This will be my first product review and last posting on fat or Phat bikes for the season. The product is Innova Spyder tire.  There are currently three main tires available for fatbikes, One is Surly Endomorph ( the grandfather), The Surly Larry  and the Innova Spyder tire. Actually innova makes all three tires two made directly for the Surly brand. The Spyder tire was originally made for Tommi Sea beach bikes which is a crazy long wheel based beach bike.

I have run the spyder tire as a rear tire on my Fatbacks while I ran an Endomorph on my Pug. The spyder tire has a love it or hate it kind of reputation on the MTBR forum (popular forum for Mountain biking). Many claim it lacks traction while other like myself find it fun and somewhat unpredictable. In summer months I found the tire to be grippy for climbs and any straightforward riding. Where I found the tire to be very fun is when cornering on dirt. The tire offers no side blocks on it at all. This equals loose and makes it easy to slide or drift the rear of the bike in corners.  In the snow drop the pressure and get as much spyder on the ground as possible and you will be good to go. Because of the lack of blocking I would not recommend using it as front if you plan on riding it off road. I might be tempted to use one on the front only if the fatbike was used for road only.
One clear advantage the tire offers is price. The Surly Larry can run $69-$110 The Endo is $110 but the Spyder can run as low as $45.00 and commonly sells for $65.00.

Over all not a bad deal at all if you’re looking to mix it up the already small tire market for your fattie.

Side note…….. I hear there is a wider tire from Surly on the way.