Readers’ Rides: Will’s Fat Chance Yo Eddy
For this edition of Readers’ Rides, Will shares his 2020 Fat Chance Yo Eddy complete with “Custom painted Thompson Elite stem”, obvs.
Bike brand and model
Fat Chance Yo Eddy
Why this bike?
Having started biking as a teen in the early 90’s, I blame this one on Dave Hemming. In particular, an MBUK article (Summer ’94?) entitled 10 things you should never do on a mountain bike, which featured him and his Yo Eddy in some pretty glam shots which must have come from Steve Behr. The aquafade of those bikes was simply the best paintjob on the scene. Then Clive Gosling got on one too not long after – fully tricked with bling Ringle kit of the day. It then took 25 years, and Chris Chance coming back on the scene, for me to get the pennies together to scratch this particular itch.
It’s essentially a build to remind me of that 90’s heyday, which was before pretty much all components turned to being black black or black by default. It’s nowadays tricky sourcing the hue of gold or turquoise anodizing that prevailed back in those days, so silver has been subbed in where it suited to give it a light look like bikes of that era used to have.
It’s a lot of fun pinging around on a fully rigid machine again too!
Frame
Fat Chance Yo Eddy 2020
Fork
Yo Eddy rigid – stiff yet wobbly, just like the good old days
Wheels
Halo Vapour rims (pretty much the only thing you can get in silver these days!) on Hope Pro4’s
Tyres
Onza Porcupines. White ones.
Chainset
Middleburn – a classic name from back in the day
Drivetrain
SLX
Brakes
Deore – classic 90s name
Bars & Stem
Custom painted Thompson Elite stem and some bars I had lying around, yet to be replaced
Seatpost
KCNC on account of it being the right colour turquoise
Saddle
Kona – off the DH bike – gold accents match the chain
Accessories
A small bell
Size and Weight
XL and maybe 25lb ish?
Additional Comments
I think a triple chainset maybe, and reverting to a closer ratio cassette to really bring back memories of those granny gears. Those bars will get swapped out at some point too. Some nice bar ends maybe, though they make less sense on longer wheelbase bikes/the geometries of today. Any other suggestions? For full effect I also have the yo eddy lycra strip bought from Corinne on the Been Bag stand (who remembers them?) at Bike 96 in Olympia. I’m definitely a lot fatter now though. Hmmm.
Want to share you bike with the group?
Whether you’ve got a special new bike or just a bike that’s special to you, this is where you get to tell us about it! You send us your submissions, and then we cast our judgemental expert lustful eyes over them and bring them to the world to ooh and ahh over. We’re picking the prettiest, the most curious, and the ones with a good story for you to appraise, praise, and maybe look wistfully at.