Monday, December 31, 2018

Looking Ahead At 2019

Thanks for sticking with me through all the "Rear View" posts and looks back at the bikes I used. Now it is time to take a look ahead, as I do every year here.

Many years I have made vague comments about changes and what not that were forthcoming. Many times they did not pan out, many times they did. Same holds for the year of 2019. I'm sure there will be changes and many things I think will change won't. Here is what I do know now.....

  • The Iowa Gravel Expo/Bike Party will happen Saturday, February 9th.
  • The C.O.G. 100 Iowa Gravel Single Speed Championship will happen March 30th.
  • The Renegade Gents Race-  If they hold it.  UPDATE: Announced for April 6th. GOING!
  • The inaugural Prairie Burn 100 will be June 8th. I am registered to ride it.
  • The Solstice 100 is an event in Nebraska on June 22nd. I am registered to ride in it.
  • The 2019 GTDRI will be on July 27th
  • 24hrs of Cumming. Sam and I have unfinished business. Weekend of August 2nd-4th.
  • The Gravel Worlds event will be August 17th, and I am registered. 
Possibilities: These are things I've been talking about possibly doing. They may or may not materialize into reality.
  • Mississippi Gravel Cup Bentonia, MS in late February.
  • Almanzo 100 in Northfield MN -Mid-May
  • Dirty Kanza 200 All Things Gravel Expo Emporia KS- Early June
  • unPAved of the Susquehanna River Valley in mid-Pennsylvania. October. 
NOTE- Most of these possibilities involve lots of travel. Whether or not I can pull any of them off is going to hinge heavily on what I have for funds to travel, and right now, that is zero and not climbing anytime soon. The events I have committed to are mostly in Iowa, so travel is minimized and Gravel Worlds is something I should be able to pull off, and is something I won't miss.

What is ahead up the road? Let's go see!
As for the blog, "The Touring Series" should peter out along about the end of January, maybe the first week of February. That will then lead into "The Interim Years", a series of posts leading the reader from the time period between the tours and the beginnings of Trans Iowa. Then the series of Trans Iowa stories will begin. These will all post on Sundays, for the time being.

The regular posts you've come to expect here will also continue. "Friday News And Views" and the Saturday "Minus Ten Review" posts will be weekly entries you can look forward to seeing all year. That is, unless something unexpected happens.

You never know.....

The rest of the week I'll be posting the usual fare, as you've told me you want to continue to see. That feedback I got earlier this month was very much appreciated and showed me that you readers don't really want anything to change around here. There will be the same opinions, newsy bits, reviews, and tales of my adventures to look forward to.

2018 was a BIG year on the blog. It ranks 2nd all-time for post count at 383 for the year. The most I ever posted was 388 in 2011. I don't quite know how that happened, but I do not expect that 2019 will rival this year. It takes a lot of time and effort to post that much, so I probably should back it down a notch or two next year! Just for kicks, here are some more numbers to chew on. Overall, I have done nearly 5,000 blog posts which have gotten just shy of 5 million views since 2005. Nothing spectacular, but I think I am one of only a handful of bicycle themed bloggers that have lasted this long. So, there is that......

As always, thank you for your reading here and for any comments you've made over the course of 2018. I look forward to hearing from you in 2019 and hope that you will keep coming back to read here.

Happy New Year!

Looking Ahead At 2019

Thanks for sticking with me through all the "Rear View" posts and looks back at the bikes I used. Now it is time to take a look ahead, as I do every year here.

Many years I have made vague comments about changes and what not that were forthcoming. Many times they did not pan out, many times they did. Same holds for the year of 2019. I'm sure there will be changes and many things I think will change won't. Here is what I do know now.....

  • The Iowa Gravel Expo/Bike Party will happen Saturday, February 9th.
  • The C.O.G. 100 Iowa Gravel Single Speed Championship will happen March 30th.
  • The Renegade Gents Race-  If they hold it.  UPDATE: Announced for April 6th. GOING!
  • The inaugural Prairie Burn 100 will be June 8th. I am registered to ride it.
  • The Solstice 100 is an event in Nebraska on June 22nd. I am registered to ride in it.
  • The 2019 GTDRI will be on July 27th
  • 24hrs of Cumming. Sam and I have unfinished business. Weekend of August 2nd-4th.
  • The Gravel Worlds event will be August 17th, and I am registered. 
Possibilities: These are things I've been talking about possibly doing. They may or may not materialize into reality.
  • Mississippi Gravel Cup Bentonia, MS in late February.
  • Almanzo 100 in Northfield MN -Mid-May
  • Dirty Kanza 200 All Things Gravel Expo Emporia KS- Early June
  • unPAved of the Susquehanna River Valley in mid-Pennsylvania. October. 
NOTE- Most of these possibilities involve lots of travel. Whether or not I can pull any of them off is going to hinge heavily on what I have for funds to travel, and right now, that is zero and not climbing anytime soon. The events I have committed to are mostly in Iowa, so travel is minimized and Gravel Worlds is something I should be able to pull off, and is something I won't miss.

