The SE Fat Ripper: A big man needs a big bike

The first time I saw a fat bike, I thought it was stupid.  What's the point? I asked myself.  At the same time, I'm still carrying an absurd amount of weight from my third go at taxi driving.  It was a fun job at times, but sitting in a car all day and eating too much fast food doesn't work well with my metabolism.  So now I'm a guy the size of a novice sumo wrestler who's jonesin' to get back out riding a bike again.  Luckily, I have old P.O.W. House co-habitator Todd Lyons as a Facebook friend.  For a couple of years I've been watching his posts doing wheelies around the world on different SE bikes. 

Several years ago, Nick Zielger and friends put their efforts together to send me a great Schwinn cruiser for free.  It was great to get back riding again, at least as much as my big body would allow.  But I was under pressure almost immediately to sell the bike since I wasn't working at the time.  I wound up pawning the bike, and I'd just pay the interest every month.  With the bike out of site, it was out of mind, and the pressure to sell it died down.  Then I wound up in the hospital for several days, and I wasn't able to make that little interest payment to the pawn shop.  Bye bye Schwinn.  That really bummed me out.  I think it bummed Nick out even more. 

As the time passed since then, I've hovered at a ridiculous weight, and I know I need to start exercising A LOT to take the pounds off again.  I lost 130 pounds at one point, but I gained much of it back during my last tour as a taxi driver.

In any case, being a fat guy may qualify me for the Bubbalympics here in North Carolina (there really is one), but that doesn't interest me.  I need to get my big butt riding again.  Over the last month or so, I've been watching SE's Fat Ripper video with Todd Lyons doing the riding (above).  I want one of those bikes.  My income is sketchy, but I'm gonna get myself on a Fat Ripper as soon as I can.  Let the savings begin...

It'll be a long time before I lose enough to ride a 20 inch again, and this bike just fits the bill for me.  Check out the SE video above, as well as this bike test of it on Seth's Bike Hacks.