Minus Ten Review- 40 & 41

"29"er of the Show" for '06's I-Bike according to G-Ted

First of all, apologies for missing this post last week. I was kind of busy at a wedding, so there!

Anyway, ten years ago this week and last, things were really taking shape to be what they would be like for me for the next eight years. I was on a handshake deal with the founder of Twenty Nine Inches to write and review 29"ers and 29"er components, which he promised I would end up making money doing. He stated that I would work up to making more money doing this than I did at the bike shop.

Guess what? That never happened. So much for that guy's word!

Anyway, I saw this pictured Salsa Cycles Mamasita rig and I loved the look of it and the ideas seemed to be pretty radical. Salsa was in its earliest days of working on a hard tail design that would be compliant for the rider but stiff enough for racing. This all culminated in what they have today in the Warbird and Cutthroat models.

The other really crazy thing was what Salsa did to make the Mamasita handle with a snappy, 26"er-ish feel. They used a 73° head tube angle! And no.......it didn't really work. In fact, I had one short test ride on a Mamasita later on this same year and it put me off that bike and idea for good.

Badger Cycles "Dorothy" prototype.

The review job kicked off in a huge way with a couple of carbon fiber forks and other bikes, but the one bike review I got to do that had lasting impact on me was the Badger Dorothy review. Not because of the bike, per se', but because of the individual behind the bike, Ben.

I know that the mere mention of this whole tale of sorrow isn't anything Ben wants to remember, and I will not get into the ill-fated history of the project, but sometimes failures lead to better things, and I think that can definitely be said of Ben. As for me, I got to know Ben because of this project, and I can say that today he is a friend of mine. So, despite the bitterness of the whole Dorothy project, there was something really good that came out of it all, and I am glad that happened.

I will say that this bike was one of the best riding hard tails I ever threw a leg over. The Moots stem......not so much. But the rest of the bike was killer. I ended up taking the Moots stem off and putting a steel one on it which made a huge difference for the better. Come to think of it, this was the bike that cured me of ever wanting a titanium stem. Movement in some areas on a bicycle are not a welcome thing.