The 32" Watch: Yakking About Big Hoops

Yep..... Another Guitar Ted Podcast just dropped. You'd think we both had nothing else better to do. (Correct) So, anyway, maybe you'd like to check out our ramblings on these monster sized hoops. Click Here

So, as far as this whole new wheel size becoming a thing or not, here is a nugget of wisdom I gleaned from my time covering the cycling industry. It is a "sure thing" something is going to be marketed heavily if this one thing occurs. 

The one thing? Original Equipment Manufacturer orders. Often abbreviated to "OEM" or even "OE", this means some factory is receiving an order from a company/brand to make something in mass quantities. 

In other words, to give you a clearer picture, Fox is not coming out with a 32" suspension fork unless some company/brand orders thousands of them. Same goes for tires, or rims/wheels. Anything specific to a standard ordered by a company/brand, in this case, 32" wheels, is a tip-off as to what is going to happen. 

We know Maxxis is coming out with several 32" tire models. We have a strong indication via insiders that a Fox suspension fork is coming out. Manitou will have a 32"er suspension fork by mid-2027. I posted about Schwalbe's tire plans last week. It isn't a question anymore. 32" tires/wheels will become available to purchase world-wide in the very near future. 

Expect a ton of marketing to show up this Spring showing the benefits of these wheels. Expect a ton of push-back on site comment sections and on social media. I suspect we all will be pretty tired of the hype by mid-Summer. 

Rich Dillen's Vassago 32"er (Image courtesy of Rich Dillen)

 If I had to say, my opinion is bikes with 32" wheels will become available in shops and online by the Fall. More options will hit from then onward until Spring 2027. Some second tier brands will be certain to have them in their line up. Maybe......maybe one of the big four - Trek, Specialized, Cannondale,or Giant will also, but my bet is they all are going to come later, if they come at all. I'm not saying one of these four mainstream brands will not make a 32"er, but it is certainly possible one or more of them will make a 32"er, or several versions of them. I just think they will be amongst the latter offerings. 

And you will see gravel, recreational, and eBike versions with giant hoops on them. More than just MTB's will be 32"ers. Anyway..... There is a lot more detail to this. Listen to the episode. Let me know what you think in the comments.    

Real World Feedback: 

Of course, it's all blue sky until the reality of what a 32"er actually can or cannot do is discovered by riders. I was fortunate enough to have had Rich Dillen message me after his recent ride in a local short track event. 

Image courtesy of R.Dillen by Pisgah Paparazzi

Rich has a blog where you can check out his takes on the 32" wheels, but suffice it to say that after about 45 minutes of him messaging me he pretty much convinced me of this wheel size and its benefits. 

I won't belabor the points he made here, (again - See his blog for more), but suffice it to say that even if half of what he said is true 32"ers will be the preferred single track bike in the Midwest. 

 I know many will scoff, and many won't give 32"ers a chance. Look......I get it. I went through all of the skepticism surrounding 29"ers too. They said 29"ers were dumb, a fad, and worse things about those who rode them. 26"ers weren't going anywhere. But look around your local bike shop or peruse your favorite online MTB purveyors. How many new 26" wheeled MTB's do you find for sale in 2026?

I'm not saying 29"ers will be supplanted by 32"ers, but the 32"er is not going away anytime soon either. Naysayers will come and go, but once people get onboard a 32"er and find out what it can and cannot do, then the results will determine the outcome of this wheel size. And again, based upon this real-world feedback, things seem to be looking good for the 32"er. 

Nuff said..... 

Minus Ten Review- 33

Rich Dillen has a town named after him in the Cheese State? Who knew?

Ten years ago this week on the blog here I actually had images posted! Crazy. Anyway, one of the deals I got to go to back in the day was Trek World, the dealer only show Trek holds in Madison Wisconsin. Well.......except that it isn't a "show" anymore. And, not all dealers can go, plus the ones that can have to pay to get in. It isn't any big deal though, because you can learn all about Trek's newest bicycles online these days if you have a dealer portal. Still, it isn't the same as seeing the bikes with your own two eyes. That was special.