What is ahead up the road? Let's go see!
As for the blog, "The Touring Series" should peter out along about the end of January, maybe the first week of February. That will then lead into "The Interim Years", a series of posts leading the reader from the time period between the tours and the beginnings of Trans Iowa. Then the series of Trans Iowa stories will begin. These will all post on Sundays, for the time being.

The regular posts you've come to expect here will also continue. "Friday News And Views" and the Saturday "Minus Ten Review" posts will be weekly entries you can look forward to seeing all year. That is, unless something unexpected happens.

You never know.....

The rest of the week I'll be posting the usual fare, as you've told me you want to continue to see. That feedback I got earlier this month was very much appreciated and showed me that you readers don't really want anything to change around here. There will be the same opinions, newsy bits, reviews, and tales of my adventures to look forward to.

2018 was a BIG year on the blog. It ranks 2nd all-time for post count at 383 for the year. The most I ever posted was 388 in 2011. I don't quite know how that happened, but I do not expect that 2019 will rival this year. It takes a lot of time and effort to post that much, so I probably should back it down a notch or two next year! Just for kicks, here are some more numbers to chew on. Overall, I have done nearly 5,000 blog posts which have gotten just shy of 5 million views since 2005. Nothing spectacular, but I think I am one of only a handful of bicycle themed bloggers that have lasted this long. So, there is that......

As always, thank you for your reading here and for any comments you've made over the course of 2018. I look forward to hearing from you in 2019 and hope that you will keep coming back to read here.

Happy New Year!

Sunday, December 30, 2018

The Touring Series: Not So Scenic

A Guitar Ted Productions series
 Thanks for joining me again on another adventure in "The Touring Series". This tour was dubbed the "Race Against Death Tour". This tour occurred in August of 1995. The three participants, Ryan, Troy, and your's truly, left from Cedar Falls, Iowa to try and get to Winter Park, Colorado in two weeks. Here I am reproducing the tale, mostly as it was posted on the blog in 2009. There are some new edits and additions. I also will add new remarks and memories where appropriate at the end of each post. 

 Once again, there were no cell phones, internet, social media platforms, or digital cameras in use by we tourers in 1995. I will post images where I can, but this tour wasn't well documented in images, so there probably will be very few sprinkled throughout. A modern image will be used only where it depicts things I want to clarify, like where we were in that part of the tour via a map image, or the like.
 

The "Touring Series" will appear every Sunday until it ends. Look for past entries by scrolling back to a previous Sunday's post, or type in "Touring Series" in the search box to find more. 


This entry is again a re-edited and combined post from the original entries from 2009. 

We rejoin the three cyclists as they get going on the road from Interior, South Dakota.
_____________________________________________________________________________

Day Seven: August 13th, 1995, Interior, South Dakota: One whole week! We had been out on this tour now for an entire week, and already I had had enough experiences to last a lifetime. However; perhaps the most pivotal experiences lay before me. The relief and "normalcy" we experienced in Interior was something we were hoping would continue as we got up that day in the campground.

Interior was pretty quiet that morning as we awoke and packed up to go. Before we bugged out, we had to stop at a small grocery/general store on the edge of town. It wasn't a very big place, and it really looked like a house more than a store proper, but that is all we had access to out there, so we gladly availed ourselves of the opportunity.

The watch of the bikes fell to me, and Troy and Ryan stepped inside to get more bread and peanut butter for the road. The door hadn't closed yet when I spied a Native American and it wasn't long before he approached me.

He was another young man that spoke like a hippie and was panhandling me for money. He said something about having to get a bus ticket to see his ill sister in a town far away. He wanted five dollars. I said I didn't have any money to spare him, but I wished him well.

He retorted with the following, "Hey man, that's cool. I understand. Well........could you give me. like say, $4.78?"

I did a double take. What? This guy was bartering for a hand out? I declined his offer.

Well, that's cool man. How about $4.32? , he returns.

No. Can't do it. Sorry dude!

"Well, okay man, how about $4.20?", and on and on. It seemed as though Troy and Ryan were never coming out, and they probably were in there awhile, because the guy made it all the way down under two bucks and was still bargaining with me when they did finally emerge from the store.

