddy. While these conditions might limit other types of bikes, it almost enables the Fat bike to be a stellar performer. It's the perfect beach bike, camping bike or snow bike to visit those Inuit friends of yours. The Fat bike is the ultimate trekking and exploration bike available at this time. The Motobecane Boris is one of the best bargains available at this time for those who wish to try this type of bike out. Still on the fence? Don't be, go get you one!

Fat Bikes...It's what's hot right now.

Fat bikes point to the future of mountain biking

Courtesy of fat-bike.com

After years of racing bikes being the predominant style of bicycle that has been constantly promoted to consumers, regardless of whether or not people had intentions to race, a new type of bike is making big waves in the mountain bike scene. Enter the fat bike, a bicycle that can go anywhere, do anything. We embrace it's arrival with open arms as we attempt to wrap around it's massive girth.

What makes fat bikes so special? The 4 to 5 inch tires leave a wider footprint that allows the bicycle to float over soft terrain such as snow and sand where regular tires would simply sink and become bogged down. This makes fat bikes capable of being taken off the trail to places once inaccessible to bicycles. Ever thought about riding a bicycle down the Oregon coastline? This bike can do that, and much more. The bicycle pictured above has a Rockshox Bluto fork, however a front shock is overkill for what most people will be using the bike for. The plush, wide tires offer plenty of shock absorption without the addition of a front fork. With the addition of a front fork, this bike can probably ride straight off a cliff without any problems whatsoever. 

Department stores have caught on early to the trend while most bike shops have not. You can now buy a department store, steel fat bike such as the Mongoose Beast or Mongoose Dolomite for around $200. Bike shop quality fat bikes start around $500 and up and are mostly found through online retailers. 

Since the invention of the mountain bike, people have wanted a bicycle that could test the limits of what is possible. However, the industry focused more on how to ride over terrain faster than seeking to test the limits of where a bicycle could be ridden. This bicycle may finally be the answer to that long awaited expectation. This is the biggest trend, as well as the only trend, happening in the world of bicycles at this time. Brick and mortar retailers need to zero in on this opportunity and stock as many of these bikes on their shelves as they can possibly fit in their stores. Forget 27.5 bikes, forget fixies. There is a downward trend of new bicycles being sold because there is simply no new interest to buy the same kinds of bikes that have always been around, maybe with a few tweaks but nonetheless the same candy with a different wrapper. This bike is a different thing altogether. I'm going to save up to buy one of these soon, and the sticker shock isn't going to deter me this time. I have personally not been as excited about a new type of bicycle hitting the market as I have been about the fat bike.  This bike, when purchased will complete my stable and may end up replacing my full suspension mountain bike. So stay tuned for a future review and keep subscribing to my blog for more posts.