It is a light news week for fat-bike fans so I thought this would be a good time to share some thoughts about where fat-bike.com the site, this newsletter and our Fat-bike Lab community are headed. I hope these strategic moves make the overall Fat-bike.com experience one that keeps being valuable to all lovers of fat-biking. Read on!

For 15 years, our main WordPress site has been our digital home base. Since 2011, we have published over 4,000 stories, reviews, and event recaps on fat-bike.com. Recently, we carefully combed through that massive backlog and preserved the most relevant, evergreen pieces - a core collection of nearly a thousand articles - while letting go of outdated pages that were just weighing the server down and only seeing a click or two a year. We did this because while our history matters, we know you are mostly looking for new stories, fresh news, and current reviews. Today, we are taking a massive step forward to modernize how we deliver that new content.

We are officially moving our main publishing operations to Beehiiv. This is a major milestone for us and a significant upgrade to how we connect with you in 2026 and beyond. Moving away from our old, heavy, Wordpress-based server setup is a big benefit, but the real goal is delivering a much better reading and listening experience.

We know your inbox is sacred space, and we promise never to fill it with junk. We chose this platform because it is much more than a newsletter service; it natively hosts our new web articles and all of our podcast episodes in one clean spot. Instead of hoping a Facebook algorithm shows you our latest post or waiting for you to check the website, we can now deliver stories, reviews, and the Weekly Dose of Fat directly to the riders who actually want them.

What this means for the archives:

Every single article, photo, and review in our evergreen collection is perfectly safe. We have built a complete, permanent static archive at archive.fat-bike.com. Once the final switch happens, the old links you have bookmarked or shared over the years will automatically redirect to the exact same article on the new archive site. Our history is not going anywhere.

What this means for contributors:

The old WordPress backend is officially retiring. If you are one of our long-time contributors who is used to logging in and building stories in the dashboard, that access will be closing very soon. Please know that we still want your stories, ride reports, and photos. We will be coordinating a new, streamlined way for you to submit your work going forward.

What this means for the community:

Our community discussions have already found a great new home at the Fat-bike Lab on Skool. It is the perfect place to talk fat-bikes, share builds, and connect with other riders without having to fight through social media algorithms.

Thanks for reading, riding, and supporting the site for the last 15 years. We are excited to bring you the next chapter.

Thanks for coming along on the ride!

Greg

Become a member of the National Audubon Society today, and we’ll send you our exclusive, award-winning magazine as a token of our appreciation. That means every three months you’ll receive stories about protecting birds and the places they need directly to your mailbox!

With over 120 years of conservation expertise, Audubon is responding to the greatest challenges facing birds and people today while anticipating the issues and opportunities of tomorrow. Where we work - and when you help - birds are better off.

Give a gift that renews each year to ensure our quarterly magazine continues arriving at your doorstep.

Donate Now

Keep fat-bike.com going

This newsletter, the Micro Dose podcast, the Fat-bike Lab, and 15 years of fat-bike.com content are all independent and community-supported. A few ways to help:

Forward this email to one person who rides fat. Subscriber growth is the single biggest thing that keeps this going.

Join the Fat-bike Lab at fat-bike.com/community - free, no algorithm, just riders helping riders.

Buy me a beer at ko-fi.com/fatbike if you want to throw a few bucks directly at the cause.

Start something of your own. This newsletter runs on Beehiiv, and I genuinely think it's the best platform out there if you've been kicking around the idea of starting a newsletter for your club, shop, or riding crew. Free trial, 20% off your first 3 months if you upgrade. Check it out at beehiiv.com?via=GregSmith1

Some gear links in this newsletter are affiliate links. Clicking costs you nothing extra and helps keep the lights on.