Guitar Ted Productions

So......Now What?

2012-01-31T01:30:00.000-05:00

This winter is.......fading fast! With the snow getting visibly less every hour during daylight, it won't take long with these 40 degree days to roach all the snow and put an end to fat biking on snow exclusively.

Fun while it lasted....

Yep! I am back to commuting on "skinny" wheels, wearing a helmet again, and using clipless pedals and shoes. I rode the "Project Two-Six" bike to work yesterday and I had to actually go looking for icy spots to test the Continental Winter Contact tires. There just wasn't any ice to be found!

So, I have been in the game of switching gears mentally to spring time. Too early, you say? No.......no, spring is coming. I know. I heard the Cardinals start singing already, and that usually doesn't happen until mid-February. The forecast says 40's all week. I'm digging out the Gryphon and "Orange Crush" and I'm thinking long gravel rides are coming on fast.

I have an event coming up at the end of February too, so I need to get the gravel grinding done in preparation for CIRREM which is a hilly, challenging course. It is the same distance as Triple D was, so I should be okay with that part.

Single Gear Suffering?

I'm pretty sure I'll do the majority of the training on my Singular Gryphon. The gravel probably won't be too kind to a geared drive train for a while, and a single keeps the pace more constant on flatter terrain.

Plus, it has just been too long since I spent quality time aboard this bike. It certainly is a comfortable enough rig. I rode this one the last time I did Gravel Worlds in Lincoln, and spent all day on the bike. That didn't stop me that day, but the extreme heat sure did!

If I really wanted to be a goof ball I would just ride this in CIRREM. Who knows......maybe I will! Heck, it goes up hills just fine. I know that from my Nebraska trip. Just stand on those 180mm White Industries cranks and get goin! If CIRREM looks to be a peanut buttery mess, I definitely will be taking this rig.

Otherwise it'll be a Black Mountain Cycles kind of day. Either way, I will be needing to take some time plying some Iowa gravel roads and seeing what is going on out there in the country. The off road trails won't be up to snuff for quite a while yet, and the snow biking, well.......those days are done for this year.

Maybe I'm wrong about that, but I bet not.

Unplanned Success

2012-01-30T01:30:00.000-05:00

Current state-o-the 'Buck

Saturday's fat bike ride tweaked out my legs again, so Sunday was going to be a planned off day. Something about riding those fat bikes really knocks it outta me, especially since Triple D. I guess I have not quite recovered 100% from that day just yet.

So Saturday night I stayed up until the wee hours to get all of the T.I.V8 cues written that I could. I now can say that they are all written down but about 20 miles worth, which I am leaving open dependent on just how the event will end, which I should have made clear to me very soon. Once that happens, all the cues will be formatted and that should be that barring any corrections that may need to be made.

Yep! Sunday was going to be an off day, and I was doing great at that until I went down to the Lab to weigh something. I got a bit distracted though. I had my OS Bikes Blackbuck hanging in my repair stand waiting to have some wheels installed, pedals installed, and front brake mount changed to accept a 185mm rotor.

Curvy stays

One thing led to another and the next thing I know, I am wrist deep into grease and turning wrenches. I added a couple of things to the old 'Buck. The wheel set came off my retired 2007 El Mariachi. This is an Industry 9 single speed specific wheel set with Bontrager Duster rims. Pretty "buzzy" sounding hub, by the way. Really buzzy!

The hub already had a Boone titanium cog on it with the matching spacers, but I had to rearrange those to dial in the chain line a bit. I found a black Salsa quick release for the rear, and I'll have to track down the front one. Got a silver one in there right now from some off-brand replacement wheel set.

I had already mounted these Czech made Rubena Scylla tires to the rims, tubeless of course, and the post mount brake set up on the Tower Expert fork was swapped to get the front wheel in there. Once that was done I scavenged my Shimano clipless pedals from the El Mar and it was all ready to ride.

Well, I got outside, wearing my clipless shoes for the first time this year, I think, and took off for a short little test ride. I have to say that riding a 29"er now seems like cheating. After so many fat biking miles this winter, the single speed with the "skinny" 2.1"ers seemed easy to ride and almost too twitchy. Now when the snow does finally go away, the ol 'Buck will be raring to go, and it should be a hoot to ride this way. I was glad I got it put back together and that it turned out well.

Oh yeah....I did get back home and I weighed that part after all. Even though I wasn't supposed to ride at all today, it sure felt good for that short few moments.

Gettin' It While I Can

2012-01-29T01:30:00.000-05:00

Along The Cedar River

Saturday was beautiful out, and before all of our snow gets roached by the Sun, I decided to head over East of my casa to check out my typical winter riding hangouts.

One of the reasons I wanted to get Big Fat Larrys was to get the little bit of extra float that they might provide over the 3.8"ers I used on this bike last year. I knew that over the years a lot of snowmobile traffic goes along the river, so I had high hopes of getting the BFL's into an area where they would actually be a benefit.

I started to get close to where the trails pick up and I saw a hopeful sign. Snomobile tracks heading west. Certainly that meant they would go east and towards more open country. Well, I was wrong! I got down onto the paved bike path which was covered in snow and post-holed with lots of pedestrian traffic.

Okay, so it would be a bumpy ride then! I focused and made it down and around and across to where I like to stop for a photo op. These big limestone blocks make a nice backdrop for bicycle photos. Atleast I think so

Follow the footprints!

Well, after that photo op, I had more post-holed trail to follow until I found some buried snowmobile tracks. I hit these and made better time, even though they were underneath a few inches of snow and were hard to make out going into the bright sunshine. I just "thought like a snowmobiler", and that worked out until I crossed a road and went up on top of a dike where it was really easy to see the trail the machines left behind.

This turned and went down. I had a blast descending this snowmobile trail, but I forgot that the weight distribution for not "punching through" and the weight distribution for descending don't match up all the time. Actually, to be honest, I didn't forget that, I learned that! I don't know if I could have saved it. Maybe going slower is the key.

Well, at any rate, I was following the snowmobile tracks and they doubled back to where I had come. Bah! That's no fun. I had seen something veering off the dike earlier though, so I figured I would go and investigate that before heading back toward home.

Now THIS is why I got the BFL's!

I trundled along the dike until I found a snowmobile track heading eastward down the steep slope of the dike. I followed and had a bit of a thrilling ride down the slope full of loose, deep snow, but I stayed upright. Then through the small opening in a chain link fence.

After this I found an undulating, twisting, turning trail that a few snowmobiles had layed down. My bike was tracking nicely along this, but as opposed to having my weight back a fair amount, here I needed to allow for more of a weight balance between the wheels. This kept my rear tire from "punching through" and kept me motoring along the snowmobile track.

Then the track doubled back again! What is it with these snowmobilers? Well, I went back util I found a branch off where a truck had made it part way back into the woods. I followed its tracks out to a paved road. At this point I could see I was along the ATV park, which was fenced off from the road. I decided to try and find my way in by following the road back eastward along the fence line.

Ice fisherman on Mitchell Sand Pit Lake

I ended up not finding a way into the ATV park, but I did find the wood disposal station for the City of Waterloo. Massive mounds of wood chips everywhere! The road turned into a muddy dirt surface here and I was glad for the big fat tires which walked right over the mushy surface.

This went by the Waste Water Treatment Plant and the road went back on itself again where I had come from. I continued on back to the point I popped out of the woods, went on further, and found out I was gated in! It wasn't that I couldn't get into the ATV park, I couldn't get out of the city property I had found my way into! Okay, so back out the way I came it was for me.

Remember that little opening in the chain link fence after the dike? Yeah......that was the only way out! So, I went back through the way I had come, and then out along another snowmobile trail across a huge, empty field to a city street. Once there, I made my way back home.

It was a fun adventure on the fat bike, and I learned a few things about the city I live in along the way. Good times!

Tips On Riding Gravel Roads For T.I.V8 (Or Any Other Gravel Event)

2012-01-28T01:30:00.000-05:00

Note: This is a compilation of gravel road riding tips I doled out a year ago in preparation for T.I.V7. These are still good tips for the upcoming T.I.V8, so I combined the best of both the older posts and am putting them up for your gravel riding knowledge today. Enjoy!

Gravel Road Riding Tips For Trans Iowa: Once again, this is aimed at the first timers out there, but ya'all might want to pay attention, since there might be some things I mention here which will help bring to mind stuff you may have forgotten about.

Please read and familiarize yourself with the Race Safety & Supplies section of the Trans Iowa site here.

I mention a few things there that are in keeping with my post here, so I will not cover those again. Here you will find some basic gravel road riding tips I have learned over the years and also things I have observed by putting on seven previous Trans Iowas and from my other gravel road racing and riding experiences.

#1: Ride "Right": Just because you are in a remote, rural area, and just because there is little to no traffic doesn't mean you can relax on your road etiquette here. Ride on the right side of the road folks, especially going up a hill! Rural Iowans will expect that when they crest a hill in their automobile, that they will be on the right side, and so would anybody else coming the other way be on their right side of the road, thus preventing any accidental crashes at the summits of hills. That's how it works, so don't forget that, and don't try to push your luck out there. It could cost you your life.

#2: Don't Be A Hero: Trans Iowa is a long, long event. It isn't worth it to blow through stop signs, not pay attention at intersections, and to not wait for cars and trucks to clear out when crossing paved roads. Obey traffic signs! Stop at paved crossings and be very careful. Don't be a dick when going through towns and tick off the locals with your "get out of my way" attitude.

NOTE: If I, or any of our volunteers report or see a T.I.V8 rider violating #1 or #2 above, you will be disqualified immediately and asked to stop riding. I won't tolerate riders being stupid, ignorant, or willfully breaking laws or rules of conduct. Period.

#3: "Read" The Road: It is important that you recognize the difference between loose gravel, and smoother sections of the road. Obviously, you'll want to take the path of least resistance, but I am thinking of the fast down hill sections. The ability to look further up the road and "read" the conditions of the gravel will allow you to descend with more confidence and safety. This will become imperative at night. Don't outrun your lights, and ride within your skill level. That said, reading the road will be a handy tool during Trans Iowa. Getting out and practicing this on gravel ahead of T.I.V8 would be the best bet.

#4: Take Corners Very Carefully: Generally speaking, bicycle tires and speedy gravel corners are not things that go together without mishap. Be careful going around corners and you'll be fine. Criterium style cornering will be met with a case of severe road rash!

#5: Easy On The Brakes!: Similarly, heavy, sudden braking is a no-no on gravel and a recipe for going down. Gently squeezing the levers and giving yourself plenty of room to make a stop is advised. Keep drafting distances longer, unless you can implicitly trust the riders you draft off of. If one guy or gal in a draft line makes a small bobble or slips on loose gravel, you will find yourself in a big pile up. Also, keep a light touch on the brakes while descending at speed. Too much brake and you can easily lose control and stack it up heinously. (And it doesn't take much brake to be "too much" on gravel!) Don't draft on the down hills! Especially steep ones. (Getting a gravel chunk in the eye, or a face full of dust or mud is a distinct possibility)

#6: B Road Roolz: B Maintenance roads present their own set of rules. First and foremost is deciding whether to even ride in at all! If it is wet, your best bet may be to dismount while you are still on the gravel and test the road by walking on it. You'll know within a few footsteps if you could ride it out, or not. Better to have clagged up shoes than a mud packed, 70lb bike that you have to carry!

If the B Road has a ditch, you may be allowed to pass in the grass, but if it's like the one I have pictured here, you'll be obliged to walk the entire length of it. Trust me. You shouldn't try riding on a rain soaked B Road! If it is dry, you can pass, or maybe if the sun has gotten to it after a rain, you may find parts will be rideable, but it is best to err on the side of caution here. Added to this is the fact that road obstacles like embedded rocks, holes, ruts, and even random junk are waiting to toss you off your bike or ruin your tires and wheels, and it should become apparent that B Roads deserve your respect.

#7: Road Conditions: Gravel roads in the area of the event will likely vary quite a bit. Here is a short list of what you can expect to find out there.....

"Normal" Conditions: Gravel roads normally have at least a "two track" of solid, packed "dirt" to ride on, and usually a three track. This is where the fastest, least resistant path for your tires will be. Along the edges and in the middle of the road, the gravel will be deeper, loose, and difficult to ride in. Remember: Ride on the right side!!

"Fresh" Gravel: This is something you will see in patches, (repairs to a gravel road), for several hundred feet, or up to several miles. Fresh gravel is loose, chunky crushed rock, (generally limestone, or other native rock), laid across the entire roadway. This will present a much more resistant path for your tires, and skinnier tired, lighter bikes will be most affected by it. You'll want to scan and hunt for the best lines, but "Ride On The Right Side"!!

"Damaged" Gravel: This can be anything from frost heaves, (a few inches or a foot of heaved up earth that is the consistency of thick flour), ruts, mud patches, or wash outs. Be very careful to avoid all of these. Depending on the weather, these can be rather prevalent features, (T.I.V4), or not, (T.I.V5).

"Peanut Butter" Gravel: This usually occurs if it rains. And it feels just like you might imagine. Sloppy, nasty, and wet. Not much one can do here but grin and bear it. On second thought, do not grin. You'll get a nasty mouthful of gritty stone in there!

#8: Weather: I've experienced just about everything out there on gravel roads in terms of weather. The worst can be downright nasty. Most of it is survivable. However; there could be an event where your life is in danger. Here is the excerpt from the Race Rules to read here that deals with what we will do in case of severe weather events:

16: Weather Related Stoppage and Time Cut Off Rule: In case of severe weather during the event, we will do the folowing things so you can act accordingly. Remember: YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOURSELF!! If the sky is falling, or you see Dorothy's house go spinning by your head, you should take appropriate actions to protect yourself. We will not be responsible for ill advised heroics in inclement weather. Be smart, or be pig fodder! This is only given out so that you as an event participant will know what our actions will be in regards to keeping tabs on your progress and what will be done with prizing. Weather related cancellation of the event will be enforced at the checkpoints. All participants will be directed as to where and when any prizing will be distributed at checkpoints by our volunteers. If you pull out before a checkpoint, you will need to contact the Event Director to find out if the event is being terminated. Results will not be tabulated if we have to stop the event. If cut off times to a checkpoint are not met by any event participant then the event will be terminated and all will be considered as DNF's. Prizing will be distributed by raffle to the remaining participants in the event at the time of stoppage or when it becomes clear that the cut off times will not be met. Must be present to win. Decisions of the event directors is final.

So, as you may have noticed, Rule #16 deals mostly with what we do with prizing, and little to do with anything related to you, the rider. That is because you need to use your own best judgment in these matters. As stated in Rule #16, ".....you should take appropriate actions to protect yourself", and we mean it. You Are Responsible For Yourself!! Get in the ditch, knock on a farmers door to ask for shelter, or call in the cavalry, but DO NOT EXPECT TRANS IOWA OR ANYONE CONNECTED TO IT TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY! Don't be stupid. Trans Iowa is not worth risking your life for in the instance of severe weather. (Or for any reason, for that matter)

Friday News And Views

2012-01-27T01:30:00.000-05:00

Narrower, lighter: Sometimes better.

In yesterday's post called "The Oasis" I got a lot of interesting comments and thoughts about "float", wide rims, big tires, and weight. I think a few things were being discussed there that are important, but weren't really relevant to my particular experiment. Here's what I have to say about my particular experiment first.

My ride conditions were not in packed snow. I was riding in 8+ inches of virgin, untrodden snow for my test. So, "float" was not the biggest priority here.
I chose to ride these conditions as a way to find out what works best to "bust my own trail". Obviously, on snowmo trails, or places that have had some sort of compaction on the snow, "float" is king.
My conclusions were that fatter tires, wider rims, and heavier bikes were conspiring to make riding these conditions tougher.

Again, on trails that are compacted by something, (people, snow mobiles, dredges), flotation with wider tires, wider rims, and lower tire pressures makes more sense. However; when you are slogging through deep, new snow, or really powdery, flour-like snow, I think a narrower tire is going to cut through that with less resistance. And a lighter bike overall helps in this.

Hope that clears that up a bit.

Yep! It's baaaack!

A 650B Reprise: One of the things that 650B fans used to say about the wheel size was that it would be a better fit for long travel applications where a bigger diameter wheel could roll over stuff easier than a 26"ers.

Well, I thought that of all the claims being bandied about back in 2007 for 650B, this was one of the more credible ones. Turns out that this is the one thing that 650B will hang its hat on in 2013.

I've seen this image of a MY2013 Rock Shox Revelation since back in mid-December when it was leaked to me from Australia. So, I've had a little time to dig around on this. 650B is coming, new tires, new forks, and all packaged for big bikes with travel from 130-160mm. Back-country, big hit, All-mountain rigs.

Will it work? Will this finally be the niche where 650B will slot in and take over its rightful place in mountain biking? Hard to say as of now. The core market of riders in this category are not real keen on 29"ers at all, but this might be what sways them away from 26"ers, or will it be?

I know one thing: Sea Otter 2012 will be an interesting place to be come April, and the internet bike nerds will have another field day posting rants in support and against this development. But one thing is a sure bet: 650B will be here soon.

