Mushing Through The Slush

This was mostly slick ice. We didn't have studs on,so we turned around.

The plan was for NY Roll and I to head up to Ingawanis Woodlands and check out the groomed single track there on our fat bikes. We headed out at 8:00am on Christmas Eve with an aim to get out of town via Burton Avenue.

On the way out the city streets were a complete mess. Most of them were hard packed, slightly icy surfaces with a good amount of outright slush to go through. Fortunately the temperatures weren't cold. It was about 34°F and the wind was very light. Getting sprayed by the slushy mess wasn't that big of a deal then.

I dressed with a base layer, which was a summer time tank style, then a Twin Six wool jersey, and then my Bontrager Lithos jacket. The bottoms were the Pixelite Winter tights from ProViz. The feet were wrapped with a long pair of thinner wool socks, a vapor barrier made of plastic grocery sacks, and then my Keen hiking boots. Hands were covered with a thin wool liner and the Planet Bike Borealis lobster mitts. I was fine for the entire ride, and in fact, I had to vent using the various zippers on the Lithos jacket for most of the ride. On my head I used a thin winter Polar Fleece cap and my Bell Super helmet.

So,anyway....... We got out to the gravel and it was icy. We did not have studded tires, and I and NY Roll both felt that it would only take one small misstep and we could be hitting the deck. I wasn't in for slamming into a rock hard, icy gravel road at (likely) a high rate of speed. So, we turned back and headed towards George Wyth State Park via Airline Highway. That's where we hit masses of slushy crap.

NY Roll wanted to ride on the pavement, but I called out to him to ride the (what looked like) snow covered shoulder saying, "C'mon! It's a fat bike!" he came over onto the slushy mess and we plowed that through at least a mile. We got a good work out, that's for sure! Then I had a brilliant idea. Instead of crawling all the way around the North side of the park to come in the back way, why not just go through the front gate? Normally this wouldn't be adviseable due to heavy, fast traffic, but on Christmas Eve, the traffic was light.

George Wyth was soft, and the track for fat bikes likely won't survive till next weekend.

So we headed down the entire length of the service road to the shelter house, then we hit up some single track. It was rather soft, slippery, and the snow was nigh unto going to slush. In fact, in several places it was slush.

At least we got to ride this before the rains on Christmas Day and the above freezing temperatures forecast for the week between Christmas and New Years Day basically take the option away from us. At least for the short term. I suppose I'd rather the tracks get all melted away instead of halfway gone, freeze hard as a rock, and then put some powdery snow on top of that. That would basically really suck!

So, NY Roll and I made our way going basically West around Alice Wyth Lake and back to the main bike path where we decided to try and find a coffee shop for a bit of a warm drink. We slogged our way over to where the two main coffee shops in Cedar Falls are but both were closed up. Hmm..... Bummer. Oh well, moving on now......

We then hit the snow covered bike paths down to the Cedar River and followed that East for a while. The constant correcting and sliding out a bit was taxing. It was pretty obvious that this was going to be the last of decent fat bike conditions for a while now. We stopped for a bit to chat, then we headed on to Lower Hartman and the trail through there. This was perhaps the best trail for fat biking we rode all day. Fairly solid snow, packed in well, and no real soft sections as we found in George Wyth. Then we exited that trail via old John's Trail and out on old Shirey Way to head up Hackett.

The bike path along the South side of the Cedar was pretty treacherous.

I decided that after three hours I needed to get back to my home, so we decided not to try any of the "Sherwood" single track, although it looked pretty good. Instead we went up the remainder of the bike trail along the Cedar and when we got to Northland Oil and the old "access" to the small park up on the ridge, I discovered the new bench cut trail which had recently been put in. NY Roll had seen it before, but I hadn't been down this way since Fall on a gravel ride when I came back into town this way.

It's a nicer, easier, and for the City of Waterloo, safer way to access the lot above where people stop to use the trail. I suppose they got a lot of complaints from users that couldn't negotiate the steeper old trail. Next thing ya know they'll be paving this. Which would be rich, since then it would become an icy, unusable ramp in Winter. I don't know what the plan is, but accommodating "everyone's needs" typically screws things up worse for everyone. We'll see how this develops..... Besides, I hate the "pave everything" ethos of most trail user groups. It is simply misguided and typically wrong. But this post is about a ride, so.......

