Minus Ten Review- 28

Carlos The Jackal with a "Bike Shop Horror" from 2006

Ten years ago on the blog I had two posts with actual images! I know, weird, right? Anyway, one of those posts was from a promised series on "Bike Shop Horrors". Now, I can't say that I was the one that came up with that name, but I don't recall ever seeing it before anywhere else. It very well may have been a Jeff Kerkove thing or Carlos may have coined it as well. Whatever the case may be, it shows that weird, home repair guy, and big box store blunders are nothing new.

I don't give space to "bike shop horrors" here much anymore, but if you follow me on Instagram, or Facebook, you know that I post those items up there from time to time. Actually, there are so many I could post, it would get to be obnoxious, so I don't do it every time something comes along. Just like this past week when a bike with two holes drilled completely through the stem came in. Yeah.........that was a great idea!  <==HA! So, not everything I see passes through and gets posted. In fact, I could flood my feed solely with how folks mess up attaching seat bags. I must see one of those foul ups every day I work! It truly amazes me. I guess you could chalk it up to creativity.

Anyway, the idea that folks have been getting smarter with bike stuff isn't adding up as far as I have seen! There are more bizarre things happening all the time with regard to how folks misunderstand or are totally clueless when it comes to mechanics.

My "association" with Twin Six is an old one.

 Many of you know about Twin Six. The apparel company started up in 2005, I believe, and I recollect that Jeff Kerkove was semi-sponsored by them at the beginning. I recall when Jeff brought us back some socks with the now iconic "t-6" logo, and I figured they just did socks at first. Of course, they do so much more now and even bicycles are in their portfolio these days.

Anyway, back ten years ago, Brent, one of the co-founders of Twin Six, reached out to me concerning some advice on 29"ers. To thank me for that, he sent me out a couple of t-shirts, some stickers, and and some coasters. I've been an ardent Twin Six fan ever since then. They even put me on their race team a couple years or three.

But even without the gift, I would still rock the 6 stuff because they were the "OG" jersey and t-shirt company that had style and weren't cheesy or boring. They still, somehow, come up with great, easy on the eyes designs, and their style is spread across bottles, socks, and their bicycles. Of course, if you've been a reader here a while you know I love the Standard Rando too. It just seems like everything those dudes lay their hands on comes out solid and stylish.

Other posts from ten years ago were related to the Tour de France and how you should hone your off road chops on a road bike. I got a lot of feedback on the latter article. Finally, I announced that I had another 29"er in the pipeline coming my way soon, and the expectations of a new bike were high back then, as I recall.