Interview with Greg Matyas – Owner (and racer) of Fatback Bikes [Fat-bike.com]

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We met Greg Matyas out in LasVegas at the Interbike Outdoor Demo last September and asked him for the opportunity for an interview. I hope you enjoy reading Greg’s answers as much as we liked hearing them.

FBC ~ Tell us the story of what led you to open Speedway and then start your own fat-bike company (Fatback).

GM – Well, I was getting a bit long in the tooth for an exotic dancer, so I said to myself, “Why not lose your ass in the bike industry?”  Actually I was a commercial contractor and my body didn’t like it anymore, so, being a lifelong cyclist, I decided to give it a go. As a kid, I would ride all winter, as well as alpine and nordic ski race, so it was an natural progression. Originally I was going to do skis in winter as well, but ended up having my hands full right from the get go with the Fatback line. Pete Basinger* was working at the shop, and he’s been on top of that game for awhile now, so he had lots of good input. At that time, the Pugs was available, as well as the Vicious, and the  Wildfire. They were all a little different, but I had my own ideas. First and foremost, a wide, symmetrical drive train. Wider tire clearance. Lots of stand over, vertical drop outs, longer, slacker head tube, lower bb, steeper seat tube, under top tube cable routing…basically everything you see on virtually all the bikes now. We started with 165mm rear  hubs, as that’s all that was made in 2007. In 2008 I had Peter at Phil Wood make the first set of 170mm rear hubs for us. Beautiful, but really expensive, and a bit heavy, so I had Hadley start making hubs for us and we still use them now, though we do have an imported hub as well. None of us thought it would be as popular as it is. Lot’s of riders here prefer winter over summer riding. More trails, much smoother, no bugs, bears, mud or mosquito’s.

[Keep reading at Fat-bike.com]