While I was on Facebook managing my fat bike sales group, I stumbled upon an ad about a fat bike with a suspension fork I have never seen before. I contacted the seller and he told me it came from Area 13. It did not take long that I went on the website and contacted the brand for them to be part of our 2023 fat bike project.
About
Area 13 ebikes is based in California and sells, as you probably guessed, ebikes. From folding to carbon fiber, they carry them all! As a huge bonus, the customer service is fast to answer emails and are able to answer your technical questions.
The fork
The first thing I want to say is that the fork is a quick release fork and not an axle fork.It is also a straight steerer. It was perfect for our project since our Norco Bigfoot was using the same axle but our bike was taper and not straight. Once we removed the original fork, we saw that Norco used a taper to straight headset which did not need additional parts to install.
The Area 13 ebikes air fat bike fork has 100 mm travel and can accommodate as per the website a 4.5 inches wide tire. We have installed a 4.8 Surly Bud and it was tight but without rubbing even at low pressure. It is also lockable and compression adjustable but not but you can’t adjust the rebound.
The testing started in late November and finished in January with temperature varying from 2 degrees celsius to minus 15 with wind chill. I wanted to see if the 199,99$ usd fork could withstand cold and still be usable and to my surprise ( I am honest), It passed with flying colors. Please note that my bike is being carried in my pick up truck box and could sometimes be 30 to 40 minutes outside before being used. I used my Topeak shock pump to adjust the air and never had any issues with it. The suspension did the job it was intended to do.
In conclusion
I must admit that for 199,99$ usd, that fork is without a doubt a great surprise. If you are on a budget,have an older bike and have a quick release axle, the Area 13 fat bike fork is a great buy. What is the long term durability of this product? It is hard to tell and would be curious to know.
You can have more information about Area 13 ebikes here:
