Minus Ten Review - 48

All my images from this week ten years ago- Gone! So you get me staring at you!

Ten years ago this week on the blog I had a lot of images posted. All gone now. If you've been keeping up here with the "Minus Ten Review" posts, you know why.

I won't beat that dead horse again this week.

Ten years ago, Thanksgiving was late. So there was a Turkey Burn ride at the Camp. The third one saw a great turn out and a lot of fun was had. Looking back, it seems I had a single speed, but I don't know which one since the pics are gone now. Oh well.......

Also ten years ago I was telling you all about how much of a hassle it was that there was a waiting list for Trans Iowa. People were wanting to know when there place in line was coming up, and I suppose they were trying to make decisions on whether or not they needed to get into gear to start training for 300 plus miles of gravel. The thing was, I couldn't care less about maintaining a waiting list, and all the bother was just to accommodate folks that, in the end, typically represented the biggest part of no-shows anyway. After several years of attempting to make the waiting list work, I just ended it. Wow...... That made life a lot easier on my end! Plus, no one was in limbo for weeks. You either got into Trans Iowa, or you did not. There was no "try", to borrow a turn of phrase from a famous movie character.

Finally, I had a very interesting set of tires in for review. GEAX, (now just simply Vittoria), sent over three versions of the Saguaro. A full UST version, a tubeless tire requiring no sealant whatsoever, a "TNT" version- tubeless but requiring sealant, and a standard, folding bead version which required a tube.

Between them, I could tell how much weight a tire would gain from the differering constructions involved in the casings for each. The folding version, of course, was lightest. As I recall about 600+ grams or so for the 2.1" tire. The TNT was in the mid-700's. The full UST version was something close to 900 grams. Same width, same tread pattern. Only the tubeless variants had more weight due to different techniques necessary to help them seal up on an appropriate rim.

Obviously, a 300+ gram weight penalty for full UST meant that this choice quickly went the way of the dodo bird. You cannot get full UST anything in 29"er these days. It just isn't a viable option for a human powered machine. But.......with the advent of e-mtb rigs, might we seee a resurgence of full UST tires? I would not at all be surprised, because "hybrid powered bicycles", (which is what I am calling e-bikes now, because that's what they are), have power to spare to waste on heavier weight components, and in reality- heavier weight components are necessitated by the non-human power factor anyway. 

Anyway, 2008 was quickly coming to a close. In December I ran a series of retrospective posts, which you long time readers have seen as "rearview" posts. I may go into a bit of a different mode for the last four "Minus Ten Reviews" this year. Stay tuned.......

Minus Ten Review - 48

All my images from this week ten years ago- Gone! So you get me staring at you!

Ten years ago this week on the blog I had a lot of images posted. All gone now. If you've been keeping up here with the "Minus Ten Review" posts, you know why.

I won't beat that dead horse again this week.

Ten years ago, Thanksgiving was late. So there was a Turkey Burn ride at the Camp. The third one saw a great turn out and a lot of fun was had. Looking back, it seems I had a single speed, but I don't know which one since the pics are gone now. Oh well.......

Also ten years ago I was telling you all about how much of a hassle it was that there was a waiting list for Trans Iowa. People were wanting to know when there place in line was coming up, and I suppose they were trying to make decisions on whether or not they needed to get into gear to start training for 300 plus miles of gravel. The thing was, I couldn't care less about maintaining a waiting list, and all the bother was just to accommodate folks that, in the end, typically represented the biggest part of no-shows anyway. After several years of attempting to make the waiting list work, I just ended it. Wow...... That made life a lot easier on my end! Plus, no one was in limbo for weeks. You either got into Trans Iowa, or you did not. There was no "try", to borrow a turn of phrase from a famous movie character.

Finally, I had a very interesting set of tires in for review. GEAX, (now just simply Vittoria), sent over three versions of the Saguaro. A full UST version, a tubeless tire requiring no sealant whatsoever, a "TNT" version- tubeless but requiring sealant, and a standard, folding bead version which required a tube.

Between them, I could tell how much weight a tire would gain from the differering constructions involved in the casings for each. The folding version, of course, was lightest. As I recall about 600+ grams or so for the 2.1" tire. The TNT was in the mid-700's. The full UST version was something close to 900 grams. Same width, same tread pattern. Only the tubeless variants had more weight due to different techniques necessary to help them seal up on an appropriate rim.

Obviously, a 300+ gram weight penalty for full UST meant that this choice quickly went the way of the dodo bird. You cannot get full UST anything in 29"er these days. It just isn't a viable option for a human powered machine. But.......with the advent of e-mtb rigs, might we seee a resurgence of full UST tires? I would not at all be surprised, because "hybrid powered bicycles", (which is what I am calling e-bikes now, because that's what they are), have power to spare to waste on heavier weight components, and in reality- heavier weight components are necessitated by the non-human power factor anyway. 

Anyway, 2008 was quickly coming to a close. In December I ran a series of retrospective posts, which you long time readers have seen as "rearview" posts. I may go into a bit of a different mode for the last four "Minus Ten Reviews" this year. Stay tuned.......

Minus Ten Review- 10

This is what snow in Winter looks like. Same week ten years ago.

Ten years ago on the blog here I was riding 29"ers in the snow and it was working fine and it was fun! Packed down snow in 30°F temperatures with Sun shining brightly. Had I had a fat bike it would have been totally awesome.

Fun fact: No one was riding bikes out of doors in 2007. I had the outside to myself back then. It is great to see that, at least in this one way, fat bikes have changed attitudes about Winter cycling.

The other thing here I note is that I am running a triple crank set. No one does that in 2017. Well, in the general sense, and that's not because triple crank sets are "bad". Misunderstood? Maybe. Not applicable to "modern geometry"? Probably. Not offered due to one component giant's stranglehold on patents which lock the workable tech away from being used by anyone else? Totally.

That tire set, the GEAX Saguaro, actually had a pretty stellar tread pattern for snow. It would be interesting to see something similar in a current fat bike sized tire. Trouble is that 4 inches of tread blocks across a fat tire would weigh a lot! So, this will likely never happen.

This would be one of the last rides I would do on the Haro Mary. It was about that time I realized it was just too small, and I had other bikes coming and going in the rotation which worked a lot better. I'll say it again- I should have gotten the size Large! Dang it! Live and learn.......

Still one of Salsa Cycles best ever paint schemes in my opinion.

Then there was the Thule T2 I bought to haul the fairly new to me Salsa Cycles Dos Niner down to El Paso with. This would be my first rodeo riding down there. I was super stoked to try those 29"er wheels out on a real mountain.

The Thule T2 is probably the forerunner of all the racks you see now similar to it. There are a lot of them that are better now, but this design has aged well. I am on my second one now. This one in the image rusted out living on the back of our vehicles.

The Dos, well, I'll get around to talking about that more in a future "Minus Ten Review" post. For now I will say that it was a favorite in the stable in 2007 up to this point. Back then Salsa was using Scandium enhanced aluminum alloy. It was supposed to be lighter, and it was pretty light, but there were some other issues with it that cropped up down the trail.

Anyway, the image of the Dos on the back of our then vehicle signaled the beginning of Spring Break. That is still happening ten years down the road, and if you are one that is going somewhere, or is somewhere now for the week, have a good one!

Minus Ten Review- 10

This is what snow in Winter looks like. Same week ten years ago.

Ten years ago on the blog here I was riding 29"ers in the snow and it was working fine and it was fun! Packed down snow in 30°F temperatures with Sun shining brightly. Had I had a fat bike it would have been totally awesome.

Fun fact: No one was riding bikes out of doors in 2007. I had the outside to myself back then. It is great to see that, at least in this one way, fat bikes have changed attitudes about Winter cycling.

The other thing here I note is that I am running a triple crank set. No one does that in 2017. Well, in the general sense, and that's not because triple crank sets are "bad". Misunderstood? Maybe. Not applicable to "modern geometry"? Probably. Not offered due to one component giant's stranglehold on patents which lock the workable tech away from being used by anyone else? Totally.

