Bikes Of 2025: Black Mountain Cycles MCD

 It's another end-of-year period on the blog. You know what that means? Yep! Another round of my bikes I used in 2025. This round-up will not include some of the bikes I did not use this year much, or at all. I focus only on the bikes that played a big role in my riding during this year.  As always, any changes or future plans for any bike I feature will also be detailed. I hope that you enjoy this year's round-up.

 The Black Mountain Cycles MCD has been a part of the stable now since 2018. This is kind of a transitional model between the Monster Cross and the Mod Zero model currently offered by Black Mountain Cycles. So, this MCD has been discontinued, but a Mod Zero is a great alternative and better in some ways to the MCD. (In case you were wanting something like this bicycle.)

I always wanted a pink bicycle. I am maybe weird this way, but ever since "Captain Dondo" wrote about his pink Specialized mtb in "Dirt Rag" I have thought about owning a pink bicycle. Then I missed out on Mike Varley's offering of a pink BMC Monster Cross model and I was sure I missed the boat there. However; in 2018 Mike tipped me off about his offering a pink MCD model, one of the first of the run of this model, and I bought in immediately. 

I think of the MCD as my "skinny tire Fargo", or a Vaya-like bicycle. I've ridden both extensively on gravel and there are characteristics of both Salsa models in this MCD. That's a good thing. 

In fact, initially I set the MCD up to mimic exactly my then Fargo Gen I set up. It made this bike instantly comfortable and easy to get along with. 

I swap out wheels so much on this bicycle I never really get a chance to hone in on anything super-specific about the way it rides, but I'll just say it is very good. 

Changes? Well, maybe sticking to a single wheel set and tire combination for a season! I might switch out more components to GRX, or maybe a new group set at some point. I have enjoyed the carbon VentureMax handle bar on this bike, so this component will not change. 

My only big change I really want to see is riding more on this bicycle than I did in 2025. The MCD was minimally used this year, and I often wished it could have been out with me more than it was. This will be a goal for 2026. 

Bikes Of 2025: Raleigh Tamland Two

 It's another end-of-year period on the blog. You know what that means? Yep! Another round of my bikes I used in 2025. This round-up will not include some of the bikes I did not use this year much, or at all. I focus only on the bikes that played a big role in my riding during this year.  As always, any changes or future plans for any bike I feature will also be detailed. I hope that you enjoy this year's round-up.

 The Raleigh Tamland Two finishes out its 11th year here with minimal use. I had it out a couple of times this Spring, but on through Summer it sat mostly unused. The longest ride I did on it was the Labor Day Ride with N.Y. Roll, at least I think it was the longest ride I did on that bike for 2025.

I did figure out the rear wheel issue, which wasn't a rear wheel issue, and bought a new crank set for it in a 170mm length. I was hoping to put a lot more miles on this bike to see what I thought of the slightly shorter cranks, but alas! I just never got around to it. I think I like this shorter crank, but as of now, I cannot say until I get more time in on those. 

Since I gave away the Black Mountain Cycles MCD this is now my oldest purposed gravel bike. I'm definitely not getting rid of it, and if you have been a long-term reader here, you know all about the story which would explain why. 

As for changes I may build a chi-chi wheel set for this bike some day. Maybe a set of blue hubs with silver spokes on carbon rims of some sort. I mean, that'd be cool, but totally unnecessary. It's a good bike as is. So, I wouldn't count on much changing with this one. 

Happy Thanksgiving

 Happy Thanksgiving!

All the best from myself, Guitar Ted, to you and yours if you are celebrating on this day of thanks. 

I am thankful for my life.

I am thankful I can ride a bicycle.

I am thankful for my family. 

I am thankful for my friends. 

 

And I am thankful for so much more. I hope today you take a minute to think about what you are thankful for. I hope you take some time to say "I love you" to those who are important to you. You don't have to be celebrating a "thanksgiving" holiday to do any of these things.  

Finally, thank you for reading Guitar Ted Productions!

Now get out there and ride your bicycle! 

Bikes of 2025: The King Fabrications "Honeman Flyer"

 It's another end-of-year period on the blog. You know what that means? Yep! Another round of my bikes I used in 2025. This round-up will not include some of the bikes I did not use this year much, or at all. I focus only on the bikes that played a big role in my riding during this year.  As always, any changes or future plans for any bike I feature will also be detailed. I hope that you enjoy this year's round-up.

