Fat bikes are an interesting breed, with a pretty niche use. If you're not familiar, they're designed for flotation either in sand or snow, but are still capable for all purpose trail riding (though it's a pretty different experience). Yet for many of us, the price tag is too much to justify 'yet another bike'.
Enter Reid, with its Ares fat bike (and its Zeus sibling, more on which below).
The Australian bike brand is best known for low cost consumer-direct bikes, and the Ares is no exception. In Australia the Ares costs a mere AU$799 so if you wanted to try a fat bike without breaking the bank, now you can. (It's also shipping to the US, priced $1,060, and UK, pricing TBC. If you're reading this from either side of the Atlantic, there's an argument for reducing our rating by one star.)
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As the company's first foray into wide tyre machines, the Ares offers some wild frame tube shapes, a few interesting spec choices and a seriously fun ride.
Just lumbering along
At AU$799, the Ares falls into a budget category that few can compete with. With that, it isn’t going to wow you with newest brand name components, gobs of suspension travel, or lightweight anything — although you do get a Shimano XT front derailleur. But, nobody ever said something has to be fancy and expensive to be loads of fun, now did they?
We tested the Ares on everything we could find. It got a workout on some rough and technical singletrack around Sydney, and we even ventured up the picturesque Northern Beaches to see how the wide tyred machine attacked the sand and surf.
Wait. You get all that? For just that?
Verdict
You can read more at BikeRadar.com
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