Plus, you got to meet people like Gary Fisher, the engineering team, product managers, and more. It gave a face to the company and you felt as though you were not working for some cybernetic, faceless corporation. Yes.....some dealers and international dealers do still get this treatment. They get to see the people and the bikes. It's pretty obvious that Trek doesn't see the US bicycle shop as being worth courting. In fact, they are buying up bike shops. But that's another story.....

In other news I talked about what was going on with my Special Projects. The two bicycles were the custom builds I had done in 2007. The Pofahl would be the first to get built but at this time ten years ago I was waiting on the fork to get corrected as it came to me with the rear disc mount instead of the correct front disc brake mount brazed on.

I got this swank Ergon rucksack to try out.

Jeff Kerkove was gone by this time and living in Colorado permanently, which he has been ever since that time. He arranged to have a new Ergon BD-2 sent out to me to try. It was an odd ball rucksack which had this solid plastic hip stabilizer and a ball joint which the pack actually hung from. The idea being that the rider could move without having to overcome the weight of the backpack to do so. The ball joint, or "Flink", as Ergon called it, allowed the pack to pivot on the back of the wearer.

It worked as advertised, but the rigid bits of the pack were.......annoying. The design also pushed the weight of the backpack and its contents away from the rider, which seems like a benefit at first. However; it meant that the weight of the pack and its contents had a more effective lever on your back and a heavy load seemed to be more of a burden than it should be since you were always countering that weight hanging off your back instead of having it closer to your body, which feels more natural. Anyway..... It was a neat pack.

Actually, I still have it. It's in a gear pile in the basement. It just seems like there is something about this which was a "parting gift" from Jeff, and I am a bit sentimental. So, I really should ditch it, but......anyway. 

I also was telling folks ten years ago that I was a confirmed member of "Team Stoopid". (Some say I always have been!) Team Stoopid was a four man endurance racing squad that tackled the 12 hour racing category at the Iowa 24 in 2007. All of us used rigid single speeds to race on, thus the name. It was the most fun racing I had ever had up to that point. But more on that in the near future.....

Minus Ten Review- 33

Rich Dillen has a town named after him in the Cheese State? Who knew?

Ten years ago this week on the blog here I actually had images posted! Crazy. Anyway, one of the deals I got to go to back in the day was Trek World, the dealer only show Trek holds in Madison Wisconsin. Well.......except that it isn't a "show" anymore. And, not all dealers can go, plus the ones that can have to pay to get in. It isn't any big deal though, because you can learn all about Trek's newest bicycles online these days if you have a dealer portal. Still, it isn't the same as seeing the bikes with your own two eyes. That was special.

Plus, you got to meet people like Gary Fisher, the engineering team, product managers, and more. It gave a face to the company and you felt as though you were not working for some cybernetic, faceless corporation. Yes.....some dealers and international dealers do still get this treatment. They get to see the people and the bikes. It's pretty obvious that Trek doesn't see the US bicycle shop as being worth courting. In fact, they are buying up bike shops. But that's another story.....

In other news I talked about what was going on with my Special Projects. The two bicycles were the custom builds I had done in 2007. The Pofahl would be the first to get built but at this time ten years ago I was waiting on the fork to get corrected as it came to me with the rear disc mount instead of the correct front disc brake mount brazed on.

I got this swank Ergon rucksack to try out.

Jeff Kerkove was gone by this time and living in Colorado permanently, which he has been ever since that time. He arranged to have a new Ergon BD-2 sent out to me to try. It was an odd ball rucksack which had this solid plastic hip stabilizer and a ball joint which the pack actually hung from. The idea being that the rider could move without having to overcome the weight of the backpack to do so. The ball joint, or "Flink", as Ergon called it, allowed the pack to pivot on the back of the wearer.

It worked as advertised, but the rigid bits of the pack were.......annoying. The design also pushed the weight of the backpack and its contents away from the rider, which seems like a benefit at first. However; it meant that the weight of the pack and its contents had a more effective lever on your back and a heavy load seemed to be more of a burden than it should be since you were always countering that weight hanging off your back instead of having it closer to your body, which feels more natural. Anyway..... It was a neat pack.

Actually, I still have it. It's in a gear pile in the basement. It just seems like there is something about this which was a "parting gift" from Jeff, and I am a bit sentimental. So, I really should ditch it, but......anyway. 