Short, Sweet, T.I.V8 Update: In news about T.I.V8, I have narrowed down a primary and secondary date for recon-testing of the cue sheets for this new course. A couple of volunteers have stepped forward to offer to drive with me around the course and see to it that all the cues make sense. We'll also be pinpointing a location for the remote Checkpoint #2.

Did you know that the "Official Trans Iowa Site" has a FAQ page? Well, now you do! And by the way, if you have a suggestion for a FAQ I should add to the list, feel free to leave it in today's comment section, and I'll make that happen.

I saw stripes!

Shorter, Sweeter GTDRI Update: The "Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitational"is a fun little gravel grinder of a 100 miles I do every summer. It has a large, pretentious name, but don't let that deter you from checking this little gig out this coming summer. "And when would that be?", you might ask.

Well, mark your calendars for July 14th, 2012. I've been asked several times by different folks to not have the GTDRI on a RAGBRAI weekend. Well.......wish granted! Hopefully that works out for a bunch of you all to show up and ride the gravel back roads of Iowa in the heat of summer.

I may reprise the course from last year when we saw zebras, but I might just do something different as well. I will make a determination later, but for now, just know this is back on again.You can read about last year's foggy, heated, dusty ride here and here. You can be sure that this year's ride will be something similar, so that dhould give you a good idea of what this is all about.

Okay folks, that's it for this edition of Friday News and Views. Get out and ride a bike, or just enjoy the outdoors this weekend. Have a good one, ya'all!

The Oasis

2012-01-26T01:30:00.000-05:00

Concrete jungle

Wednesday I went for a morning ride to test out a theory I had regarding the Larry 3.8" vs the Big Fat Larry. I was wondering if I would have made more progress through some deep, granular snow on the BFL's than I had on the smaller 3.8"ers.

I also was wondering how the inertia of the heavier wheels might affect all of this. The overall weight of the two bikes might also come into play as well.

So I left to go ride a couple of stretches I had ridden earlier this week where the snow had not been plowed. Temperatures were similar for each day, but there had been some warmer weather where the snow may have firmed up some over what I had originally experienced. As I reached the unplowed sections, I had high hopes that the Big Fat Larrys would float up a bit better, despite the bike weighing more.

I found out that even though I had bigger tires and that the snow was maybe better, I didn't see any real advantage. In fact, it may have been a disadvantage really. I think a couple of things were working against me on The Snow Dog.

Big ruts!

Those Big Fat Larrys push more of a "wake" than the skinnier tires do, so I was working harder when the tires did sink in. Secondly: Those big tires didn't float up like I thought they might, so I was fighting the higher resistance to the wheels more with the wider tires. Part of this was due to the heavier wheels/bike overall.

By-Tor the Titanium Mukluk has much lighter wheels, tires, and tubes which gave it a big advantage in the inertia department, as far as overcoming wheel weight. I also found that the skinnier tires seemed to deal with the snow in a similar manner to the BFL's, but since the weight of the front end was so much less, the titanium Mukluk would float over stuff better, leaving the rear to dig down and get traction.

Either way, the rides were both exhausting exercises. I had to go at a high torque, low speed setting and my legs and body were working hard to keep either bike going straight and moving forward. I think things were a bit more successful on the titanium rig, but that's splitting hairs. Dealing with ruts on The Snow Dog made life harder, which I didn't have to do with By-Tor.

Rest stop at The Oasis

The Wednesday ride saw me taking a break underneath a bridge for Highway 218. The bike path goes underneath here and on either side the snow was very deep. Both bikes were grinding in the snow near here, and my body was working way too hard to keep it going, but I was having fun seeing what I could ride over.

I stuck around a while to cool down, took some images, and then lumbered home with legs that were shaking when I got home from all the hard work. It was fun to figure out which worked best for what, and technique was honed as well.

Obviously, Big Fat Larrys are better suited to situations where trail/snow has been packed down some and skinnier tires are punching through a bit. I would probably find that on snowmobile trails, but the snomo folks must be sticking around to the country, because I can not find a snomo track in town yet to save my life. Guess I'm going to have to head over to Mitchell Sand Pits next, if there is any snow left this weekend!

New Western Nebraska Gravel Adventure Coming Soon!

2012-01-25T00:10:00.000-05:00

You know, what with running Gravel Grinder News, I have to say that the number of gravel grinders are just growing with no sign of abating anytime soon. Just over the past month I've nearly added a third again as many events as I had before the Holidays on the site.

In another converging tangent to this, I have been hearing about a small, but passionate group of riders doing some amazing back road/gravel stuff in a place many think would be totally boring. Let me tell ya, nothing could be further from the truth!

Typical Western Nebraska terrain

I actually got to go out and see some of the stuff I am talking about for myself a few years back. Me and my buddy from Linclon, NE, MG went out on another mission, but suffice it to say that what you will find out there is nothing short of amazing.

Nebraska? Amazing? Hey.....ya gotta get offa the interstate! What a lot of folks don't realize is that I-80 follows a river valley. So yeah.....it is gonna be boring.

Just drive about five to ten miles in any direction perpendicular to that ribbon of mind numbing concrete and you'll find some undulating, scenic, challenging terrain perfect for exploration by bicycles. And that's exactly what some folks I know have been up to for several years out there in the western reaches of Nebraska.

They have been plying their trade in adventure cycling out there and realized that they have something to offer in terms of a gravel grinder type event. Talk has gone in ebbs and flows over the years. I remember some banter at one point about doing a companion event to Trans Iowa and the Dirty Kanza 200 and would have been part of a "Gravel Triple Crown". Heck, I know for a fact that ol' MG has been pushing for something like this for years. So, while this may be some news for most, I know some of us will be thinking, "bout time fellas!", and meaning that in a "hell yeah!" sort of way. We know how difficult these sort of deals are to put together, so you can't expect folks to just jump on putting together a 150 plus mile event.

More Nebraska gravelly goodness.

Yep, I said 150 plus miles! Maybe even close to 200. Details are being sorted now as I speak. They even have a name for this beast- but I'll let one of the "DSG Crew" guys, (the fellas that are involved with the event), tell ya direct-like:

"The "DSG" crew in Western Nebraska is working to put on a gravel grinder . . . but this one is different. The terrain is varied and the route is very remote. The overall mileage will be in the neighborhood of 180 miles. We're still working out a lot of the details, but it will be in the self-supported spirit of races like the Trans-Iowa and Dirty Kanza.

The event will occur on June 30th with the pre race meeting on the 29th. It will be based out of the small Nebraska town of Gothenburg, which has Swedish and Germanic roots. In keeping with the local heritage, we're calling the race "Odin's Revenge". Odin is the king of the Norse gods, known for seeking wisdom at great costs and inflicting suffering where necessary. He's also associated with a number of other cool mythological elements, including being the father of Thor.

We plan to have a lot more information in the coming weeks, including a web presence, registrations details, course profile, etc."

Okay, so while this all sounds pretty rad, and there is a date and such mentioned, don't go and get yer panties in a bunch just yet. No registration has been announced, and I have zero idea how it all might play out other than to say that the first year will be limited to 75 folks. How they do the registration and roster cut off is their deal, and as yet, undetermined.

But ya gotta be stoked about the possibilities of an event like this. The terrain will be remote, and the feeling will be much like the DK 200, only even more "western", if that makes any sense.

When I know more, I'll let ya all know. Till then, stay tuned.............

Fat Road: New Trend In Old Clothes?

2012-01-24T00:12:00.000-05:00

Black Mountain Cycles: Fat Tires Fit Here

Not too long ago in "Bicycle Retailer and Industry News" there was that article I talked about which was instigated when I saw the story about "fat road tires" in some coverage on Taipei Bike Week.

Fat road? Sounds like an oxymoron, doesn't it? We're so accustomed to thinking "road bikes = 23mm width tires" that the terms "fat" and "road" are seemingly incongruous with each other. Well, it hasn't always been that way.

There was a time, long ago, when road bikes were plying roads not so well manicured as ours and the tires were a bit more "voluptuous" than they are these days. Of course, those tires were usually tubular, glued on types, and when the easier to manage clinchers came along, tires started out big, then they got small.

Materials technology allowed for insanely narrow, tiny tires to be produced which bred a perception that the skinnier and higher pressure you could get was faster. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth, but just try prying those 23mm tires way from most recreational roadies. Go ahead. I dare you.

Anyway, being locked into riding "just pavement" was never in my DNA as a cyclist, so gravel, dirt, big rocks, ruts, and mud all figure into my cycling. Your skinny roadie bike is a total fail where I go, most of the time. So, I resorted to 29"ers at first, and then I found the BMC "Orange Crush" bike, slapped some 1.9" fatties on it, and never looked back. You can check out these frames here.

If you check out that link, you'll read how a trend to building road going bikes with more versatile, fatter tires is not just a thought, it is here, and probably coming to a local bike shop. (Well, in fact, it already is here.) The fatter road tires to fit these bikes are rare now, but the manufacturers are gearing up to make more with the same/similar features you see on high end road clinchers in the 23-25mm range now.

Why should you care? Because for years, most road cyclists have been riding "stupid for them" bikes. That's right- bikes meant for serious criterium/long road events being sold to the average recreational cyclists is a really stupid idea. That's right- I said it.

Think about it: If you have bought into the high end roadie bike because "I can own the equivalent to a F1 car" , you are being blinded to the cold hard fact that this road racing rocket is impractical, uncomfortable, and not the right road bike for you.

Let's say you could own an F1 car. Would you actually drive it? Well, heck yeah! At least once or twice, but are you going to commute to work in it, go get groceries in it, or take the kids to a picnic in it? No, you are not. I would submit that this is what you are doing with your "F1 roadie rocket" though.

At the risk of sounding all "Grant Petersen" on you all, the "fat road" bike trend isn't new, but it is practical, and you should be paying attention. Hopefully a better road bike is in your future.

51 Trips Around The Sun

2012-01-23T01:30:00.000-05:00

Ready To Blaze Thru Another Year

First off, apologies to the regular readers here for this, but today is my day to mark my appearance to this World. It's been a good ride so far. All 51 laps around the Sun of it.

There certainly were some parts I'd rather not remember, and wished I didn't have to go through, but I wouldn't be who I am without that stuff.

As for this space where I write and blather on, I will say that I continue to be amazed and humbled by the numbers of folks that say they read "Guitar Ted Productions" on a daily basis. To you I say "Thanks!" I am certainly appreciative of you all stopping by.

Of course, I get out and about sometimes and people find out that I am "Guitar Ted". It's always interesting, but I'll share one experience that happened recently that reflects on what this day means in a small way.

I was at Triple D, and waiting in the start line, when someone a few folks over heard me mention who I was.

"You're Guitar Ted?, I heard a voice say. I looked over to see a younger man than I and I answered him that I was indeed that person. He went on to say he read this blog and then he mentioned that I was older than he thought I would be. That he thought I was a younger man, a racer type, and ........well.....

Of course, by this juncture he was feeling a bit embarrassed, not knowing if I would be offended by that statement. Of course, I ribbed him a bit, but really, it was no big deal. (So, if you are this fellow that I am describing, no offense was taken, none meant from me either.)

I think it illustrates the personal/impersonal paradox that is the inner-web-o-sphere. You all "know" me, yet there are seemingly obvious things you may not know about me, like how I look in person, or that I am "old". Then there is the other side, the actions and words I portray here are maybe not those some may think of when they think of "middle-age", (whatever that is). So, I take it as a compliment when folks are surprised to see my white beard and silver hair. Yep! I've been around awhile.

And I intend to be around a while longer. See ya'all down the trail somewhere...................

Celebrating In Snow: Part II

2012-01-22T01:30:00.000-05:00

The one year celebration of the Snow Dog continued Saturday with an invitation from Captain Bob to join him and maybe a few others on a snow ride. Plans were made and the time was set. I went to sleep Friday night as the mercury plunged well below the zero mark. (That's zero Fahrenheit, my non-U.S.A. friends)

The Capt. and Alan just outside of Denver. (That's Denver, Iowa)

When I finally crawled from the sleep-sack, it was 15 below zero. (-26.6C), and I checked out the hourly forecast. Fortunately it called for rapidly rising temperatures. Within two hours of my awakening, it was already 6 above, (-14.4C), and was supposed to go a wee bit higher still.

The trouble with that is that as the air gets warmer here in winter it gets "wetter", and it actually feels worse than it does at, or near zero. Oh well....

I met up with Captain Bob, Mike and Alan in a convenience store parking lot. We discussed some ride ideas. I heard from Alan and Capt. that snowmo's had been down the rail trail just outside of town. We thought we should check it out. Captain Bob knew of an easier access to the trail than trying to fight our way through drifted snow just outside of town, so we headed a mile north and then crossed the highway to gravel.

How the county maintenance guys scrape snow off gravel without also scarring the road surface too badly must be a trick. They seem to have it down to a science with a thin layer of snow left in most spots while some gravel peeks through in other spots. Seriously, it is amazing that they can do this well when you think about it.

Alan and Mike coming under the 4 lane.

We made a two mile jaunt to access the trail, and then dove in. It appeared as though only a few, (at best), sno-moes had been up this trail so far. With the snow being so dry, it wasn't enough to really make the trail ideal for fat-bikes, but we slogged through with some tire washing outs, dabs, and fish tailing.

The snow was deep, so if you caught an edge on the soft stuff, or got out of the line, you were swapping ends and veering toward the ditch. This made the ride pretty technical. Get the weight well back, loose hands on the bars, don't steer too much, and concentrate! Sounds like riding rollers? Well, it is a lot like that, only the scenery is much better!

We stopped at a mile in to re-group, and then went another mile, with another stop there to re-group. Time was a concern for some of us, so we planned one more mile and then peeled off the trail. It was slow, hard, but it was good fun too. The ride back on gravel was cold, what with the wind coming up, and the air getting wetter. It was certainly warmer, but more humid. I felt the air was warmer when we started since it was drier back at that time too.

Alan airing back up.

Alan had to stop to air his Endo back up to road certified pressures after he had dumped a lot of air out for the rail trail section. I did notice his tire on the trail. It was a funny thing to watch his rear tire pulse with each pedal stroke he took. Flat looking to normal, ad infinitum.

Once he got that squared away we were off again, now only a couple miles from Denver, Iowa. We rolled in on pavement for the last mile and as we hit town we could see residents going about the business of snow removal.

I spotted a man with his wife as they were using shovels to clear their sidewalk. The man had a blank stare on his face. Maybe he'd never seen a fat bike posse before? I don't know, but I waved in a friendly manner. Mike said he put his head down and laughed as we went by. Likely as not he was thinking we were certifiable nut-cases for being out on bicycles, regardless of the tire size.

Oh well, we didn't care. We got a nice, two hour ride in, while most folks were huddled inside their humble abodes. I got another excellent ride in on the Snow Dog and did it with some cycling friends. Doesn't get much better than that.

Celebrating In Snow

2012-01-21T01:30:00.000-05:00

I am pretty sure it was about a year ago that the Snow Dog emerged from the Guitar Ted Laboratories to terrorize the local scene. The bike had been in the works since the November before, and with all the hullabaloo involved in getting everything together for it, I wasn't sure I would even get to ride the bike in snow last year.

Making an 8" deep furrow

But an amazing bunch of friends got together and made sure I had the final pieces to the puzzle- the frame and fork- before my birthday last year, and you know what? They even bought the frame and fork for me. Yeah......pretty dang cool.

There is no way I can ever show my gratitude or repay these kind folks fully for that selfless act. I can only show you that I remember your actions and that I am really enjoying The Snow Dog as much as I can. Like yesterday.

The one thing I took away from last year's snowy rides was that I thought I could use just a wee bit more float. I figured at that time I was going to have to look at getting 100mm rims. These, I thought, would stretch out the 3.8" Larry enough to get that little bit more float. What I didn't know was that a bigger Larry was on the way- the Big Fat Larry 4.7"er, as a matter of fact.

Well, it was going to be cheaper to get two new tires than it was to get two new fat bike wheels made with 100mm rims, so I thought that the BFL would do what I wanted. I can now say that "yes", the BFL is that "little bit more float" that I was wanting last year.

I rode through 4"s of fluff going to work and twice as much coming home. I know the 3.8"er on Rolling Darryls would have been not nearly as rideable. That said.......I think I may be looking for some wider rims for next winter!

Happy Birthday, Snow Dog! (And thanks to those who made it all possible)

Friday News And Views

2012-01-20T01:30:00.000-05:00

Di2 Ultegra

The Roadies, They Are A Changin': A few days back I got to build up my first Di2 bike. If you don't know what that is, well.....where have ya been? But that's okay, if ya don't know. It is electronic shifting. The derailleurs move via an electronic impulse sent to a servo motor on a derailleur.

Why? Well.......because it is "better"! (Of course) That's what Shimano, the bike companies, and the bike shops want you to believe. And in several ways it is better. But nothing comes without compromises. There are a few glaring ones that you don't hear much about when these bikes with Di2 get discussed.