I bade him a final farewell, mounted my bike, and took off as fast as I could go. Troy and Ryan were laughing at my experience as I recounted it to them. I was just tired of dealing with the "V.I.P" folks on this trip.

The road out of Interior was pretty flat and was skirting the badlands to the North. Too far away to really see much, but we would see a "pile" of weird soil, or strange rocks occasionally. Traffic was almost non-existant, and Troy was wanting to hit the mileage hard in the morning due to the favorable conditions. So, he got out front and lit it up once again. We were strung out behind him as he set out a furious pace to Scenic, South Dakota, the next town up the road, where we hoped we would find some refueling opportunities.

A view of Scenic, circa 2012. This is likely the store we were at in 1995 (Google Images)
 After a blazing run into Scenic, we searched around for a place to get something to eat. The thing was that we had gotten such an early start, nothing was open yet. We were flabbergasted at that, and the lack of any visible signs of life here. The place was obviously a hackneyed tourist trap in its past, but it was weathered, run down, and anything but "scenic" when we arrived. I looked around and observed the decaying buildings, mostly wooden structures. Faded advertisements, meant to entice passing tourists, could faintly be discerned on the dry rotted wooden siding. Finally we were obliged to wait until the local general store opened for business in about a half an hours time.

We finally got in, purchased food and drink, and settled down outside, as usual, and started in to chowing down. The long opening salvo to the day left me starving, as we generally just had two packets of instant oatmeal a piece before riding each day. That wasn't nearly enough after that fast ride into Scenic on this warm, calm morning.

As I munched my food, I was blankly staring across the street to an empty lot of tall brown grass that looked as though it hadn't been mowed in months, if ever. As I looked, I saw the torso of a man rise straight up out of the grass in the middle of the field. I choked back a gasp of surprise, and Troy and Ryan both saw what it was I was looking at. A Native American slowly stumbled to his feet, empty paper wrapped bottle in his hand, and on shaky legs, he stumbled out of the lot away down the street.

"What the f#@k!", exclaimed Troy. And we were dumbfounded to find any other words for several minutes beyond that. We did get the rest of the food gulped down in a hurry, as our nerves were on edge now. We wanted to escape this weird, living nightmare of a town as soon as possible. Saddled up and ready to move on, Troy again at the front, we moved on down the sun drenched blacktop.
___________________________________________________________________________

Hopes shattered for a "smooth" tour from Interior, and right out of the gate, it seemed. That encounter with the young man outside the shack of a store in Interior was frustrating. There was a bit of relief on the way to Scenic. The road was interesting, the scenery was the best it had been in days, but Troy's infernal pace setting required full attention to matters at hand. Traffic, while not heavy by any stretch of the imagination, was alien to us after three days of non-existent car traffic. So that was a bit of a new thing as well to have to deal with. We had been lulled to sleep as far as dealing with traffic. Even just a few cars was "heavy" traffic since we had to be aware of that now again.

All combined to have us plopped on our butts outside a long, low building in Scenic, South Dakota. We had Gatorade bottles now, since the store sold that, but no where to fill the bottles up. We did stash the empties this time though, with hopes that we'd find water further up the road. As we all sat, quietly munching and drinking, I recall that the silence was odd for us three. It was as if we'd all needed a rest and didn't have the energy to talk. I cannot really say now.

Then the "rising of the dead". Wow! I still can see that in my mind. The guy literally sat straight up! He appeared out of that tall prairie grass as if he was some apparition, a ghost of days past, but he was real enough. And with that shocking view, we were all sprung into high gear to get the heck outta Scenic.

I do have to say that with all these years to reflect, a couple of things were obvious. one- While we were all fairly young, liberal, and open minded at the time, were were definitely uninformed and this social culture and economy was far outside of our comfort zones. To say Western South Dakota was an eye-opener would be a huge understatement. Second- This trip, especially this part of this trip, has left a deep impression upon me which has been with me ever since.

Next: A Quick Recap So Far

The Touring Series: Not So Scenic

A Guitar Ted Productions series
 Thanks for joining me again on another adventure in "The Touring Series". This tour was dubbed the "Race Against Death Tour". This tour occurred in August of 1995. The three participants, Ryan, Troy, and your's truly, left from Cedar Falls, Iowa to try and get to Winter Park, Colorado in two weeks. Here I am reproducing the tale, mostly as it was posted on the blog in 2009. There are some new edits and additions. I also will add new remarks and memories where appropriate at the end of each post. 