I also was telling folks ten years ago that I was a confirmed member of "Team Stoopid". (Some say I always have been!) Team Stoopid was a four man endurance racing squad that tackled the 12 hour racing category at the Iowa 24 in 2007. All of us used rigid single speeds to race on, thus the name. It was the most fun racing I had ever had up to that point. But more on that in the near future.....

Randomonium- Vans, Single Speeds, & T.I. Radio

People on Facecrack were going ga-ga over this pig of a vehicle. Why?

Okay folks, if you haven't been around long enough here to know what a "Randomonium" post is, then here is the deal. I ramble, rant, and randomly moan about all things cycling in one, incohesive, bizarre post. "Randomonium", okay?

Yesterday I was amazed by a weird post on Facecrack about a van on Craigslist. People were going nutso over this pig of a Chevy van and thinking it would be the bees knees for adventuring around in. Frankly, I just do not understand why. I know, I know....... "Van life". But this Vandura? Really?

Maybe it is the recent "Dirt Rag" issue that came out extolling the purported virtues of "van life" and cycling. C'mon people. Living out of a van? Have y'all gone Matt Foley on me here? I cannot think of a worse way to spend a weekend, much less a month, going around to cycling destinations. I know, because I have done it.

And I know that the Vandura that the folks were falling all over themselves to "like" on Facecrack is a giant turd of a vehicle to drive, and to work on. I know this because I have done both with and on Vanduras and their variations. See, I used to work at a car repair shop for five and a half years. I am fully aware of what's under the "doghouse" in a Chevy van. It ain't pretty either.

Gah! Just the thought of those vans brings back all the smells and feels. Uggh!

Oh so wrong, antiquated, and stupid. Ah.....yeah. Whatever!

I read another amusing bit that, for all intents and purposes, is likely just clickbait to inflate the "BikeRadar.com" website's numbers. It was about why single speed mountain bikes are stupid. The following quote was my favorite:

"These things are all terrible in that they simply don’t need to be that way any more. Nowadays we have inflatable tyres, commercial jets and simple cash. We have the technology to change gears."

I liked it because it exposes the flaw in the logic of the piece. You see, if single speed mountain bikes are terrible and one of the reasons why is because we have "better technology", then by that measure all human powered vehicles are to be regarded as stupid. Because "technology", right? I mean, at that point, why pedal at all when you don't have to? Why do we not review all bicycles as being technologically backward? 

See, that whole line of thinking is what is really stupid. It is so obvious, and I know all the health, "green", and community enhancing benefits as well as you do. That is why that article is clickbait and why I am not going to link to it. You'll just have to go look for yourselves if you want to see it, but keep in mind, that's playing right in to their hands. Besides, if you want the real low down on why single speeding is a bad idea, just follow me on a gravel ride in hilly territory someday. I'm sure you'll come to understand quickly.

Home of Trans Iowa Radio

And now for something completely serious and maybe even.....useful? Yes. Useful. 

My RidingGravel.com partner, Ben Welnak, has decided to sacrifice a weekend of time he'll never get back and facilitate "Trans Iowa Radio". I did not ask or cajole him in to doing anything. He offered to do it again of his own volition, and honestly, had he not, I would have completely understood. Trans Iowa Radio is a huge time commitment and while I know Ben would say it is "no big deal", it is a big deal. Trust me. 

I know this because back in the early days of Trans Iowa I did "Trans Iowa Radio" as kind of a way to have fun and pass the time while driving around Iowa's backroads like some stray dog on an all night bender. I made up fake sponsors and did fake commercials. I had noisy toys and sounds that led into vague updates and quasi-serious rantings on course conditions and progress of the leaders of the event. I didn't think anyone was taking any of it seriously.

Boy! Was I ever wrong about that!

People would send me angry e-mails after the fact because I wasn't covering their second cousin who was in the event. They would tell me I was doing it all wrong and would tell me what they thought I should be covering and how often and when. It was completely annoying, unnecessary, and the whole intent and purpose for Trans Iowa Radio back then was completely misunderstood. I vowed not to do it again several times. Then I would do it and get another round of criticisms. 

