Opinions

Nick: 150lbs, 61 years old, male

Track: ski area hill climb, smooth and rough single track, fire roads, and snow

Mid drive keeps the bike balance right. Low gear for tree climbing. Smaller, but not lighter for a smaller person.

Walgoose is my joke name for an unbelievably cheap Walmart Mongoose bicycle with a dropper post. (Or any stupid expensive upgrades.) The joke assumes there is no amount of money that could make a department store bike work well.

There are not many upgrades for a 20” fat bike. It will have to live on it's own merits. This three hundred dollar bike is about to go where five thousand bikes go: Incline's Mtb trail network. The main test was hill climbing in sand and snow because that is what a fat bike does that no other bike can do.

The power and transmission are right for the job. Traction was only achieved buy lowering the air pressure until I was flirting with pinch punchers, but isn't that the fun of fat bikes anyways. Then it climbed everything in sand, and better than my full sized bikes. Tire compound is not good for snow, but the Vee 2XL is not available in 20". We will see if grip studs fix the problem.

It is a Jeep compared to my big fat bikes which are more like Hummers. With a small wheelbase I was worried I would loop out. However it was the opposite. The seat can go so low it is easier to keep the weight over the front wheel. Surprise, surprise.

When it does loop out, I am just left standing there and the wreck happens between my legs without me. It is so easy to get started again or change directions. A jeep can be a better companion in the back country than a Hummer.

The balance is right. It does a good bunny hop anyways. The steering is stable, it can be ridden hands off. The smaller front wheel means it have less gyroscopic effect when steering. The smaller 135 front hub and beefy front fork helps the front brake not turn you when you stop.

Of course the smaller wheel will not roll over bigger obstacles. However the biggest problem is although the size is prepositionally smaller, the weight is not prepositionally less. A hundred pound woman riding this is like a two hundred pound man riding a bike weighing 120 lbs! The tests by a 100 lb woman will be the most interesting. The very thing I like: being able to pick it up and swing it about, will be just the opposite for a 100 lb woman. It will be a tank, but a very powerful tank.

In a world flooded with ebikes, Kong stands alone. There is not anything like it. The way it climbs and gets the job done has earned it the nickname "Donkey".