This ride eventually came to an end. Three hours or so of fun, wet, tough riding which left me pretty whooped. I guess I was pretty happy with how it went, since I haven't been on a longer ride for a while. At least the Holidays haven't slowed me down.......much, well......maybe a little! I was a bit disappointed we didn't get to make a big country adventure out of this, but ice and fat tires don't mix well on uneven ice. I was glad to preserve my health, especially my left shoulder, as it is and not do anymore damage. Now with the weather being as wonky as it has and will be for a bit, I just might actually be able to get out on the gravel roads in the country. In between now and then......it's gonna be a mess.

Mushing Through The Slush

This was mostly slick ice. We didn't have studs on,so we turned around.

The plan was for NY Roll and I to head up to Ingawanis Woodlands and check out the groomed single track there on our fat bikes. We headed out at 8:00am on Christmas Eve with an aim to get out of town via Burton Avenue.

On the way out the city streets were a complete mess. Most of them were hard packed, slightly icy surfaces with a good amount of outright slush to go through. Fortunately the temperatures weren't cold. It was about 34°F and the wind was very light. Getting sprayed by the slushy mess wasn't that big of a deal then.

I dressed with a base layer, which was a summer time tank style, then a Twin Six wool jersey, and then my Bontrager Lithos jacket. The bottoms were the Pixelite Winter tights from ProViz. The feet were wrapped with a long pair of thinner wool socks, a vapor barrier made of plastic grocery sacks, and then my Keen hiking boots. Hands were covered with a thin wool liner and the Planet Bike Borealis lobster mitts. I was fine for the entire ride, and in fact, I had to vent using the various zippers on the Lithos jacket for most of the ride. On my head I used a thin winter Polar Fleece cap and my Bell Super helmet.

So,anyway....... We got out to the gravel and it was icy. We did not have studded tires, and I and NY Roll both felt that it would only take one small misstep and we could be hitting the deck. I wasn't in for slamming into a rock hard, icy gravel road at (likely) a high rate of speed. So, we turned back and headed towards George Wyth State Park via Airline Highway. That's where we hit masses of slushy crap.

NY Roll wanted to ride on the pavement, but I called out to him to ride the (what looked like) snow covered shoulder saying, "C'mon! It's a fat bike!" he came over onto the slushy mess and we plowed that through at least a mile. We got a good work out, that's for sure! Then I had a brilliant idea. Instead of crawling all the way around the North side of the park to come in the back way, why not just go through the front gate? Normally this wouldn't be adviseable due to heavy, fast traffic, but on Christmas Eve, the traffic was light.

George Wyth was soft, and the track for fat bikes likely won't survive till next weekend.

So we headed down the entire length of the service road to the shelter house, then we hit up some single track. It was rather soft, slippery, and the snow was nigh unto going to slush. In fact, in several places it was slush.

At least we got to ride this before the rains on Christmas Day and the above freezing temperatures forecast for the week between Christmas and New Years Day basically take the option away from us. At least for the short term. I suppose I'd rather the tracks get all melted away instead of halfway gone, freeze hard as a rock, and then put some powdery snow on top of that. That would basically really suck!

So, NY Roll and I made our way going basically West around Alice Wyth Lake and back to the main bike path where we decided to try and find a coffee shop for a bit of a warm drink. We slogged our way over to where the two main coffee shops in Cedar Falls are but both were closed up. Hmm..... Bummer. Oh well, moving on now......

We then hit the snow covered bike paths down to the Cedar River and followed that East for a while. The constant correcting and sliding out a bit was taxing. It was pretty obvious that this was going to be the last of decent fat bike conditions for a while now. We stopped for a bit to chat, then we headed on to Lower Hartman and the trail through there. This was perhaps the best trail for fat biking we rode all day. Fairly solid snow, packed in well, and no real soft sections as we found in George Wyth. Then we exited that trail via old John's Trail and out on old Shirey Way to head up Hackett.

The bike path along the South side of the Cedar was pretty treacherous.

I decided that after three hours I needed to get back to my home, so we decided not to try any of the "Sherwood" single track, although it looked pretty good. Instead we went up the remainder of the bike trail along the Cedar and when we got to Northland Oil and the old "access" to the small park up on the ridge, I discovered the new bench cut trail which had recently been put in. NY Roll had seen it before, but I hadn't been down this way since Fall on a gravel ride when I came back into town this way.