 Once again, there were no cell phones, internet, social media platforms, or digital cameras in use by we tourers in 1995. I will post images where I can, but this tour wasn't well documented in images, so there probably will be very few sprinkled throughout. A modern image will be used only where it depicts things I want to clarify, like where we were in that part of the tour via a map image, or the like.
 

The "Touring Series" will appear every Sunday until it ends. Look for past entries by scrolling back to a previous Sunday's post, or type in "Touring Series" in the search box to find more. 


This entry is again a re-edited and combined post from the original entries from 2009. 

We rejoin the three cyclists as they get going on the road from Interior, South Dakota.
_____________________________________________________________________________

Day Seven: August 13th, 1995, Interior, South Dakota: One whole week! We had been out on this tour now for an entire week, and already I had had enough experiences to last a lifetime. However; perhaps the most pivotal experiences lay before me. The relief and "normalcy" we experienced in Interior was something we were hoping would continue as we got up that day in the campground.

Interior was pretty quiet that morning as we awoke and packed up to go. Before we bugged out, we had to stop at a small grocery/general store on the edge of town. It wasn't a very big place, and it really looked like a house more than a store proper, but that is all we had access to out there, so we gladly availed ourselves of the opportunity.

The watch of the bikes fell to me, and Troy and Ryan stepped inside to get more bread and peanut butter for the road. The door hadn't closed yet when I spied a Native American and it wasn't long before he approached me.

He was another young man that spoke like a hippie and was panhandling me for money. He said something about having to get a bus ticket to see his ill sister in a town far away. He wanted five dollars. I said I didn't have any money to spare him, but I wished him well.

He retorted with the following, "Hey man, that's cool. I understand. Well........could you give me. like say, $4.78?"

I did a double take. What? This guy was bartering for a hand out? I declined his offer.

Well, that's cool man. How about $4.32? , he returns.

No. Can't do it. Sorry dude!

"Well, okay man, how about $4.20?", and on and on. It seemed as though Troy and Ryan were never coming out, and they probably were in there awhile, because the guy made it all the way down under two bucks and was still bargaining with me when they did finally emerge from the store.

I bade him a final farewell, mounted my bike, and took off as fast as I could go. Troy and Ryan were laughing at my experience as I recounted it to them. I was just tired of dealing with the "V.I.P" folks on this trip.

The road out of Interior was pretty flat and was skirting the badlands to the North. Too far away to really see much, but we would see a "pile" of weird soil, or strange rocks occasionally. Traffic was almost non-existant, and Troy was wanting to hit the mileage hard in the morning due to the favorable conditions. So, he got out front and lit it up once again. We were strung out behind him as he set out a furious pace to Scenic, South Dakota, the next town up the road, where we hoped we would find some refueling opportunities.

A view of Scenic, circa 2012. This is likely the store we were at in 1995 (Google Images)
 After a blazing run into Scenic, we searched around for a place to get something to eat. The thing was that we had gotten such an early start, nothing was open yet. We were flabbergasted at that, and the lack of any visible signs of life here. The place was obviously a hackneyed tourist trap in its past, but it was weathered, run down, and anything but "scenic" when we arrived. I looked around and observed the decaying buildings, mostly wooden structures. Faded advertisements, meant to entice passing tourists, could faintly be discerned on the dry rotted wooden siding. Finally we were obliged to wait until the local general store opened for business in about a half an hours time.

We finally got in, purchased food and drink, and settled down outside, as usual, and started in to chowing down. The long opening salvo to the day left me starving, as we generally just had two packets of instant oatmeal a piece before riding each day. That wasn't nearly enough after that fast ride into Scenic on this warm, calm morning.

As I munched my food, I was blankly staring across the street to an empty lot of tall brown grass that looked as though it hadn't been mowed in months, if ever. As I looked, I saw the torso of a man rise straight up out of the grass in the middle of the field. I choked back a gasp of surprise, and Troy and Ryan both saw what it was I was looking at. A Native American slowly stumbled to his feet, empty paper wrapped bottle in his hand, and on shaky legs, he stumbled out of the lot away down the street.

"What the f#@k!", exclaimed Troy. And we were dumbfounded to find any other words for several minutes beyond that. We did get the rest of the food gulped down in a hurry, as our nerves were on edge now. We wanted to escape this weird, living nightmare of a town as soon as possible. Saddled up and ready to move on, Troy again at the front, we moved on down the sun drenched blacktop.
___________________________________________________________________________

Hopes shattered for a "smooth" tour from Interior, and right out of the gate, it seemed. That encounter with the young man outside the shack of a store in Interior was frustrating. There was a bit of relief on the way to Scenic. The road was interesting, the scenery was the best it had been in days, but Troy's infernal pace setting required full attention to matters at hand. Traffic, while not heavy by any stretch of the imagination, was alien to us after three days of non-existent car traffic. So that was a bit of a new thing as well to have to deal with. We had been lulled to sleep as far as dealing with traffic. Even just a few cars was "heavy" traffic since we had to be aware of that now again.