A few things jumped out at me when I built the bike. In no particular order....

There is a corded charger you will need to keep the battery charged. Oh.......but the battery lasts a 1000 shifts.... Okay, but ya know what? In the fine print, it says you should not run the battery completely dead, because it may shorten battery life. So, you will charge that expensive battery more often than you think. Know what that means? Your bicycle just became another "device". You know......like a phone, a mp3 player, a digital camera, (shall I go on?). Yeah....so keep track of that corded charger, and always bicycle in areas with 110V outlets in the U.S.A. (Shimano sells separate chargers and cords for other electrical outlet/power standards)
The derailleurs are butt ugly. Yes.......I said it! The servo motors needed to move the derailleurs look like gray, plasticized tumors. They are uninspired from an artistic viewpoint, and look very out of place. Some of that is due to "newness", I will grant that, but they do not look like an integrated part of the derailleurs and thus, stick out like something alien to the rest of the machine.
The Ultegra Di2 has about a 30% shorter battery life than Dura Ace Di2, even though the batteries are identical. The wiring scheme on Ultegra Di2 consumes more energy per shift. (It's in the fine print with the system, and verified by a Shimano tech meeting I attended a year ago.)
The levers are really cool. I love the shape of the hoods. The buttons are decent. It was my favorite part of the system by far.
It shifts with precision, but faster? I will not say that. You can't screw up a shift though, unless you press the wrong button/lever.
The rear derailleur, in particular, concerns me. The servo motor lengthens the body of the derailleur a lot, which presents a longer lever arm for impacts to bend/shear drop out hangars. I predict that more derailleur hangars will die due to this longer derailleur body design.
Everything about the system is very expensive.

But other than that, it's awesome!

And then there are those disc brake thingies.... The other deal going down with roadies is the whole disc brake wave that is coming for model year 2013. I find all the hoopla a bit ironic, and a bit humorous, since it reminds me of mountain biking circa 1999.

Disc brakes arguments were heated then. "It'll never be anything other than a down hill thing", or "it will weaken wheels to much", or again, "wheels can't take those forces from disc brakes without being made so heavy I won't ride them."

Similar roadie specific grievances are being put forth even now. Of course, none of it will matter in five years. By then it will be an accepted part of the scene, and road bikes without hydraulic brakes or mechanical disc brakes will be seen as quaint, retro machines, not unlike how 650B rando bikes are seen today.

My question: Will there be a "Roadie Retro-Grouch Societe'"? I want to buy the t-shirt if that happens. I have the mtb version mothballed in my collection to go with that.

But seriously- If the whole brifter-with-hydro-brakes thing can be solved, I would definitely be interested from a drop bar mtb/gravel grinder viewpoint. And ya know what? I am 90% sure we'll see something this year yet for that. Of course, you'll have to upgrade to 11 speeds out back! That's okay though, since I'll just ditch the front derailleur thing-a-ma-bob altogether when that comes down the pipeline.

Speaking of gravel grinders..... My next event is CIRREM which happens next month near the end. Wow.....by the looks of the way things are going, I may use a Mukluk at that event too! Either way, it is a hilly, metric century length deal that I know I can do. I look forward to getting down there and seeing the Des Moines folk I have met. Great folks!

And gravel grinders continue to come out of the woodwork! i have been getting hammered by promoters wanting their rides up on Gravel Grinder News of late. The calendar is filling out nicely with quite a few first time additions.

And finally.....I have started the cue sheets for T.I.v8. So far I have up to Checkpoint #1 done, and by the end of the weekend I hope to have most of that job bagged. Then after that I will hand off some drafts to a couple of folks as we drive the course to double check things in the field. I will have also double checked everything myself at home first by that time as well.

Hopefully that part of Trans Iowa will be dialed before the event starts and not prove to be a stumbling block to any of the riders.

Have a great weekend and get outside and enjoy life if you can!

Project 26: Completed

2012-01-19T01:30:00.000-05:00

I had to put this on the back burner for a while due to Triple D. It is my project to get a bike built around a set of Continental Top Contact Winter 26"er tires. It also was taking a lot longer than I wanted to due to the persnickety roller cam brakes. Anyway, you can go back to the original post here if you want.

Old MTB turned commuter

So, here it is in all its vintage mtb glory. This started out life as a Schwinn High Sierra, probably from '86 or so. It came stock with SunTour Rollercam brakes, so I had to stick with those as brakes. They are a bit temperamental and it took several tries to get them to operate correctly. The only other surviving parts from the original bike are the seat post, seat post quick release, and the head set.

The wheels are even older, having come from an old Mongoose All Mountain Pro from about 1984-85 vintage. The rims are drilled like fatbike rims and have a gold foil rim strip showing through the grey anodized aluminum. The hubs are Suzue sealed bearing units with bolt on axles. Another component from that bike is here in the form of the SunTour top mount shifter.

Next we have the stem, which was pilfered from an early 90's Schwinn Criss-Cross hybrid bike. That holds a pair of Ergon GE-1 grips and a Salsa Moto Ace 17 degree sweep bar. Brake levers are early 90's Shimano Deore DX SLR two finger type in a black anodized hue, (or is that paint? Dunno. They are very black though.).

These about drove me mad.

The crank set is from an early 80's Specialized touring bike. The Sugino arms have a nice, pearly ano finish. I miss this look in components! I bolted a single Sugino 38T ring to this. The crank set spins on a 90's vintage Shimano UN-52 sealed cartridge bottom bracket. I suspect this used bottom bracket will easily outlast this bike.

The pedals are some old Odyssey Triple Traps. These were some of my favorite old pedals back in the day.

The chain is a Sedis Sport from Sachs, which was bought out by SRAM eventually. Sedis chain was my preferred 90's mtb chain, and they do last a long time. This one is from back in the day. I pulled it out from my single speed box, since I save these old Sedis chains for single speed duty when I find them. Fortunately it was the perfect length for this application.

Butchered!

The chain turns through a SunTour MounTech derailleur which shifts that chain over a five speed SunTour freewheel. Again, I wanted to go single speed with this rig, but the wheels I had would not allow for this sort of set up.

The five speed set up will be simple, should stay working through most winter muck, and should last a long time. Not single speed simple, but it should be okay.

The saddle is from a 70's Raleigh Gran Prix. It is a Wrights leather saddle, very similar to a Brooks B-17. I "butchered" it to look more like a Brooks Swift model. I actually rode this very saddle, (pre-butchered), on the longest single ride I have ever done, which was over 160 miles.

I then bolted on some accessories. I had an old Vetta rack, which was used for touring back in the day by me, (I think!). Then I grabbed a set of Planet Bike Hardcore Fenders and slapped those in there. Finally, my old touring days are represented here by my vintage Jaand Mountain panniers.

The reason for the whole deal.

During my test ride of this set up today, I found that everything works just fine. Shifts great, brakes work, position is upright-ish and comfy. I do think I will need to buy one thing to make it really useable though. That would be a Brooks saddle.

I'm thinking a Brooks B-67 in black is what I need here. My aim is to make the bike as comfortable and useful as possible, and that saddle will go a long way to making it so. Okay, other than that, the bike is finished.

Now, about those tires! I have only ridden them down to the store and back, so this is merely a very brief impression, but the grip is definitely there on packed down snow. Of course, the real test will be when we start getting some ice here and there. I'll be back with more about the tires, and this bike, in due time.

Continental sent the Top Contact Winter tires over for test and review at no charge. I am not being paid, nor bribed to do this review and I will strive to give my honest thoughts and opinions throughout.

The Triple D Report: Part III

2012-01-18T01:30:00.000-05:00

Welcome back to my next installment of the Triple D Report! You can find parts I & II in the previous two posts to this one.

Department Of Corrections: I made a mistake in my post yesterday. The rider I hooked up with on the Heritage Trail going into Dyersville was not "Don", as I had written originally, but his true name is Craig. My apologies to Craig and the post has been amended to reflect the truth. (Thanks Craig for setting me straight!)

Okay, with that let's set the stage here: I was on my way out of Dyersville and headed to the intersection with Girl Scout Road, where we had originally picked up the Heritage Trail.

Heritage Trail at the Girl Scout Road intersection.

I was promising myself I would not stop for any reason until Girl Scout Road had been reached. This would be about a 10 mile stretch from Dyersville, maybe a bit more. I was starting to feel my right shoulder bothering me. It is a condition I deal with from a couple of old injuries back in my younger days, but essentially my whole upper shoulder on the right side tenses up and aches badly when I ride a long time.

I figured out why it was getting worse too. I had forgotten in my haste to leave Dyersville to take another dose of ibuprofen. Doh! Now I was not going to give in and stop, but it was pretty painful there towards the end. The other creeping need coming into sharper view was hunger. Yes- I was getting really hungry. Hopefully I'd get to stop before I bonked.

And then there was the issue of that guy up ahead with the blinker light on. I wasn't catching him, but having that "carrot" out there kept me on the gas until I stopped at the intersection. Finally! I could get that "Vitamin I" and eat. I was munching away, drinking, and taking a few images. I suspected I would get passed while I was standing there, but no one showed up. I was a bit amazed by this, since I was probably there a good five minutes.

So, I took off onto unknown trail. This was the last third of the event, and I was ready to kill this ride off. My plan was to ride as fast as I could to Graf, wherever that was at, and to not turn on my head light until I absolutely had to. I did flick on my borrowed Planet Bike blinky at this juncture though. (Thanks again, Jerry!)

Well, to my complete surprise, Graf was a mere mile up the road! Okay, so "Plan B"! I decided to try and hit Durango, the next town up the line, before stopping. I hit the pedals and clicked down a gear. I was feeling really good, and strangely enough, the trail was faster.

By-Tor The Titanium Mukluk

Maybe it was just me, but it looked like the trail had been groomed recently here, and the track was a bit crusty from the day's sunshine. Whatever it was, I could rail away at the pedals at will, and seeing the line was not nearly as critical as it was earlier. Good timing too, because the sun light was fading to darkness. Also, the trail pointed slightly downhill from here on out. Bonus!

I finally pulled the trigger on turning on the light, which was nice. The Lezyne Super Drive on low setting was all I needed to see every nuance of the snow on the trail ahead and allowed me to cruise at daytime speeds easily. However; by now I was getting hungry again. And where the "H, E, Double Hockey Sticks" was Durango? I was wondering just how long I was going to be out there, and then I just thought I'd better stop, no matter where Durango was, because I wasn't about to bonk and blow it all. So, I came up on an intersection and stopped to chow down the saltines I snagged back in Dyersville along with some Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate wafers I had stolen from my wife. While I munched away, I saw the tell-tale bluish glow of a cyclists torch coming up the trail.

I'm in orange here at the motel pre-start: (Image credit R. Christensen)

The guy asked if I was okay, and I said I was just stopping to eat. He said, "Well, you could stop at Durango. It's right up the road." Then he rolled off out of sight. Good info, but I wasn't going to stop at Durango now! I was going straight on. I was finishing up my last saltines and chocolate wafer when I saw another bluish glow. I thought, "I'm not going to be that guys carrot!", and I hit it hard out of the blocks to make sure I didn't get caught by this fellow. I also had the idea of catching up to the fellow ahead of me.

Well, I never did see that guys blinky light. It was as if he had turned it off, or he was just motoring after passing me. I don't know, but I did see Durango coming into sight, and what I thought was a blinky light turning right off the trail. When I reached the intersection, the bar where we could stop appeared to be on the left, and nothing of interest was to the right, so I guess maybe I was hallucinating, or the guy just was gone. Either way, I kept hammering in case he was still up ahead.

After awhile, with no sign of a bike ahead or behind me, I let off the gas a bit. I passed a ski hill with all its lights on. A pretty sight. The trail went through some towering limestone cuts and bluffs here. Then I came alongside a road. I could see the glow of Dubuque off to my right and ahead. The end was near! (Or so I thought.)

Awards were handed out, prizes were chosen.

I crossed a road, then I crossed another and came to what looked like a trail head parking lot. I didn't see any markings, but I found a bit more trail out the backside of this area, and found a sign leading me to believe I was on track. Then this spit me out onto a busy road. I looked across the road, wandered around anxiously for a few minutes, thinking I may be caught by a rider any second. My fears rose up inside as I got angry and cursed and yelled. I couldn't find the route!

I knew Lance had said that if we got off route in Dubuque we could just find whatever way back we needed to, so I decided to ride in on the highway I was at. It turned out to be Highway 52, and it was a four lane at this point. Still, I got buzzed by a driver, and that made me all the more angry.

I got to the intersection of 34th and HWY 52 where a sidewalk picked up, and I stopped and drank some fluids while I calmed down and took stock of my predicament. I suddenly realized I could ride up to about 15th, turn left and pick up the route we took out of town, so I hit the sidewalks of Dubuque. I saw children scurrying towards their porches and some of them were saying, "It's the bike cops!". I thought they were mocking me, but come to find out, Dubuque actually does have a bike cop that patrols that area! I saw some other shifty looking folks and realized it wasn't probably the best part of town, but I was okay, and nearly finished with the event. I found the old factories, the cobblestone street with the trolley tracks, and the Shot Tower. All passed by the group on the way out, so I remembered these from the morning.

Matching Guys! Drew (1st place) and Curtis

So it was that I finally made the right hand turn to go in front of the hotel where the finish line was on the second floor in the meeting room we had the pre-race briefing in. I walked around the corner and several guys congratulated me, and Mrs. Guitar Ted was there to give me a hug and a kiss. I signed out in what I am pretty sure was a top 25 place at about 6:30pm. (UPDATE: results are in, and I placed 22nd!)

The event was awesome and well run, and despite my getting lost near the end, I had a good time. The way the event went off was smooth and again- with three different disciplines racing from three different start points, it was hard to imagine how Lance and the crew pulled it off, but they did. Kudos to all who had anything to do with the Triple D.

When asked, Lance told me he thought this Triple D fell in about the middle as far as the difficulty of the course and conditions. That made me feel pretty good about my efforts, and actually, come to think of it, I would say it was an unqualified success for me. I had been seriously ill only a month away from the event, and training in December leading up to Triple D was meager at best. In fact, my longest ride before Triple D was probably only 20 miles, so I didn't feel very confident about pulling off a 65 miler coming into this. That said, while I was riding after the technical stuff, I felt fantastic, and never was thinking I wouldn't finish.

The last place guy came in after almost 13hrs!

My equipment held up fantastically. The bike was spot on, shifting was great, the tires, albeit on the skinny side for some of the deeper, wallowy stuff, worked great when the trail was clearer. Pressure was set around 7psi, and that seemed to be perfect.

Going into the event, I didn't quite know what to expect, so I probably can be accused of over-packing. I wouldn't change a thing about what I did not knowing what I know. However; knowing what I know, I would modify what I brought quite a bit. Much of the gear I brought clothing-wise could have been left out. I brought way too much nutritional stuff as well. I figure I probably could have cut my load weight in half easily, but that's okay. Like I said, I wasn't hip, but now I know better.

Finally, I have to mention the fella that came in the front door of the motel at 11:30pm as we were about to leave for a bar. He was the last place finisher of Triple D, he had a smile on his face a mile wide, and he was loving the reception we were giving him in recognition of his efforts. Ben Wit told me he hadn't ridden a bike until he was 60 years of age, then decided to become a cyclist. He attended all three of Ben's fall gravel tours and always finished. What a great testament to a good attitude and perseverance.

Once again, many, many thanks to all involved in Triple D. I loved the event, and would highly recommend it to anyone with a mind to try a wintertime adventure. Well worth the trip! Thanks for reading!

The Triple D Report: Part II

2012-01-17T01:30:00.000-05:00

All righty then.....Here is the second, action packed portion of my Triple D event report. You can check out yesterday's post for the pre-event stuff. Warning: Super long post!

Lining up 70 riders

With everyone raring to go, we all lined up for the controlled roll out through the streets of Dubuque. Lance said he wanted to get us over to the Heritage Trail before turning the riders loose.

Dubuque was sleepy and the streets were mostly devoid of cars. It was Sunday morning, after all, and most folks were sleeping in, or at church, or riding in Triple D!

Conditions for the start of the event were "pleasant" for January in Iowa. Bright, sunny skies, a light breeze, and a temperature in the upper teens.

The mood amongst the riders seemed to me to be relaxed and ready to have a great time. I did not detect any nervousness, but I am sure some folks were. Me? I was one of the chill folks. Heck, I even took a pull off of eventual second place finisher, "Spinner" Reyerson's flask of blackberry brandy to set the mood right. Folks around me in the waiting line to roll out were talkative and seemed to be of like mind to me.

The congregation of the "Church of the Fat Bike"

So with a hearty cry from the riders and the lonely clang of a single cowbell we set off on our 65 mile journey at a little after 10am. The pace was relatively easy on our way northwards through the streets. Some folks on porches and stoops stood aghast as we rolled by with a loud roar from the Larrys, Endos, and the few Husker Du and Nate tires in the field.

