Minus Ten Review- 51

December 2008 was a heck of a lot snowier than now. And COLDER!

Ten years ago this week on the blog I was about to close out only my fourth year of scribing here. It was snowy outside. Really snowy. And VERY cold.

I was riding the Fargo every chance I could get back then. It was theoretically here in my hands as a test bike for "Twenty Nine Inches", but by this time I knew this bike wasn't going back to Salsa. I loved it then, and I still cannot get rid of it now. It's just too good.

Everytime I think, well, this old thing is probably outdated now, I get on it, ride it, and the love is rekindled all over again. I didn't ride it much this season, but that was due to testing for Riding Gravel. I had a carbon fiber wonder-bike here and that ate up all my "Fargo time" along with a bike that followed that one which came in for testing. Basically the entire Summer was eaten up by that, and then I got the BMC MCD, so...... No Fargo time! 

Well, anyway, the year was closing out fast and Winter had socked us in hard once more. Odd to look back on it now and think that was a "sure thing" only ten years ago. Snow, that is. We could pretty much count on it. Lately, not so much. Now the riding season has been getting extended well into December. Ten years ago if we got a week past Thanksgiving before it snowed we thought we lucked out.

The Fargo handled snow pretty well, but it wasn't a fat bike by any stretch. Then when fat bikes came around as complete, ready to ride purchases, that's when winter started to falter. Wouldn't ya know it......