It's a nicer, easier, and for the City of Waterloo, safer way to access the lot above where people stop to use the trail. I suppose they got a lot of complaints from users that couldn't negotiate the steeper old trail. Next thing ya know they'll be paving this. Which would be rich, since then it would become an icy, unusable ramp in Winter. I don't know what the plan is, but accommodating "everyone's needs" typically screws things up worse for everyone. We'll see how this develops..... Besides, I hate the "pave everything" ethos of most trail user groups. It is simply misguided and typically wrong. But this post is about a ride, so.......

This ride eventually came to an end. Three hours or so of fun, wet, tough riding which left me pretty whooped. I guess I was pretty happy with how it went, since I haven't been on a longer ride for a while. At least the Holidays haven't slowed me down.......much, well......maybe a little! I was a bit disappointed we didn't get to make a big country adventure out of this, but ice and fat tires don't mix well on uneven ice. I was glad to preserve my health, especially my left shoulder, as it is and not do anymore damage. Now with the weather being as wonky as it has and will be for a bit, I just might actually be able to get out on the gravel roads in the country. In between now and then......it's gonna be a mess.

Merry Christmas!

Here's wishing you and yours a safe and enjoyable holiday today.

As always, thanks for reading Guitar Ted Productions. I appreciate it very much.

Merry Christmas!

Here's wishing you and yours a safe and enjoyable holiday today.

As always, thanks for reading Guitar Ted Productions. I appreciate it very much.

Minus Ten Review- 51

Another bike! Sheesh!

This week ten years ago on the blog here I was talking about yet another new bike for me. Crazy! I started 2006 with two 29"ers and ended the year with six! Of those six bicycles I have three in my possession. One is complete and rideable, the other two are frames only, and far from being ready to go.

Anyway, this one came to me because the then marketing wonk at Raleigh, Reed Pike, decided I had brought Raleigh a lot of positive attention, made several good suggestions for changes, and had overall helped Raleigh make the introduction of their 29"ers more successful than it otherwise might have been. I guess. Since, ya know, he called me over when I was at Interbike and commanded that his underlings send me one. 

 The XXIX+G, (what a weird name!), was an odd handling rig. At the time we had 38mm offset forks only, and as it turned out, the frame was the same geometry as the non-suspension corrected XXIX single speed. Raleigh's designer kind of fudged the geometry to work either way, suspended or not, and dialed in an enormous amount of trail which made the XXIX+G handle like a wheelbarrow.

Oddly enough, what those Raleigh guys were after- great downhill stability and decent trail manners- were only achieved within the last five years for 29"ers. My Singular Buzzard is really what Raleigh wanted to do. Short rear end, slack front end, and a big, burly fork. None of that existed in 2006.

Things sometimes do change for the better.

Minus Ten Review- 51

Another bike! Sheesh!

This week ten years ago on the blog here I was talking about yet another new bike for me. Crazy! I started 2006 with two 29"ers and ended the year with six! Of those six bicycles I have three in my possession. One is complete and rideable, the other two are frames only, and far from being ready to go.

Anyway, this one came to me because the then marketing wonk at Raleigh, Reed Pike, decided I had brought Raleigh a lot of positive attention, made several good suggestions for changes, and had overall helped Raleigh make the introduction of their 29"ers more successful than it otherwise might have been. I guess. Since, ya know, he called me over when I was at Interbike and commanded that his underlings send me one. 

 The XXIX+G, (what a weird name!), was an odd handling rig. At the time we had 38mm offset forks only, and as it turned out, the frame was the same geometry as the non-suspension corrected XXIX single speed. Raleigh's designer kind of fudged the geometry to work either way, suspended or not, and dialed in an enormous amount of trail which made the XXIX+G handle like a wheelbarrow.

Oddly enough, what those Raleigh guys were after- great downhill stability and decent trail manners- were only achieved within the last five years for 29"ers. My Singular Buzzard is really what Raleigh wanted to do. Short rear end, slack front end, and a big, burly fork. None of that existed in 2006.

Things sometimes do change for the better.

Rear View 2016: Part 1

The Rear View 2016 is my retrospective of the year that is about to pass. I've been doing this for about as long as I have been blogging, so many of you know the drill. With that said, here is Part 1
 
During the beginning of 2016 I thoroughly enjoyed the snow conditions we had. I think it was the best for fat biking that we had enjoyed since I had been riding a fat bike going back to 2011. I got out often as I could and enjoyed just about every ride. Well......there was that one time I flatted at the start of a ride when it was about 0°F with a negative degree wind chill. That kind of sucked.......

