Fat Tires
The Fat Tire bike trend has reached Ocracoke! These bikes sport a 4" tire (twice the width of the ubiquitous beach cruiser), and are equally at home on pavement or sand.
Eli Straw has set up shop in the parking lot at Native Seafood. His new business, Ocracoke Beach Bikes, is a joint venture with his stepdad, Jeramy Guillory. Eli says he had the idea to bring fat tire bikes to Ocracoke, and when he mentioned it to Jeramy, he learned that great minds think alike. Jeramy was already considering it, too.
Ocracoke Beach Bikes has 8 adult size and 10 kid-size Fat Tire bikes for rent, and Eli mans the stand from 10am–5pm. He's saving his bike rental earnings to pay for housing later this summer in Kitty Hawk where he will play for the Outer Banks Daredevils baseball team.
Eli is a rising junior at Emory and Henry College in Virginia, and plays baseball for the Emory and Henry Wasps. On Ocracoke, you'll find him at the Community Park ballfield every day practicing, unless he's working out at the school weight room. The OBX Daredevils are part of the Tidewater Collegiate Summer Baseball League, which uses wooden bats. The players have to bring their own. "I'll definitely break a few," Eli said.
The Daredevils will take on the Greenbriar Knights right here on Ocracoke on June 15th at 3pm, at a special game at our own Community Park.
But enough about baseball – we're talking about bikes.
We all know that the best way to not get stuck in the sand is to let the air out of your ORV's tires. Riding with low-pressure tires allows them to smoosh out and ride across the top of the sand and not dig down in. Fat Tire bikes work the same way, and because of their big tires, they can be ridden at lower pressure. They take bumps well, don't skid out in gravel along the berm, and can glide along soft sand. The concept caught on a few years ago in the cold north states as custom-made bikes for snow season. It turns out, if a bike is good in snow, it's good in sand, too.
From the Ocracoke Beach Bikes stand, it's easy to pedal out to South Point Road and other beach access ramps. Enjoy the freedom of gliding along at the water's edge. And you don't need an ORV permit for this beach ride!
