Fat tires for a 'smoother' ride

The Decorah Mountain Bike Time Trials will be held in the hills northeast of town Saturday afternoon and fat tire biking enthusiast Jeff O'Gara will be helping lay out the course.

You won't see him riding a classic mountain bike like others, though. And his bike may look like one of those seemingly overly fat tire bikes that locals pedal over snow in winter — but it's not.

"I ride a version of it all year long," O'Gara said of his "plus" bike, a Krampus trail model made by Surly of Minneapolis. While a true fat tire bike features nearly 4-inch-thick knobby tires, O'Gara's bike uses still chubby 3-inch tires. So even on rough terrain,"the ride is smoooooth, and air filled."

O'Gara is expecting some 100 riders for this Saturday's event. Most don't preregister. They see what the weather looks like, and just show up.

Jeff O'Gara of Decorah is shown riding a mountain bike trail along the Upper Iowa River. He's also shown displaying one the nearly 3-inch wide tires on his hybrid bike. (Text/photos by decorahnews.com's Bob Modersohn)