Minus Ten Review 2009- 1

NOTE- Starting with 2019, all "Minus Ten" posts will have the year they refer to in the title. After three years of doing these, I figure I'd better do something to make finding old "Minus Ten" posts a little easier. 

Ten years ago this week it was deep Winter in Iowa and I was trying to find ways to cycle whenever, and however, I could. Of course, back then I was doing this odd activity called cross country skiing. Remember doing that, Iowans?

Ironically enough, I spoke with a man last week, (December, 2018), at the shop and he was from Western New York. He mentioned he was here on a family Christmas visit. He also said he'd skied 34 times already. Thirty-four times?! I don't think I've cross country skied 34 times in the last ten years. Mostly because, well.......it was impossible. That and "fat bike". That came into my life late in 2010, so in another year I would fairly abandon cross country skiing for fat biking. Then Winter, well........Winter with snow, disappeared, for the most part, and as you know, it's been tricky to even see anything white here resembling snow in a long time.

Let's see, so what else was going on in early, early 2009? Well, a couple of years prior, in 2007, Pacenti launched the 650B tire for mountain biking and it was quickly lauded as the "best of both worlds", a tire that would quickly erase 29"ers, (those silly wagon wheels), and replace the too-small 26"er. Two years later, in early 2009, and what did we have but.........(yawn), not much of anything. I wrote a musing on this fact, then I made the following prognostication, just barely after 2009 started.

"I also still think that 650B will not go away, but it will most certainly not attain the popularity that 29"ers currently enjoy without unseating 26"ers or 29"ers."

Hmmm...... Looks like I had that correct, and 26"ers are now, for all intents and purposes, a dead wheel size for mountain biking. Of course, this was not due to riders picking up on the tweener wheel size. No, had manufacturers not foisted the wheel size on consumers by developing the 'new" enduro discipline, and introducing small wheel sized mtb's as 650B bikes and not 26"ers, the "B" sized wheels would have died out, assuredly.

Ice glistens in the branches against an early morning Sun on my way to work in 2009.

 I'm not saying that would have been the right choice, but the industry pretty much dictated that change, not the riding public. I think Europe, whose riders at that time did not want anything to do with 29"ers, embraced the 650B wheel size as a better "big wheel" alternative to 26'ers. Of course, eventually even Europe gave over and accepted the 29"er in larger numbers.

But it was painfully obvious, (both in the metaphorical sense and literally), that the bike industry was swinging hard for 650B by 2011. That hurt "Twenty Nine Inches", the website I owned at the time, and times were tough for anything new on the big wheeled side for a while. But back to 2009. By this time, in 2009, decisions were being made and this is when the whole 650B deal was started, but it would take two years for all of that to come to fruition on the retail side. Manufacturers, bitten by sitting on their hands when Trek/Fisher raked in the sales on 29"ers in 2007/2008, (along with other early adopters), wanted to create the next "big thing" in mountain biking and they saw a chance with 650B and enduro, or in other terms, by replacing what had been known as "long travel" 26"ers. (5"-6")

Of course, back then, all I knew was that three wheel sizes in the shops weren't going to cut it. I was correct. Then "Plus" wheels and fat bikes pretty much wrecked that scenario!

As a side note, I think, because I cannot verify this anymore, but I think this 650B post from ten years ago was the one that spurred a violent rebuke from a few 650B fanboi's from mtbr.com here on the blog. They basically decided to flood the comments with bile, and what they thought was funny. The blog didn't have comment verification or spam control.....until after this point. I ended up having to install that on the blog then. It was my first run-in with internet style "bullying", and it wasn't cool.

But, I learned a lot from that, and so in the end, it was all good. I also had to learn about all this spam management and comment moderation for "Twenty Nine Inches" anyway, so that was a trial by fire! It served me well. In the end, the bullying made me a better blogger and internet site owner, so I guess I should thank those numbskulls.

Minus Ten Review 2009- 1

NOTE- Starting with 2019, all "Minus Ten" posts will have the year they refer to in the title. After three years of doing these, I figure I'd better do something to make finding old "Minus Ten" posts a little easier. 

Ten years ago this week it was deep Winter in Iowa and I was trying to find ways to cycle whenever, and however, I could. Of course, back then I was doing this odd activity called cross country skiing. Remember doing that, Iowans?

