Fat bikes are quickly growing in popularity , and are actually slowly getting good enough that mountain bikers are getting them as their primary bicycle due to their flexibility in usage as an every day bike, and an off-roading bike. However there is one thing that isn’t quite for sure, and that is if a fat bike can be jumped like a mountain bike.

So can you jump a fat bike? Yes, a fat bike can be jumped. However there are definitely caveats to that, as they aren’t exactly built to take an impact like a mountain bike. Sure, the bike can definitely handle it, however your body may not be able to.

What are the downsides to jumping with a fat bike?

Fat bikes are a ridged bicycle, meaning they can take some rather harsh impacts! However they also need to have the tires pumped up quite a bit to a higher psi to be able to jump, and that brings up a couple issues.

The primary downside to jumping with a fat bike, is what it puts your body through. Most bikes you jump with like mountain bikes will have suspension on the front and even the rear many times. This will soak up that impact of hitting the ground after the jump. However with a fat bike that has the required tire pressure for jumps, your knees and body are going to be acting as the suspension.

This can cause pain, soreness and plenty of other issues!

Outside of this main concern, the other issue comes down to convenience. Normally you want the tires on your fat bike to be a lower psi for normal riding, however if you jump, you need to pump it up to a higher psi so that your tires don’t compress and pinch at the rim.

This means that you have to air up, and air down your tires constantly to adjust for whatever riding you want to do at that moment. Because of this, it just tends to not be practical.

What are the upsides of jumping a fat bike?

Having one bike that does everything is awesome, and a fat tire bike is one of the best of the best when it comes to this flexibility. That said, outside of being able to have one bike that can not only be good commuter, but also be able to handle a jump, there aren’t a ton of upsides.

In the end, while a fat bike can handle a jump, it just isn’t built for it, specifically in the suspension side of things.

Conclusion

A mountain bike is purpose built to be able to handle taking jumps, going over bumps, and just taking a beating! While fat bikes are more general purpose bikes that work well in the snow , and other non-impact oriented sports.

In the end, if you want to do jumps a lot, I would probably recommend getting yourself a mountain bike.