No question, this monster of a bike is an eye-catcher: bright green, and then those incredibly fat tyres! What's more, it's a bike with a story, because this "Jagamoasta" (Jägermeister) from the Rosenheim-based manufacturer Maxx is the first bike to win the "Yukon Arctic Ultra" competition - more on that below. However, the real reason for making this bike a pin-up is invisible and therefore in need of explanation: it is the meticulousness with which winning rider Florian Reiterberger and the supporters at Maxx prepared this bike for the extreme conditions of winter in Alaska.
We met Florian Reiterberger, a compact, powerful Upper Bavarian, at Eurobike, where his Jagamoasta adorned the sponsor's stand. The topic of "fat bikes" in itself may no longer have any news value, but the reference to the race catches on with anyone who has ever had to cancel a bike tour in winter: with an icy sprocket set on which the chain slips. With ineffective brakes whose cables froze. With tyres constantly breaking through the snow crust - and with cold hands and feet anyway. So how is it supposed to work, surviving almost 500 kilometres by bike on trails, snowmobile tracks and snow-covered icy surfaces at an unimaginable minus 40 degrees? As the winner, Reiterberger has obviously also done some things right in terms of technology. He can explain what that is down to the last detail.
The tyres are 5.05 inches wide, more is hardly possible. Reiterberger rode them with 0.7 and 0.8 bar pressure. Quite a lot for this tyre size, but in his experience ideal for the alternately compacted and loose snow. What you can't see is the tyre chemistry. The tread is not raw white for aesthetic reasons, but because this compound does not contain any soot or tar. This prevents it from hardening or even splitting - the low abrasion resistance of the soot-free tyres is not a critical issue in the snow. The inside of the tyre is also very special. Hardening inner tubes eat up power and are therefore also ruled out. Tubeless tyres such as the monstrous VEE rubbers are more puncture-proof, but need sealing fluid. Because conventional products cannot withstand so much cold, the technicians had to search worldwide. Now frost-proof sealant gurgles in the tyres - from the rather warm country of Israel, by the way.
The complete article was published in Trekkingbike issue 6/2016. You can download the issue in the Trekkingbike app (iTunes and Google Play ) or order in the DK-Shop.