Ironically enough, I spoke with a man last week, (December, 2018), at the shop and he was from Western New York. He mentioned he was here on a family Christmas visit. He also said he'd skied 34 times already. Thirty-four times?! I don't think I've cross country skied 34 times in the last ten years. Mostly because, well.......it was impossible. That and "fat bike". That came into my life late in 2010, so in another year I would fairly abandon cross country skiing for fat biking. Then Winter, well........Winter with snow, disappeared, for the most part, and as you know, it's been tricky to even see anything white here resembling snow in a long time.

Let's see, so what else was going on in early, early 2009? Well, a couple of years prior, in 2007, Pacenti launched the 650B tire for mountain biking and it was quickly lauded as the "best of both worlds", a tire that would quickly erase 29"ers, (those silly wagon wheels), and replace the too-small 26"er. Two years later, in early 2009, and what did we have but.........(yawn), not much of anything. I wrote a musing on this fact, then I made the following prognostication, just barely after 2009 started.

"I also still think that 650B will not go away, but it will most certainly not attain the popularity that 29"ers currently enjoy without unseating 26"ers or 29"ers."

Hmmm...... Looks like I had that correct, and 26"ers are now, for all intents and purposes, a dead wheel size for mountain biking. Of course, this was not due to riders picking up on the tweener wheel size. No, had manufacturers not foisted the wheel size on consumers by developing the 'new" enduro discipline, and introducing small wheel sized mtb's as 650B bikes and not 26"ers, the "B" sized wheels would have died out, assuredly.

Ice glistens in the branches against an early morning Sun on my way to work in 2009.

 I'm not saying that would have been the right choice, but the industry pretty much dictated that change, not the riding public. I think Europe, whose riders at that time did not want anything to do with 29"ers, embraced the 650B wheel size as a better "big wheel" alternative to 26'ers. Of course, eventually even Europe gave over and accepted the 29"er in larger numbers.

But it was painfully obvious, (both in the metaphorical sense and literally), that the bike industry was swinging hard for 650B by 2011. That hurt "Twenty Nine Inches", the website I owned at the time, and times were tough for anything new on the big wheeled side for a while. But back to 2009. By this time, in 2009, decisions were being made and this is when the whole 650B deal was started, but it would take two years for all of that to come to fruition on the retail side. Manufacturers, bitten by sitting on their hands when Trek/Fisher raked in the sales on 29"ers in 2007/2008, (along with other early adopters), wanted to create the next "big thing" in mountain biking and they saw a chance with 650B and enduro, or in other terms, by replacing what had been known as "long travel" 26"ers. (5"-6")

Of course, back then, all I knew was that three wheel sizes in the shops weren't going to cut it. I was correct. Then "Plus" wheels and fat bikes pretty much wrecked that scenario!

As a side note, I think, because I cannot verify this anymore, but I think this 650B post from ten years ago was the one that spurred a violent rebuke from a few 650B fanboi's from mtbr.com here on the blog. They basically decided to flood the comments with bile, and what they thought was funny. The blog didn't have comment verification or spam control.....until after this point. I ended up having to install that on the blog then. It was my first run-in with internet style "bullying", and it wasn't cool.

But, I learned a lot from that, and so in the end, it was all good. I also had to learn about all this spam management and comment moderation for "Twenty Nine Inches" anyway, so that was a trial by fire! It served me well. In the end, the bullying made me a better blogger and internet site owner, so I guess I should thank those numbskulls.

Minus Ten Review- 3

Ahh! Remember when January used to be a snowy month?

Ten years ago on the blog things were a bit subdued on the biking side, and with good reason! Snow was blanketing the trails and the temperatures were, well......Winter-like! Yes, there was a time when we had copious amounts of the white stuff to play around in, but of course, that was all pre-fat bikes. Dang it!

Generally speaking, it used to snow right around Thanksgiving time. That typically was enough to effectively shut us out of the trails, in terms of cycling, and the only alternative to cycling in the woods then was XC skiing or snow shoeing. For me, we never really ever had enough snow cover to make snow shoeing necessary, or even fun. I got spoiled by the Winter of 2000/2001. (36" of snow in December alone!) Anyway.......

So, I did XC skiing, and back in those days, you could lay down a classic style two-track from the Ansborough access all the way out to Shaulis Road and it would never get ruined by walkers or, of course, cyclists, at all. You pretty much had the woods all to yourself in those years. Of course, it wasn't too many years later when snow shoe rentals became a thing, and by 2011, fat bikes started roaming the woods and now there is no way in the world two track XC skiing would survive the Green Belt in any section. It's certainly a completely different dynamic now.