I was chatting up race organizer, Lance Andre, as we rolled along. I asked him how fat bikes had been growing in popularity, since he is rather close to the scene. He mentioned how at the beginning of the Triple D, the fat bike was rare, but in the last year, he said the fat bikes had "exploded in popularity". He attributed this mostly to the followings that Salsa Cycles and Surly Bikes has, and the introduction by both companies of affordable, good quality fat bike rides.

I asked Lance then if this was the biggest fat bike gathering in Iowa ever. He replied that it might be one of the biggest fat bike gatherings ever overall, but certainly in Iowa. That was pretty impressive to me. I was honored just to be a part of that. Then Lance suddenly realized we were fast approaching the point where he wanted to turn us loose, so he bolted off to the front to bark out some final instructions.

This was a lot harder than it looks.

We started out on a snow covered bicycle trail. It had about 4 inches of unconsolidated snow on it, the consistency of flour. If you didn't pay attention to holding a line, setting your weight back, holding loosely to the bars, you were swapping ends and maybe even hitting the deck, like one rider did in this early portion.

This part found me within easy sight of the front. I was probably about 20-25 riders back, and I felt good about this part of the event. We were not going at some infernal pace, burning up all my matches in the process. Not the case in most events, no matter their length, but Triple D is very different. I would find this out in a little bit.

In a little while we were obliged to squeeze through a narrow gap and into an open area on snowmobile trails. These were heavily traveled by snowmobiles, but they weren't packed in. They were tough to navigate, and I tried scoring the wheel tracks of anyone on a Moonlander around me. Those tracks were easier for my "skinny" Larry 3.8"ers to find support in. The trouble was, there were some really skinny tired mountain bikers in the field and they were swapping ends and cutting up the trail so badly in spots that it was tough to find a good line this far up the field.

Then we were obliged to ascend a really steep climb that separated us and strung the field way out. Up along a highway now and the climbs were unrelenting. These were at pitches like those of a house rooftop, and with the snow, it was like trying to push your bike through dry beach sand. The sun was unrelenting, and riders were stopping to peel off layers, hats, and gloves. This included myself. I took off my gloves at this point and didn't put them back on until sundown!

After this we were going along wide open stretches of land dotted with industrial buildings and a few farms. The land looked easy enough, but the grass was deeper and hid more snow than it looked. This was a difficult section. You could maybe ride the flats, and certainly anything that went down hill, but riding up any incline on this stuff was so power-sapping that you were better off walking it.

I found myself amongst three or four riders that I was trading places with back and forth here. Once in a while we would over take a rider or two, and then a couple riders would pass us back if we paused at the top of a climb. This dance went back and forth until we reached a road which then got us to another "open range" area, as Lance had described it.

A rider approaching a snowmobile bridge

This section was a new section of private land that went around a dairy farm, crossed a creek, and several of these snowmobile "bridges".

These were erected to get snowmobiles over fence lines and other smaller obstacles like stream run-offs. They were basically "tee-pees" of wood or steel rod with large gaps between the runners of the bridge so that larger animals like cows could not get across them. The gaps weren't wide enough to stop fat bike tires, so you could ride over these if you kept your speed up and held your line. The front of my titanium bike felt like it was about to be sheared off by these bridges! There were several of these crossings in this sector of the course.

After wending our way along a stream valley, we slowly crawled out and upwards to a steep climb that had everyone around me walking at this point. Somehow, I passed about four guys here, just pushing along! Then, as we hit the paved road a couple of these guys passed me back. I was yo-yoing back and forth with a fella on a Pugsley Neck Romancer in this section. He was telling me about the gnarly, icy B Road descent coming up, and just before he dove in, he said, "It's nothing but glare ice down here!". Turns out it was most likely just something to psyche me out, since he was gone, and I never saw him again. He ripped through while I was cautious. It was like a rolling, twisting flume with a few ruts that ran down the trail and guided you downward. Sure- there was some ice at points, but it wasn't anything to fret over, as long as you weren't silly enough to ride right in the groove filled with ice.

This was what the Heritage Trail looked like for most of the way.

Well, it was only a short little jaunt over to the Heritage Trail where we would spend the rest of the ride. The technical, crazy hard stuff was over. I said to myself, "That was the knock-out punch, and I am still riding." I felt good yet, I was under control, riding my own pace, and holding my own.

As I entered the Heritage Trail, I saw a few racers up ahead, and I set off to bridge the gap to the first. I passed and then on to the second one. I sat on his wheel for a bit, but he was slower than I wanted to go, so I found a good place to pass and went onward for the third rider. Sticking my front tire in a groove and getting my weight off the front tire was key. If you weighted the tire too much you were fighting the front end, and swapping ends.

It wasn't long before I was up to the next rider, but something was different. He was going at a nice, steady pace, and as I set in on his wheel, I felt I should stay and work with him. He noticed me back there and asked if I wanted around him. I said no- it was good. We struck up a conversation that took us the rest of the way into Dyersville. Turns out his name is Craig, and he is signed up to do T.I.V8 this year. He was riding a fixed gear Pugsley, and was one of two fixed gear riders in the field.

A little detour around a bridge that was blocked off presented a quick down and up that saw me take a little tumble into some sticker weeds, but no harm done. I was back riding with Craig, and we came into Dyersville with the wind at our backs at about 3:45 to the Checkpoint.

Sunset over the Heritage Trail at the Girl Scout Road intersection.

You folks quick with numbers will note that it took me five and three quarters hours to go 30 some miles. Yes- it was hard going! And I was still in at 24th place at the time. Not too shabby for an older guy with a messenger bag!

The checkpoint was at Chad's Pizza where the Triple D had provided free food, drink, and a warm environment to enjoy all of that in. I decided before entering that I would make as short of work at this stop as possible. I felt good. I thought I could finish, and I was wanting to get after it as soon as possible.

I ate a slice of pizza, well salted, and then immediately got up to attend to my bottles and to use the restroom. My plan had me grabbing another slice of pie on the way out, however, about twenty guys piled in right on my heels, and swept all the food offerings up. I looked around, grabbed a bunch of saltine cracker packets from the salad bar, and headed for the door. My plan was to get back to the entry point we made onto the Heritage Trail before I stopped again. That was about ten miles down the road. It would mark the two thirds distance point, close enough, for the entire route.

The course was scenic

Craig must have felt my vibe and wanted in on it. He was hurriedly getting his stuff together to leave with me from Dyersville. We headed out and onto the open stretches of Heritage Trail where there was little snow, and also little shelter from a very steady, strong head wind.

I was leading, and I set a pace/cadence I felt I could maintain, but was still pushing the limits a bit. I was going with as much of a crouch as I could muster on a fat bike, and still watching my line where I needed to. I looked over my left shoulder at the long shadows from the swiftly lowering sun. I didn't see Craig's "right there" on my wheel. Hmm..... I took a quick look back, and he was about ten to fifteen yards behind me, but I wasn't going to back off my pace, because I was set in a good rhythm. I had to concentrate on keeping a balance between working too hard and losing ground. It wasn't easy, I had no computer, and no way to really gauge my progress except for the next guy up the trail that I could see.

This went on for about six miles. When I had passed a guy, I looked back and couldn't see Craig anymore. I wouldn't see him again until he finished later in the evening. I passed another young man on a Snow Blind Pugsley, and then I could see a blinky light about a quarter mile up the trail. I set my sights on that, and now with the sheltered trail blocking the wicked head wind, I went into time trial mode for the Girl Scout Road intersection.

That's a good place to stop for now. I'll finish this up tomorrow!

The Triple D Report: Part I

2012-01-16T16:21:00.000-05:00

Okay, sorry about the delay folks, but Monday was a travel day, and the first installment here is a bit late in coming. That said, here is my report from Triple D, the three events in one winter race held in Dubuque, Iowa.

Pre-Race: The Triple D event is a three event race, runners, skiers, and bicyclists. The runners and skiers do marathon-ish distances, while the cyclists do a 65 mile course out and back from downtown Dubuque, Iowa.

The event pre-race was held right in our hotel, which made it nice. Waivers signed, race packet picked up, and then some socializing with the racers that were hanging out there.

I found out from event organzer, Lance Andre, that there were about 70-ish bicyclists signed up to ride, so it was a fairly large field. Conditions were much improved from the recent snow, which laid down a layer that covered almost everything.

The course had no snow whatsoever before the snow Dubuque got a few days before the race, so this would have to do for us all. Word was that there was plenty enough of the white stuff out there to make things good. The consistency of the snow was rather sand-like. Fine sand-like. In fact, high winds had drifted it all on the leeward sides of hills and fences in open territory.

We went out to eat after the pre-race.

In fact, a lot of the racers were of the mind that sections of the trail might even be cleared of snow due to the winds. That hope was dashed when old veterans of Triple D informed us that much the Heritage Trail that we were using was sheltered and likely to be covered in snow.

Of course, my choice in bike was By-Tor The Titanium Mukluk. It was lighter, but not geared as low as the Snow Dog. The other thing was the tires. I was a bit anxious about using 3.8" Larrys after seeing the shifty, loose condition of the snow, but I was stuck with what I had brought.

Speaking of what was brought: Ben Witt of Milltown Cycles and his mechanic, Curtis, had brought a Fandango 29"er tandem with a fat front and Rohloff drivetrain. I got to ride it and it was a blast in the snow the way it was. Ben and I were plowing right through foot deep snow on it. Unfortunately, I did not get any pics of this rig! (Too busy riding it!)

I did go down with Ben on it though! We were gabbing about how great it was handling the snow while Ben had steered us into an adjacent parking lot. As he made a giant, lazy circle, the back of the bike suddenly started coming around, and the tandem was in a big power-slide. The bike went down slowly, and I ended up landing on my left shin and knee. We had hit some wet, black ice, and it took us down! No harm done though, and all was laughed off.

Good advice!

Well, we went out for a great Chinese dinner in downtown Dubuque, and we all hit the hay by 10pm. I got a great night's sleep, the best I'd had in weeks, so I was feeling great by the time I awoke for the event on Sunday.

We hit up the hotel restaurant for breakfast, and then got suited up for the day's riding. I had decided to run my messenger bag. I know- not what most would advise or think was a good strategy. The thing is, I ride a lot commuting on my fat bikes with a messenger bag. I do after work rides with one on a lot. It never is an issue for me, and of course, a messenger bag can carry a lot of gear. So, while I would normally agree that carrying a messenger bag for most folks on an endurance ride is a stupid idea, I thought it would make my ride feel "normal", since I ride with one so much.

I put my extra dry clothing in there, along with a couple water bottles, and a pump. It wasn't too heavy, but it wasn't all that light either! My bike had the Tangle Bag with a spare Surly tube, food, repair kit, a balaclava, and a ton of gels.

The bike also had Planet Bike's Snack Shack on it with all my drink mixes and some more food in it. I did not take the old, red seat pack on this adventure. The bike also had two water bottles mounted on the Enabler fork.

Not every bike here is "fat"!

We were all signed up and informed about the course by Lance Andre previous to taking off. I have to say that was the most detailed pre-race meeting, (full of visuals, a walk through of the maps, and a description of course difficulties), that I have ever witnessed. It all came in mighty handy while I was out there riding, and I could gauge my progress really well just from Lance's excellent course commentary.

In fact, the event, with its three different disciplines going off simultaneously in different places, was so well organized that when you consider the complexities involved, it is rather amazing. Kudos to Lance Andre and his crew along with the volunteers. Job well done folks!

And with the instructions given, we all were told to go and line up near the Dubuque Star Brewery building, which we did. The next report will deal with the event proper and how I fared throughout the day. Stay tuned.....

Triple D Success

2012-01-16T02:43:00.000-05:00

Well folks, it's been a long day, and I haven't got the time, nor the energy to put up a big post for your Monday morning. But the simple fact is that I finished Triple D in 8.5 hrs. So, first event done in 2012 and it was a success.

I do have several images and,(of course), more details to share from this awesome event. Stay tuned, and later today I'll get something up. Thanks!

Trans Iowa V8: Updates

2012-01-14T01:30:00.000-05:00

Official T.I.V8 Sponsor

Your Latest On Trans Iowa V8: Just got the official word yesterday that Trans Iowa will once again be sponsored by Oakley. This time, the thought is to do something very unique.

In speaking with Rob Versteegh, an Oakley rep for this area, it was agreed that Trans Iowa competitors probably have a strong allegiance to some eyewear already, and most likely are good on that front. However, Oakley does more than just eyewear. They happen to do timepieces as well.

This is intriguing since time is a big factor in all things Trans Iowa. You have to get your post cards in on time, you have to spend a lot of time getting ready for Trans Iowa, and of course, we have time limits in the event itself.

So, it looks like Oakley is going to provide an engraved timepiece to the overall winner of Trans Iowa this year! Pretty cool.

And, in related news, another event is being talked about that would feature Oakley, so stay tuned for further updates on this development. If this goes down as planned, it would take place the day before Trans Iowa on Friday, April 27th.

300 Miles of Gravel Trailer from Jeff Frings Photography on Vimeo.

Next, the film, "300 Mile Of Gravel", which was filmed at last years T.I.V7, is being planned for finishing up previous to T.I.V8. Jeff Frings, the videographer on the project, and who is single handedly producing this effort, says that he would like it to premier before T.I.V8 in Grinnell. If everything can be worked out, we may have a matinee showing of the film project before the Pre-Race Meat-Up. Again, this is all in the planning stages, so things could change in a hurry, but these are the intentions for now.

Finally, after all this Triple D madness passes by, I will have a little time before Frostbike to work up the cue sheet drafts for T.I.V8's course. The last 20 miles are left undone, and that will be determined by a few key decisions yet to be made. Once the final pieces to the puzzle fall into place, I can direct the route into Grinnell and the recon will be complete. Cue sheets should be done before the weather breaks, and then final course checking will take place. So far, everything is on track for T.I.V8 to be a great event.

Okay, that's all for now. Hopefully the training is going well. Look for more T.I.V8 updates coming soon.

Friday News And Views

2012-01-13T01:30:00.000-05:00

Your Local Entertainer

Winter Finally Shows Up, and you just knew I was going to ride a fat bike the minute snow hit. Well, you were right, I did. I wasn't prepared for the stir it caused amongst some of the locals though.

Yes....it was snowing. Yes....the wind was howling. Yes.....the air temperature was 11F.

So? Why all the attention? I mean, I rode The Snow Dog plenty of days last year that were equally as snowy and cold. That didn't hardly get me a lick of attention. Maybe a rude look or two, but today! Oh my!

It started out with someone honking at me before I had gone a mile. It wasn't one of those "angry honks" either. It was a "toot-toot!" the likes you would give someone you know really well. I wasn't facing the vehicle, but I raised a hand to acknowledge the salutation anyway. Later up the road, another honk and friendly wave. Hmm....that's odd, I thought.

That was nothing though. On the way home, folks were staring at me, weird looks, astonishment visible from my vantage point. Then, as I was traversing some deep snow on a sidewalk, I noticed in my peripheral vision a car going very slowly to my right. I gave a quick glance to see a guy filming me with the camera in his phone! (I'm sure that won't be a very complimentary Facebook post!) There was a lady in a car right behind him gawking at me as well. The guy with the film degree took off, but the lady in the car behind was still staring wide eyed, stopped in the road. Suddenly, she took off, then slammed on the brakes, skidding sideways, and almost crossing two lanes of traffic. I was moving along by this time, so I didn't see the end result.

Further up the road, side walk shovelers stared with contempt, and then a guy in a 4X4 gave me the thumbs up sign. That was nice! I gotta say though, that was the weirdest commute ever.

More Thoughts On The Salsa Fat Bike FS Prototype: A couple of the commenters on the "Fat Bike Full Suspension?" post from Wednesday brought up something I hadn't thought about, but is very important to consider when looking at this concept.

That is how this bike might be used by riders. Given the mad traction afforded by the massive rubber, the full suspension aspect, and the decided bent away from being a strict flotation bike, in all likelihood this will get used in a way that would be unique to fat bike specific parts. Not to mention the aspect of physics, which also would be unique to this sort of application. Imagine riders slamming into rocks at 20 mph, riding off three footers, and hitting high "G" corners and whoop-de-doos at higher speeds. All with wheels and tires designed for flotation and a suspension designed for far lighter wheels and tires.

To their credit, Salsa says they don't know what they will learn from this experiment, but they know they will learn a lot. I would submit that they will find out a lot of fat bike specific parts and the application of those within a trail bike setting will lead to ideas for new parts and frame/fork designs up to the task. (Yes- I am saying this probably will not work as shown. ) I think what will come out of this might be some good stuff for mountain biking, and may advance the fat bike world into more year-round specific rims, hubs, tires, and possibly suspension forks. I also think a fat bike full suspension device will be refined out of this that will work, but might find a limited audience due to weight, due to rider perceptions about travel, and misunderstanding the effects of the fatter rubber.

I could be totally wrong about all of the above too.

Which one, which one?!!

Triple D Update: Well, this Sunday the Triple D event will take place. They actually got a dump of snow over that way yesterday, so the fat bike will actually make more sense now. (I bet there are guys scrambling to switch bikes at the last minute now that it has snowed!)

