Surly Nate Review

The Surly Nate tire for snow/sand bikes has been a relative new addition to the fat biker's tire arsenal.  Since the fat bike space is growing, there has been a lot of interest in feeding the mouth that is the fat bike industry.  With hunger comes innovation.

As more players get involved in the fat bike space, it becomes a good thing for us consumers as we see the innovation turn into more choices.  Surly came out with their Surly Nate tire this year and I originally had mounted it just on the front thinking the more aggressive tread on the front would help to hook up in the snow/dirt, etc.  I had a Surly Larry mounted on the back.  As a newcomer to the fat bike genre I had no point of reference when having chosen the tires.  I did some research (mostly on MTBR) to read about people's experiences/opinions.  Since Nate is a relative newcomer to the fat party, there was not much out there - especially when it referenced snow.

I rode with the Larry rear/ Nate front combo for about a month and noticed my rear wheel kept losing traction in the snow (and occasionally in the dirt).  I played around with psi a little bit to see if it would help but I was still fishtailing with the rear.  With a couple of Nate's on order, the idea plan was to swap out the rear with a Nate but run in in the 'backwards' direction compared to the front.  The tread on the Nate has some nice knobbies on the sides with more aggressive patterns in the middle.  Below is a picture of the rear tire.  The tire is mounted in order to maximize traction:

 This is the tread pattern for the front - to maximize rolling....

 riding through about 3 inches of fresh:

My observations:

• Swapping out the tire on the back of the bike to run a Nate running 'backwards' makes it feel like a totally different bike!  The rear tire has all sorts of traction and handles snow MUCH better than the Larry I had mounted on there.  
• If the tire does go into the deeper snow, it is so much easier to correct and get back on the better snow without spinning out nearly as much.  
• The rear tire did not fish tail like it did with the Larry on the snow.
• I was able to ride more in conditions / segments where I would usually have to get off and hike a bike.
• You have a better chance at riding through stuff with a little persistence - in other words, with the old tire on it, once you lost traction, it was a done deal.  If you kept pedaling, you would keep spinning.  With the Nate you can subtly change body position, pedal speed while you wait for it to hook up so you can keep going.
• Rolling resistance is worse...the price to pay for a bigger tired and bigger knobs is that it feels a little heavier (well worth the price to pay on rolling though).
• It felt like it was glued to the trail when on dirt - hooked up really well!

All in all, I give the Nate front/ Nate rear combo a big thumbs up!