One could say that "getting more folks in the woods is a good thing", and I would agree, but I also miss those quiet days in the cold snow looking at virgin white, undisturbed, snow covered trail. There was something kind of special about that.

I am glad I got the chance to experience that here. I highly doubt we'll see anything like that again in my lifetime these parts. Of course, that goes without saying unless we get a real Winter again!

Minus Ten Review- 3

Ahh! Remember when January used to be a snowy month?

Ten years ago on the blog things were a bit subdued on the biking side, and with good reason! Snow was blanketing the trails and the temperatures were, well......Winter-like! Yes, there was a time when we had copious amounts of the white stuff to play around in, but of course, that was all pre-fat bikes. Dang it!

Generally speaking, it used to snow right around Thanksgiving time. That typically was enough to effectively shut us out of the trails, in terms of cycling, and the only alternative to cycling in the woods then was XC skiing or snow shoeing. For me, we never really ever had enough snow cover to make snow shoeing necessary, or even fun. I got spoiled by the Winter of 2000/2001. (36" of snow in December alone!) Anyway.......

So, I did XC skiing, and back in those days, you could lay down a classic style two-track from the Ansborough access all the way out to Shaulis Road and it would never get ruined by walkers or, of course, cyclists, at all. You pretty much had the woods all to yourself in those years. Of course, it wasn't too many years later when snow shoe rentals became a thing, and by 2011, fat bikes started roaming the woods and now there is no way in the world two track XC skiing would survive the Green Belt in any section. It's certainly a completely different dynamic now.

One could say that "getting more folks in the woods is a good thing", and I would agree, but I also miss those quiet days in the cold snow looking at virgin white, undisturbed, snow covered trail. There was something kind of special about that.

I am glad I got the chance to experience that here. I highly doubt we'll see anything like that again in my lifetime these parts. Of course, that goes without saying unless we get a real Winter again!

Oh Yeah....It's That Time Of Year Again!

Just To Get Used To It....

So, What it is about this "Movember" thing anyway? Is this some kind of secret "man-club" thing, or a thinly veiled attempt to bilk money from my pockets for a faux-fundraiser, or what?  I mean.....big deal...Men grow facial hair. Get over it already.

Anyway, you may notice that I get a bit grumpy this time of year. Ranting, biting peoples heads off, and just generally a little bit irritable.

November. Time change. Short days.

I guess I don't play well with that. So, knowing me like I do, I have decided to take a preemptive strike against this "darkness". I actually did something about it years ago, but have recently added to my arsenal against cabin fever. Years ago I started cross country skiing. It is a great activity, if you have the snow for it. That isn't always a given in these parts. So, it was a marginally successful pursuit.  Added to that the fact that I had to travel somewhere to do the activity made it another barrier to getting out there.

That's why I needed something else. That something could have been here years ago, but for my misinformed mind telling me "it isn't worth getting this for the two weeks out of the year you would use it". I am glad I finally stopped listening to that little voice in my head. (Yes.....I am crazy. So?.....)

Bare nekkid picture!

That "something" turned out to be the "Snow Dog". The bike that I wrote about yesterday. See, this can be ridden right out of my front door, whether it snows or not. This breaks down a lot of barriers for me.

I also found out that this activity was a blast. I could poke around my own snow bound neighborhood, jumping snow piles, cruising alleyways, and generally goofing off, all the while staying warm, and getting some much needed exercise.

Which brings me to another point I don't like about this time of year. It gets dark, the weather gets worse, and all I want to do is sit around and nibble on this or that. Not good. Me and "sedentary" shouldn't hang out with each other. Really. It just turns out bad for me. So, I am making another preemptive strike against needless nibbling.

It all starts with Halloween. That time that we are supposed to be focusing on spirits and instead, it got twisted into a corn syrup fed orgy of commercialism. Meh! Then it goes right into more darkness followed by Thanksgiving, another carbo-fueled excess that has been twisted into something unrecognizable from its origins. And well......it just gets worse from there. Especially for me with two family members birthdays in December immediately followed by Christmas, New Years, and then the deep, frigid loneliness called January. 

Oh.......sorry! I got a little carried away there. Yeah....so what I was gonna say is that I am going to consciously consume less and move more in this Winter season. So, if "Move-ember" is what ya'all are talkin' about now, I am totally down with that idea. Yeah. Move! All winter.

Ready, set, go!

Oh Yeah....It's That Time Of Year Again!

Just To Get Used To It....