Poor ol' me! I have to decide which one of my fat bikes to take! The Snow Dog has the fattest, floaty-est wheels, and the lowest gears. By-Tor the Titanium Mukluk has lighter everything, and a dreamy ride.

I'm pretty sure By-Tor is going to get the call though, merely due to the distance, (65 miles), and all the climbing looks to be on the front end of this course, so I think the gearing will be fine.

Look for some Triple D Tweets from me over the course of the weekend. You can find those by searching for the hastag- #TripleD Otherwise, try to enjoy the winter that has finally come, and get outside!

Planet Bike Snack Shack, Borealis Glove Review

2012-01-12T01:30:00.000-05:00

Okay, I've been rocking the Planet Bike Snack Shack and Borealis Gloves for all of the late fall and now into "winter", (if we can call what we've had a winter so far!). I would have chimed in sooner, but for the strangeness of the weather, which was preventing a full on test, especially for the gloves, but be that as it may, I will continue onwards.

Planet Bike's Snack Shack: It's a top tube bag!

Snack Shack: First up I have my thoughts on the Snack Shack. This is a typically shaped top tube bag for endurance pursuits. It resembles a small motorcycle gas tank in overall shape. I suppose in some ways it is a gas tank!

Well, you can actually use it for a lot of things, which I'll get to in a moment, but first, here are the particulars on this bag.

Holds a claimed 43 cubic inches of volume.
Has a white lined interior, which is supposed to make finding your things easier.
The bag is padded and holds its shape when empty. The outside features reflective piping and a small Planet Bike logo.
Dual Pull zippers and Velcro fastener make the bag secure and easy to close and open.
Two Velcro attachment points: One in the front, and one in the middle of the bag, underneath.

Impressions: The Snack Shack could be a .......shack for your snacks, but I used it for what I typically use a top tube bag for: A place to hold my small point and shoot camera, cell phone, or maybe a small multi tool. Sometimes I even used it to hold a small head lamp battery for a light I mounted on my handle bars.

The Snack Shack on my Mukluk

My brain is filled with little sayings I've heard throughout my life. One of which is, "No matter how big your garage is, you'll fill it up." What's that got to do with a top tube bag? Well, sometimes the bigger the bag is, the more stuff you "stuff", and maybe that isn't a good thing. To that end, the 43 cubic inches of the Snack Shack was a lesson in what I really needed versus what I wanted to carry.

I don't mean this to sound negative. Actually, I thought it was a good thing. I could bring my all important point and shoot, a small multi tool, and the aforementioned small battery pack for my back up trail light, and that was it. Sometimes I put a cell phone and the camera in there. Once I stuffed my much larger Panasonic LX-3 camera in there, which barely would be swallowed by the Snack Shack. Point is, you may want more room, but if you don't, the Snack Shack works for a few smaller items. Need more? Planet Bike does a bigger top tube bag called the Lunch Box.

I could get in a ton of gels, energy bars, and candy in the Snack Shack. Enough for a six hour ride, so if that is what you want to use this for, it will pack a fair slug of calories. Even abusive loading, as with my LX-3 camera, showed no ill effects on the Snack Shack, but I wouldn't recommend it on a regular basis.

In use, the bag opens and closes really easily with the dual pull zips. I had to slam the lid down on the bag a few times when I needed both hands on the bars suddenly, but with the Velcro fastener, the lid, although not zipped, didn't allow things to bounce out of the Snack Shack. That's a nice touch. The white lining does help in dim lighting or at night when you are looking for that last morsel of food.

Conclusions: For the asking price of MSRP $16.99, the Snack Shack seems like a pretty great value, and I think it is. My only concern was that the reflective piping showed some flaking of the reflective material, but overall the construction and performance of the Snack Shack is impressive. If the size works for you, I can highly recommend it. One caveat: It may not be compatible with frame bags, or even the same frame bag on different bikes may cause an issue with compatibility. Check your bags before buying to make sure this will work with your set up.

Planet Bike Borealis Gloves

Planet Bike Borealis Gloves: Next up we have the winter glove system from Planet Bike called the Borealis. This is an all new re-design of this model for 2012. The Borealis is a system of an inner fleece glove and an outer "mitten" that can be worn as separate components or together for the ultimate warm hand protection against the elements.

Features are as follows:

Two pieces for wider temperature ranges. The inner and outer layers can be combined for coldest weather, or worn separately into warmer temperatures.
The outer glove/mitten has a windproof back panel and forchettes. The glove/mitten outer is water resistant, and features a Neoprene cuff/pull tab with a hook and loop closure. Reflective piping on the outer.
The inner is a simple fleece glove.

Impressions: The fall weather first called out for the inner liner only. In crisp, cool weather, these inner fleece gloves worked well to ward off chill, but they definitely are not wind resistant, and of course, wetter weather isn't their friend either. So, actual versatility is somewhat limited to dry days with regard to the inner liner.

I thought the fit was a bit short in the fingers, but otherwise was okay. My only other concern was with the fingers, which were slippery without any tacky or textured areas to use for smoother aluminum controls like STI levers. Off the bike this manifested itself as slipperiness on car steering wheels, as an example.

The outer glove didn't really get the ultimate, below zero cold test, but we got close enough on a few days to get an idea here. The unique grouping of the last two digits on the hand and independent index and middle fingers was nice for drop bar riding and didn't seem to bother me in regard to keeping warm. In fact, I thought the outer of the Borealis was enough for me to keep warm in most any reasonable situation for cycling. The fit was loose-ish, which I tend to prefer with regard to a winter hand covering.

With the inner combined with the outer, I found the "toast level" was a bit too extreme for my tastes, but more importantly, I thought the fit of the size XL was a bit restrictive. The too tight feeling was unpleasant, in my opinion, and I would recommend going a size up, if you can, if you think you will really need both layers together. I don't see myself ever using the two together, as my hands were warm enough with just the outers here, but everyone has different needs when it comes to cold weather.

The Borealis inner fleece liner glove

Conclusions: Essentially, with the Borealis, you are buying two pairs of hand wear items. One is basically a cool weather ride, fleece glove, and the other is for more serious cold protection. Adding both together could be the ultimate in cold weather hand wear for a cyclists, if the fit is okay for you. Because of this, I strongly recommend you try on the Borealis first with both layers to see if the fit is to your liking.

The inner liner is best suited for dry, cool days only, and it isn't a great casual wear item due to the slick, slippery texture of the fleece. The outer is a definite winner in my mind, and if you already have a thin, wool liner glove, it may be the ultimate weapon against cold that you are looking for. I found the outer only to be just fine for me, but I have a bit higher tolerance to cold than your average bear. I will say that the outer is comfy by itself, and works really well for drop bar riding.

The bottom line here is that the Borealis isn't a bad system, but an improvement or two in the inner liner would be welcomed, in my opinion. Fit with both pieces together might be an issue for folks with larger hands. Still, for the MSRP $41.99 asking price, this is a lot of glove. Competing models seem to be significantly more. Check out the Borealis at your local bike shop and see if it might work for you.

Planet Bike sent out these gloves and the top tube bag at no charge for test/review. I was not paid, nor bribed for my review, and I strive to give my honest opinion and thoughts throughout any review here. Thanks to Planet Bike for letting me check these items out!

Fat Bike Full Suspension?

2012-01-11T01:30:00.000-05:00

Salsa Cycles Fat Bike prototype: (Image courtesy of Salsa Cycles blog)

Unless you were off the grid yesterday, this Salsa Cycles fat bike full suspension prototype is no news to you. The reaction to this development was wide ranging, enthusiastic, and rather surprising to me.

Of course, I love riding my fat bike, I think the idea of year-round fat biking is already proven, and I think it definitely has a place in off road/mountain biking. A full suspension fat bike? Sure! Why not? That said, there are several things that would need to be addressed before a full suspension fat bike becomes a reality from any company.

First and foremost is the question, "What sort of suspension does a fat bike need?" Obviously, Salsa is well on their way to answering that for themselves, and need no advice from the likes of me. My way of thinking about this question is as follows though...

A fat bike tire is a big, voluminous air spring. Race car drivers have been wrestling with this aspect of large volume tires for years. Altering air pressures causes the spring/tire to react differently, much like the spring in a traditional shock. Traditional mountain bike tires don't really have enough volume to affect overall suspension performance, but fat bike tires would. How that figures into overall suspension kinematics and design is not well known at this point for bicycles. My guess is that the suspension design would necessarily have to be more focused on damping the tire/spring than anything we've seen for a suspension fork for a mountain bike thus far.

There is a big air spring in this image!

"Where do you get the parts?" Then you have to source a fat-bike compatible suspension fork. Fat-bikers have long been employing Maverick SC-32 forks and more recently, the German Answer "Flame" fork. Trouble is that the Mav is flexy and the Flame fork is limited to using narrower rims. Wide rims and fat bike tires don't clear very well, according to reports I've read, between the stanchions on the Flame.

Added to this are the difficulties with small productions, costs, and distributions that are inherent with smaller manufacturers. Don't forget wider crowns require more down tube clearances as well. That complicates matters a bit. Oh yeah.....fat bikes with front suspension will also suffer from tall front ends, just like 29"ers do.

One other thing not talked about much is weight. Fat bikers are somewhat weight obsessed, and I see guys trumpeting their "under 30lb" bikes all the time. Obviously, adding suspension puts you back up there a ways again in weight. Whether most riders would find that worth the trade off for the suspension is not known.

"How Much Travel?" Just what works best for travel on a fat bike is another unknown quantity. Some feel more is better always. But there are limitations. Pointing at the difficulties within the 29"er suspension designs, one can see where fat bikes, whose tires are 29-30" in diameter depending upon tire model and rim combination, are going to quickly run up against the same issues. Front derailleur clearance, tire clearances, and chain stay lengths are also going to figure heavily here. Ideally, I think four inches or less, (most probably less), is going to be the target. Talk about unsprung weight too! Holy cow! Designing a rear damper to deal with all that mass getting thrown around back there is going to be a big challenge.

That doesn't even touch upon through axles, pivots that may need to be beefed up, and swing arm design to contain it all.

I have to hand it to Salsa Cycles and the Crew there. They bit off a "big one" with this project. Now we'll all get to see if they can chew it up, and spit out something worthy. Whether they can or not, I'm betting it will take a while to come to fruition, if it does at all.

Update: Some more information regarding the prototype fat bike FS from Salsa has been posted by "Dirt Rag". See here.

Project Two-Six

2012-01-10T00:49:00.000-05:00

Yes, it is a full moon, and you aren't seeing things. The title says "Project Two-Six". There is a good reason for that, so read on, if you dare!

Old. Reliable. Works.

The deal here is that I was asked to test something out. A pair of tires, to be exact. The tires in question were available at one time in 700c size, but stock was out and not likely to become available in a timely manner for the purposes of this test. (Not that it matters so far, but read on....)

The question was asked: "Don't you have a townie to put the other size tire on?" Well, I said that I had an old Schwinn that I had "Xtracycled", maybe that would work? And the deal was on. Tires were sent out, and I would put them on the old Xtracycle. Or would I?

Enter in an old, ancient, long forgotten project I started almost ten years ago. Of course, the Xtracycle is a 26"er, and at the time of the question about the tires, I thought it was the only 26"er I had left in my possession. However; then I recalled that old, forgotten project bike. Hmm.......maybe this is what I need to finally get that thing back together. I had all the old parts in boxes yet. Should be simple. But, I can't leave well enough alone!

You see, this bike, another old Schwinn, was a geared mountain bike I got that I had stripped down to bare metal, had powder coated, and then I had designs on really doing a "custom-modified" restoration. Kind of a hot rodded version of the stock bike.

But that was all out the window now. This was going to become a "winter time commuter bike", or so I thought. I had intended on not putting derailleurs on this bike, and keeping it single speed seemed the right thing to do. However; after two failed attempts at single speeding rear wheels for the project, (One had a stuck on freewheel, the other a sealed bearing set up with an off-set axle), I decided a 1 X 5 would be okay.

So out came an old SunTour top mount, a MounTech rear derailleur, and SunTour 5 speed rear freewheel. Everything going on this bike, sans the grips, tires, handle bar, and tubes, is older than 1990. Probably older than 1988! I may end up putting on some fenders though, so there will be another newer part. But this will be pretty vintage stuff all around, for the most part.

Stay tuned for the final build, which should appear soon. Now, back to that test I mentioned. The tires are Continental's Top Contact Winter tires. These are "stud killers", supposedly. The idea is sort of like those Bridgestone "Blizzak" car tires. Very sticky-soft rubber with tons of working edges to grip ice and snow covered surfaces. So.......I am sure you see what the problem is!

Since there hasn't been much of a winter, (yet), this test may be still born before it starts. But, there still is plenty of time for something of a winter to happen, so I will get this together and test ride it to de-bug anything needing de-bugging. Hopefully "Project Two-Six" will see the light of day before the weekend.

Muk vs Muk

2012-01-09T01:30:00.000-05:00

Squaring Off

With the Triple D Race coming up in less than a week, I had to make a decision on which Mukluk to bring to the event. So, I squared off the two against each other in the back yard and let 'em have at it until one or the other came out victorious.

Okay......not really!

But I did make a choice. Here is how that came about. It has as much to do with non-bike related things as anything else. It won't take long for most of you to figure it out either. It has mostly to do with the lack of snow, obviously, and that it doesn't look like we'll be getting any before the event.

Originally, I was planning on using The Snow Dog, and why wouldn't I? It has the widest rims and biggest tires of the two. Perfect for a snowy course. What was I thinking?! Well, I was thinking winter, so don't blame me for the lack of the white stuff, okay? To prove my point, you can see that I had affixed my bags to The Snow Dog and I had been training on it in this configuration, thinking this would be my set up, but nooooooo! No snow, and most likely warm-ish temps will have me looking elsewhere for a ride for Triple D.

Guess which one is the Big Fat Larry.

Really, I bet a lot of guys will be sporting 29"ers and even cyclo-cross bikes this coming weekend. I definitely have something worthy of using there in that vein, but since this was intended to be a fat-bike sort of event, I am sticking to the plan.

Of course, this means I am taking By-Tor the Titanium Mukluk. I swapped tubes Friday in By-Tor to Bontrager 29 X 2.50" and they work great, and weigh almost exactly half of what I was using in there before. This cut By-Tor's weight to sub-30lbs, and that isn't all that bad.

Now the weather here has been a "Freeze-Thaw" dance and I am betting it still will be come next weekend. A 29"er might do okay, but in the grease and/or muck, a fat-bike has a better chance. Plus.....who knows what the heck the promoter might cook up.

Noticeable difference, no?

So I am taking the titanium bike, and even though it is 1 X 10, and the Dubuque/Dyersville region is hilly, I will suffer with what I have available there. I have no designs on going fast. I may be doing quite well just to finish. That's my goal.

Now as far as the bikes and how they differ, that is an interesting story. I knew a couple of things had to be pretty easy to find, since I could definitely feel a difference between the two rigs beyond one being titanium and one being aluminum. I pulled out a tape measure and went to work.

The Snow Dog actually feels spot on, and the titanium bike felt odder. I tracked that down to a miscue I had in setting up the saddle. Once that was fixed, the bikes both felt a lot more similar. While the differences were less, there still were differences. I finally pinpointed one glaring difference that the Salsa website doesn't show. The Titanium Mukluk actually has longer chain stays. Longer by about a quarter of an inch, which switches up the weight distribution enough to be able to feel it. This is with the Muk Ti's Altenator drop slammed all the way forward, by the way. The Snow Dog feels more "playful" as a result.

But otherwise, the differences are largely in the feel department, and By-Tor the Titanium Mukluk will definitely be a smoother ride!

Barns For Jason

2012-01-08T12:00:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday, I did a lot of driving for T.I.V8 recon. I always have my old Fuji point and shoot at the ready, so if I see a cool old barn, I can get a photo of it. I do it because my buddy Jason, (GNAT to most of you blog readers), said one time that he would like to collect images of barns and I said I'd do that to.

So, it is a bit of a game I play while doing recon. Whether or not Jason likes them, I don't know, (I hope so!), but even if he hated them, I'd do it anyway, because it is fun, and I like barns too. So, without further adieu, here are my latest "Barns For Jason" that I collected over the weekend....

As you can see, I caught a lot of them as I sped by at 35-45mph! I did miss more than a few, and I really regret not getting the 1895 barn I saw. I'll try and track that down during T.I.V8, but I am sure I'll be seeing more barns before then!

hope ya'all enjoyed that. Next post will be back to bicycles again....

Trans Iowa V8 Recon Report

2012-01-08T01:30:00.000-05:00

Okay, I made some big progress on the recon of the T.I.V8 course today. It was an all day, 300 plus mile slog behind the wheel of The Truck With No Name, but now I have only about 20-25 miles left to look at, and that's all going back to Grinnell. Very, very stoked about all the good roads and the route overall. (Remember: Clicky make biggy for better photo viewing experiences!)

On the road before the crack of dawn

The day was actually started on Friday evening as I laid out all my things and went over my goals for the Saturday drive. Maps were looked at, supplies were laid up, and I went to bed fairly early to get a good nights sleep before the long drive.

