Looking forward to my first Chequamegon Fat Tire 40 in a couple of weeks. From what I can tell, the course seems relatively tame, but can get muddy. Any recommendations on tires? I’ll be on a full suspension MTB with either 25mm or 29mm (ID) rims. 2.4” WT Aspens are my go-to tire…
You’ll be fine with Aspens. That’s what I run, although I run the 2.25. It’s not technical at all. The faster the tire the better imo. As for the mud, in 2019, it rained the days before and it was more wet sand than mud. That was my first time doing it. I’ve heard there were mudfests in the past though. Maybe someone else can speak to that. This part of the state is more sand than mud.
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Not necessarily about tires, but wondering about using my road pedals so I can use a PM. Anyone have thoughts on this?
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You can do it. There’s really no section you’d have to walk unless you’re back a ways and it gets bunched up on the Firetower climb.
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Back in the day I was happy with my 1.9 Onza Porcupines, YMMV.
Did you end up using road pedals? In the mud I ended up walking a couple more times than planned 
FML. I did. 
I walked down one descent that was super muddy and up the majority of firetower. one or two other times I had to unclip and walk a little bit because I simply lost traction. The worst part was at one point I was hammering it up a hill at like 450 watts and my bike computer auto-paused because I was going so slow through the mud.
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Haha - sounds like my day. Turns out I walked 7 minutes, and I know this from auto-pausing on my Wahoo…Walking started with Firetower and continued with a couple other rollers before the final turn before the finishing chute. Too many folks walking there and I had no path.
I am not the best at MTB handling skills so when the rain started it turned into survival for me. Was a bit frustrating as I was on pace to hit my goal of sub-3:00 and then the rain…
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Same for me. Was nailing my pacing strategy and was on track to finish at right around 3 hours. I am super risk averse when descending in unfamiliar terrain, add in the mud and I was getting passed left and right on the descents.
The worst part was my quads started to cramp up walking up firetower. I could pedal fine, but apparently my legs are not used to walking uphill through mud in road pedals. I couldn’t help but laugh at that point.
I am excited to go back next year though. that terrain is perfect for me. As a bigger guy, I am not the fastest up long climbs, but I should be able to fly through those rollers when its dry.
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We’ll, I have to say the Aspen 2.4WTs were as good a choice as any. They were working real well until the downpour turned it into a mud fest. I heard Lachlan said he made a poor tire choice, but I don’t think any tire could have done much better in the second half. I was able to (barely) negotiate the sketchy, rutted out steep sandy downhill, and I even cleared Firetower although I was searching for traction the whole way up. Definitely epic!
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