Minus Ten Review 2009-36

One of six ever made. Someday I have to get this back up and running again.

Ten years ago this week on the blog I was writing about spiders on the trails, more news on the ill-fated Big Wheeled Ballyhoo, and about some recent riding I had been doing. One thing I was reticent to discuss was the acquisition of a baby blue hard tailed single speed device that has sort of a rough story behind it.

It is a frame I have hanging on a peg these days and was fillet brazed by Badger Cycles for Milltown Cycles, at the time, owned by Ben Witt, a good friend of mine. It was supposed to have been a deal which would have been cool, had it worked out for Ben, but due to "issues" with the builder...... nuff said. 

Anyway, this particular bike was purchased by another friend of Ben's as new from Ben. The whole deal blew up then with these Dorothy bikes and after a while of riding this bike, this fellow, notorious for flipping his rigs after a while, decided to part ways with it. I got a contact from the seller who told me that Ben had informed him I was the the only guy that could purchase the bike from him.

Yeah, weird AND awkward. 

So, anyway, I negotiated a price and the bike came to me. Now there were, (maybe still are) a LOT of bad vibes surrounding this builder, and I used to get e-mails from upset folks every time I posted images of this bike or of my other Badger I have, as if there were anything I could do about their issues. I never did understand why folks felt compelled to regale me with their tales of venomous feelings and what not. (So, just don't, ya know?)

Anyway, the other thing that struck me about this time in my life was how busy I was! Holy cow! No wonder I was feeling the urge to bail out of some things I was doing back then in 2010 and subsequent years. It took me until 2014 to cut ties with a lot of this nonsense, but eventually, I did get out from under some of this pile I was under in 2009. That whole Big Wheeled Ballyhoo deal being a great example right there.