I got up while it was still dark, went and fueled up the truck, checked the tires, and hit the road. My plan was to be at the place I had left off at the southern end of the route by 10:30am. Yes.....it is a long, long way away from where I live!

I made great time, getting in place to start a full one half of an hour early. The day started out overcast, but by the time I got into position, it was brilliant sunshine and wispy clouds. What a perfect day! I even saw four Bald Eagles before noon all in different places. Cool!

The southern end of the course is all twisty-turny roads. Hilly, but ya'all would expect that, no? Well, it is, and driving here was a bit of a challenge. Route finding was already done for this beginning section of the days recon, but with all the "Y" corners and confusing intersections, I had to be careful to document everything very specifically.

Densely wooded areas

One unusual feature of the course down here is the woods. More wooded areas than farm fields, actually. It is really a different look to Trans Iowa than what we usually have with all the open countryside and empty, (during late April), fields.

The gravel was white, dusty, and otherwise in good shape down here. In fact, I would surmise that this part of Iowa has seen little to no precip for some time. Streams were low, and with no snow cover for the foreseeable future, I would submit that it would take a soaking of epic proportions this spring to turn this parched land to muck. But then again, never under-estimate the weather of Iowa!

I suppose I just jinxed T.I.V8 and we'll be subjected to torrential T.I.V6-like rain and mud mixed in with epic thunder and lightning. (By the way- why do we say thunder and lightning"? Shouldn't that be "lightning and thunder"?)

One lane bridge

One thing I will probably have to stress over the coming months is that you T.I.V8 folks will be needing to be especially careful this year. Usually with the sort of speedy down hills we have, you have clear sight lines and you can see how you are going to run out long before you actually get to that point. Not so much this year. Clearly, (or not, as the case may be), you should use extreme caution when trying to descend these steep grades when you can not see where the gravel is deep, where the ruts and pot holes are, or what might be hiding just beyond your sight line in the way of cars, tractors, or trucks.

Now, think about doing this at night. Yeah........it gets real sketchy! Better make sure you don't outrun your lights capabilities to show you what is coming up. Trust me- some of these hills will have you topping out at 35-40mph if you decide to eschew your brake lever. Really.

Of course, you can ignore all my rantings, like a couple of other guys have that stacked it up and put themselves out of Trans Iowas. Don't say I didn't tell ya so!

Old, old, old bridge. (Did I say it was old?)

Overall, I am pretty pleased, despite the danger level, of all the roads, with the exception of two places.

One is along a river valley where I could see that high water had washed out the roads previously. That isn't a good sign, and if rains come in earnest, I may have an issue to deal with out there. I will be planning a "B Route' to re-route by, just in case.

The other sketchy section may be this old bridge. Planks were loose and rattling as I drove across it. It isn't on a "dead road" though, so I am hopeful that due to the amount of folks living out here the county keeps from shutting this down. If they do, I have a re-route at the ready, but........it includes a B Road! So, I'd rather have this bridge than not, but either way, I can make the route work.

And take a look at those planks folks. Those are skinny tire sucking machines there. Get your head on straight before you cross this one. Oh yeah.....most of you will likely be seeing this at night too!

About 50 miles from the finish....

So other than those two sections, I really am thinking this course is bomber. I did have to slide in an over two mile section of paved road to get across a certain geographical feature, but the five miles that come after it are so crazy good, it is worth it, I think. (In fact, I have gotten lost in this section twice now! Don't worry- you won't, since I have the directions down right now.)

B Roads will be scarce this year. There are maybe only three to four miles, and none in the last 150 miles, (unless I am forced to re-route, as noted above.) Why? Have I gone all soft on ye Trans Iowa competitors? No.....no, trust me.....you will understand after you have completed the course, if you complete the course. I think from a physical standpoint, this is probably one of the hardest courses I have come up with. Hills abound. Technically speaking, this course demands more from you in terms of the difficult corners and descents. (As outlined above.) Depending on the weather, this could become an undo-able feat, since the course meanders in every conceivable direction, guaranteeing a head wind off and on all the way around. If it rains, even without B roads, this could become just about impossible to finish.

So, the bottom line was that I thought I didn't really need to throw anymore B Roads into this one. It just doesn't call out for them. Of course, the ones that are in it are at the beginning, so those Rookies will get their proper T.I. rite of passage ritual in.

Windmills!

Numbers: I have not gotten the very end of the route reconned as of yet. I have maybe 25-30 miles maximum to add in yet. I am shooting for 320-ish miles complete. There will be a Checkpoint at Mile 52, and another checkpoint in a rural location that has yet to be determined. Probably at around 170 miles or so, just like last year, I am thinking. That worked out well from a logistical standpoint.

The first checkpoint will get graced with an extra 15 minutes than last year to get there, and I think the cut off for Checkpoint #2 will be similar to last year. The bulk of the really gnarly, tough stuff will come post checkpoint #2 and that coupled with the navigational challenges made me not want to use B Roads throughout the last half of the course. So, if you get to Checkpoint #2, you'll be done with B Roads for the remainder of the event, but like I say, it doesn't mean it'll be easier without them.

Now I will plan out the very end of the event's course, and try and recon that soon. In the meantime, I will start writing drafts for cue sheets which will be handed out to two independent course checkers that I will accompany on two separate occasions to double and triple check every cue. (In fact, some of the course will probably be driven by a third independent source that will give me further feedback. This should insure accurate turns and mileages for all in the event. That doesn't mean that you won't get lost though. In fact, I suspect several folks still will get messed up. It always happens in these long events. It just won't be my fault for having bad cues.

Okay, there will be more course updates, but that should tide ya over for awhile. feel free to ask questions in the comment section...

The Big Plan For The Day

2012-01-07T01:30:00.000-05:00

I'm out in the sticks, doing recon!

Well, today I am going to do something that I have been planning for, but have had to put off for one reason or another, for over two months now. What is that?

T.I.V8 recon, that's what.

Not that I haven't been doing anything at all about that, because I have. Much pouring over maps, looking at Google Earth, trying different route solutions, and trying to keep the mileage within reason. Tasking all that with a mind to convenience store opportunities and it gets a little bit dicey sometimes.

But it isn't anything I haven't done before. It always requires actual eye-to-course recon anyway, so that is what today is all about. Getting some solutions to some perceived issues that may force alternate decisions.....or not!

The thing is, the route must be picked up where I left off last time, at the apogee of the circuit. It is making for a long drive, that's for sure! The good news is that shorter bits and pieces of the route back to Grinnell have already been looked at, so it should go well, at least it will if a couple of key points turn out to my benefit. So, stay tuned for a T.I.V8 recon report and course update to come, hopefully soon!

Friday News And Views

2012-01-06T01:30:00.000-05:00

Kona Raijin Prototype: (Image Courtesy Kona Cog blog)

More Tennessee Titanium: Lynskey Performance in Tennessee is cranking out titanium bikes under its own brand name, plus at least three other brands that I know about, maybe more. At any rate, I find it rather amusing to see this Kona proto coming out which should be available later this spring.

Signature Lynskey design touches abound here, and one starts to wonder when the brand on the down tube starts to lose its meaning. Sure......it's got a 69.5 degree head angle, but beyond this, what is really any different than a Lynskey or a Salsa Cycles offering? Not a whole lot.

Now, I realize I am riding a Lynskey made rig, and I have ridden a few others made by them. They do great work. My point isn't that "Lynskey is bad", my point is that if you are bothering to have one manufactured by them, you might want to somehow make a strong visual distinction from the "standard issue" Lynskey cues. I don't think anyone would bat an eyelash at first glance at this bike if it had a sandblasted Salsa Cycles logo on the down tube. Ya know?

That said, I am sure the Raijin is a cool riding rig. Gotta wonder what the chain stay length is here. I noticed its screaming non-disclosure in the blog posted specs. One other possibly telling cue: The rear tire is a Maxxis Ikon. Not a voluminous, wide tire. Maybe that's all that would fit with mud clearance with the sliders pulled all the way forward as they are here. If so, that won't fly too well with the forum-freaks. We'll see.

WTB Frequency Rims: Ya know, so many times I get e-mails about what rims to use for tubeless applications on big wheeled rigs. It seems so many choices are already laced to hubs. Well, not everyone wants pre-built wheels. It is something of a problem in the marketplace. Especially when one choice, (Stan's), seems to be the only thing that comes to most folks minds these days. (Not that Mr. Koziak minds, but it would be nice to have some competition here.)

Well, that is why things like the new WTB Frequency rims are going to be cool. These are looking like some pretty well thought out rims here. The bead seat is optimized more toward the UST side of things, and the sealing tape and sealant is right from Stan's playbook. Solid, reliable stuff there.

Then WTB's design work is added on top. "I-Beam" extrusions have been a feature of WTB rims since the late 90's. I used a set of Lazerbeam rims once back in my 26"er days and was really impressed with the lightweight/toughness combination they exhibited. I would suspect that the 29"er version, with current refinements, would be as good if not better. WTB also optimized the spoke drilling angles and added the "Unbendium Bulge" for strength. Good, smart stuff.

Anyway, these are available now in 26 or 29 inch versions with 19mm or 23mm inside rim well dimension variants to choose from. MSRP on the 26 and 29 inch versions are $75.00 and $80.00 respectively. Now you know.

On One Scandal 29: Image courtesy of shedfire

Okay- So What Would You Suggest? Getting back to the Kona thing, I would have suggested that (perhaps) they should have veered from the "typical Lynskey" look and found a signature. Used to be that Kona had that rad top tube slope, big head tube, and an extended set tube with a forward facing slot at the seat collar.

You know the bike in the image doesn't look like a Lynskey. It looks like an On One bike. You know this from the signature seat stay arrangement.

So, ya know......that's what I am talking about. Get something unique out there. (Whoa! Never thought I'd write that about 29"ers, but they are mainstream now days.) The Kona Raijin isn't really much to crow about in terms of its looks. It does have some unique stats, but I dunno.......

Maybe I'm wrong here, but it just strikes me as a bit "ho-hum".

Okay, well.......enjoy the non-winter! Get out and ride a bike, take some pictures, and have an adventure.

Freeze- Thaw Cycling

2012-01-05T01:30:00.000-05:00

This winter is so unusual that I have coined a new term for the type of cycling conditions I am seeing out on my rides. I call it "Freeze-Thaw Cycling". There isn't any snow, or any ice involved, but the cycle of freezing and thawing is having a big time effect on how things are going down on my trails now.

Shot down in flames

Speaking of going down.... Yeah, it gets treacherous when this sort of thing happens. The thing is, typically we only see this at the very beginning, or the very end of winter. The majority of the time we have this, this........white stuff........oh, I can't remember the name!

At any rate, when "Freeze-Thaw Cycling" occurs, we generally stay off the trails for a few days. maybe a week, and then it is over. However; this has been going on now for weeks, with no end in sight, so we are hitting the trails and discovering what "Freeze-Thaw Cycling" can do to you. It ain't pretty, let me tell ya!

Take for instance my story about the first image here. I came round a slight left hander. The Larry 3.8"er hits a bit of an off camber bump. That in turn just so happened to be right where the bright sun had been beaming down those little bits o radiation, and made the surface down to about a quarter of an inch all wet and greasy. This sent my front tire into a five yard skid, where- at the bitter end- I ate dirt.

I left the bike right where it landed and took that picture. Click on it and see the skid mark, if you care to.

Even the Black Hawk is freezing/thawing!

The funny thing is, since the angle of the sun now is so shallow, only a few, select places suffered from this greasy situation. The rest of the dirt was frozen and fast. Well, I fell into one of about three traps. Go figure.

Off Just A Little Makes A Big Diffrence: The rest of the ride was fairly uneventful. I did discover, pre-ride, that I had miscalculated the length between my handle bar and saddle by one inch. That doesn't sound like a very big deal to some folks, but if you are an avid cyclist, one inch is as good as being off one mile!

Well, obviously I corrected for my mistake, and out on the ride, I could really tell the difference. The bike used to feel odd up front, but with my slight weight re-distribution, it took on more of the feel of the Snow Dog in the handling department. Closer, but still uniquely different. I did some measuring, and the chain stays are a half of an inch longer on the titanium bike. Yes, the Altenators are all the way forward. It definitely can be felt. I don't think it is bad, but it is different.

One other very interesting thing to note was that with the slight re-positioning, the front end torsional flex was not felt as dramatically. In fact, it was a lot better from my view, and with that slight saddle shift, the whole bike just became that much better.

Funny how something so seemingly insignificant can alter the way a bike feels so dramatically. I'll have more to say about By-Tor the Titanium Mukluk later, but for now, I am happy about the way the bike is turning out.

Randomonium

2012-01-04T00:05:00.000-05:00

Yes folks, I have been slammed by this and that mentally and haven't gotten much sleep in the last couple of days, so my brain is a mish-mash of bits and pieces. When this happens, I clear the slate with a "Randomonium" post. This is what is happening here today.....

By-Tor- The Mukluk Ti....

We'll kick things off with By-Tor. The Mukluk titanium rig has been ridden a few times on varying surfaces. My first impressions are that titanium fat bikes do indeed ride nicer than the aluminum ones. Even with the Snow Dog having Big Fat Larrys on it, the ride is not as smooth as By-Tor's is.

I will also say that for some reason the titanium one feels shorter, handles differently, and along with the material difference, is like riding a completely different fat bike design than my aluminum one. The tape measure and angle finder will be employed to sus out any differences soon. Stay tuned.....

Beyond that though, the bike is working flawlessly. The 1 X 10, the wheels, and everything else is just going great. I do notice more flex in this frame than with the aluminum bike. The whole frame twists ever so slightly in ruts and off cambers in a way that is a tiny bit like the wheels are going in different planes at times. Just a wee bit. I can tell at the handle bar. One grip will unload and the other will push up barely enough you can feel it. Oh yeah, and it isn't the handle bar either. That handle bar is super stiff! This tells me it is twisting at the head tube/down tube/top tube junctions. As I say, it is barely perceptible, and the aluminum version does not feel this way at all, but then again, it has a pretty flexible carbon bar on it. That may be the difference there. At any rate, these two bikes have entirely different personalities.

The Winter That Didn't Show Up: Wow! I would have never even bet on going this far into winter without snow. We have had one event where the white stuff just barely covered the grass, and that lasted a day before warmer weather blasted that into forgetfulness.

I look at this image from early last February. The snowmobile trail I was riding was about a foot deep of packed, consolidated snow. Maybe more. I guess that kind of scene will be a pipe dream this winter. And what about Triple D? Well, there is one shot at snow, according to the forecast, before that event. Even if that is right, it won't add up to enough snow to make a fat-bike really necessary. If standard procedure for winter 2011-2012 continues, that race will be dominated by 29"ers and cross bikes. I'll still take one of my fat bikes anyway.....

Yeah......I am still training for this, but my illness really kicked me in the jimmy. I'll be there though, just not as tuned up as I might like to be. "FUN" will be the goal. I think I'll easily attain to that. Next goal? Finish. We'll see.

New Look TNI: The update for Twenty Nine Inches is nearing reality. The whole site is getting a refresh. Much needed too. It hasn't been tweaked since 2006. Too long ago! We're going to have a nice looking site with stuff that actually works for search, links, and content. We're going to finally roll The Cyclistsite into TNI so all content will be in one place. Ya know, we figured 29"ers are pretty much mainstream now, so talking about non-29"er stuff won't be seen as being out of the ordinary anymore.

This whole deal has been pretty much done by my friend, Grannygear in his spare time. I am not at all computer literate, so he's taken the whole re-do on himself, and learned the ropes to get it done. There have been a lot of decisions and phone calls and worrying and well.......it has been nutty. I sure hope it all goes smoothly and that we can get on with doing what we do best: Riding and writing. Computer website design is not much fun folks. Well......I don't think it is!

You know what? I am still getting post cards for Trans Iowa. Yes......really! Now I don't get many, or on a regular basis, but every once in awhile one will randomly show up. It is weird.

Be that as it may, we have had one drop since the roster registration ceased. So, one lucky guy got contacted off the list. He refused. I move on to the next guy now. All that to say, as a reminder, that if you can not make it to T.I.V8 for any reason, please tell me ASAP! The Waiting List is only maintained through the end of this month, then there will be no further transfers from The Waiting List, and the roster will be allowed to shrink if any further drops occur.

I should have more sponsor news to share with everyone shortly, by the way, and also news should start coming up concerning the Pre-Race Meat-Up.So keep checking the Trans Iowa site for updates as they occur.

And that's enough randomonium for one post. Thanks for reading!

Gravel Riding Makes The News

2012-01-03T01:30:00.000-05:00

Last week, while I was doing my requisite end-o-the-year recap, a little surprise came in the mail down at the shop where I work. Well, it wasn't a total surprise to me, since I knew it was going to happen at some point. It did catch me by surprise at how fast the story did get published though.

Front page news!

I am talking about a story published in the January 1st issue of the trade paper, "Bicycle Retailer and Industry News", affectionately known in the bicycle trade by its acronym- "BRAIN".

