Minus Ten Review 2009-37

This was the fob for the room key I had in Deer Valley during the Fisher MTB Press Camp

Ten years ago this week I flew to the SLC and went to the Gary Fisher MTB Press camp.

Me......a bike mechanic from Iowa. 

I'd been blogging about 29"ers and other nonsense for just barely over 4 years. before that, no one knew who I was. By this time, yes, I was running Trans Iowa, and I was running the 29"er website called, "Twenty Nine Inches", but really...... I was hanging with other mtb journos, real journalists, and top flight athletes, and luminaries of the MTB world like Gary Fisher. Yeah......does the phrase "a duck out of water" mean anything to you? That's exactly how I felt.

Oh! I had fun alright. How could you not, being wined and dined, treated to your own personal test bikes with your name stickered on the top tube as if you were someone important. I had a mechanic at my disposal, and food and drink? Yeah..... I was well taken care of. My room was more like a flat you'd find in a big European city. Three freakin' rooms! The bathroom was bigger than my current bedroom where I live to this day. It was.....outlandish. 

The whole deal kind of rubbed me the wrong way. I just had such a hard time balancing this opulence and frivolous spending with what I saw going down in the local shop scene. No offense to those who were so gracious to me, but I just could not justify the experience. Am I worth that? Yeah, perhaps, but that isn't the point either. The whole thing seemed over the top and out of sync with the realities of the cycling world as I knew it. Anyway.....

It was the last press camp I ever attended. After that, I deferred to those who were helping me. Grannygear, or CG, or now MG, and I don't know that I'd ever go to another one of those deals. Maybe I would, if the situation was right.

The cycling industry seems a bit bent on sending journos all over the World to far flung places to test new stuff in situations that are beyond the means of most folks, or at least of most bicycle mechanics......or most anybody, really. Is that wrong? Is that okay?

I still have a hard time justifying this all today.

Minus Ten Review 2009-37

This was the fob for the room key I had in Deer Valley during the Fisher MTB Press Camp

Ten years ago this week I flew to the SLC and went to the Gary Fisher MTB Press camp.

Me......a bike mechanic from Iowa. 

I'd been blogging about 29"ers and other nonsense for just barely over 4 years. before that, no one knew who I was. By this time, yes, I was running Trans Iowa, and I was running the 29"er website called, "Twenty Nine Inches", but really...... I was hanging with other mtb journos, real journalists, and top flight athletes, and luminaries of the MTB world like Gary Fisher. Yeah......does the phrase "a duck out of water" mean anything to you? That's exactly how I felt.

Oh! I had fun alright. How could you not, being wined and dined, treated to your own personal test bikes with your name stickered on the top tube as if you were someone important. I had a mechanic at my disposal, and food and drink? Yeah..... I was well taken care of. My room was more like a flat you'd find in a big European city. Three freakin' rooms! The bathroom was bigger than my current bedroom where I live to this day. It was.....outlandish. 

The whole deal kind of rubbed me the wrong way. I just had such a hard time balancing this opulence and frivolous spending with what I saw going down in the local shop scene. No offense to those who were so gracious to me, but I just could not justify the experience. Am I worth that? Yeah, perhaps, but that isn't the point either. The whole thing seemed over the top and out of sync with the realities of the cycling world as I knew it. Anyway.....

It was the last press camp I ever attended. After that, I deferred to those who were helping me. Grannygear, or CG, or now MG, and I don't know that I'd ever go to another one of those deals. Maybe I would, if the situation was right.

The cycling industry seems a bit bent on sending journos all over the World to far flung places to test new stuff in situations that are beyond the means of most folks, or at least of most bicycle mechanics......or most anybody, really. Is that wrong? Is that okay?

I still have a hard time justifying this all today.

Minus Ten Review- 52

Ten years ago on the blog I was doing all the year end stuff you see now on the blog, so there really wasn't anything news worthy that got posted up. But behind the scenes there was a LOT going on.

It seemed all prearranged somehow, but just as Tim Grahl seemed to be turning his back on his promises to me, and leaving us all who were contributing to a few of his sites in the lurch, along comes the cavalry to save the day. That came in the form of a guy from SoCal who went by the curious name of "Grannygear" online. He and I found each other at Interbike in 2008, and that was not by accident, nor by chance. Grannygear ended up keeping things going when I was ready to throw in the towel on "Twenty Nine Inches".

Between Grannygear and I, and Grahl's finally just giving me the site in the end, we kept things afloat in '08. Things got even better when a German native named "CG" online also started contributing along about this time as well. Between the three of us, we brought back the site from near death at the end of 2008. 

I was in a big time funk though at the turn of the year. I was in the midst of all of this craziness with the site, and there were a few other irons in the fire starting in 2009 which I'll get to later in other "Minus Ten Reviews". 

Meanwhile we had a Trans Iowa to run in 2009, I had review stuff to do, and life forged on......

Minus Ten Review- 52

Ten years ago on the blog I was doing all the year end stuff you see now on the blog, so there really wasn't anything news worthy that got posted up. But behind the scenes there was a LOT going on.

It seemed all prearranged somehow, but just as Tim Grahl seemed to be turning his back on his promises to me, and leaving us all who were contributing to a few of his sites in the lurch, along comes the cavalry to save the day. That came in the form of a guy from SoCal who went by the curious name of "Grannygear" online. He and I found each other at Interbike in 2008, and that was not by accident, nor by chance. Grannygear ended up keeping things going when I was ready to throw in the towel on "Twenty Nine Inches".

Between Grannygear and I, and Grahl's finally just giving me the site in the end, we kept things afloat in '08. Things got even better when a German native named "CG" online also started contributing along about this time as well. Between the three of us, we brought back the site from near death at the end of 2008. 

I was in a big time funk though at the turn of the year. I was in the midst of all of this craziness with the site, and there were a few other irons in the fire starting in 2009 which I'll get to later in other "Minus Ten Reviews". 

Meanwhile we had a Trans Iowa to run in 2009, I had review stuff to do, and life forged on......