Minus Ten Review- 41

Sun dappled trees on the North Side of Camp Ingawanis in 2008.

Ten years ago here on the blog I was doing some Fall mtb riding which was spectacular. Of course, this was mostly being done on the north side of Camp Ingawanis back then. Those trails were so awesome, and yet, for as much as I talked about them a decade ago, hardly a soul would come up to ride them. Now days the mere mention of those trails is like speaking of a mystery to riders here. Most people I know riding now have never ridden that side.

I was also talking about some Enve, (Edge Composites back then) rims for 29"ers. This was a big, big deal in 2008. Carbon rims for mountain biking were barely a thing and here I had a set of 29"er hoops to test? Crazy! Enve claimed a set should last, easily they said, for a decade. Well, I am here to tell you that is indeed the case, as these wheels are still being ridden, as far as I know, since I sold them several years back now to a rider who lives in Duluth now. So yeah.... I guess they were right! 

I remember thinking then that a decade on the same wheels is unheard of. Who does that? I know......it happens, but it didn't too often. I had a set of Campy hoops that I ended up blowing up on my commuter bike back in the day that were a decade old, but I didn't know many folks that mountain biked the same set of wheels for very long. I suppose carbon hoops have changed that now.

The other interesting thing is that those old Edge rims are pretty much gravel riding rims now. In the last decade, inner rim width for mtb has ballooned to plus 25mm in most cases. These rims were 28mm outer width, as I recall, so yeah...... Basically what we'd use for gravel travel now.

White colored components- What were we thinking?!!

Do you remember that trend for white colored components? That was ten years ago now. Man! That was an odd deal. Everything got the white treatment. Forks, stems, rims, and even brake sets!

Companies kept sending white stuff to be tested up until about 2012 or so, then it seemed to fade away. I know the white forks were "okay", but those rims? Gah! Those were just butt ugly. I'm glad I got rid of all the wheels I had that were white.

And brakes shouldn't be white either. I figured that out pretty quickly. DOT brake fluid and painted components weren't a good thing to mix together. But, we don't have to worry about that anymore, and let's hope we never have to again!

I also tackled the misconceptions regarding the Fargo, which had just debuted at Interbike. Folks were put out because a frame and fork, initially the only way you could get a Fargo then, was going to be $650.00 MSRP. Surly Cross Checks were going for $400.00 ten years ago. I am not going to rehash the arguments for and against the Fargo. That ship has long since sailed and those arguments, obviously, are a moot point. But those prices are interesting.

You can still get a Cross Check reasonably cheap. Generally, for around $500.00, a Cross Check frame and fork can still be had ten years down the road. However; the Fargo would be closer to $900.00 in today's money. That seems weird, but consider this- A Cross Check is pretty much unchanged from its form that it had in 2008. A Fargo? It isn't anything like it was ten years ago! That's the big difference. Plus, a Fargo will have a carbon fiber fork now.

If Salsa had kept a 2009-ish style Fargo in the line, it may have only gone up about a hundred bucks also.  But, we will never know.