In the last video we took a look at the Mongoose Dolomite, a fat bike that that was shipped
to my doorstep for under $200.
Although it's not very refined, the price makes the Dolomite tough to complain about.
Today, cheaper is most certainly better, because our fat bike may get splashed with a little
bit of seawater.
If there’s one good thing I can say about this bike, it’s that it works well on sand.
That’s a good thing since I need to bring it across a quarter mile of this stuff to
get to where we’re going today.
This is the inlet by Port Everglades, one of the busiest cruise ports on the planet.
This 46 foot deep channel can accommodate the largest cruise ships in the world.
When these massive ships leave port, they cause the water to recede quickly, creating
a kind of temporary low tide.
Once the ship passes, the water returns violently like a mini tsunami.
My plan is to ride the Dolomite out on to the exposed sand when the water recedes, turning
around just before the tsunami approaches.
If I time it right, and pedal fast enough, the wave should help push me along back to
shore.
We’ll call it fat bike surfing.
The reason we’re here today is that a particularly big ship will be leaving for the Bahamas at
4:30.
The Oasis of the Seas is over 1,100 feet long, and is propelled by a 27,000 horsepower engine.
This is gonna be freaking awesome.
We’ll only get one chance to do this, and right now we’re waiting in torrential downpour.
The rain has died down just in time.
The water is receding, and it’s pedals up.
Yeah, so that didn’t go as planned.
It’s hard for me to blame this on the bike, but it was stuck in too high of a gear for
me to get going.
I was putting all my weight on the pedals, but it was too little too late.
Unsurprisingly, the bike was super buoyant.
In fact I could barely push it back down to mount it again.
I really hope I have another chance to try and surf this thing, but first I need to get
it home and flush it out with fresh water.
As you may know, seawater is one of the most corrosive solutions in the world.
Still, boat trailers, and marine equipment are exposed to it all the time, so I’m hoping
we can keep this bike running with a little bit of TLC.
I’m by no means expecting this to work out perfectly, but it will be interesting to see
how much useful life we can get out of it.
Tune in next time, and we’ll take a closer look at the short term consequences of submerging
my Dolomite in seawater.
Then I’ll decide whether its worth another shot.
Thanks for riding with me today, and I’ll see you next time.