Minus Ten Review- 47

The KM got me through four winter's worth of commutes.

Ten years ago I was writing about the end of T.I.v4 registration. There was some relief in having that part of the thing over with. Then I moved on to bicycle stuff. One of the subjects was my 2003 Karate Monkey. I wrote the following about it:

" The bottom bracket is still seized up in the frame."

So, apparently that had happened previously to that post. It was certainly stuck and it ended up causing this bike to get mothballed until last year when I finally was able to break the bottom bracket and saw/pry/grind the bits out of the bottom bracket shell. Four Winter's worth of abuse will do that. Especially snowy, wet Winters. 

I also had just gotten a Velocity Aero Heat wheel set built up for this bike, and if you know how skinny that rim is, you can understand how that was a mistake. I should have gotten Blunts! Oh well. I can still use those wheels on something else someday. I'm thinking along the lines of a single speed gravel rig. But that may not happen. I could always lace those hubs up to my old Salsa Cycles Gordo rims. Those are wiiide! I always liked how tires set up on those rims, if they were wider, mountain bike oriented treads.

A pretty Fisher HiFi

I also took possession of a 2008 Gary Fisher HiFi this week ten years ago. This was for test/review on "Twenty Nine Inches". The good folks at Fisher ended up not wanting it back, so I actually still have it. Well, most of it, anyway. The bike actually got parted out and most of the stuff is spread across other bikes now.

The HiFi, and the G2 Fishers ushered in a new way of looking at 29"er geometry. After the slightly slackened, longer offset front ends appeared, the next bit was to bring the rear length in check. Once that happened the things about the first wave of 29"er geometry quickly melted away as bikes got slacker, shorter in the rear/center, and longer front centered. Stems shrank in accordance as wider handle bars also became the norm. Now even this HiFi looks weird. Not "new" as it did ten years ago, but "archaic" in terms of what is popular today.

I could get this bike back together again pretty easily. I have most everything I'd need to do that, but then again, why? Until I can answer that, it stays on the peg in the dungeon. I do like that it is one of the last true Gary Fisher mountain bike models made. So, I am hanging on to it because of that, but if I rebuilt it, I wouldn't build it as stock. Also, many of these bikes ended up breaking swing arms. This one never fell to that fate, but.......