I introduced the "Minus Ten Review". A weekly look back at what I was blogging about ten years ago with some up to date commentary. I have no idea if anyone is digging that series, but I plan on continuing it into 2017, at least as long as folks don't raise a ruckus and tell me to just stop it.

Sorry! That was about the future! 

I discovered the microscope setting on my camera

 There was a fair amount of Trans Iowa stuff going on in February. I guess I had decided to get cranking up on the stuff I needed to get done.

February also was usually about half Frostbike stuff, but in an epic error in judgement, our shop employee in charge of getting us registered waited too long to try and register us. Frostbike has a limited number of folks that they let in the door, and all of us got left looking in from the outside. It was the first Frostbike I had missed in something like 13 years.

March came and I started transitioning over to gravel riding. I had tires to test and write about for RidingGravel.com, plus I had signed up for the Cup O Dirt Challenge. I actually bagged an early metric century and I figured I was well on my way to getting the Cup, but I lost track of it all in the Summer and I have no idea where I stand with regard to that now. So...... yeah. 

I'm not a very good record keeper, for the record.  That's why I write the blog, well......it is one of the reasons why. If I didn't do this, I would lose track of a lot of stuff! So, yeah........back to being all retrospective-like. 

March brought a freakish Winter storm that sucker punched us with cold, wind, and snow one last time, but then it straightened out. Which was a good thing, since I had the Renegade Gents Race coming up right off the bat in April.

Next: Part 2

Rear View 2016: Part 1

The Rear View 2016 is my retrospective of the year that is about to pass. I've been doing this for about as long as I have been blogging, so many of you know the drill. With that said, here is Part 1
 
During the beginning of 2016 I thoroughly enjoyed the snow conditions we had. I think it was the best for fat biking that we had enjoyed since I had been riding a fat bike going back to 2011. I got out often as I could and enjoyed just about every ride. Well......there was that one time I flatted at the start of a ride when it was about 0°F with a negative degree wind chill. That kind of sucked.......

I introduced the "Minus Ten Review". A weekly look back at what I was blogging about ten years ago with some up to date commentary. I have no idea if anyone is digging that series, but I plan on continuing it into 2017, at least as long as folks don't raise a ruckus and tell me to just stop it.

Sorry! That was about the future! 

I discovered the microscope setting on my camera

 There was a fair amount of Trans Iowa stuff going on in February. I guess I had decided to get cranking up on the stuff I needed to get done.

February also was usually about half Frostbike stuff, but in an epic error in judgement, our shop employee in charge of getting us registered waited too long to try and register us. Frostbike has a limited number of folks that they let in the door, and all of us got left looking in from the outside. It was the first Frostbike I had missed in something like 13 years.

March came and I started transitioning over to gravel riding. I had tires to test and write about for RidingGravel.com, plus I had signed up for the Cup O Dirt Challenge. I actually bagged an early metric century and I figured I was well on my way to getting the Cup, but I lost track of it all in the Summer and I have no idea where I stand with regard to that now. So...... yeah. 

I'm not a very good record keeper, for the record.  That's why I write the blog, well......it is one of the reasons why. If I didn't do this, I would lose track of a lot of stuff! So, yeah........back to being all retrospective-like. 

March brought a freakish Winter storm that sucker punched us with cold, wind, and snow one last time, but then it straightened out. Which was a good thing, since I had the Renegade Gents Race coming up right off the bat in April.

Next: Part 2

Rear View 2016: Images

I'm going to kick off my 2016 retrospect with some of my favorite images posted on the blog during the year. I hope that you enjoy this photo-dump.......

January '16

February '16

March '16

April '16

May '16

June '16

July '16

August '16

September '16

October '16

November '16

December '16

Rear View 2016: Images

I'm going to kick off my 2016 retrospect with some of my favorite images posted on the blog during the year. I hope that you enjoy this photo-dump.......

January '16

February '16

March '16

April '16

May '16

June '16

July '16

August '16

September '16

October '16

November '16

December '16

Bikes Of 2016: Titanium Mukluk

Here shown in the tweaking stages before the "Fat Bike Century" ride.

The time of year has come that I will be reviewing the bikes I used the most throughout 2016 and why. The ups, downs, changes, and more will be discussed.

