Minus Ten Review- 33

Rich Dillen has a town named after him in the Cheese State? Who knew?

Ten years ago this week on the blog here I actually had images posted! Crazy. Anyway, one of the deals I got to go to back in the day was Trek World, the dealer only show Trek holds in Madison Wisconsin. Well.......except that it isn't a "show" anymore. And, not all dealers can go, plus the ones that can have to pay to get in. It isn't any big deal though, because you can learn all about Trek's newest bicycles online these days if you have a dealer portal. Still, it isn't the same as seeing the bikes with your own two eyes. That was special.

Plus, you got to meet people like Gary Fisher, the engineering team, product managers, and more. It gave a face to the company and you felt as though you were not working for some cybernetic, faceless corporation. Yes.....some dealers and international dealers do still get this treatment. They get to see the people and the bikes. It's pretty obvious that Trek doesn't see the US bicycle shop as being worth courting. In fact, they are buying up bike shops. But that's another story.....

In other news I talked about what was going on with my Special Projects. The two bicycles were the custom builds I had done in 2007. The Pofahl would be the first to get built but at this time ten years ago I was waiting on the fork to get corrected as it came to me with the rear disc mount instead of the correct front disc brake mount brazed on.

I got this swank Ergon rucksack to try out.

Jeff Kerkove was gone by this time and living in Colorado permanently, which he has been ever since that time. He arranged to have a new Ergon BD-2 sent out to me to try. It was an odd ball rucksack which had this solid plastic hip stabilizer and a ball joint which the pack actually hung from. The idea being that the rider could move without having to overcome the weight of the backpack to do so. The ball joint, or "Flink", as Ergon called it, allowed the pack to pivot on the back of the wearer.

It worked as advertised, but the rigid bits of the pack were.......annoying. The design also pushed the weight of the backpack and its contents away from the rider, which seems like a benefit at first. However; it meant that the weight of the pack and its contents had a more effective lever on your back and a heavy load seemed to be more of a burden than it should be since you were always countering that weight hanging off your back instead of having it closer to your body, which feels more natural. Anyway..... It was a neat pack.

Actually, I still have it. It's in a gear pile in the basement. It just seems like there is something about this which was a "parting gift" from Jeff, and I am a bit sentimental. So, I really should ditch it, but......anyway. 

I also was telling folks ten years ago that I was a confirmed member of "Team Stoopid". (Some say I always have been!) Team Stoopid was a four man endurance racing squad that tackled the 12 hour racing category at the Iowa 24 in 2007. All of us used rigid single speeds to race on, thus the name. It was the most fun racing I had ever had up to that point. But more on that in the near future.....