Wot happened to fat bikes

Fat bikes were a fashion, and once the fashion was gone, so were the bikes. Sure, there's a niche where they are the best choice (snow and sand), but this is such a reduced field that interest has nearly disappeared.

Actually, it's easy to see when a new bike trend will become a fashion to disappear or is coming to stay. If it improves the practicality or versatility of what's currently available, it will stay. Otherwise, passing fad.

-In the 80s and mostly 90s: MTBs. They would let you go where existing bikes could not go. Here to stay.
-2000s: fixies. They looked cool, highly customizable, etc. but couldn't do anything better than existing bikes. Out they went.
-2010's: fat bikes, great to use in sand and snow, where 3% of the world population live. A pain everywhere else. Out they went. Plus bikes were offered as a happy medium, but people quickly realised they brought most of the issues of fat bikes (heavy, slow rolling) without much of the advantages
-2020s: gravel bikes. They look "fast" like their road sisters but you can actually ride on many more surfaces, so they improve the existing offerings. Here to stay...
-2030s: don't know, maybe 28.5" MTBs??

I'd agree with most of this - however singlespeeds / fixies are great for simple ultra-low maintenance bikes and so have a niche.
In my view Gravel Bikes are simply tourers, with more marketing fireworks. However the need for sensible, non-extreme, go-anywhere do-anything bikes never vanishes, and Gravel Bikes seem nearest to that ideal at present (in the early 90s it was MTBs).
 
Fixie is alive and well and fixed is the OG drivetrain so how can it not be here to stay, it has lived longer than any other setup
 
They do. They are called "gravel 🤢 bikes" though and apparantly any bike that isn't in one of the bother sub niches is a gravel bike. Low travel flat bar, that's a gravel🤢 bike. Drop bar fat tyre, that's a gravel 🤢 bike. Rigid steel mtb, yep that's a gravel 🤢 bike.
And who wants to ride on actual gravel especially deep gravel anyway
 
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