Minus Ten Review- 32

I did a "Lube-Off" ten years ago. This is from last year's Lube-Off.

Ten years ago on the blog this week there were no pictures again! Apparently I did that quite a bit in 2007, but I didn't think I did. With 2 years under my belt you'd think I'd have figured it out! Ha!

Anyway, one of the things I was doing back then was a test of a few bicycle oriented lubrication products to see which one did the best job. I found that DuMonde Tech did the best job back then. Oddly enough, I haven't found anything better since then.

I was just reapplying some to a chain here in the house the other day when my daughter took notice. I should say that I get away with a lot of things here since everyone is on board with my bicycle nerdiness. Lubing the chain in the kitchen probably wouldn't fly in your house! Anyway, DuMonde Tech off-gasses a very potent smell, so beware of doing lubing in an enclosed area.

That smell is very distinctive. I always thought it was a smell I knew, but I just never could place it until my daughter described it as smelling like bleu cheese. Bingo! She nailed it. DuMonde Tech smells like blue cheese. I like blue cheese. Weird......

So, back to ten years ago.....

An argument arose based upon a story posted in "Dirt Rag" about who built the "first" 29"er with a WTB Nanoraptor. History Alert: WTB built the largest volume, 700c based, mountain bike treaded tire ever made to that date in 1999. While it was just shy of actually making the overall diameter 29 inches, it was so close as to be not worth mentioning. The real point being that you could actually mountain bike like 26"ers did with this tire, not babysit your rig because your 45mm Panaracer Smokes were too low a volume to handle things. (So, this is why all other previous attempts at 700c mtb were not successful and certainly were not 29"ers.) Any of the pioneers of the Nanoraptor 29 X 2.1" tire will attest to this fact and tell you that is why they pushed for "The Tire" to be made. See my page about the history of the modern 29"er here. 

Anyway, there was that deal, and there was also new idea concerning fork offsets for 29"ers which On One and Gary Fisher Bikes brought to the table. It was not a well understood concept back then, so a lot of banter was being written on-line about it all.