Our friends over at electricbikereview.com have a special section in their hearts for those with a propensity for the larger sized bikes. Click on this link here to see a selection of 7 factory fatbikes that you can buy today. They all look kind of pricey, and most of them are Bosch middrive system or smallish hub motors. Here is a quick rundown on why you shouldn’t buy any of them and should just build your own.

Pedego Trail Tracker

Lets see a 600 watt rear mounted hub motor and a battery in the rear. Great design guys. A little ass heavy, actually really ass heavy. Might make an OK commuter but at $3000 I’ll pass. See the whole specs here. Electricbike.com did a review I actually read all the way through here. I really liked the spiders on the tires and it’s worth the click to look at the pretty pictures.

Surface 604 Element

Wow another rear drive 750 Watt motor and battery pack both mounted on the rear. What a good idea (not). I guess 750 watts is better than 600 watts and it’s only $2000. What a deal! See the whole review here.

Felt Lebowske

Bosch mid drive at the bargain basement price of ONLY $5799. I’ll take two, and don’t forget to throw in the Ginsu knife set. EBR’s whole review is here, but Electric-Fatbike.com’s much more entertaining and informative review is located here. All the reasons I hate the Bosch system is in this post about 1/2 way down. Read it and weep.

The Motiv Stout

For $2600 you can get a bike that the engineers were smart enough to move the battery towards the center of the bike. 500 Watt geared hub, do people really buy these bikes? The whole review is here.

Haibike Xduro Fatsix

Shown here is a $5800 bike that no one would ever let me borrow. Ever. Holy crap Batman … is that a Bluto front fork? So far my favorite of these crappy bikes, I’m going to go rob a bank so I can get one. Maybe I’ll just break into my local bike shop and steal it. If I get caught I’m really good friends with the owner, maybe he’ll let it slide. I’m sure he’s forgotten that episode with his fiance. The whole review is here, if you can stand it.

SSR Motorsport Sand Viper

Wow this is quite possibly the most tedious post I have ever done. Wait I might be able to afford this bike, it’s only $1300! Oh crap, is that a front hub? What am I supposed to do with a bike like this, ride it around on the street and impress teenage girls? Front hub motors are useless on a trail machine unless they are all wheel drive. How do I know? It was the first thing I tried. It didn’t work. The whole review is here, read it and tell me how great it is. I can’t even bring myself to do it.

Motiv Stout

It this the last one? Thank god, I’m ready to shoot myself in the head. What are they charging for this piece of crap? $2600, who cares. I refuse to steal any more pictures and links from electricbikereview behind their back. This is the last review.

This article made my prostrate exam seem like a “real good time” in comparison. What do all these reviews tell you about the state of the Electric Fatbike industry right now?

Overpriced crap.

There is nothing here I would ever want to buy. Honestly I wouldn’t even steal these bikes. Build your own electric fatbike. Beg, borrow and steal the parts. I promise to show you how to build a bike that doesn’t totally suck if you follow my instructions. You must believe in yourself, that you can do it. You, yes you with your crappy little shop and your rusted collection of old bike tools can create something that BEATS THE CRAP out of what these companies are selling. Are they even selling any of them?

Two motor configurations are worthwhile

– BBS02 750 Watt with a 32T or 34T steel front ring on a 100mm converted axle

– FatMac 12T from em3ev on a 20″ rear fat wheel hooked up to a 40Amp controller with a 3 way power switch to select 40/32/25 amps and a thermal sensor and/or cutoff

These are the only motor configurations I can recommend at this time. Everything else is too heavy, sucks too much power, is too weak or is just plain crap (explained in more detail in this article). For donor bikes the only ones I recommend at this time are the Fat bikes at Bikes erect, er Direct. I’ll be posting a bunch of build threads in the coming weeks on how to build Fat Ebikes that DON’T suck. I am also working on 2 All Wheel Drive builds which is totally necessary when plowing though a foot of powder.

Do the people that build these factory bikes even ride at all? Have I sufficiently alienated myself from every major electric Ebike manufacturer?

Good. Your fat bikes all suck, build something decent and drop the prices.

Ride On.