| Make: | Fat City |
| Model: | Chris Chance |
| Year: | 1998 |
| Size: | 58 cm (c-t-c) |
| Color: | saphire fade |
| Serial Number: | CH 58 155 |
| Frame: | tig welded steel - True Temper |
| Fork: | tig-welded steel - Yo Eddy Road |
| Headset: | Shimano 600 |
| Front Derailler: | Shimano Ultegra |
| Rear Derailler: | Shimano Dura Ace |
| Rear Cogs: | Shimano Ultegra 11-23 |
| Hubs: | Mavic |
| Rims: | Mavic Cosmic Equipe |
| Brakes: | Shimano Dura Ace |
| Levers: | Shimano Dura Ace brake/shifter combo |
| Cranks: | Shimano Dura Ace 39/53 |
| Bottom Bracket: | Shimano Dura Ace |
| Pedals: | Ritchey V.2 SPD (blue) |
| Bar: | Easton EC90 42cm |
| Stem: | Salsa 130mm / 75 degree 1 in. quill |
| Seat Post: | Thomson Elite 26.8 |
| Saddle: | Selle Italia SLR |
Fat City Road
Although known for mountain bikes, Fat City still produced an excellent road bike. Chris Chance, the owner of Fat City Cycles, built custom road bikes during the late 1970s and early '80s. By 1982 Chris began exclusively building mountain bikes in his Somerville, MA, production facility. His Fat Chance bikes were legendary early mountain bikes.
In 1989, Fat City reintroduced a road bike called the Slim Chance. The Slim continued production through 1995, after which the Chris Chance model was introduced. According to the 1995 Fat City catalog, the frame differences were:
Vertical dropouts and a lighter custom mixed tubeset from True Temper Sports have helped to reduce the frame's weight by several ounces. A larger 30mm down tube and beefier oval chainstays have increased pedaling efficiency by further reducing bottom bracket flex.
Additionally, the new Yo Eddy! Road Fork was added to the bike. The fork has a claimed weight of 1-1/4 pounds (I've not weighed mine to confirm this), and is built using an unusual tig-welded tubed crown design.
In 1994, for financial reason Fat City Cycles joined forces with Serotta Bicycles and merged operations in upstate New York. The Fat City employees did not move to New York, and several came together to form Independent Fabrications, a great bike company in it's own right. My bike was built in the New York production facility.
The bike rides very nicely. It's well balanced, and as claimed by Fat City, it is stiff for climbing. The fork delivers an amazing ride, and smooths out most road bumps. Road imperfections can be felt coming through the rear of the bike, but are nearly undetected through the front. It delivers a smooth fast (at least as fast as I can make the bike go) ride.
This has been my primary road bike for a couple of years now, and I can still say that I truly enjoy the ride. I've thought about getting a slightly frame for long climbs, although this bike has to be around 19-20 pounds, but otherwise I see no need to replace it. I still love the super smooth ride.
-el