 The Honeman Flyer has quickly risen to become one of my favorite bicycles I've ever ridden. This purely based upon my feelings when I ride it. It's so good, thanks in no small part to Li King of King Fabrications. Li had a lot of latitude in this bicycle's details. Sure, the geometry was a lock due to my demand the design reflect all the angles and degrees the original Pop Warner design for Willie Honeman had going on. But Li picked the tubing, decided how to miter the tubes and join them, and Li was the painter as well. I let Li do whatever Li wanted with the paint, and Li knocked it out of the park, in my opinion. I just wanted to make a point of Li's choices in the tubing which contribute heavily to how this bicycle rides.

Still, I find it hard to believe the Honeman Flyer rides as well as it does. It could have been a disaster even though Li did such a great job. This is due to how weird the rear half of this bicycle was designed originally. I have nothing which even comes close to how this bicycle is designed. It makes zero sense, when you think about it, as to why I would even get along with such a radically different bicycle. 

The seat tube is super-slack. The chain stays are really long. The bottom bracket drop is pretty deep. By all accounts, when considering geometry for gravel bicycles in 2025, this should not work for anyone. 

But it works great for me!

The combination of the weird stuff I already mentioned and a somewhat slack 71° head tube angle all combines to make a bike which feels super-stable and accelerates with immediacy when I stomp on the pedals. It handles well enough that during the 2024 Mid-South I was able to navigate the single track section with ease. 

I have only one beef with the bike and it has to do with tire clearances. I wish I would have asked for clearance for up to a 50mm tire. But as it is, I can fit around a 44mm wide tire and I have adequate clearance, so I can live with that. 

Changes? Well, this bicycle is kind of an inside joke regarding seat posts. I think I've gone through a half a dozen trying to find "the one" which will stay on the bike. Currently it sports a straight, no offset, Thompson in silver.  This works great, and I love the look, but eventually I think I'm going back to a carbon post or a titanium post with zero offset. 

I love Ritchey VentureMax bars, which is what the bike has, but I could see myself going with a carbon version for a bit more compliance. I could upgrade the brakes to Paul Klampers as well, since this bike is so custom, and I like it so well, it deserves this level of parts.  

The current state of the King Fabrications Honeman Flyer

Another consideration is a new crank set. I like those Paul cranks which came out recently. I can see upgrading to something like those and doing a nicer bottom bracket as well. 

But I do not need to do anything. These are all just wants/desires. The bike is serviceable and rides so well. So, I am in no hurry to change it up at any point in the near future. 

Rear View 2025: End Of Winter

 Hello! it's time again to review the year on Guitar Ted Productions. The "Rear View" has been a staple of the blog since almost the very beginning. This year will feature  five Rear View posts looking back on   End of Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall, and  Beginning of Winter. I'll also have a post looking ahead at 2026. Enjoy the look back and thanks for reading Guitar Ted Productions!

Winter was missing in action when the calendar flipped to 2025. Sure, it was cold, but we were pretty much snow-free, and there were regular times when the temperatures were more like November than January. 

I started a review of the blog including major story lines and images due to the blog reaching the start of its 20th year. The date was actually May 15th, 2005 when the lights turned on here, so technically I am still in Year 20 of this thing called "Guitar Ted Productions". 

This review was fun for me as I was digging through old posts. But the most fun part for me was looking at the old headers when I started using my own images. There were a lot of those which spurred old memories. 

A foggy January ride

I have found the reviewing duties to be more self-chosen and less 'offered' as it was in the past.  So, now I typically am buying things and then reviewing them. I'm okay with this because it means I am reviewing things I have keen interest in versus doing someone a solid by taking on a review of a product I'm skeptical of, or one I feel isn't all that interesting to myself. 

Besides, with the arrangement I have now I don't have to review anything, and while this may be hard for you, the reader, to understand, it is something of a relief to me. Reviews are an obligation I do not take lightly. Whether or not I am "into" a product or bicycle or not, I give it my all to do the thing justice. It is a responsibility and a duty to you, the reader. Now, if I don't feel up to it, I just don't have to do anything, which is freeing. I guess I'll leave it at that. 

Anyway, I started reviewing a couple of items in January. The Good Grief Bikes "Nice Bar" and Bike Tubes TPU fat bike tubes. Both are great and I use them to this day happily. The TPU tubes are fairly impressive and a big upgrade for any fat biker using butyl rubber tubes, in my opinion. The weight difference is astounding, and this makes them worthwhile alone, but air retention is also really good. 

We didn't ever really get much snow in 2025

The Snow Dog. I'll have more to say about this bike in my year end bike review soon.

We did end up getting one fairly decent drop of snow, but it did not last long. I think I actually rode more in January and February out in the country than I had in a while. I'd have to double check this, but the weather was outstanding for country rides from a Winter standpoint. 