Another stalwart of the stable here. The Ti Mukluk, which I got at the end of 2011. There were a couple of notable things regarding this bike and 2016.

The first was doing a century ride on gravel with this bike. I have to be honest, I wasn't sure I could pull off 100 plus miles on this bike without severe pain or without doing some long term damage. Yes.....I had ridden it on a metric century before. I knew I could go that far, but things happen in that last 37 plus miles that make the previous 63 seem like a cakewalk sometimes. Well, that and a 100mm wide bottom bracket, a "too low" gear range, and my iffy shoulder were also reasons for some second thoughts.

But I pulled it off with no real serious side effects.

The second thing was that "too low gear range". That was a result of the switch to a 1 X 11 drive train. Which is working splendidly in snowy conditions, by the way. I've got "low enough" and one in reserve, so that is a good thing. I do need to adjust the cable a tiny bit, but otherwise, no issues whatsoever with this drive train. I can even pedal backward, which, from what I hear is a big issue with a lot of folk's 1X drive trains.

I know I ran this image a couple of days ago- Current state of the Ti Muk.

I have the Ti Muk "winterized" now, and who knows what configuration I will run it in in the future. I have plans to get Jones Bars at some point for this rig given the successful run with Jones Bars on my Blackborow. I have a "Summer" 29'er wheel set that I want to modify with new rims. Maybe I'll do something stupid and ride another century on fat tires again. If I do, this will be the bike I do that on.

Bikes Of 2016: Titanium Mukluk

Here shown in the tweaking stages before the "Fat Bike Century" ride.

The time of year has come that I will be reviewing the bikes I used the most throughout 2016 and why. The ups, downs, changes, and more will be discussed.

Another stalwart of the stable here. The Ti Mukluk, which I got at the end of 2011. There were a couple of notable things regarding this bike and 2016.

The first was doing a century ride on gravel with this bike. I have to be honest, I wasn't sure I could pull off 100 plus miles on this bike without severe pain or without doing some long term damage. Yes.....I had ridden it on a metric century before. I knew I could go that far, but things happen in that last 37 plus miles that make the previous 63 seem like a cakewalk sometimes. Well, that and a 100mm wide bottom bracket, a "too low" gear range, and my iffy shoulder were also reasons for some second thoughts.

But I pulled it off with no real serious side effects.

The second thing was that "too low gear range". That was a result of the switch to a 1 X 11 drive train. Which is working splendidly in snowy conditions, by the way. I've got "low enough" and one in reserve, so that is a good thing. I do need to adjust the cable a tiny bit, but otherwise, no issues whatsoever with this drive train. I can even pedal backward, which, from what I hear is a big issue with a lot of folk's 1X drive trains.

I know I ran this image a couple of days ago- Current state of the Ti Muk.

I have the Ti Muk "winterized" now, and who knows what configuration I will run it in in the future. I have plans to get Jones Bars at some point for this rig given the successful run with Jones Bars on my Blackborow. I have a "Summer" 29'er wheel set that I want to modify with new rims. Maybe I'll do something stupid and ride another century on fat tires again. If I do, this will be the bike I do that on.

Beginning Of The End

Just keep moving towards the Light.

Wow! was it ever cold here over the weekend. I think that is about as cold as it has been in a few years at least. It definitely has been a long time since it was 20 below in December. I didn't venture out in it, but I know several nutters in the area did. Good on 'em!

I did ride to work yesterday. It was negative 2 below when I was out there. However; the winds have shifted and now we are forecast to be above freezing for the next two days with a lot of Sun. That will really knock down our snow here.

Not only that, but there is a good chance we will have rain and 40's on Christmas day. So much for a White Christmas! More like a "Sloppy Brown, Black, and Messy Christmas" if that forecast turns out to be correct! Whatever happens, it would appear that it is highly likely that this is the beggining of the end of good snow to ride on for the short term. Winter is a long ways from over, (heck, "officially" it doesn't even start until tomorrow), so it could be a great Winter for riding the fat bikes yet, but for now the forecast, it looks bleak.

Speaking of beginnings of endings, I will be posting my Rear View 2016 series in the coming days. I'll try to limit that to four posts. Maybe three. I have had a pretty interesting year on the bike and I cannot wait to recap it. Maybe you can. Ha!

Beginning Of The End

Just keep moving towards the Light.