The thing got set in stone once the mini-documentary, "300 Miles of Gravel" came out since my TI Radio updates were sprinkled throughout the piece. Ben came along shortly afterward to facilitate Trans Iowa Radio on his Mountain Bike Radio site. That's when it started to open up to having rider call-ins and it didn't have to be something that relied on myself stopping to call in occasionally. Ben helped put things to right with the "audience" and what it was they wanted- updates from people they wanted to hear about, straight from the "horses mouth". It has freed me up to do what I do and not have to be concerned with trying to please every listener. It has been a great arrangement.

That said, I know it is a huge investment for Ben in terms of time and energy. That is why I cannot ask him to do this. I know how taxing it is. So, if you have the chance, give him a shout and let him know that you appreciate the efforts. I know I sure do. 

 

Randomonium- Vans, Single Speeds, & T.I. Radio

People on Facecrack were going ga-ga over this pig of a vehicle. Why?

Okay folks, if you haven't been around long enough here to know what a "Randomonium" post is, then here is the deal. I ramble, rant, and randomly moan about all things cycling in one, incohesive, bizarre post. "Randomonium", okay?

Yesterday I was amazed by a weird post on Facecrack about a van on Craigslist. People were going nutso over this pig of a Chevy van and thinking it would be the bees knees for adventuring around in. Frankly, I just do not understand why. I know, I know....... "Van life". But this Vandura? Really?

Maybe it is the recent "Dirt Rag" issue that came out extolling the purported virtues of "van life" and cycling. C'mon people. Living out of a van? Have y'all gone Matt Foley on me here? I cannot think of a worse way to spend a weekend, much less a month, going around to cycling destinations. I know, because I have done it.

And I know that the Vandura that the folks were falling all over themselves to "like" on Facecrack is a giant turd of a vehicle to drive, and to work on. I know this because I have done both with and on Vanduras and their variations. See, I used to work at a car repair shop for five and a half years. I am fully aware of what's under the "doghouse" in a Chevy van. It ain't pretty either.

Gah! Just the thought of those vans brings back all the smells and feels. Uggh!

Oh so wrong, antiquated, and stupid. Ah.....yeah. Whatever!

I read another amusing bit that, for all intents and purposes, is likely just clickbait to inflate the "BikeRadar.com" website's numbers. It was about why single speed mountain bikes are stupid. The following quote was my favorite:

"These things are all terrible in that they simply don’t need to be that way any more. Nowadays we have inflatable tyres, commercial jets and simple cash. We have the technology to change gears."

I liked it because it exposes the flaw in the logic of the piece. You see, if single speed mountain bikes are terrible and one of the reasons why is because we have "better technology", then by that measure all human powered vehicles are to be regarded as stupid. Because "technology", right? I mean, at that point, why pedal at all when you don't have to? Why do we not review all bicycles as being technologically backward? 

See, that whole line of thinking is what is really stupid. It is so obvious, and I know all the health, "green", and community enhancing benefits as well as you do. That is why that article is clickbait and why I am not going to link to it. You'll just have to go look for yourselves if you want to see it, but keep in mind, that's playing right in to their hands. Besides, if you want the real low down on why single speeding is a bad idea, just follow me on a gravel ride in hilly territory someday. I'm sure you'll come to understand quickly.

Home of Trans Iowa Radio

And now for something completely serious and maybe even.....useful? Yes. Useful. 

My RidingGravel.com partner, Ben Welnak, has decided to sacrifice a weekend of time he'll never get back and facilitate "Trans Iowa Radio". I did not ask or cajole him in to doing anything. He offered to do it again of his own volition, and honestly, had he not, I would have completely understood. Trans Iowa Radio is a huge time commitment and while I know Ben would say it is "no big deal", it is a big deal. Trust me. 

I know this because back in the early days of Trans Iowa I did "Trans Iowa Radio" as kind of a way to have fun and pass the time while driving around Iowa's backroads like some stray dog on an all night bender. I made up fake sponsors and did fake commercials. I had noisy toys and sounds that led into vague updates and quasi-serious rantings on course conditions and progress of the leaders of the event. I didn't think anyone was taking any of it seriously.

Boy! Was I ever wrong about that!

People would send me angry e-mails after the fact because I wasn't covering their second cousin who was in the event. They would tell me I was doing it all wrong and would tell me what they thought I should be covering and how often and when. It was completely annoying, unnecessary, and the whole intent and purpose for Trans Iowa Radio back then was completely misunderstood. I vowed not to do it again several times. Then I would do it and get another round of criticisms. 