That tire set, the GEAX Saguaro, actually had a pretty stellar tread pattern for snow. It would be interesting to see something similar in a current fat bike sized tire. Trouble is that 4 inches of tread blocks across a fat tire would weigh a lot! So, this will likely never happen.

This would be one of the last rides I would do on the Haro Mary. It was about that time I realized it was just too small, and I had other bikes coming and going in the rotation which worked a lot better. I'll say it again- I should have gotten the size Large! Dang it! Live and learn.......

Still one of Salsa Cycles best ever paint schemes in my opinion.

Then there was the Thule T2 I bought to haul the fairly new to me Salsa Cycles Dos Niner down to El Paso with. This would be my first rodeo riding down there. I was super stoked to try those 29"er wheels out on a real mountain.

The Thule T2 is probably the forerunner of all the racks you see now similar to it. There are a lot of them that are better now, but this design has aged well. I am on my second one now. This one in the image rusted out living on the back of our vehicles.

The Dos, well, I'll get around to talking about that more in a future "Minus Ten Review" post. For now I will say that it was a favorite in the stable in 2007 up to this point. Back then Salsa was using Scandium enhanced aluminum alloy. It was supposed to be lighter, and it was pretty light, but there were some other issues with it that cropped up down the trail.

Anyway, the image of the Dos on the back of our then vehicle signaled the beginning of Spring Break. That is still happening ten years down the road, and if you are one that is going somewhere, or is somewhere now for the week, have a good one!

Friday News And Views

Trans Iowa: We have another sponsor to announce. The WEMs races in Wisconsin have supplied T.I.V5 with 9 entries to a WEMs race of your choice. All you have to do to get one ofthe nine freebies is beat Allen Brunner at T.I.V5! Allen is in the event and arranged the sponsorship. See the site for the details.

Also, Trans Iowa V4 has been added to the Historical Archives. Check it out along with all the other T.I. historical stuff. Future improvements will include a listing of results, a page including all the past participants, and more. Remember, the site is arranged in "pages", so look for the links to each in the right margin on the site.

Singular Cycles: If you haven't seen Singular Cycles stuff, you should check it out. Classy looking frame sets from the U.K. there. And that was the problem- they were U.K./Europe only, until now! The Prairie Pedaler in nearby Prairie DuChein, Wisconsin has signed on to be the sole U.S. distributor of these fine looking frames. For more on the story see this.

Giant 29"ers?: Yep! That's the word. It sounds as if Giant is finally throwing their hat into the ring for 2010. I am hearing that they will have a hard tail and perhaps a FS rig based on the Maestro platform with a tapered steer tube Marzocchi fork on the front end. No "official" word will be presented by Giant until their 2010 product introductions in August, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a few leaks before that time.

Tire Goodness: I have a Hutchinson Toro Tubeless Ready 29"er tire on hand here for testing for Twenty Nine Inches. Right now I will say that it seems undersized for the intentions that Hutchinson has for it. The Toro's casing is a paltry 50.1mm wide, while the Python is 51.2mm wide. (Toro mounted tubeless at 40psi for 24 hours- Python tubeless, 35psi, mounted and ridden some previously) The Toro is listed as a "marathon/XC tire and isn't even as wide in the casing as an XC race oriented tire? Huh? Kind of weird really, and when you look at the weight, which is just south of 700 grams it seems way off base. However; this is one of the few 29"er tires with an actual sidewall strengthening construction. Called "Hardskin" by Hutchinson, it's supposed to resist tearing and gashing. Good qualities to have, but that comes at a price. One tire expert told me that if their tires were to feature a sidewall treatment like Hardskin, the 2.4 incher they make would weigh just shy of 1000 grams, and that they thought 29"er freaks wouldn't go for that.