Wow! was it ever cold here over the weekend. I think that is about as cold as it has been in a few years at least. It definitely has been a long time since it was 20 below in December. I didn't venture out in it, but I know several nutters in the area did. Good on 'em!

I did ride to work yesterday. It was negative 2 below when I was out there. However; the winds have shifted and now we are forecast to be above freezing for the next two days with a lot of Sun. That will really knock down our snow here.

Not only that, but there is a good chance we will have rain and 40's on Christmas day. So much for a White Christmas! More like a "Sloppy Brown, Black, and Messy Christmas" if that forecast turns out to be correct! Whatever happens, it would appear that it is highly likely that this is the beggining of the end of good snow to ride on for the short term. Winter is a long ways from over, (heck, "officially" it doesn't even start until tomorrow), so it could be a great Winter for riding the fat bikes yet, but for now the forecast, it looks bleak.

Speaking of beginnings of endings, I will be posting my Rear View 2016 series in the coming days. I'll try to limit that to four posts. Maybe three. I have had a pretty interesting year on the bike and I cannot wait to recap it. Maybe you can. Ha!

Bikes Of 2016: Gen I Fargo

The gen I Fargo as seen at Gravel Worlds this past August

The time of year has come that I will be reviewing the bikes I used the most throughout 2016 and why. The ups, downs, changes, and more will be discussed.

Salsa Cycles Fargo (Gen I):

I was really fortunate to have this bike in the stable this year. Without it, well....... I don't know that I would have had the ability to do as much as I did this past year. The shoulder injury I suffered at the end of 2015 really made riding many of my bikes more than an hour a real painful experience. The only bike I could spend time on all throughout the year with little to no shoulder issues was the Gen I Fargo. Just the way I fit on it, the handle bars, (Long out of production Luxy Bars), and with that Cirrus Cycles Body Float post, it really added up to a rig that took less of a toll on me than the others. I needed that this year.

The shoulder has progressively gotten better, but I am not at 100%, and I may never really ever get back to that. Who knows? But the Fargo really has made things easier this past year and going forward, I can always count on that rig to give me the least trouble.

So, I wouldn't dare change a thing, would I? Ha ha! I wish! I am always thinking, and I have a few ideas to make the Gen I Fargo even better. I used to use carbon wheels with this bike, and while that was okay, the wallet splitting prices that carbon hoops go for just do not appeal to me from a performance/ride quality standpoint. I feel aluminum rims can do just as good a job as carbon with only a slight weight penalty and with a lot lower price tag.

So, I am thinking of a new wheel set for the Fargo. The Black Flag wheels I have now are okay, but the back wheel is a bit flexy and those Sun-Ringle' rims use a Stan's tubeless bead diameter which is less than good with most tubeless ready tires. In fact, I may have to cut those Cannonball tires off if they are as stubborn coming off as they were going on.

It is kind of funny when I see the few references to certain bikes being able to run up to 45mm sized tires in 700c format or up to 2.1"ers in 650B size. Well, the Fargo can do skinny tires and fatter tires all on the same wheel set. Why own two wheel sizes when you can get the job done with one? The Gen I Fargo is that bike. Trouble is no one is making this sort of configuration anymore.

I was asked what I would want in a 10th Anniversary Fargo, if one were to be built. I said I would do a titanium version of this bike. I would add through axles and maybe change a few minor details. But this bike- the geometry, the non-suspension corrected fork, the drop bar specific design, and all the bottle mounts are what sets this bike apart.

But I am not getting a 10th Anniversary Fargo unless Salsa Cycles decides to do one like I would want, one very close to what I have now, only better.

Bikes Of 2016: Gen I Fargo

The gen I Fargo as seen at Gravel Worlds this past August

The time of year has come that I will be reviewing the bikes I used the most throughout 2016 and why. The ups, downs, changes, and more will be discussed.

Salsa Cycles Fargo (Gen I):

I was really fortunate to have this bike in the stable this year. Without it, well....... I don't know that I would have had the ability to do as much as I did this past year. The shoulder injury I suffered at the end of 2015 really made riding many of my bikes more than an hour a real painful experience. The only bike I could spend time on all throughout the year with little to no shoulder issues was the Gen I Fargo. Just the way I fit on it, the handle bars, (Long out of production Luxy Bars), and with that Cirrus Cycles Body Float post, it really added up to a rig that took less of a toll on me than the others. I needed that this year.

