Can you ride a fat tire electric bike on pavement?

A fat tire electric bike eats backcountry trails for breakfast, makes short work of hills, and is a downhill thrill. But what happens when you take a pedal assist mountain bike and test it out on a road ride?

Simply: your e-bike is great for pavement.

True, there are pedal-assist bikes specifically designed for commuting and will perform better on pavement than your fat tire e-bike, but can you take a commuter bike in rugged terrain, over talus fields, through shallow rivers, down rooted trails, and into the woods? We think not.

Our favorite analogy is comparing a fat bike to an all-terrain Jeep. While your Jeep is designed to outperform on the most rugged and diverse roads, crawl up the steepest hills, and provide a smooth ride all the while, when you finally pull back into the city, you can still expect a comfortable, safe drive all the way back to the garage.

City Cruising on a Fat Bike

When fat tires meet pedal assist meet a lithium battery, there’s nowhere a electric mountain bike can’t go. That’s why many who are looking to invest in their first electric bike choose an option that can go anywhere. Pavement included. Look around: chances are, next time you’re cruising through the city you’ll spot someone on a pedal assist mountain bike. We’ll wager to say that they’re having more fun, too.

A full suspension mountain bike like the QuietKat Apex is crafted to climb over roots and up steep rocks—few of which you’ll see in the city. But, this is when you’ll start to see curbs in a totally different light.

Riding a Pedal Assist EBike in the Snow

So, maybe there are better options for you if you’re simply looking for an e-bike to ride on the pavement. In the summer. But, once the ice arrives or the snow starts to fall, fat tires make a world of difference.

Nearly all QuietKat pedal assist mountain bikes come equipped with tires that are 4” or wider. To put that in context, road bikes typically ride with tires that are 24mm to 48mm wide and even the average mountain bike rides on tires that are 32mm to 38mm wide.

Fat tire electric bikes pose a clear advantage when the weather starts to turn. Designed originally to ride over snow in Alaska, the lower tire pressure and higher surface area of a fat tire bike is ideal for gripping snowy, slippery, varied surfaces. For even more confidence in your winter riding, the tire pressure can be dropped from 30psi all the way down to 7psi depending on the tire. Plus, most of the tires that ship with any of our QuietKat electric fat tire bikes are puncture resistant—a supremely important feature when your trailhead starts in a high-rise parking garage.

Plus, the wider tires are more stable, providing newer riders with balance and control and opening doors to seek more adventure further off the beaten path.

Racking Up Your Electric Mountain Bike

Reimagine your grocery store run. While there are plenty of bags and accessories designed to kit out electric city cruisers, the bag and cargo options for pedal assist mountain bikes simply outpace. From pannier racks perfect for tying down gear and other things you’ll need along the way to fully weatherproofed pannier and handlebar bags you’ll wonder why you ever thought you needed a whole trunk to transport your veggies.

Then, for the serious transporters of things, the QuietKat single and two wheeled cargo trailers are built with a quick-latch system that can be attached in seconds to your rear post with screws on the rear axel.

See the full lineup of high quality electric mountain bike accessories.

Go Fast, Go Far

So, we’ve thoroughly established that fat tire e-bikes are a great choice for riding on varied backwoods terrain, on pavement, and on everything in between. But an added benefit of pedal assist electric mountain bikes is impressive range thanks to superpowered lithium batteries.

While most of the QuietKat e-bikes have integrated lithium batteries, the range on all of the bikes reaches up to 64 miles in the Ridgerunner. And that’s just on one charge. That’s quite a few grocery runs. Or even a long weekend getaway. Pair that with the fact that it’s a 9 speed, and keeping up with cars in the neighborhoods suddenly seems extremely attainable. In fact, most of the QuietKat pedal-assist fat tire bikes can push 40mph. That’s some real power.