The thing got set in stone once the mini-documentary, "300 Miles of Gravel" came out since my TI Radio updates were sprinkled throughout the piece. Ben came along shortly afterward to facilitate Trans Iowa Radio on his Mountain Bike Radio site. That's when it started to open up to having rider call-ins and it didn't have to be something that relied on myself stopping to call in occasionally. Ben helped put things to right with the "audience" and what it was they wanted- updates from people they wanted to hear about, straight from the "horses mouth". It has freed me up to do what I do and not have to be concerned with trying to please every listener. It has been a great arrangement.

That said, I know it is a huge investment for Ben in terms of time and energy. That is why I cannot ask him to do this. I know how taxing it is. So, if you have the chance, give him a shout and let him know that you appreciate the efforts. I know I sure do. 

 

Randomonium

A Stroopwafel sample. Stroopwafel......riiiiiight.

Okay, if you are having trouble with the title today, let me take a moment to explain. The days where I have no direction or theme for the post I write get tagged as "randomonium" posts. Yes......the word does not exist.

Officially.

 Big deal. That never stopped me from making up words before. In fact, when I was a jeweler, my boss and I had so many made up words in our vocabulary, (that no one else understood), that my former boss' wife recently told me that it was like listening to a married couple speak a foreign language.

But I digress......

Anyway, as I have already said somewhere, I have been sick of late. The annual January sickness, or so it would seem. I have noted that since I have been going back through the old blog posts for the "Minus Ten Review" posts I usually put up on Saturdays. This time it seems to be a double whammy of flu and head cold. Thankfully I seem to be on the upswing, and I have been very careful to get plenty of rest. Lots of fluids too, and the good kinds even! Water, apple cider vinegar, orange juice, and a bit of coffee here and there.

A bit more progress in cleaning up has been accomplished since I can't be out riding.

That means I have not been riding at all. Oh..... I sneak in a bit of a ride at work when I am there by riding around the showroom floor. But mainly, it has been a dry spell, and I have not liked that one bit.

That said, there are two things that I can point to as sort of silver linings in the black cloud of no riding, as it were. One is that I have been able to make a lot of headway in clearing up the shop in the basement that I typical refer to here as "The Lab".

I saw a recent post by some hot shot blogger, (Hi Dicky!), that said he had a box of stuff he needed to get rid of.

One box! pffffft!

I bet I have a pick-up load, easy. I do not mean to brag, and I am not exaggerating the pile I have. In fact, it is a downright shameful thing to have been sitting on all this junk all these years, but I have declared war on boxes of "stuff", and even cans of stuff, and tool boxes of stuff, and...well......you get the idea. I won't even get into the four foot high pile of tires I moved out to the garage for now. Oh......I should say that there are actually two piles that high! 

When warmer weather finally occurs and I can manage to plan the 26 missions my Big Dummy will have to fly to carry out its part in this war, then I will be moving this stuff down to the local bike collective. Some of it is metal scrap, some is just getting the boot outta here. But anyway..... Point is that progress is being made and I have a plan to get free from the piles of stuff that has collected over 20 odd years.

The snow is almost gone, what we have is rotten, and it is covered in ice anyway.

The other silver lining I spoke of earlier is that since I have not been able to ride the weather has gone to crap. The Winter snow has been rotted by rains, higher temperatures, and ice. Even the two Iowa fat bike races scheduled for this weekend are cancelled, and last weekend's event was a scary, sketchy ice rutted affair, or so I've heard.

So, I couldn't ride, I wouldn't ride, even if I could ride, which I cannot. Too sick still. Getting better by the day, but I am not wanting to prolong this so I am doggedly sticking to my guns. I feel like a complete slug and way out of shape, but what are ya gonna do? Besides, as I have said, it seems every January starts out this way, why shouldn't this one. 

Huzzah!

So, in better news I have a ride to, and a room for, the Dirty Kanza 200. If nothing else, I will be doing a long, tour-ish ride of the surrounding gravel roads near Emporia with an eye to not going anywhere close to the DK200 course. That will all get determined later. Of course, there still is the outlier of my having an obligation to RidingGravel.com, so that ride may be different than I envision now, or it may not happen at all. Stay tuned.......

