Fat tires are squirrelly on pavement.

[Hwy89]

I’ve been playing with a Lectric 20” fat tire folder. It is fun in the dirt and sand but when you get it on pavement the handling gets weird.it feels similar to riding a motorcycle on grooved pavement. At higher speeds it starts to feel more normal but makes you wonder what might happen if you tried making an avoidance maneuver.
The tires are knobby CST BFT 20 X 4.0 and are still quite new with less than 200 miles on them. I’m running about 25 psi both front and rear.
Can this be solved with different tires or is it something about the geometry of this particular bike. The front fork has little rake and is nearly vertical to the ground.
It’s my first experience with a fat bike so I don’t know if this is a common complaint.

 

[BalorNG]

I’ve been playing with a Lectric 20” fat tire folder. It is fun in the dirt and sand but when you get it on pavement the handling gets weird.it feels similar to riding a motorcycle on grooved pavement. At higher speeds it starts to feel more normal but makes you wonder what might happen if you tried making an avoidance maneuver.
The tires are knobby CST BFT 20 X 4.0 and are still quite new with less than 200 miles on them. I’m running about 25 psi both front and rear.
Can this be solved with different tires or is it something about the geometry of this particular bike. The front fork has little rake and is nearly vertical to the ground.
It’s my first experience with a fat bike so I don’t know if this is a common complaint.

It is called 'self-steer' or 'camber torque' and yes, it is inherent with wider tire fat bikes. Less grippy tires, higher inflation pressure will help.
I think slacker steering angles are worse actually due to trail acting as a lever arm for the camber forces to affect your steering... anyway, that's main reason I've dumped my own fatbike. Try giving the bike nearly zero trail by increasing the rake (that would be offset) and see how it turns out if you have the means

 

[999zip999]

depending on the rim and the tire but it's nice to have them inflated but if you go to high ir will pop it right off the rim like in the old pedigo"s

 

[spinningmagnets]

I'm fairly happy with the Electra cruiser tires. They are a smooth street tread with 3.0 inch width.

I have found the 4.0 inch fatties to be a little too "squishy" on turns. The 3.0 inch tires have a smoother ride, compared to the common 2.4 street tires. Its a nice balance.

 

[Eastwood]

Yeah 4 inch tires are big for bicycles. As spinning magnet point out 3” tires have a smoother ride., a good happy medium.
4” is great if you’re riding in the sand or snow regularly.

 

[Stealth_Chopper]

A "polo" bike setup with 20" tires is optimized for sharp turns, not speed.
Lean into it as far as you dare, but you know, it's just not a high speed eBike.

 

[Chalo]

Fat tire, small wheel folders are so awful that it took motor propulsion to make them tolerable enough to sell. You can address that somewhat by defatting the tires, but it won't turn your bike good.

Try these-- they're as good as it gets if you have huge wide rims:
https://www.powerbikes.com/product/kenda-kraze-20-inch-392376-1.htm
(Note that the photo in the product listing is of a bigger diameter tire, like 26".)

If that doesn't make your bike handle the way you like, sell it to someone who thinks it looks awesome, and get you a real bike.

 

[Hwy89]

I am in a place with lots of deep sand and, like I said, the fat bike is fun in the sand. I have two other bikes here with me for the pavement so I’ll probably hang on to this one for the trails.

 

[sleepy_tired]

The tires they sell on these ebikes are going to be the cheapest ones they could possibly find anywhere in mainland china.. I think that most anything vaguely premium would be a improvement.