The shoulder has progressively gotten better, but I am not at 100%, and I may never really ever get back to that. Who knows? But the Fargo really has made things easier this past year and going forward, I can always count on that rig to give me the least trouble.

So, I wouldn't dare change a thing, would I? Ha ha! I wish! I am always thinking, and I have a few ideas to make the Gen I Fargo even better. I used to use carbon wheels with this bike, and while that was okay, the wallet splitting prices that carbon hoops go for just do not appeal to me from a performance/ride quality standpoint. I feel aluminum rims can do just as good a job as carbon with only a slight weight penalty and with a lot lower price tag.

So, I am thinking of a new wheel set for the Fargo. The Black Flag wheels I have now are okay, but the back wheel is a bit flexy and those Sun-Ringle' rims use a Stan's tubeless bead diameter which is less than good with most tubeless ready tires. In fact, I may have to cut those Cannonball tires off if they are as stubborn coming off as they were going on.

It is kind of funny when I see the few references to certain bikes being able to run up to 45mm sized tires in 700c format or up to 2.1"ers in 650B size. Well, the Fargo can do skinny tires and fatter tires all on the same wheel set. Why own two wheel sizes when you can get the job done with one? The Gen I Fargo is that bike. Trouble is no one is making this sort of configuration anymore.

I was asked what I would want in a 10th Anniversary Fargo, if one were to be built. I said I would do a titanium version of this bike. I would add through axles and maybe change a few minor details. But this bike- the geometry, the non-suspension corrected fork, the drop bar specific design, and all the bottle mounts are what sets this bike apart.

But I am not getting a 10th Anniversary Fargo unless Salsa Cycles decides to do one like I would want, one very close to what I have now, only better.

Double Budded

A late Friday test run just before dark with the Double Budded Ti Muk

I have had this idea for a few years that maybe I could shoehorn bigger tires into the Ti Muk.I used to have Big Fat Larrys on this bike but the minimalist tread design was/is horrid for our typically looser, sand-like snow we get. Lateral sliding out and generally a lack of traction were the downfalls of that tire for me.

Last year I ran a combination of a front Surly Bud and a rear tire that was made by a Chinese company but looked a lot like the tread on a Panaracer fat bike tire.It exhibited much better stability and traction than the Larry tread pattern, but I was still thinking about even better performance. I figured a Bud-Bud set up, or "Double Budded" (<====HA!) would work better.

At first glance a Bud doesn't look very good as a rear tire, but the tread blocks are so deep that they slice and bite more than one might guess. Plus, there is no other tire that I am aware of for fat bikes with this high a level of lateral stability. that's a big deal on snow that stays unconsolidated and on "car snow'- that ugly brownish, mashed potato-like stuff that comes around after a snow fall and makes the streets treacherous on two wheels.

So, this will be the geared Winter commuter at times. I'm going to stick with the Blacborow DS as much as I can for the sloppy messy times, but when it is really cold and dry, I will pull this one out and maybe the Snow Dog as well. That is if I ever get it all done! I'll be interested in how this does when I get out in the woods soon.

Double Budded

A late Friday test run just before dark with the Double Budded Ti Muk

I have had this idea for a few years that maybe I could shoehorn bigger tires into the Ti Muk.I used to have Big Fat Larrys on this bike but the minimalist tread design was/is horrid for our typically looser, sand-like snow we get. Lateral sliding out and generally a lack of traction were the downfalls of that tire for me.

Last year I ran a combination of a front Surly Bud and a rear tire that was made by a Chinese company but looked a lot like the tread on a Panaracer fat bike tire.It exhibited much better stability and traction than the Larry tread pattern, but I was still thinking about even better performance. I figured a Bud-Bud set up, or "Double Budded" (<====HA!) would work better.

At first glance a Bud doesn't look very good as a rear tire, but the tread blocks are so deep that they slice and bite more than one might guess. Plus, there is no other tire that I am aware of for fat bikes with this high a level of lateral stability. that's a big deal on snow that stays unconsolidated and on "car snow'- that ugly brownish, mashed potato-like stuff that comes around after a snow fall and makes the streets treacherous on two wheels.

So, this will be the geared Winter commuter at times. I'm going to stick with the Blacborow DS as much as I can for the sloppy messy times, but when it is really cold and dry, I will pull this one out and maybe the Snow Dog as well. That is if I ever get it all done! I'll be interested in how this does when I get out in the woods soon.