All combined to have us plopped on our butts outside a long, low building in Scenic, South Dakota. We had Gatorade bottles now, since the store sold that, but no where to fill the bottles up. We did stash the empties this time though, with hopes that we'd find water further up the road. As we all sat, quietly munching and drinking, I recall that the silence was odd for us three. It was as if we'd all needed a rest and didn't have the energy to talk. I cannot really say now.

Then the "rising of the dead". Wow! I still can see that in my mind. The guy literally sat straight up! He appeared out of that tall prairie grass as if he was some apparition, a ghost of days past, but he was real enough. And with that shocking view, we were all sprung into high gear to get the heck outta Scenic.

I do have to say that with all these years to reflect, a couple of things were obvious. one- While we were all fairly young, liberal, and open minded at the time, were were definitely uninformed and this social culture and economy was far outside of our comfort zones. To say Western South Dakota was an eye-opener would be a huge understatement. Second- This trip, especially this part of this trip, has left a deep impression upon me which has been with me ever since.

Next: A Quick Recap So Far

Saturday, December 29, 2018

Minus Ten Review- 52

Ten years ago on the blog I was doing all the year end stuff you see now on the blog, so there really wasn't anything news worthy that got posted up. But behind the scenes there was a LOT going on.

It seemed all prearranged somehow, but just as Tim Grahl seemed to be turning his back on his promises to me, and leaving us all who were contributing to a few of his sites in the lurch, along comes the cavalry to save the day. That came in the form of a guy from SoCal who went by the curious name of "Grannygear" online. He and I found each other at Interbike in 2008, and that was not by accident, nor by chance. Grannygear ended up keeping things going when I was ready to throw in the towel on "Twenty Nine Inches".

Between Grannygear and I, and Grahl's finally just giving me the site in the end, we kept things afloat in '08. Things got even better when a German native named "CG" online also started contributing along about this time as well. Between the three of us, we brought back the site from near death at the end of 2008. 

I was in a big time funk though at the turn of the year. I was in the midst of all of this craziness with the site, and there were a few other irons in the fire starting in 2009 which I'll get to later in other "Minus Ten Reviews". 

Meanwhile we had a Trans Iowa to run in 2009, I had review stuff to do, and life forged on......

Minus Ten Review- 52

Ten years ago on the blog I was doing all the year end stuff you see now on the blog, so there really wasn't anything news worthy that got posted up. But behind the scenes there was a LOT going on.

It seemed all prearranged somehow, but just as Tim Grahl seemed to be turning his back on his promises to me, and leaving us all who were contributing to a few of his sites in the lurch, along comes the cavalry to save the day. That came in the form of a guy from SoCal who went by the curious name of "Grannygear" online. He and I found each other at Interbike in 2008, and that was not by accident, nor by chance. Grannygear ended up keeping things going when I was ready to throw in the towel on "Twenty Nine Inches".

Between Grannygear and I, and Grahl's finally just giving me the site in the end, we kept things afloat in '08. Things got even better when a German native named "CG" online also started contributing along about this time as well. Between the three of us, we brought back the site from near death at the end of 2008. 

I was in a big time funk though at the turn of the year. I was in the midst of all of this craziness with the site, and there were a few other irons in the fire starting in 2009 which I'll get to later in other "Minus Ten Reviews". 

Meanwhile we had a Trans Iowa to run in 2009, I had review stuff to do, and life forged on......

Rear View 2018: Fall And The Remainder Of 2018

Dreams of Fall single tracking were drowned in copious amounts of rain.
After all the gravel events things calmed down quite a bit and nothing big was happening.

Fall came in and looked pretty spectacular for a while. The Fall colors looked like they were going to peak about the right time and they looked to be better than they had been in years. However; heavy rains came in, we got flooding off and on for most of October, and the single tracking dreams were drowned in murky backwaters.

Meanwhile I had to squeeze in whatever riding I could get on gravel roads. That wasn't all bad, by the way, and the fun rides piled up. Health came back. The legs started working again. I was having some fun again on the bike. A special ride for a co-workers wife on gravel was one of the Fall highlights for me.

Later on I was working with local rider, N.Y. Roll on two events. First was the Iowa Gravel Expo/Bike Party, and then the other was a gravel road race event we dubbed "Creatures Of Gravel", or C.O.G. and it was to be a 100 mile route. Then I figured why not make it a State Championship, and then to further make the weirdness, why not require every rider that chooses to participate use a single speed device? Yeah......why not. 