It had been a long time since Guitar Ted Headquarters had upgraded its computer, so back in late February there was some changes in the works to upgrade the ol' 'puter'. 

I know, it looks all cool and whatnot, but I have to say Windows 11 isn't my favorite. The search function is terminally slow, and things are displayed in a way which is not conducive to my style. Well, I guess I've gotten used to it, but sometimes so-called "advancements" are really not. 

Moving on! March brought warmer weather again and with this I was able to get outside some more. Then later in the month I was busy writing up stories about three main things: Gravel cycling trends, the bicycle industry slump, and the upcoming Gravel Cycling Hall of Fame class for 2025. The reviews on the TPU fat bike tubes and the Good Grief bar were wrapped up. Then with the close of March I was looking forward to maybe getting more rides out in the country. 

From a March ride to check out Marky-Mark trail. 

Riding out East of Waterloo here on the Honeman Flyer

In March I wrote up a "one-year" review on the Honemann Flyer. I'll have more to say about this bike in my year-end bike reviews, but suffice it to say that I really enjoy riding this bike. It has quickly become one of my favorite bicycles of all-time. 

Hmm.... 

Maybe I should write THAT post! 

More year-end stuff coming soon. The next Rear View will be after Thanksgiving in the first week or so of December, depending upon what happens with Virtual Turkey Burn Ride reports.  

Two Things

The Peregrine Mk4 with Schwalbe G-One Overlands.

Ride Quality vs Speed:

If I am not using my gravel bike for racing, then what am I using it for? This may sound like a ridiculous question, but the answer you give matters. 

Why? Well, the answer will tell you what is likely going to be a bigger influence on the success of your riding. If the answer is that you only really race, or are training to race, on the gravel bike, then your focus will be on speed and aero. If you don't really care about racing, then maybe you might want to think about comfort and ride quality. 

I like fun. Being beaten and made numb or sore because my bicycle rides like a hay rack is not fun. I will give you an example. The recently reviewed Schwalbe G-One Overland tires I tried were fast. They were some of the best I've tested in this category. However; they did not feel very good. 

I was a bit disappointed and fearful this may have been an issue with the Peregrine itself. Maybe the frame is just too stiff? Well, after the review was over, I swapped wheel sets and tires. The tires I used were older SOMA Cazadero 700 X 50mm tires and these were fitted with Rene Herse TPU tubes. I used the bike on the Veteran's Day ride with N.Y. Roll. 

Image by N.Y. Roll

The ride quality was better. No more harshness when hitting things like expansion cracks, potholes, or the like. Plus the Cazadero/TPU tube combo rolled nearly as fast as the Schwalbe tires did. 

Now had I run these tires tubeless I would imagine the ride quality would have been even a little bit better, at the least. So, this fit my purposes better than a tire which has speed but lacks in ride quality. 

My results were that I had more fun. Fun is good. 

Now had I been going racing? Had I been doing work in training for a race? Maybe I'd throw the Schwalbe tires back on. But I am not racing, and so I don't place speed above all else when it comes to riding gravel. 

I'm not saying racing is bad, or you should not ride for those purposes. However; many folks get caught up in the racing stuff due to those racing things seemingly being "the goal you should strive for". I think this is wrong thinking. I believe most riders want to have fun riding their bicycles and speed gains, power outputs, and GPS data - while cool - is not what the focus should be for most riders. It is not why most people ride. They typically ride for pleasure and fitness. So, maybe choose tires which fit why you are really riding. Just a thought.....

Big Wheels For Gravel:

Maybe 15 years ago, maybe a little more than that, you would have been fairly acquainted with the arguments for and against 29" wheels for mountain biking. 

29"ers were really the first wheel size which came along to break all the traditional thoughts and technical design behind mountain biking. Change is never easy, and a lot of people don't cotton to change. Resistance was high. However; eventually the results of using 29"ers convinced most people this was actually a better way to go.

Manufacturers made a few mistakes along the way. Technologies came along, which enhanced the positives of 29"ers to the point where 26" wheels, once the mainstay of MTB, were now deemed not all that great to use anymore. 

Now there is a new wheel size which is here to challenge 29"ers. It is 32" in diameter, and it sure looks as though the MTB world is going to be in line to see what shakes out from the trial usage of 32" wheels in XC racing. Technically manufacturers and designers all know what to expect, in theoretical terms, due to the previous experiments with 29"er wheels. Mistakes and failures should be mitigated to a great degree. If 32" wheels "work", it won't be because of luck. 