Randomonium

A Stroopwafel sample. Stroopwafel......riiiiiight.

Okay, if you are having trouble with the title today, let me take a moment to explain. The days where I have no direction or theme for the post I write get tagged as "randomonium" posts. Yes......the word does not exist.

Officially.

 Big deal. That never stopped me from making up words before. In fact, when I was a jeweler, my boss and I had so many made up words in our vocabulary, (that no one else understood), that my former boss' wife recently told me that it was like listening to a married couple speak a foreign language.

But I digress......

Anyway, as I have already said somewhere, I have been sick of late. The annual January sickness, or so it would seem. I have noted that since I have been going back through the old blog posts for the "Minus Ten Review" posts I usually put up on Saturdays. This time it seems to be a double whammy of flu and head cold. Thankfully I seem to be on the upswing, and I have been very careful to get plenty of rest. Lots of fluids too, and the good kinds even! Water, apple cider vinegar, orange juice, and a bit of coffee here and there.

A bit more progress in cleaning up has been accomplished since I can't be out riding.

That means I have not been riding at all. Oh..... I sneak in a bit of a ride at work when I am there by riding around the showroom floor. But mainly, it has been a dry spell, and I have not liked that one bit.

That said, there are two things that I can point to as sort of silver linings in the black cloud of no riding, as it were. One is that I have been able to make a lot of headway in clearing up the shop in the basement that I typical refer to here as "The Lab".

I saw a recent post by some hot shot blogger, (Hi Dicky!), that said he had a box of stuff he needed to get rid of.

One box! pffffft!

I bet I have a pick-up load, easy. I do not mean to brag, and I am not exaggerating the pile I have. In fact, it is a downright shameful thing to have been sitting on all this junk all these years, but I have declared war on boxes of "stuff", and even cans of stuff, and tool boxes of stuff, and...well......you get the idea. I won't even get into the four foot high pile of tires I moved out to the garage for now. Oh......I should say that there are actually two piles that high! 

When warmer weather finally occurs and I can manage to plan the 26 missions my Big Dummy will have to fly to carry out its part in this war, then I will be moving this stuff down to the local bike collective. Some of it is metal scrap, some is just getting the boot outta here. But anyway..... Point is that progress is being made and I have a plan to get free from the piles of stuff that has collected over 20 odd years.

The snow is almost gone, what we have is rotten, and it is covered in ice anyway.

The other silver lining I spoke of earlier is that since I have not been able to ride the weather has gone to crap. The Winter snow has been rotted by rains, higher temperatures, and ice. Even the two Iowa fat bike races scheduled for this weekend are cancelled, and last weekend's event was a scary, sketchy ice rutted affair, or so I've heard.

So, I couldn't ride, I wouldn't ride, even if I could ride, which I cannot. Too sick still. Getting better by the day, but I am not wanting to prolong this so I am doggedly sticking to my guns. I feel like a complete slug and way out of shape, but what are ya gonna do? Besides, as I have said, it seems every January starts out this way, why shouldn't this one. 

Huzzah!

So, in better news I have a ride to, and a room for, the Dirty Kanza 200. If nothing else, I will be doing a long, tour-ish ride of the surrounding gravel roads near Emporia with an eye to not going anywhere close to the DK200 course. That will all get determined later. Of course, there still is the outlier of my having an obligation to RidingGravel.com, so that ride may be different than I envision now, or it may not happen at all. Stay tuned.......

The Evidence

<===Just in case you were wondering....


I figured I had better proffer evidence of my Badger for those who have been curious. Here is where I'm at so far with it.

You can see that the frame has been designed from the get go for drop bars, but what you might not be seeing is that the fork has been designed for drop bars also.

The fork? Yep! It has a longer axle to crown length than a lot of rigid forks out there. Rob Pennell's idea here was to make it so the head tube didn't have to be freaky long and the fork blades, being longer, would make for a more compliant ride. The fork also could be swapped out for a 100mm travel suspension fork without changing the geometry too much. It's a nice option to have.

This all lets me use a "standard" stem with a "normal" rise and still have my hand position be only a couple inches below my seat height while in the drops. (which is the proper way to ride off road drop bars) The bars are the Origin 8 Gary bars, which I can not really find fault with and are much less expensive than Midge Bars are. I would pick the Midge over the Gary any day if it were not for the extreme difference in price which I do not feel justifies the minute differences between the two bars. I am also going to try the Tektro linear pull compatible drop bar levers on this build too. So far I have to say that the lever shape and feel look to be very promising.