The recon was done after a bit of early season snow in November and the route looked great to us. It was a teeny bit more than a 100 miles, but......hey! Bonus miles for the money, right? Then after that settled down it seemed like the RidingGravel.com site work picked up and all kinds of irons got in the fire, keeping me pretty busy right through the end of the year.

Riding gravel roads with almost zero single track ended finally when in November everything froze solid and we could finally get out in the woods again. Then, of course, the weather warmed up in December and whatta ya know? We end the year riding in mud or back to the gravel roads. Weird!

And that brings us to the end of the Rear View for the year. Thanks for reading!

Rear View 2018: Fall And The Remainder Of 2018

Dreams of Fall single tracking were drowned in copious amounts of rain.
After all the gravel events things calmed down quite a bit and nothing big was happening.

Fall came in and looked pretty spectacular for a while. The Fall colors looked like they were going to peak about the right time and they looked to be better than they had been in years. However; heavy rains came in, we got flooding off and on for most of October, and the single tracking dreams were drowned in murky backwaters.

Meanwhile I had to squeeze in whatever riding I could get on gravel roads. That wasn't all bad, by the way, and the fun rides piled up. Health came back. The legs started working again. I was having some fun again on the bike. A special ride for a co-workers wife on gravel was one of the Fall highlights for me.

Later on I was working with local rider, N.Y. Roll on two events. First was the Iowa Gravel Expo/Bike Party, and then the other was a gravel road race event we dubbed "Creatures Of Gravel", or C.O.G. and it was to be a 100 mile route. Then I figured why not make it a State Championship, and then to further make the weirdness, why not require every rider that chooses to participate use a single speed device? Yeah......why not. 

The recon was done after a bit of early season snow in November and the route looked great to us. It was a teeny bit more than a 100 miles, but......hey! Bonus miles for the money, right? Then after that settled down it seemed like the RidingGravel.com site work picked up and all kinds of irons got in the fire, keeping me pretty busy right through the end of the year.

Riding gravel roads with almost zero single track ended finally when in November everything froze solid and we could finally get out in the woods again. Then, of course, the weather warmed up in December and whatta ya know? We end the year riding in mud or back to the gravel roads. Weird!

And that brings us to the end of the Rear View for the year. Thanks for reading!

Friday, December 28, 2018

Rear View 2018: The Images

Last year I did a retrospective of my favorite images of the year. I liked it......not sure anyone else did! But I wanted to gather my top images, voted on by myself, and share them. No more than 12, no less than 10. Here we go......

Winter of 2018
Spring 2018
Spring 2018 (yes- chronologically after the above image!)
Summer 2018
Summer 2018: Rider- Joe Hackenmiller
Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitational
24hrs of Cumming
Gravel Worlds
Fall 2018
Fall 2018
Fall 2018
My number one favorite photo of 2018 from the last Trans Iowa. 
That's a pictorial overview of my 2018. Hope that you enjoyed that. 

Rear View 2018: The Images

Last year I did a retrospective of my favorite images of the year. I liked it......not sure anyone else did! But I wanted to gather my top images, voted on by myself, and share them. No more than 12, no less than 10. Here we go......

Winter of 2018
Spring 2018
Spring 2018 (yes- chronologically after the above image!)
Summer 2018
Summer 2018: Rider- Joe Hackenmiller
Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitational
24hrs of Cumming
Gravel Worlds
Fall 2018
Fall 2018
Fall 2018
My number one favorite photo of 2018 from the last Trans Iowa. 
That's a pictorial overview of my 2018. Hope that you enjoyed that. 

Thursday, December 27, 2018

Rear View 2018: Late Summer

Team Pink bikes at the 24 Hrs of Cumming
A short week after the Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitational I made the trek to Des Moines, Iowa to hang out with my brother, Sam, and we were scheduled to do the 24hrs of Cumming. This was an endurance mtb style event where the course was set up in four separate loops which yielded a 400K-ish distance if you did all of it. Spanning Saturday and Sunday, it was to be a big deal for Sam and I.

Sam drew first ride in our two man attempt. So, I had to await his return in the early afternoon. Meanwhile I spent a bunch of time waiting, waiting......fooling around with my set up, waiting......messing with how much nutrition to carry.....and a few minutes talking to a few of the folks hanging out. The attic above the Cumming Tap was our roost for the weekend, so that was part of the reason I was sort of "invisible" much of the time.