So, in the latest podcast we discuss this, 32"ers rumors and speculations which are afoot, and whether or not 32" is a good idea for gravel bikes. Give the show a listen. Let me know what you think in the comments. 

Thanks for reading Guitar Ted Productions

Well, It Looks Like THIS Is Going To Happen!

It will probably end up looking a lot like this.

 I have loved fixed gear riding ever since I first tried it out many years ago. However, I did not ever really have a dedicated fixed gear bike worth a hoot. That is, until a couple of years ago when I built up the Shogun I found at the Cedar Valley Bicycle Collective. 

Since I was able to build that bike up with a 'proper' fixed gear rear hub, I have ridden the Shogun consistently ever since. So much so that I was wishing for a fixed gear bike with bigger tires. 

I had such bikes fixed in the past. My Karate Monkey has been set up fixed gear a couple of times. The old Surly 1X1 I had was fixed gear most every Winter I rode the bike. Both bikes had proper wide tires in the 2.2" to 2.5" wide range. 

The Shogun has 28's on it and this is as wide a tire as I can squeeze into the frame and fork. In fact, the front tire is mere millimeters from rubbing the underside of the fork crown. Leaves get stuck under there all the time now, it is so close. 

I've dreamt of fat tires and fixed gears long enough now that I have finally found a solution. It sure looks like this is about to happen too, so I figured I may as well share it with all of you here. My old Standard Rando v2 is going to become my fixed gear sled in the near future. 

The Shogun will get donated, well most of it, to the Collective. So, it will be one bike in - one out. That is important to me. I do not need more bikes than I have already.  

Image courtesy of Paul Components

The key to it all will be the Paul Components Fixed Disc WORD rear hub. I was recently chatting with my friend Ari and was telling him my idea. He quickly pointed out this hub for its through-axle compatibility, which I was surprised by. Obviously, the Standard Rando v2 uses a 142mm through axle standard, and the hub here does also. Perfect!

I have two Velocity Blunt SS rims, brand new, sitting in the shop. Those will be laced up with an appropriate front hub and the wheels will be sussed. 

I have a black, 175mm TruVative single ring crank set which should work perfectly with my Wheels Manufacturing eccentric bottom bracket insert, which I used with my T-6 Standard Rando. I'll probably move the Whisky Parts Co. carbon mustache bars over from the Shogun. I may start out with only a front brake since I don't think I have a pair of mechanical flat mount brakes at the moment. 

A chain. seat post, saddle, and flat pedals. Boom! Done. Oh! And I will use some tires I already have. Probably some WTB Raddlers. So, what do you think? A fixed gear bike with a penchant for gravel travel? It all sounds good to me. 

End Of Year Plans For Guitar Ted Productions

 The end of another year is upon us and soon it will be 2026. Regular readers of this blog know I usually do a multi-faceted end -of-year series of posts here. This year will be no exception. However; there will be changes due to a few circumstances which occurred this year. This will make the end-of-year posts unique for 2025. 

First, and most obvious of all, the unexpected and unexplained death of my 22 year old son, Jacob has altered many things for me. This year I am going to do a special look back on our times together on bicycles. 

Secondly, the rise of artificial intelligence programs has severely affected my post views during a few segments of this past year. I usually would do a "Top Ten" list of most read posts for the year, but this will be impossible to do now with so many of my post numbers being so unrealistic as to be comical in terms of what the analytics are telling me. 

Instead, I am going to post my own "Top Ten" most important posts based upon impact to myself, from responses in the comments, or from outside of the blog feedback I received. This will be a different way of gauging what posts were important to you, the readers, but perhaps it will also be less analytical and more personal based. 

I may also gather up all the gravel cycling related posts and put together a list with links. This would serve as a "State of the Gravel Scene" overview from my perspective.  I am not going to post any more of those "SotGS" posts going forward, so this might be a good substitute for that. 

I will continue to do the "Bikes of 2025", the "Rear View", and "Top Images" posts for the year. 

With all the Virtual Turkey Burn Ride reports I had last year, and what I suspect will turn out to be as many, or perhaps even more coming in this year, I am going to kick in the end-of-year posts starting this coming week with a look at some bikes and a Rear View post.  Then Thanksgiving will see another bike post or two, and then the following week will, most likely, be all Virtual Turkey Burn related posts.  

I probably won't get back to end-of-year stuff again until December 8th at the earliest, so this will be a busy stretch here on the blog. Due to the amount of content I want to create, please be advised I will likely double-post on several days until the first of the year. 

Thanks again for reading Guitar Ted Productions!