So, What it is about this "Movember" thing anyway? Is this some kind of secret "man-club" thing, or a thinly veiled attempt to bilk money from my pockets for a faux-fundraiser, or what?  I mean.....big deal...Men grow facial hair. Get over it already.

Anyway, you may notice that I get a bit grumpy this time of year. Ranting, biting peoples heads off, and just generally a little bit irritable.

November. Time change. Short days.

I guess I don't play well with that. So, knowing me like I do, I have decided to take a preemptive strike against this "darkness". I actually did something about it years ago, but have recently added to my arsenal against cabin fever. Years ago I started cross country skiing. It is a great activity, if you have the snow for it. That isn't always a given in these parts. So, it was a marginally successful pursuit.  Added to that the fact that I had to travel somewhere to do the activity made it another barrier to getting out there.

That's why I needed something else. That something could have been here years ago, but for my misinformed mind telling me "it isn't worth getting this for the two weeks out of the year you would use it". I am glad I finally stopped listening to that little voice in my head. (Yes.....I am crazy. So?.....)

Bare nekkid picture!

That "something" turned out to be the "Snow Dog". The bike that I wrote about yesterday. See, this can be ridden right out of my front door, whether it snows or not. This breaks down a lot of barriers for me.

I also found out that this activity was a blast. I could poke around my own snow bound neighborhood, jumping snow piles, cruising alleyways, and generally goofing off, all the while staying warm, and getting some much needed exercise.

Which brings me to another point I don't like about this time of year. It gets dark, the weather gets worse, and all I want to do is sit around and nibble on this or that. Not good. Me and "sedentary" shouldn't hang out with each other. Really. It just turns out bad for me. So, I am making another preemptive strike against needless nibbling.

It all starts with Halloween. That time that we are supposed to be focusing on spirits and instead, it got twisted into a corn syrup fed orgy of commercialism. Meh! Then it goes right into more darkness followed by Thanksgiving, another carbo-fueled excess that has been twisted into something unrecognizable from its origins. And well......it just gets worse from there. Especially for me with two family members birthdays in December immediately followed by Christmas, New Years, and then the deep, frigid loneliness called January. 

Oh.......sorry! I got a little carried away there. Yeah....so what I was gonna say is that I am going to consciously consume less and move more in this Winter season. So, if "Move-ember" is what ya'all are talkin' about now, I am totally down with that idea. Yeah. Move! All winter.

Ready, set, go!

Scrunch-Scrunch!

<===There's a creek under all of that out there!

I woke up this morning to eight below! Egad! I've given up hope for this being a short winter. I think what we have here is a good ol' fashion Iowa winter. That's what it is all right.

Well, I figured it wasn't going to warm up too much, (-2 below as I type this) and the wind was not bad, so I went XC skiing again in The Green Belt. I layered up just right, and got some ragin' "beard ice" goin on. It was a good outing.

The snow was so cold, it sounded like two pieces of Styrofoam rubbing together as I skied along. Pretty cool! I got into a section where the tracks had been drifted in, and that section was so hard, my skis barely left an impression. Awesome! I haven't seen those snow conditions since 2000.

Then I just have to mention this. Some doofus went out and ran/hiked the trail right in the track. Great! Actually, I wasn't all that upset, since umpteen million wood rat........er ........I mean deer! Well, a lot of deer anyway.............they had also run up and down the track, completely obliterating it in places. I haven't seen them in there, those crafty vermin, but they leave plenty of evidence of their passing. More than just tracks. Scat, urine, rubbings, and cleared sections where they are grubbing for food. Man, wait till spring! Those varmints will have single track beaten in that you won't believe.

Until then, I'll just enjoy the scrunch-scrunch of the sub-zero snow under my skis.

Scrunch-Scrunch!

<===There's a creek under all of that out there!

I woke up this morning to eight below! Egad! I've given up hope for this being a short winter. I think what we have here is a good ol' fashion Iowa winter. That's what it is all right.

Well, I figured it wasn't going to warm up too much, (-2 below as I type this) and the wind was not bad, so I went XC skiing again in The Green Belt. I layered up just right, and got some ragin' "beard ice" goin on. It was a good outing.

The snow was so cold, it sounded like two pieces of Styrofoam rubbing together as I skied along. Pretty cool! I got into a section where the tracks had been drifted in, and that section was so hard, my skis barely left an impression. Awesome! I haven't seen those snow conditions since 2000.

