One other personal note: I happen to have in my possession one Ibis Trials Comp from the late 80's. What is that?, you might ask? Well, hit this link to find out more.
My Ibis Trial Comp has a history here locally. The "big" mountain bikers of this area in the early 90's would gather in back yards and thrash this thing over picnic tables, stumps, or whatever they could find to hop on, up, and over. Since it likely was one of very few trials bikes in the area, it was well known back in the day, around these parts. I'll dust it off for a pic later, so stay tuned!
I have finally gotten around to mounting the Gary Bar II and I put it on my Salsa Cycles Gen I Fargo. That's a pretty significant move for me, because the previous Midge Bar set up was so spot on, I swore I'd never change it.
Well, "never say never", right! Oddly enough, the Gary II and Midge share more in common than you might think. The differences are that the Gary II has longer extensions, (yay!), and has deeper drop, with a bit more reach. It is the most "road-like" of the off-road drop bars I have tried. So, if you can't stand the thought of all the sweep that say, a Woodchipper or Luxy Bar has, or can't live without a "regular drop" from the tops, than this could be a good bar for you.
I'll have more with images later, so stay tuned!
Fixin' Ta Fix The Badger:
I rode the ol' Badger quite a bit this winter after getting it back up and running again. So, the brakes have some un-godly warble/howl that appeared at CIRREM and won't go away. I have to get that looked at this weekend and start riding this bike some more again.
It's kind of funny, but this bike is very much like the Fargo II. So much so, that I can not justify the purchase of one. The Badger was built about the same time the first Fargo was being prototyped, so it is sort of funny that way. Of course, the Badger doesn't have all those fancy braze ons, but it does out-do the current Fargo in one way: My Badger is suspension corrected for a 100mm fork, while the current Fargo is only set up for an 80mm fork.
Weird! I guess it was really ahead of its time, huh? Who knew?
Well, this weekend looks to be wet. Hope we all get in some bicycle time none the less!
Snow Dog Down: 44 Days and counting......
7 comments:
If that Badger [or you] were taller, I'd certainly consider taking it off your hands for you Mark!
@Tom: You know that funky little "ergo" bend in the Bell Laps?
Yeah...not a big fan of that. But that said, Bell Laps are similar. I'll do a comparo since I happen to have some Bell Laps in the Lab.
@Lisa: You must be tall then! I'm 6'1" :>)
Cool - I'm an Ibis fan as well. Currently have a '97 Hakkalugi and '07 era Silk Carbon. I've been following the history posts on the Ibis site as well. Fun stuff.
I owned a '88 Trials Comp for many years also. I sold it off a few years ago. A few pics of mine here:
http://yoeddy.blogspot.com/2010/02/personal-rides-ibis-trials-comp.html
GT, would love to hear impressions comparing Gen1 Fargo to the new. I like the new ETT (Medium will fit me better!) and the shorter chainstays. Looks like the fork offset changed too. Any comments between the two?
And while I like the Bell Laps, I hated the ergo bend. Not sure who exactly the used to model the 'ergo' part. But it wasn't me. Wish they'd do a set without the bend.
@bmike: You might want to check out my post dated for today, if you haven't already. There is a great comment by "Wally" detailing his thoughts on the differences between Gen 1 and II Fargo designs.
As for me, I just feel that basically what Salsa did was marginalize the impact of the Fargo by making it more of a mountain bike that happens to have drop bars. You want an off road adventure bike? Why not just buy an El Mariachi? Really, the differences are slight, with the exception of the drop bar. (Although fitting a drop bar on an El Mar wouldn't be that hard)
I don't know, but the comment from Wally saying that Salsa split the Fargo Gen 1 into the Vaya and the new Fargo is pretty dead on. In the process they marginalized the impact of the Fargo, and pushed more emphasis onto the Vaya, which is less capable off-road, but does everything else the Fargo Gen 1 did.
That's my take.
thanks.
fwiw, the new geometry will fit ME better in a size M.
i've thought about going with an El Mar, sized for drop bars, so i get an ETT similar to my road or cross fit.
i'm borrowing a gen 1 M now, and that ETT is reallllllly long.
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