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The Fatbiking Capital of the U.S.
Plus, Buying a Bike With Pre-Tax Healthcare Money and Susan B. Anthony
Sam Westby
December 11, 2025
Welcome to the Bike Bulletin. It’s all you need to get a grip on your cycling adventures.
Written by Sam Westby, @samcwestby
This is a weekly newsletter about bike trips, urban cycling, and a love for two-wheeled transit. The more time you spend on a bike, the better. I share new editions every Thursday, gearing you up for the ride ahead.
Here’s what we have today.
🌍 RIDE: Fatbikes in Anchorage, Alaska
🎥 WATCH: Attempting to Launch a Plane by Bike
📖 READ: Buying a Bike With HSA Dollars
🚲 ARCHIVES: Susan B. Anthony
A SLIGHT CORRECTION
Last week, I covered a research article about the safety of protected cycle tracks versus painted cycle tracks. Several of you wrote in letting me know that I hyperlinked to the wrong study. The link to the actual study, published in Accident Analysis & Prevention, can be found HERE.
RIDING ON MY RADAR
Fatbikes in Anchorage, Alaska
The biggest fat-bike city in the world.
Here’s what you’d be getting yourself into.
120+ miles of groomed winter bike trails
Huge fat bike commuter culture
Home to the Big Fat Ride and the Winter Bike Festival
Access to snow-covered singletrack
You can read more on anchorage.net and watch Alaska.org’s 2-minute video about where to ride.
WHAT I’M READING
Buy a Bike With Pre-Tax Healthcare Money
Want to get a discount on your next bike purchase? If you have:
FSA or HSA
letter of medical necessity
Then you can likely buy a bicycle for yourself or your family with pre-tax healthcare money.
The article says that the “letter of medical necessity” can be easy to get because only 7 percent of U.S. adults have adequate cardiometabolic health.
WHAT I’M WATCHING
Attempting to Launch a Plane by Bike
What happens when you hook up a professional cycling team like Santa’s reindeer? Red Bull has the answer. Riders of the Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe pushed an absurd number of watts trying to get a plane in the air.
Watch on YouTube
FROM THE ARCHIVES
I think [the bicycle] has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world.
Susan B. Anthony, a long-time leader in the women’s suffrage movement, said these words in 1896 when she was 76 years old. She was seeing women gain independence through mobility in a time when they had limited transportation options.
The act of riding a bike challenged gender norms against women exercising or wearing more practical attire.
She saw bicycles as a tool of freedom, shifting women's roles in society.
A Note From Sam
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