When Sam came in and I left, things seemed good for a while but then the weekend previous reared its ugly head, my legs went away, and well..... I finally got back, but we were doomed. Sam started the next loop but cut it short. We then celebrated his birthday at the Tap, I stayed up all night, and the weekend ended with a good time amongst friends.

Following this melt down of the legs was Gravel Worlds, only a mere two weeks later. I tried to recover, but after about 80 miles......... Not so much. I was supremely disappointed, but there ya go. That event ended with at least a good time hanging out with good people. Still, I haven't quite got over the physical meltdown I had over this period, at least mentally. I think physically I have been back on good footing for a while, but the disappointing performances are tough to forget.

At least I got to see some great new territory in Nebraska. This was one of my favorite stretches here.
I also did a little of my own exploration after abandoning Gravel Worlds, and why not? It is a beautiful area to ride in.
Well, after all of that came September and hopes of single track in the Fall. No more events though! I needed to take it easy the rest of the year.

Next: A Wrap On 2018's Rear View.....

Rear View 2018: Late Summer

Team Pink bikes at the 24 Hrs of Cumming
A short week after the Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitational I made the trek to Des Moines, Iowa to hang out with my brother, Sam, and we were scheduled to do the 24hrs of Cumming. This was an endurance mtb style event where the course was set up in four separate loops which yielded a 400K-ish distance if you did all of it. Spanning Saturday and Sunday, it was to be a big deal for Sam and I.

Sam drew first ride in our two man attempt. So, I had to await his return in the early afternoon. Meanwhile I spent a bunch of time waiting, waiting......fooling around with my set up, waiting......messing with how much nutrition to carry.....and a few minutes talking to a few of the folks hanging out. The attic above the Cumming Tap was our roost for the weekend, so that was part of the reason I was sort of "invisible" much of the time.

When Sam came in and I left, things seemed good for a while but then the weekend previous reared its ugly head, my legs went away, and well..... I finally got back, but we were doomed. Sam started the next loop but cut it short. We then celebrated his birthday at the Tap, I stayed up all night, and the weekend ended with a good time amongst friends.

Following this melt down of the legs was Gravel Worlds, only a mere two weeks later. I tried to recover, but after about 80 miles......... Not so much. I was supremely disappointed, but there ya go. That event ended with at least a good time hanging out with good people. Still, I haven't quite got over the physical meltdown I had over this period, at least mentally. I think physically I have been back on good footing for a while, but the disappointing performances are tough to forget.

At least I got to see some great new territory in Nebraska. This was one of my favorite stretches here.
I also did a little of my own exploration after abandoning Gravel Worlds, and why not? It is a beautiful area to ride in.
Well, after all of that came September and hopes of single track in the Fall. No more events though! I needed to take it easy the rest of the year.

Next: A Wrap On 2018's Rear View.....

Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Bikes Of 2018: The Black Mountain Cycles Monster Cross

Last version with "dangly bits". Fall 2018
Long time readers know this bike as "Orange Crush", but technically it is a Monster Cross model from Black Mountain Cycles. This one is from the original run Mike Varley brought in several years ago now.

Times change, standards change, but it don't matter to Mike. He still sells every one of these, (mostly), that he brings in. Why? Because at the price you pay, there is hardly anything as good. Even at a higher price, it would be competitive and out ride most anything in its class.

Rim brakes.....still a thing. They work really well if you know how to set up cantilever brakes, (or have a mechanic that does), so the fact that this has no provisions for disc brakes is not a minus here. If you can get past the fact that this model doesn't have disc brakes, you will find a bike that has very few rivals for how it rides and does gravel travel.

When I talk about how bad many carbon forks ride, this is the bike I compare them to. The OG Black Mountain Cycles fork is so smooooth! I cannot speak to his current version. Perhaps a reader that has one can chime in here on the comments. I'd love to hear about it.

That said, the ability to go geared or single speed is a big deal to me and this bike is great as a single speed. I had to set this up as a single speed when I first got it and now the bike has come full circle. Back to a single speed, it will get a lot of rides in 2019, hopefully.

And this is what it looks like today.
I detailed out the build already in a recent "Friday News And Views" post, so I won't rehash that again. I will say that the only future changes I foresee here are the aforementioned lever change and a special wheel build I have planned for this using some Surly New Hubs I have, plus possibly another wheel build I have in mind.

The bike will still be used quite a bit for any future tire testing for RidingGravel.com, so I expect changes there as well.


Bikes Of 2018: The Black Mountain Cycles Monster Cross

Last version with "dangly bits". Fall 2018
Long time readers know this bike as "Orange Crush", but technically it is a Monster Cross model from Black Mountain Cycles. This one is from the original run Mike Varley brought in several years ago now.

