Minus Ten Review - 42

That's THE Chris King of Chris King Precision Components barbecuing at Interbike '08.

Ten years ago on the blog I started detailing how to convert your 29"er mtb over to off road type drop bars. That became a series of sorts, and if I could ever get the page link to function on this here ol' broken down Blogger page, you could reference that material. One day.....

I also started yakking up another ""Big Wheeled Ballyhoo" event. I don't know what I was thinking after the failed 2008 event, the gas I got about it all, and whatnot, but whatever...... I decided to try it again! I won't let on how that turned out just yet, but what was very different was that this time I actually was promised help and I received it, unlike the doomed '08 event where I was left high and dry to do things myself. Of course, if you've been following along with these "Minus Ten Reviews" this year, you've already picked up on the fact that my then boss at "Twenty Nine Inches", Tim Grahl, was really causing me a LOT of headaches. The failed "Big Wheeled Ballyhoo" was just a minor bit part in that from 2008.

What I didn't share on the blog then, but was going down in the background, was that by this time it was becoming apparent that Mr. Grahl's involvement in the site, and the Crooked Cog Network in general, was becoming less and less. None of us working the various sites really knew what was going on, I don't think. All I know is that between myself and Arleigh Jenkins (now Greenwald), we had almost no communication with Grahl. Not for lack of our trying, by the way.

The loss of images hadn't happened yet, but I saw trouble coming and I was trying to get things into my hands to save as much as I could of it. The super convoluted, complex way images were hosted for TNI and this blog at that time was so......frustrating. Not to mention the money involved in it and the disconnected Mr. Grahl, which made matters just super stressful.

I guess I did a great job of not letting on back then, but in hindsight I probably should have bailed out right then and there. Unfortunately in the coming months I was led to believe more untruths and I got sucked all the way into running TNI. That tale will roll out during the rest of the "Minus Ten Reviews" this year.