44 Bikes Fat Bike

Talking to Kris was like talking to an old friend. We started the conversation out with a little background on how Kris got into custom frame building and from the word go he told what most people would find to be a familiar story. He talked about moving to a rural area of New Hampshire years ago and how exploring its innumerable dirt roads and trails informed the bikes he now builds and rides.

Kris is a rider through and through. His penchant for fat bikes with short chainstays, a low center of gravity, and a stretched out, stable wheelbase make this bike truly deliver on his ‘built to shred’ promise. The 44 Snakedriver he hooked us up with uses modern trail geometry with 68 deg. head angle, 73 deg. seat angle and impressively short-for-a-fat-bike 17-1/4” chainstays. It takes a lot of work in the shop but it yields the handling needed for the techy, rock-strewn ground for which the east coast is famous.

In talking to Kris at 44 Bikes, the theme of marrying performance and versatility came up again and again. For Kris, any bike that he makes has to allow the rider to truly feel the trail as he or she rides. His bikes have that race-level performance, but with the versatility your everyday rider wants and needs to simply go out and have a ton of fun. We think Kris hit the mark dead on with this Whisky X 44 Bikes Snakedriver.

The Snakedriver in a nutshell:

• 44 Bikes Snakedriver tig welded steel frame

• Whisky 100mm Carbon Fat Rims laced to Industry Nine hubs

• Whisky No.9 Carbon MTN bar

• Whisky No.7 Carbon seatpost

• SRAM XO1 build kit w/RaceFace cranks

• SRAM Guide RS brakes

Check out 44 Bikes @ www.44bikes.com