ELECTRIC FAT BIKING IN LES DEUX ALPES

I’m standing at the bottom of the Vallée Blanche chairlift at 1600-metres in Les Deux Alpes; fresh snow lies all around but despite my ski wear I’m not going skiing.
Today I’m mountain biking on the snow instead; and I’m doing it the easy way, with an electric fat bike. Huge balloon tyres ensure a good grip on the snow and, best of all, the Bafang 8Fun motor ensures the hills are conquered with ease.
I’m riding with Sylvain Marulaz, an ‘Accompagnateur en Montagne’ who, after guiding mountain bikers around the superb range of trails at Les Deux Alpes in summers decided to combine the upsurge in popularity in fat bikes and electric bikes to offer a winter version of the same thing.
“I have my bikes custom made in China as it actually works out cheaper” he tells me as our group of six prepares to set off on a trail to the hamlet of La Moliere.
Sylvain’s bikes use the aforementioned Bafang motor along with a Bafang C961 computer, and the lithium-ion battery can provide up to three-hours of power depending on how cold it is (this increases to four hours for summer riding).
They come equipped with seven-speed Shimano Altura gears and four different levels of battery power, along with 4-inch diameter Kenda Juggernaut tyres which Sylvain runs at around 7-8 psi, which is a pretty standard pressure for riding the packed snow that we’ll experience today.
The tyre tread is relatively low profile, but the combination of grip from the tyres along with both battery and human power managed to get me up slopes that would be the equivalent gradient to a blue run in a ski resort; I know this for a fact since at one point we actually ride up the side of a blue run, and I know that if was on my regular mountain bike I’d be struggling to make any progress at all.
Most of the riding is actually along snowshoe trails which take us across alpine pastures and through shady forests, and our group varies from people with thirty years of mountain biking experience to those with none at all. Everyone has a ball.
Sylvain demonstrates how to climb the steeper slopes (maximum power from the battery and keep your weight over the rear wheel) and how to ride around corners like a speedway rider; inside foot sliding across the snow, brakes feathered and rear end smoothly following you around.
That’s the theory anyway; on my first attempt I forget that, as with driving, in Britain we like to do things the opposite way round from the rest of the world, which means that as I apply my ‘rear’ brake I’m actually using the front brake. It’s a mistake I realise soon enough as my groin narrowly misses coming into close and not very harmonious contact with the cycle computer.
The riding is a joyful mix of challenging and exciting. Swooping down a snowy, sunlit trail with mountain air as fresh as peppermint rushing through your lungs is as fine a way of spending a Sunday morning as there is, and one of my fellow riders, Matt, sums it all up when he says “This is more fun than the skiing we did yesterday!”.
One of the most positive aspects of our initiation into fat biking is that despite the huge range of cycling experience of our group everyone is thoroughly enjoying themselves. There’s plenty of laughing and whooping (how very different from a road bike chain gang…) and very little waiting around for anyone, and when there is there are superb mountain views to enjoy along with lots of enthusiastic chatter about what a great time we’re all having.
The trails are quiet, shared with just the occasional runner or snowshoer, all of whom offer a cheery ‘Bonjour!”, and as we ride along I see other trails snaking away up and down the mountain and wonder about the viability of riding them, having enjoyed Les Deux Alpes’ excellent array of summer mountain bike trails on previous visits to the resort.
Sylvain explains that many of these smaller paths can also be ridden on a fat bike, and that he even organises night rides which involve a picnic stop above the viewpoint where we’re currently enjoying a break, from where there are spectacular panoramas down to the Romanche Valley and across to the mighty peaks that rise above.
By the time we set off on the return leg of our journey back to Les Deux Alpes more than one of us is wondering whether we can justify adding one of these fat tyre beasts to our cycle collection; I’m fortunate enough to live in the Alps in the winter, and can easily see how electric fat biking would fit into a mountain lifestyle whether its riding along winter trails or just cycling around town when the snow is thick on the ground, since the combination of fat tyres and electric motor gives you the grip and the power you need to keep moving on snow when a normal mountain bike would just stop dead or slip-slide all over the place.
Electric fat biking is far from unique to Les Deux Alpes – other ski resorts around the world are also offering it as a visitor experience (it’s popular in Telluride, Colorado and Red Mountain, British Columbia, for instance).
The activity is so much fun, and so easy to pick up, that it looks certain to become another alternative ‘winter sport’ alongside activities such as snowshoeing and cross-country skiing.

Alf Alderson rode with Le Pleindair www.lepleindair.com in Les Deux Alpes www.les2alpes.com