Continental is said to be shipping Race King 29"ers any day now and that a Rubber Queen 29"er tire is on the drawing boards. Also, Hutchinson is said to be readying a 29"er version of their Cobra, which is a hard pack, go-fast tire that may be a great racing/endurance tire. Finally, Geax is going to be hitting the lightweight button for 29"ers with the (anyday now) Barro Race. (Scroll down the page to find the Barro Race) The Barro Race is said to weigh oly 450 grams in the folding bead version! We're also told that a Geax Gato 2.35"er will be coming in a 29"er size. Keep in mind that when Geax says they are doing one new model, it's actually three tires. A tubeless ready, or TNT version, a folding bead version, and a UST version. Oh yeah.......and I saw a picture of a Saguaro tubular 29"er tire too!

Ten Speed MTB: It is confirmed now that SRAM will be introducing a 2 X 10 drive train, (most likely at Sea Otter) aimed at the XC racing crowd. Right now their are no firm details as to what that will entail for technology, but one has to wonder if the road and mountain stuff will be cross compatible at that point. It would be hard to imagine that it wouldn't be. I have also heard a pretty solid rumor that SRAM is working on a hydraulic drop bar/road brake/shifter mechanism. If all of this is true and comes to be, then a truly race worthy drop bar 29"er would be a viable option.

Anodized Baby!: Ano is coming back in a big way. I saw more anodized stuff at Interbike than you could shake a stick at. Now Race Face is telling us that they will be offering cranks in various models in gold, blue, red, purple, and orange hues besides the basic silver and black offerings. Yahoo! (See the italics for which color I'm pumped about)

Okay, enough talking about it, go ride!

Friday News And Views

Trans Iowa: We have another sponsor to announce. The WEMs races in Wisconsin have supplied T.I.V5 with 9 entries to a WEMs race of your choice. All you have to do to get one ofthe nine freebies is beat Allen Brunner at T.I.V5! Allen is in the event and arranged the sponsorship. See the site for the details.

Also, Trans Iowa V4 has been added to the Historical Archives. Check it out along with all the other T.I. historical stuff. Future improvements will include a listing of results, a page including all the past participants, and more. Remember, the site is arranged in "pages", so look for the links to each in the right margin on the site.

Singular Cycles: If you haven't seen Singular Cycles stuff, you should check it out. Classy looking frame sets from the U.K. there. And that was the problem- they were U.K./Europe only, until now! The Prairie Pedaler in nearby Prairie DuChein, Wisconsin has signed on to be the sole U.S. distributor of these fine looking frames. For more on the story see this.

Giant 29"ers?: Yep! That's the word. It sounds as if Giant is finally throwing their hat into the ring for 2010. I am hearing that they will have a hard tail and perhaps a FS rig based on the Maestro platform with a tapered steer tube Marzocchi fork on the front end. No "official" word will be presented by Giant until their 2010 product introductions in August, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a few leaks before that time.

Tire Goodness: I have a Hutchinson Toro Tubeless Ready 29"er tire on hand here for testing for Twenty Nine Inches. Right now I will say that it seems undersized for the intentions that Hutchinson has for it. The Toro's casing is a paltry 50.1mm wide, while the Python is 51.2mm wide. (Toro mounted tubeless at 40psi for 24 hours- Python tubeless, 35psi, mounted and ridden some previously) The Toro is listed as a "marathon/XC tire and isn't even as wide in the casing as an XC race oriented tire? Huh? Kind of weird really, and when you look at the weight, which is just south of 700 grams it seems way off base. However; this is one of the few 29"er tires with an actual sidewall strengthening construction. Called "Hardskin" by Hutchinson, it's supposed to resist tearing and gashing. Good qualities to have, but that comes at a price. One tire expert told me that if their tires were to feature a sidewall treatment like Hardskin, the 2.4 incher they make would weigh just shy of 1000 grams, and that they thought 29"er freaks wouldn't go for that.