The wheels are the special Bike 29 Royale set that use King ISO disc hubs and I have the Stan's Flow rims on these. I mounted up some wire bead ExiWolf tires and they aired right up with a floor pump. Cool! The rotors are a spare set of Avid BB-7 rotors with a 185mm up front. I will be getting some Avid BB-7 calipers here sometime soon.

The head set is a silver King headset that I recently got and it matches the silver Thomson post and stem.

So that is where I am at so far, just so you all know.............stay tuned!



<===The "TDVSL" set up.

One thing I forgot to mention from yesterday was my stem/handle bar set up on the XXIX+G. I used a combination of a Salsa CroMoto stem and Moto Ace 17 degree bar to achieve what I call the "TDVSL" ideal. What is "TDVSL" you ask? Well, that would be an acronym for "Team Dicky Virtual Stem Length", that's what. You see, Rich Dillen is the consummate tinkerer. I like that about him. He does all the lab rat experiments, I read about the results on his blog, and apply knowledge where necessary. That is how I came up with "TDVSL". Dicky arrived at the ultra short stem ideal and it seems to be working for him, so I thought that I'd give it a try. Only thing is, I did it a little more stealth like with the 17 degree bar, which allows me to use a more "normal" stem length. Either way, I ended up with "virtually" the same posistion as Dicky did, thus the "V" in "TDVSL". So far it's been brilliant, so I thought I'd publicly recognize my source of new found knowledge here. Thanks dude!

The Evidence

<===Just in case you were wondering....


I figured I had better proffer evidence of my Badger for those who have been curious. Here is where I'm at so far with it.

You can see that the frame has been designed from the get go for drop bars, but what you might not be seeing is that the fork has been designed for drop bars also.

The fork? Yep! It has a longer axle to crown length than a lot of rigid forks out there. Rob Pennell's idea here was to make it so the head tube didn't have to be freaky long and the fork blades, being longer, would make for a more compliant ride. The fork also could be swapped out for a 100mm travel suspension fork without changing the geometry too much. It's a nice option to have.

This all lets me use a "standard" stem with a "normal" rise and still have my hand position be only a couple inches below my seat height while in the drops. (which is the proper way to ride off road drop bars) The bars are the Origin 8 Gary bars, which I can not really find fault with and are much less expensive than Midge Bars are. I would pick the Midge over the Gary any day if it were not for the extreme difference in price which I do not feel justifies the minute differences between the two bars. I am also going to try the Tektro linear pull compatible drop bar levers on this build too. So far I have to say that the lever shape and feel look to be very promising.

The wheels are the special Bike 29 Royale set that use King ISO disc hubs and I have the Stan's Flow rims on these. I mounted up some wire bead ExiWolf tires and they aired right up with a floor pump. Cool! The rotors are a spare set of Avid BB-7 rotors with a 185mm up front. I will be getting some Avid BB-7 calipers here sometime soon.

The head set is a silver King headset that I recently got and it matches the silver Thomson post and stem.

So that is where I am at so far, just so you all know.............stay tuned!



<===The "TDVSL" set up.

One thing I forgot to mention from yesterday was my stem/handle bar set up on the XXIX+G. I used a combination of a Salsa CroMoto stem and Moto Ace 17 degree bar to achieve what I call the "TDVSL" ideal. What is "TDVSL" you ask? Well, that would be an acronym for "Team Dicky Virtual Stem Length", that's what. You see, Rich Dillen is the consummate tinkerer. I like that about him. He does all the lab rat experiments, I read about the results on his blog, and apply knowledge where necessary. That is how I came up with "TDVSL". Dicky arrived at the ultra short stem ideal and it seems to be working for him, so I thought that I'd give it a try. Only thing is, I did it a little more stealth like with the 17 degree bar, which allows me to use a more "normal" stem length. Either way, I ended up with "virtually" the same posistion as Dicky did, thus the "V" in "TDVSL". So far it's been brilliant, so I thought I'd publicly recognize my source of new found knowledge here. Thanks dude!