Then I just have to mention this. Some doofus went out and ran/hiked the trail right in the track. Great! Actually, I wasn't all that upset, since umpteen million wood rat........er ........I mean deer! Well, a lot of deer anyway.............they had also run up and down the track, completely obliterating it in places. I haven't seen them in there, those crafty vermin, but they leave plenty of evidence of their passing. More than just tracks. Scat, urine, rubbings, and cleared sections where they are grubbing for food. Man, wait till spring! Those varmints will have single track beaten in that you won't believe.

Until then, I'll just enjoy the scrunch-scrunch of the sub-zero snow under my skis.

Fun In The Snow

It was as about as perfect as you could get for XC skiing on Sunday. Little to no wind, temps in the 20's, lots of powdery snow, and plenty of time on my hands.

With three days of sitting indoors waiting out the sub-zero bubble of air that had us in its grasp, I felt like a jailbird. Free baby, free!

I decided to hit up the Green Belt, since hardly anybody uses that area for XC skiing. I was right too, it looked like maybe only two or three other folks had ever been out there since the last big snow storm.



Cross country skiing makes three miles of trail seem like ten, at least from my bicycling mind's point of view. Little short chutes like the one pictured here take awhile longer to traverse on skis. On a bicycle, it's gone in an instant.

A lot of snow that was puffy meant that I sunk in pretty far in most places, but some stretches were pretty drifted in, like this one, and I didn't sink down quite so far.







I could have maybe used some gaiters, and wider skis today too. Here's a place where I cut in pretty deeply into the snow that was piled high out in the woods.

It was quiet, with a bit of snow flurries, and not a sound to be heard but the whoosh-whoosh of my ski-shuffle as I went along. Actually, I was pretty surprised by how well and how fast I went. It was my first time out this winter, and I only got out on the skis twice last year. (I think!)






The trail I was on passes under the old railroad bridge that was converted into a bike path. I stopped for a breather and fired off some shots with the camera. This one turned out fair, I thought. Kind of a geometrical maze of sorts. I am starting to like the camera thing. I spent a fair amount of time researching choices again, but I think I'm pretty sold on a Panasonic DMC LX 3.

It is waaaay more camera than I have the talent for, but its compact size, excellent lens, and low light sensitivity should prove to be an asset in my web work.



But enough about cameras. I just was super stoked to be out and getting some exercise. Happy that it felt warm, and that the wind wasn't howling anymore. (Saturday.....what was up with that!) It was fun to ski and do it as well as I've probably ever done it, albeit with plenty of rest stops! Gotta work on the engine!

I hope your weekend went well too!

Fun In The Snow

It was as about as perfect as you could get for XC skiing on Sunday. Little to no wind, temps in the 20's, lots of powdery snow, and plenty of time on my hands.

With three days of sitting indoors waiting out the sub-zero bubble of air that had us in its grasp, I felt like a jailbird. Free baby, free!

I decided to hit up the Green Belt, since hardly anybody uses that area for XC skiing. I was right too, it looked like maybe only two or three other folks had ever been out there since the last big snow storm.



Cross country skiing makes three miles of trail seem like ten, at least from my bicycling mind's point of view. Little short chutes like the one pictured here take awhile longer to traverse on skis. On a bicycle, it's gone in an instant.

A lot of snow that was puffy meant that I sunk in pretty far in most places, but some stretches were pretty drifted in, like this one, and I didn't sink down quite so far.







I could have maybe used some gaiters, and wider skis today too. Here's a place where I cut in pretty deeply into the snow that was piled high out in the woods.

It was quiet, with a bit of snow flurries, and not a sound to be heard but the whoosh-whoosh of my ski-shuffle as I went along. Actually, I was pretty surprised by how well and how fast I went. It was my first time out this winter, and I only got out on the skis twice last year. (I think!)






The trail I was on passes under the old railroad bridge that was converted into a bike path. I stopped for a breather and fired off some shots with the camera. This one turned out fair, I thought. Kind of a geometrical maze of sorts. I am starting to like the camera thing. I spent a fair amount of time researching choices again, but I think I'm pretty sold on a Panasonic DMC LX 3.

It is waaaay more camera than I have the talent for, but its compact size, excellent lens, and low light sensitivity should prove to be an asset in my web work.



But enough about cameras. I just was super stoked to be out and getting some exercise. Happy that it felt warm, and that the wind wasn't howling anymore. (Saturday.....what was up with that!) It was fun to ski and do it as well as I've probably ever done it, albeit with plenty of rest stops! Gotta work on the engine!

I hope your weekend went well too!