Times change, standards change, but it don't matter to Mike. He still sells every one of these, (mostly), that he brings in. Why? Because at the price you pay, there is hardly anything as good. Even at a higher price, it would be competitive and out ride most anything in its class.

Rim brakes.....still a thing. They work really well if you know how to set up cantilever brakes, (or have a mechanic that does), so the fact that this has no provisions for disc brakes is not a minus here. If you can get past the fact that this model doesn't have disc brakes, you will find a bike that has very few rivals for how it rides and does gravel travel.

When I talk about how bad many carbon forks ride, this is the bike I compare them to. The OG Black Mountain Cycles fork is so smooooth! I cannot speak to his current version. Perhaps a reader that has one can chime in here on the comments. I'd love to hear about it.

That said, the ability to go geared or single speed is a big deal to me and this bike is great as a single speed. I had to set this up as a single speed when I first got it and now the bike has come full circle. Back to a single speed, it will get a lot of rides in 2019, hopefully.

And this is what it looks like today.
I detailed out the build already in a recent "Friday News And Views" post, so I won't rehash that again. I will say that the only future changes I foresee here are the aforementioned lever change and a special wheel build I have planned for this using some Surly New Hubs I have, plus possibly another wheel build I have in mind.

The bike will still be used quite a bit for any future tire testing for RidingGravel.com, so I expect changes there as well.


Tuesday, December 25, 2018

Merry Christmas!

From brown and barren Waterloo, Iowa
Merry Christmas From Guitar Ted Productions!

Wishing you and your loved ones all the best!
Thank you for reading the blog!
Regular posting will resume tomorrow.  

Merry Christmas!

From brown and barren Waterloo, Iowa
Merry Christmas From Guitar Ted Productions!

Wishing you and your loved ones all the best!
Thank you for reading the blog!
Regular posting will resume tomorrow.  

Monday, December 24, 2018

Rear View 2018: Pink MCD & GTDRI

The Bubblegum Princess on its maiden voyage.
Mid-Summer brought two notable events in my life. The first was an addition to the stable which replaced my old Twin Six Standard Rando. It was the Black Mountain Cycles "MCD" model which was renamed by my daughter as the "Bubblegum Princess".

FYI: This will serve as a "Bikes Of 2018" post:

This ended up transforming from a "hope that it is as good as the old BMC I have is", to "Wow! This thing is awesome!" in a big hurry after I rode it the first time. The fit, which I had researched from my other bikes and transposed to the BMC, was spot on. I haven't tweaked a thing since the day it was built. That's very odd for me. 

Besides the obvious pink bit, the bike was kitted out in carbon from Irwin Cycling (wheels) and Whiskey Components (Handle bar, seat post). It has a new Shimano CX series crank with 46/36 gearing and an 11 speed cassette with 11-36T spread. The rear derailleur is a Shimano Ultegra. (Yes- it isn't supposed to work. Hint: It's perfect) That gives me one 1 to 1 gear and usually that's plenty low enough. It's what we had on our old loaded touring bikes as a lowest gear, and that always got me where I needed to go.

The tires are WTB Riddler 45's on there now, but I have run 650B X 47's and in a while it will be back to 700c X 42mm wheels and tires using my all-time favorite tires- the WTB Resolutes. Otherwise, no changes in the near future for this rig.

I really, really wanted to ride this bike on my GTDRI ride, but responsibilities to RidingGravel.com testing prevented that choice. This would bite me in the you-know-where for most of the rest of 2018.

That be MG wearing his fresh DKXL jersey. Kyle Platts on the right here. 2018 GTDRI.
The second big deal of Mid-Summer was my annual Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitational, (GTDRI) which happened on a hot day in late July. It was a big turnout- 25 riders total- and it turned out to be quite a hoot. I think that locally it was something that eventually turned on a lot of riders to Tama County gravel riding. That's a good thing.

I was stoked to have all who came, but was really grateful to MG for making the trip from Lincoln, Nebraska. I also was glad to see local rider Jeremy Fry return to this ride after skipping it a couple of years.

But as I stated above, the bike I was testing and reviewing for Riding Gravel had a 1X set up and I had issues with the bike getting into the lowest three cogs, as in it wouldn't shift into them. That left me pushing way too big a gear on climbs, some of which I had to walk due to fatigue later into the ride. I wasn't real happy about that. Had I ridden the new Bubblegum Princess, well, that would have been a non-issue. Even if I had a balky rear derailleur, at least I could have dropped the front ring down to a 36T. The Apex 1 crank had a 42T ring, and that was killing me. My legs weren't the same for months afterward.

Next: Late Summer 2018