Continental is said to be shipping Race King 29"ers any day now and that a Rubber Queen 29"er tire is on the drawing boards. Also, Hutchinson is said to be readying a 29"er version of their Cobra, which is a hard pack, go-fast tire that may be a great racing/endurance tire. Finally, Geax is going to be hitting the lightweight button for 29"ers with the (anyday now) Barro Race. (Scroll down the page to find the Barro Race) The Barro Race is said to weigh oly 450 grams in the folding bead version! We're also told that a Geax Gato 2.35"er will be coming in a 29"er size. Keep in mind that when Geax says they are doing one new model, it's actually three tires. A tubeless ready, or TNT version, a folding bead version, and a UST version. Oh yeah.......and I saw a picture of a Saguaro tubular 29"er tire too!

Ten Speed MTB: It is confirmed now that SRAM will be introducing a 2 X 10 drive train, (most likely at Sea Otter) aimed at the XC racing crowd. Right now their are no firm details as to what that will entail for technology, but one has to wonder if the road and mountain stuff will be cross compatible at that point. It would be hard to imagine that it wouldn't be. I have also heard a pretty solid rumor that SRAM is working on a hydraulic drop bar/road brake/shifter mechanism. If all of this is true and comes to be, then a truly race worthy drop bar 29"er would be a viable option.

Anodized Baby!: Ano is coming back in a big way. I saw more anodized stuff at Interbike than you could shake a stick at. Now Race Face is telling us that they will be offering cranks in various models in gold, blue, red, purple, and orange hues besides the basic silver and black offerings. Yahoo! (See the italics for which color I'm pumped about)

Okay, enough talking about it, go ride!

Merry Christmas From Guitar Ted And Other Bits...

<===The best 29"er carbon fork money can buy.......for now.

I was checking the blog stats yesterday and saw a bunch of hits from one mad 29"er purveyor located in merry ol' England. I investigated the source and found out that I am "near legendary". Hey.....I'm not making this up! Check it out here.

(What I said about the Carbon Superlight fork? Yeah....I mean it. It's awesome!)

In other news, I got wind of a new titanium 29"er frame with some really high end specs for a sub $1300.00 price tag. Sound interesting? See my Twenty Nine Inches post for more.....

Also, I commuted in the snow today again. Fun times in halfway decent temperatures. I will say it again: The Fargo and Geax Saguaro TNT tire combo is a killer winter set up. I was running some crazy sub-20 psi pressures the other day over black ice with no real worries. Yeah......you have to be careful! But, it still is a rideable situation for my commute, so that's cool. Today I really increased the pressures to a sky high 22 psi rear/20 psi front and I thought I was flying! No, seriously! These TNT tires have a thicker sidewall that is better at doing the low psi boogie, so I do it. What can I say? And I haven't even tried the UST version, with thicker side walls yet, out there in the snow. I can't find a reason to, but I will in the name of science!

I will be taking the day off for Christmas here on Guitar Ted Productions, so look for the next post to show up on Friday. So until then...............

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas From Guitar Ted And Other Bits...

<===The best 29"er carbon fork money can buy.......for now.

I was checking the blog stats yesterday and saw a bunch of hits from one mad 29"er purveyor located in merry ol' England. I investigated the source and found out that I am "near legendary". Hey.....I'm not making this up! Check it out here.

(What I said about the Carbon Superlight fork? Yeah....I mean it. It's awesome!)

In other news, I got wind of a new titanium 29"er frame with some really high end specs for a sub $1300.00 price tag. Sound interesting? See my Twenty Nine Inches post for more.....

Also, I commuted in the snow today again. Fun times in halfway decent temperatures. I will say it again: The Fargo and Geax Saguaro TNT tire combo is a killer winter set up. I was running some crazy sub-20 psi pressures the other day over black ice with no real worries. Yeah......you have to be careful! But, it still is a rideable situation for my commute, so that's cool. Today I really increased the pressures to a sky high 22 psi rear/20 psi front and I thought I was flying! No, seriously! These TNT tires have a thicker sidewall that is better at doing the low psi boogie, so I do it. What can I say? And I haven't even tried the UST version, with thicker side walls yet, out there in the snow. I can't find a reason to, but I will in the name of science!

I will be taking the day off for Christmas here on Guitar Ted Productions, so look for the next post to show up on Friday. So until then...............

Merry Christmas!