Here's the "back story" on the story, for those who care about such things....

The whole thing got started when I was following BRAIN's Tapei Bicycle Exposition coverage back in early December. That show is a time for product managers to meet with factory representatives and brand managers from component companies in Taiwan, where a big chunk of the recreational bicycle trade works. The deal here is getting ideas to spec on future bicycles that will show up on dealers show room floors for 2013 and beyond. Part of that is your garden variety component news, and sometimes you might find out about something brand new.

Well, a story about Clement brand tires caught my eye. Clement is offering to the trade some new, fat road tires. We're talking 40mm and up to 50mm road tires with high performance features. The author of the story, BRAIN's Matt Wiebe, mused that bikes don't exist for such tires, and who would be using them? Well, I decided to e-mail him and let him know about this little gravel grinding deal going on out here in the hinterlands. One thing lead to another and.......

We got yer fat gravel road action right here.

......Mr Wiebe wrote this story. I basically tried to get an overview of gravel grinding stuffed into two short phone calls, and I didn't know what would make the story, and what wouldn't. You know, the whole thing was supposedly about those big Clement tires, and Campagnolo's newest triple cranks coming out for folks like gravel grinders.

I mentioned a few of the events I felt captured the best all around feel of gravel grinding's roots today. (Sorry if I left your favorite event out, this was off the top of my head, after all!) I mentioned some brands that I thought were catering to gravel grinding, I mentioned the grass roots nature of the events, and how I felt that appealed to the riders taking part in these events. Oh, and I stressed that this has a lot of interest amongst you folks out there. (I don't think that is stretching the truth.) Of course, (Matt Wiebe himself being a prime example), not everyone has even heard of gravel grinding, or can imagine why anyone would want to do that when they do consider it, so yeah.....it isn't for everyone!

Still, you gotta say that gravel grinding has been catching on. Look at the registration numbers for Almanzo, Dirty Kanza, Barry-Roubaix, or even for the smaller events like CIRREM. Ten years ago, barely anyone was out riding gravel, and hardly anyone was having competitions. Now the race calendar on Gravel Grinder News is chock full of competitions and rides from coast to coast and even overseas.

So, the story in BRAIN comes out and Mr. Wiebe actually packs about everything I mentioned in there. Of course, the brevity of the article prevents in-depth coverage, but at least the story has been delivered to bicycle shops all over the country and maybe, just maybe, some new folks will hit the back roads to see what the heck the deal is concerning "gravel grinding".

Thanks Mr. Wiebe for being curious and for getting this story out. Yes, I know some would rather not have the secret get out, but there are so many back roads around here, the more the merrier, I say. Then again, not everyone can even grasp the "why" of gravel road riding in the first place. That's okay too. I'll be out there grinning from ear to ear no matter.

A Fat, Magic Carpet Ride: Complete!

2012-01-02T01:30:00.000-05:00

Okay, yesterday I posted a teaser pic from my first ride on the titanium Mukluk. (I also posted a different one on Twitter and Facebook, just in case you follow me there.) At any rate, here is the final build. I'll talk about the components today and why I chose them.....

Salsa Cycles Mukluk Ti

Some of the parts I've detailed before, like the front hub and the carbon FSA SLK series parts, but I'll go over everything again here briefly.

Frame/Fork: 19"/Large Mukluk Ti frame with a Salsa Enabler steel fork- The Snow Dog is the same size, fits me great, and that's why I got the titanium frame in the same size. Result? Fits perfect, just as I expected. I could have gone with a carbon fork, lost a bit of weight on the build, but at the cost of versatility and at a much greater expense. Result? The Enabler fork wins. I need that versatility, and the weight savings wasn't worth the cost monetarily or in terms of limiting my options.

The other reasons for getting this frame are many- First off is that, (obviously), it is titanium. Weight savings were not the driving factor here.What was the decision maker was ride quality. Sure, I could have gotten a titanium El Mariachi, or another brand's titanium bike, but the Mukluk Ti wins over all those for the fat bike factor. However; there are options other frames made out of titanium for fat bike wheels cannot match. I can put a single speed set up on this one, for instance. Plus, it could be set up with drop bars, out fitted with racks and/or frame bags, and be a touring bike for off road with either fat bike wheels or a special set of 29"er wheels. Those same 29"er wheels can also turn this into a full time geared or single speed off road bike for anywhere. I could even use a suspension fork in that instance.

Wheels: Obviously a very important component of a fat bike, the wheels were chosen to be configured for year-round use. I went with 70mm Uma II rims from Fatback Bikes via Lacemine29. Mike Curiak, the wheel builder at Lacemine29, recommended these rims over all others for my purposes, and I am satisfied that these will be a great balance of off-road-ability and fat biking strengths. They built up very nicely, considering they bounced around my basement for three months plus!

The rims also feature a bead seat, which looks a lot like the ones you see on 29 inch tubeless type rims. Very secure for ultra-low psi settings in softer conditions.

The hubs for this build are a hybrid set up. I used an old, rare Surly single speed disc hub in anodized purple. The rear is a standard Mukluk 2 hub in black anodized color, since Salsa doesn't offer purple hubs.....yet. (Just hoping out loud here!) The rims and hubs are connected by Wheelsmith straight gauge spokes and brass nipples. Standard 3 cross build. Rim strip, which is visible through the cut outs in the rim, is "chrome duct tape". Surly tubes with wire bead Larry 3.8"ers, for the time being. I plan on getting some 45NRTH Husker Du tires later in the winter or early spring.

Finally, to top off the wheels in the looks department are these pre-production Salsa Cycles skewers in anodized purple. These skewers are refined now to have captured springs, washers, and stainless steel collars. These will become available at some point. Don't know when though. These were kindly sent over by Salsa Cycles, so that is as much as I know!

Other bits are purple as well. I'll get to those as I go along here, but for right now I'll mention that Chris King head set in purple ano, which I've told the story about here before.

The brakes are new, 2012 Avid Elixir 9's. These have some refinements in the master cylinder to make bleeding more easy, as well as the calipers, which also were tweaked. The levers are carbon, and the calipers are a kind of gun metal blue anodized hue. The rotors are also new, as can be seen here. Elixir 9's basically take the place of the current Avid Elixir CR models. These brakes were sent over by SRAM at no charge for test and review, by the way. I will be writing up my thoughts on those later on Twenty Nine Inches.

I'll also be shortening the rear brake line and using Avid's new bleed kit to do that with, so stay tuned for how that process goes in the near future.

Moving to the handle bars and stem, these were parts provided by FSA from their SLK line of parts. Again, look for a review on those. The grips are Ergon Bio-Kork models which locked onto the FSA bar with zero issues so far. No twisting or turning! Plus I get the comfy feel of the shape with the material which shouldn't make my hands get cold in winter and have already proven themselves in summer time for me.

I'm running one, lonely shifter which is a SRAM TT shifter on a Paul Components Thumbies mount. This shifts the SRAM X-9 rear derailleur in gray and carbon over a SRAM 10 speed cassette with a 36T low gear.

My crank set is the old, ISIS drive type Bontrager crank, (with removable spider!), which is mounted with an E-Thirteen "Guide Ring" in their "Grape Drink" color that has 32 teeth. Hovering over this chain ring is a MRP chain guide which mounts from the bottom bracket, which is a FSA Platinum DH 100mm spindle model. Gotta have a chain retention device of some sort with a 1X10 set up, and the MRP guide should keep the Shimano 105 10 speed chain in line for me.

I figured a 1X10 drive train would be more than enough for where I ride these fat bikes here. On The Snow Dog, I rarely ever get out of the middle ring at all. If I ever do want to go with more gearing range, it will likely be lower, and I can add a granny ring to this crank set, mount my other thumb shifter, and mount a direct mount front derailluer for those times when low, low gears are necessary.

Of course, I needed a chain guide with this set up, and it had to mount in between the cup of the bottom bracket and the shell, and the MRP version here does just that. The bottom bracket is the best you can get to fit a 100mm wide shell in ISIS right now.

I used some old, crappy Welgo flat pedals for now. At some point I will replace these with nicer flats for winter and SPD's will go on for spring, summer, and fall rides.

The seat collar is a Salsa Cycles in purple ano. The seat post is another FSA SLK piece, and that is crowned by one of my favorite saddles, a WTB SST saddle.

So, how does it ride? I can't say much yet. I am still getting acquainted with the bike and I want to see that the parts are all working in harmony yet. Then I can ride it without thinking about things like, "what was that noise?", "Did I tighten that?" (thought for the third time after checking it twice), or "I need to tweak that saddle height/angle a bit".

Once that anxiety and nervousness has passed, I can focus on just riding the bike and I'll give you all a better assessment. That should happen soon after a couple more shake down rides. I will say now that it appears to be very much like the Snow Dog in terms of handling and the feel of the ride is different. Oh yeah.....and it is lighter too. By a fair amount, I'd say. It'll get lighter too after I get folding bead tires, new tubes, and different pedals.

Okay, that's my new Mukluk Ti, which has been dubbed "By-Tor". Hope ya'all enjoyed the tour!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T01:30:00.000-05:00

Happy (Fat) New Year!

Happy New Year ya'all! I hope it is filled with joy, love, and family good times. Great rides, miles of smiles, and new, shiny bikes and parts.

I'll be back tomorrow with a run down on By-Tor, the titanium Mukluk, and hopefully a ride report.

Stay tuned............

Lookin' Ahead

2011-12-31T01:30:00.000-05:00

Last day of 2011. Ah........buh-bye now! On to next year and new changes and new challenges. Here's a few things I know that fit those categories right now. I'm sure more things will pop up along the way.

Old look fading away......

In the not-to-distant future, as in, within days, there will be an update to Twenty Nine Inches. The site hasn't seen a change to the page in almost six years, so it was beyond time to do some refreshing, updating, and spruce up the place a bit.

I can't take much of any credit here for the new look coming, because I am basically computer illiterate, but fortunately, I have a great help in Grannygear. (Thanks man!). Don't know what I'd do without some smart people helping me out.

I'll be back....

Besides the Triple D event coming in a couple of weeks, (will we have any snow?), I am now reg'd up for another shot at CIRREM. This gravelly grinder down southwest of Des Moines will be a metric century of hills on February 25th. Last year was cold and snowy. This year? I may need a snow bike, or I could be getting sprayed with peanut buttery gravel on my Black Mountain Cycles "Orange Crush".

Then I'll be lining up in early April for the Renegade Gents Race with four other team mates. (Hopefully all sporting some facial hair!) So that's three events in the span of three months time to kick off the season. Top that off with a tentatively planned trip for two weeks to El Paso, Texas in March. I will be a busy boy!

But right now I have some other pressing business to take care of. Like finishing a titanium Mukluk, getting recon for T.I.V8 done, and riding sometime to get ready for all of this stuff happening in the first part of the year.

Oh yeah.......Wishing you all a very Happy New Year and all the best for 2012!

Thanks for reading Guitar Ted Productions!

Guitar Ted Productions Rear View 2011: Part IV

2011-12-30T01:30:00.000-05:00

Continuing on with the remembrances from the last year that impressed me, we move on to the end of 2011...

Northfield Trip #2: Labor Day weekend was another time I had a blast up in Northfield, Minnesota with Ben Witt and his lovely wife. Mrs. Guitar Ted and Ben's wife like to shop, which left Ben, Curtis, and I all day to goof off on fat bikes, and we literally did take the whole day to do just that.

In the morning I built up my new Salsa Cycles hubs to my Rolling Darryls, replacing the bad hubs I had before. It didn't take me long to find out that the Salsa hubs were vastly superior, since we were doing stunts over rocks, down cement stair cases, and up and over twisty single track right outta the box.

We did urban stuff, we did single track in the woods, we did gravel roads, and bicycle paths. We ended the day by cruising a cemetery and a few dark, dim single track trails before it was just too dark to see. It was the perfect cap off to a sultry, hot summer of riding.

I learned a few things about fat bikes that day as well. I learned that they can do a lot more than you think, (snow), and are grin inducing, fun machines. In fact, it is largely due to this experience that I now cringe when I hear people refer to these bikes as "snow bikes". That's selling them way too short.

Weird. Rain at Interbike.

Interbike: Of course, I went out to Interbike again. Last year I thought it would be my last time in Las Vegas, since Interbike had planned to move to Anaheim, California, but noooooo!

So, we found ourselves in the desert where.....it rained! That was a new experience, and the weather seemed to have the same subdued feel to the desert that the lack of attendance at Interbike had on the show.

There was a weird, almost lackadaisical feel to the show, which was totally different from the near hyper-activity level I normally experience here. I was completely okay with this, but it definitely wasn't the same as in years past. People had more time to talk, to actually relate to you. It was a nice change, but I don't think the folks running the show could have been very happy with the overall attendance numbers.

Interbike also marked the end of Summer for Iowa. By the time I got back, I could feel Fall had settled over the land, and I was going to be super busy doing testing for Twenty Nine Inches.

Trans Iowa V8: So, along with all the bicycle riding I was doing, I had to get Trans Iowa up and chugging along again. The Registration happened, and the roster filled up, while in the meantime, I was lining up stuff in Grinnell.

I also had to get the route planned, and to actually lay eyes to it. This will be the first time in a long time that I will be the one laying eyes to the entire course. I haven't had to do that for awhile.

So, fall progressed into what should have been winter, and no snow, with above average temperatures. Trying to get ready for riding next year hasn't been an issue, and Trans Iowa preparations have not been hindered. Trouble is, in December I always have the big birthdays, Christmas, and then my anniversary right after New Years. Added to that is all the other social gatherings, and Holiday time isn't the best for recon. But then again.....who would have guessed that I could do recon at all now?!.

So there are my highlights from 2011. It has been quite a year full of goings on, great people, and some bummers along the way. But for the most part, it was a great year. Awesome really. I hope yours was just as fun filled and action packed.

And now on to "next year". I'll go over some goals and thoughts about 2012 tomorrow. Stay tuned.........

Guitar Ted Productions Rear View 2011; Part III

2011-12-29T01:30:00.000-05:00

In the continuing process of closing out the year with my best memories from 2011, I have a few more events to talk about......

Annual Frostbike pilgrimage to Mike's Bikes

Frostbike: This "dealer only" show in Quality Bicycle Products Bloomington, Minnesota warehouse/headquarters is a fun get together where I get to hang out with several folks I get to see all too rarely. It also includes getting together with Ben Witt and making a pilgrimage to Mike's Bikes in Northfield, Minnesota.

This is always a very special time for me. This past year was no different. Ben had just gotten his Pofahl custom snow bike together, we did hot laps around Mike's Bikes shop on a modified pre-war Schwinn cruiser, and skidded fat bikes around corners to the point that we had "rubbered in" the corners in Mike's cement floor.

Mike's is a special little chunk of bicycle shop heaven that is rare and disappearing across the nation. I am honored and thrilled to have been there and to have seen the things I have. Mike was one of the original Marin "klunker" guys, and the heritage and history of mountain biking he brought back with him to Northfield is a small treasure I count myself lucky to have been able to experience. Thanks Mike! Thanks Ben!

Frostbike was fun, and a bit anti-climatic, since we ended up coming home early to beat out a wicked winter storm that stranded a lot of folks up there. (Maybe we should have stayed and gotten stranded with everyone else!)

Boo-boo.

El Paso, Texas: My summertime trip to El Paso, Texas to visit my relatives usually involves some riding in the Franklin Mountain State Park, and this year was to be a great, two week trip with plenty of opportunities to ride. I brought two bikes and gear and was all ready to do some desert riding.

On my first ride there, I endoed and smashed a rock into my knee cap, splitting open the skin down to the bone. I was alone, it was in the 90's in the desert, I was unable to see, and didn't know if I could walk. The pain was incredible. I was scared.

Well, obviously I made it back to talk about it again, but suffice it to say, I learned a thing or three about myself and about what I needed to do for the next attempt there. I also learned to appreciate what I have: Family, friends, and my own life. Seriously- this was a big eye opener, and even though I was disappointed in not being able to ride anymore down there, (or for about two weeks), I would not have learned what I did without that experience. I've got a scar to remind me too.

Summertime ride with Ben, Curtis, and Jason B.

Northfield Trip #1: In July I went up to help with a criterium Ben Witt was helping put on, and I also got to ride with Ben, Curtis, and Jason B, which was one of my favorite rides of the year.

These guys are a blast to ride with, and I count them as friends. To be out on the rural Minnesota gravel roads in such beauty only enhanced the experience more.

I also got to hang out with Ben's Dad, Mark, and we drove classic cars around in the sun, drank soda from a 50 year old vending machine dispensing 10 ounce bottles, and hung out at a beach on a lake for a bit. That and Mrs. Guitar Ted and I got lost on bicycles in Northfield, plus we stayed at a great Hotel in downtown Northfield. This was a highlight of the entire summer for me. What a great time!

So much happened in one weekend that it is hard to express how much this trip meant to me and my wife. Thanks to all who were a part of this one.

GTDRI: Toledo, Iowa stop.

Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitational: Well, here was a cooker of a ride! It started out foggy, wet, damp, and cool-ish, and ended up becoming a sweltering death march of a ride at the end of the day, but we (almost) all completed a dirty century.

This was a great ride from several standpoints. The people were fantastic. I had folks come in from further abroad than I had ever had- (North Dakota, Michigan), and had more folks on the ride, (13 individuals at different points in the ride), and had a spectacular course to share with them.

The hills were less brutal than they are in Northeast Iowa, but still- they were not easy! We took in the "Wolf Creek Wall", which I had in T.I.V8, and is featured in the film trailer for "300 Miles of Gravel", (see if you can spot it!), which leads into a mile and a half section of hills that suck the life out of you after 75 miles of previous hills.

At any rate, it turned out to be a killer fun ride, and I didn't make the mistake of drinking too much the night before either! Plus I made a few new friends, which is always a good time. Thanks all who came out for that ride!

Okay, look for another Rear View 2011 post tomorrow.

Guitar Ted Productions Rear View 2011: Part II

2011-12-28T01:30:00.000-05:00

CIRREM: Ice Beard. Fun.

Moving on with the look back at 2011 and what I thought were some of the highlights....This time focusing on the events I was in.

CIRREM 2011: For those that are not familiar, CIRREM, (or "Central Iowa Rock Road Endurance Metric"), is a gravel road race/ social gathering on bikes in late February. It's as likely to be muddy and wet as it is cold and snowy. You just never know. Sometimes it is all of those wrapped up in one big, wet, nasty mess.

Well, coming off a disappointing 2010 where I failed to finish most every ride I attempted, the finishing of CIRREM on a cold, snowy, frozen course was imminently satisfying. (Even though I about froze my feet off that day!) I even rode the old Badger I have, squealing brakes and all, and it was fun. Lots of fun.

The event, (which is probably at its field limit for 2012 by the time you are reading this), is based out of Cumming Tap, a prototypical Iowa bar in a small town. The event has that fun, loose feel that doesn't take itself too seriously. I like that. Besides, it takes in some crazy hilly, beautiful Iowa countryside. This kind of event is right up my alley, as far as "races" go, and the people are fun and friendly. I may not get to go again in 2012, but if I do, I will enjoy the ride.

Renegade "Gentleman"

Renegade Gents Race: Not long after CIRREM, I found out about the "Renegade Gents Race", a five man team style event. Five folks had to start together, get through a checkpoint together, and finish together. In between, you could do as you liked, but it was encouraged to stick together as a team.

This was a fun set up, but more than that, I only had ever met one of my "team mates" before toeing the line! That's right- I got to know three new folks by riding in a race with them. For 60 plus miles.

Well, it could have been a complete disaster, but it turned out to become one of the best rides I'd been on in a long time. I made some new acquaintances and our team finished the event together well, albeit not as high up the rankings as we would have liked. Still, I think it was an undeniable fact that we all had a great day out on the bikes with some fantastic people. What more is there than that? (Well, other than drinking a Bud, some Four Loko, and eating a killer chicken Caesar wrap with Sam at the checkpoint).

This event may happen again for me in 2012. Keeping that option open, and growing my beard in anticipation of this event!

David Pals speaking with Eric Brunt at T.I.V7

Trans Iowa V7: And of course, I can not leave without a mention of the seventh running of Trans Iowa. We had 18 finishers, and the weather was pretty decent this time. Can't really complain there.

We had the biggest roll out of Rookies ever, we had a nice turn out, with 76 riders total, (the biggest field to take the start in T.I. history),and we finally had a Women's Open finisher in Janna Vavre.

We had the event filmed, which should come out in early 2012, as "300 Miles of Gravel", by Jeff Frings, and Steve Fuller took some awesome images for the event which have been published in "Dirt Rag" and "Bicycle Retailer and Industry News". Grinnell was an awesome host city again, and overall, the event was seen to be a success.

It wasn't without stress and some turmoil, but that seems to be par for the course most years I have been involved with Trans Iowa. In the end, it was a bit of a bittersweet event, looking back, as it was the last with my co-director, David Pals on board.

Okay, there are more events to talk about, so hang on for more reminiscing tomorrow as I continue the "Rear View of 2011" .

Guitar Ted Productions Rear View 2011

2011-12-27T01:30:00.000-05:00

Yes.......the dreaded, self examination at years end! Oh the horror! Well, this year I am going to just muse on a few things that I felt were significant to me that others might possibly be able to relate to.

That's right- no month-by-month recounting of crap you don't care about!

Today, I am going to spout off about fat bikes. The whole fat bike thing has always intrigued me and while I thought they would be fun, I never knew how fun they really would/could be until I finally got mine last January.

I was riding in weather I never would have rode in before, and I was loving every minute of it. Fat bikes made winter fun again. Then there was that dratted Phil Wood hub.......meh! That squandered a lot of my potential riding in winter. Thanks to Ben Witt, I got a lot more rides in on snow than I would have otherwise.

Finally though, I had to give his wheel back, and I was snow-bike-less until August. Then the whole Phil thing fell apart and I went with Salsa Cycles hubs, which have been great, and I found out fat bikes do great on lots of things besides snow. It has been a ton of fun, and to let you know how much fun it has been, I went all in on another fat bike, (the titanium Mukluk), and I hope to ride fat bikes a whole lot more in 2012.

And as long as I am talking about bicycles.....let's not forget the other one I got this past year that has been just awesome for me- The Black Mountain Cycles "Monstercross", (but I call mine "Orange Crush") which was used extensively throughout the year.

This one got me home on the Renegade Gents Race, the Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitational, and countless gravel adventures and commutes.

In fact, this coming year, I plan on using this bike more, and it will get a few upgrades along the way. I will get a new Chris King head set and bottom bracket in this. Maybe a couple more finer details, like TRP brakes, then it should be done.

I do have to say that I may not be the biggest fan of compact doubles though. Not on gravel, anyway. I think I need a cyclocross ring set up, and that may happen here soon.

So, these two bikes were a big, big deal for me this year. I had a ton of fun on both of them, and I am still stoked that both of these are still in my stable. There are other bikes I got that are awesome as well. Like the new Fargo Gen II, but not any others that have stoked the ride fire like the Mukluk and the Orange Crush.

I'll be back tomorrow with some more Guitar Ted Productions Rear View.

Where Is The Snow?

2011-12-26T01:30:00.000-05:00

Well, I am not going to complain too much, because there are certainly benefits to not having all the white stuff around, but when you have a fat-bike, it seems a bit of a let down.

The temperatures have been uncanny here, and i know that they have been weird elsewhere too. My relatives in El Paso, Texas have had more snow so far than we have had. Heck.....they even had a white Christmas, while we were brown all the way through.

Strange days indeed, and especially so when you consider that the last four years have been really snowy. I think we have short term memories though, because if you go further past the last four years, the winters before that were not very snowy at all.

But that was the past, and this year seems odd at best. One thing it helps is with regard to T.I.V8 recon. I hope to be out there doing that today, actually. A report to follow if I am successful. In the meantime, I will share some more on the build of the titanium Mukluk, which has been dubbed "By-Tor".

I decided to go with these SRAM TT 10 speed shifters and Paul Thumbies. The end result will be a 10 speed rear thumb shifters that are SRAM compatible with my SRAM rear derailleur and 10 speed rear cassette.

Of course, some assembly was required. You have a few bolts to mess with to get the thumb shifters you desire, but it really isn't too hard a process. Give yourself about tem minutes and you will get there. Choice of beverage is optional. I went with "The Black Goodness" for this project, as I was feeling kind of tired.

Viola! Thumb shifters!

Of course, I won't be using the front/left shifter right off. That will be held in reserve for now, but I figured I may as well just swap out both at the same time.

I gotta say that the SRAM shift action is stiff! I wonder if that will break in a bit smoother after use, but right now it is a hard lever to move and when you do, it gives a solid "ker-chunk" when it goes into the next gear position.

My next task is to prepare the crank set. I have quite a bit of cleaning to do, and then I need to source a 32 or 34 tooth chain ring that will work with a 10 speed chain. I may have something, but I may not. Some digging around down in the Lab may turn something up, we'll see.

Until next time.....

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T01:30:00.000-05:00

Here's wishing all you out there, where ever you are, a very Merry Christmas.

I wish you all the best, and thanks for coming around to read my scribes.

I'll be back Monday with another post, till then, have a safe, joyous, and happy holiday.

A Fat, Magic Carpet Ride: Part II

2011-12-23T01:30:00.001-05:00

Puuuurple!

The Salsa Cycles Mukluk Ti is coming together, slow but sure, and most of the parts to build it up are in, or being prepared to be installed.

Here you can see my "one of the last ones" Chris King head set in purple. Looks mighty fine on there, no? I did forget to order a new crown race, so that will get done post-Christmas. You can also see the nice re-enforcement rings on each end of the head tube here too.

The front end will also be graced by that Surly rear single speed hub in purple ano, which should bring a little "pop" to the bike in terms of color. Most of my components will be grey or black, so a few points of color will make the bike visually more stimulating. (At least I think so!)

One question came up earlier in the comments, and it had to do with the fork. I gave a lot of thought to switching the fork over to a White Brothers Snow Pack fork, but in the end there were a few considerations that made me choose to stick with the Enabler Fork instead. Here they are....

The White Brothers fork is made to accept a front hub disc brake mount standard. This means you have to use a 135OLD front specific hub, like the Jones, Paul WHUB, or a couple of others. That also means that the wheel one builds for such a fork is dedicated to that fork only. Kind of limiting when you already have a fat bike with a rear hub standard front hub.
Another thing about the White Brothers fork is that it is a "one trick pony". It holds a front wheel, and that is all. No mounts for anything. The Enabler can do racks, water bottles, or the versatile Anything Cage. It also has fender mounts!
The White Brothers fork is very expensive, and only saves about a half pound of weight.

When taken in aggregate, the choice became obvious to me. Use the Enabler fork!

Moar puuuurple!

Here you go- a look at the seat post clamp. I swapped out the provided pewter clamp for this, more eye catching one, and again- it will tie into the purple theme. Three purple parts hardly makes a "Barney-bike" outta this, but it does give the bike less of a "grey scale" look had I stuck with black components.

Here also you see a glimpse of the FSA seat post from the SLK series. The unidirectional carbon fiber does catch the light and makes for some more visually stimulating places for the eye to rest on here. I was a bit anxious about this post, as it is only a 350mm one and needs 100mm of that inserted into the seat tube. At minimum insertion, I am just at my proper seat height with the WTB SST saddle.

Granted- I could go with a saddle that had a higher profile than the SST, or I could get 180mm cranks, or do both, and get a bit more insertion, but as it is, it should work! If it doesn't, I have a 12K weave Origin 8 carbon post waiting in the wings that is longer. Come to think of it, I've got an old uni-directional carbon Tamer post somewhere too. (Remember those?)

Chain guide, DH Platinum FSA BB

Finally, we have this shot showing the FSA Platinum DH ISIS bottom bracket in the 100mm shell width, of course. The set up I will be using is a "1 X" set up, so without a front derailleur, I needed a chain guide. In with the MRP part seen here, which should tame any unwanted chain jump and keep my chain on the chain wheel.

The crank set and ring will be an older Bontrager crank, the very one I used on the Snow Dog at first, set up with a Salsa Cycles chain ring.

The reasons for this set up come from my experiences on The Snow Dog. I rarely if ever used anything but the middle ring riding everywhere I did this past year. I almost never used the two largest cogs on the cassette- a 32 and a 36T- and that leads me to believe that for most of my riding, this 1X10 set up should do me just right around the Mid-West.

This also allows me to fine tune the gearing a bit with chain ring sizes, but I think most of the time I will be using a 32T or a 34T front ring. This also makes tire clearances a non-issue with respect to ever using 100mm rims and the largest tires. (I don't necessarily plan to run rims that big, but I could.)

The crank spec could also change here at some point to a White Industries 180mm and then I would use a Phil Wood bottom bracket. This would look cooler, be a shade lighter, and be better for the aforementioned seat post insertion and single speeding.

I also may swap in a granny gear on the Bontrager crank at times for mountain rock crawling, at which point I will need to get an XT high direct mount front derailleur, but that can wait.

That's all for now. More on the build as I get to it.

Merry Christmas!

Friday News And Views

2011-12-23T01:30:00.000-05:00

Made In The U.S.A.: I came across this article written by Bruce Gordon, he of frame building fame, on his "SOPWAMTOS" blog. He laments the fact that frame building, (and I assume components as well, since he brings up stems, etc), have been "out-sourced", or in other words- stuff isn't being made in the U.S. anymore. The main point of the piece being that if we do not support those who do make stuff here in the U.S., it will all wither and die and go away.

In terms of bicycles, one has to keep reminding themselves that a complete bicycle is a system of parts originating from all over the place, (but yes- mostly from Asia), and that by merely making the frame in the U.S, it isn't really accomplishing all that much. It is something to be sure, but come on...... Made in the U.S.A. means "all of it made here" to most folks. That isn't going to happen anytime soon.

There was a time when a "Made in the U.S.A." drive train was done here. In the mid-90's, the 'CNC machine craze" was full on in mountain biking, and the dream of a full U.S. manufactured drive train was quickly becoming a reality. Riders were into it too, regardless of the high price of entry. Most of the parts costing 3 times what comparable Asian manufactured drive train parts cost.

However; poor quality and Shimano's introduction of XTR pretty much knocked that idea right outta the ring. U.S. made or not- the stuff needed to work well, and Shimano just killed the CNC guys with their forging technology and engineering. So it has been ever since.

I like Bruce Gordon's idea, and his heart is in the right place, but reality has a long way to go before this kind of "Made in the U.S.A", "people that make their own shit" idea ever becomes feasible for riders. Making more than just frames would be a good start. That said, support those guys that do try.

Surly "Big Dummy"

Cargo Bike Dilemma: I have been bouncing ideas back and forth concerning what I wanted to do about a cargo bike. I have an "Xtracycled" Schwinn Sierra from the 80's, and well.......I find it to be sub-optimal for my needs.

It does have all of the nice Xtracycle accessories though, so I just didn't want to switch to something that I couldn't make use of those accessories with. That meant the excellent Fisher Collection Transport was out of the running. I really, really like that bike, but it doesn't play with my stuff. So, the next apparent choice was the Sun Atlas cargo bike, but I found out that it also does not accept all of the accessories I have already.

That leaves the Big Dummy, which isn't a bad choice at all. It obviously will take on all of my accessories from Xtracycle, and it is smartly designed. I look forward to building that rig out next spring.

Image Credit: W. Kilburg

Trans Iowa V8: So, this "non-snow" event we're having looks to be playing into my hands now in regard to Trans Iowa recon. I usually am stuck just sitting around thinking about stuff this time of year. Not this year.

I haven't had the opportunity to get out yet for a couple weeks due to illness and then family obligations, but I look forward to scooting out and doing some more recon very soon.

I have a certain section to get at that should be the end of any speculation on my part for the course. A big part of the last bits I am already quite familiar with, and I only need to string it together and drive it to verify the roads. All told, there is about a 150 miles to drive yet, and then it will all be in the bag.

Then it will be all detail work. Cue sheets, getting the finish line setting squared away, number plates, or not, and drumming up some volunteers for the Checkpoint #1 duty and one other checkpoint. Want to volunteer? Give me a shout and I'll get you on my list.

Okay, that's a wrap. If you are traveling, have a safe trip, and Merry Christmas from Guitar Ted Productions! I'll be checking in here this weekend at least once, otherwise, see ya next week!

Harvesting Parts.

2011-12-22T01:30:00.000-05:00

You will donate your parts to my Ti awesomeness!

Okay....enough with all the teasers, here is the entire frame for ya'all to look over. This is the Salsa Cycles Mukluk Ti frame. (It comes with a pewter Lip-Loc seat collar, an Enabler front fork, the Problem Solvers front derailleur direct mount, and a spare driveside drop out that has the derailleur hangar integral to it.)

Those sharp eyed amongst you will notice that the cables are not routed down the down tube on this one. They are run underneath the top tube and underneath each seat stay. No funky rear brake route.

The down tube is bi-axially ovalized for strength and stiffness, the head tube is reinforced, and is a 1 1/8th standard diameter. (Getting rather odd to see that these days) There are three bottle mounts on this size Large, with two more on the fork. The down tube and fork can also mount Salsa Cycles "Anything Cages", which are designed for canisters and dry bags. The rear drop outs are the Salsa Cycles "Altenator Drop Outs" which allow for single speed set up, or I suppose one could fine tune their wheel base with those as well. Again- there is a derailleur compatible Altenator plate also supplied with the frame, and that isn't shown here.

Also not shown is the Problem Solvers Direct Mount Adapter for the Mukluk. This allows for the fitment of a front derailleur, if desired. I'm not planning on using a front derailleur right away, so that part will be omitted from my build initially.

Some things were sacrificed along the way...

I've got a load of parts sitting at the shop waiting for me to pay for them so I can get started on this little project. I'll get into all of that later, but I will detail the parts I "harvested" yesterday to help with the completion of this rig.

I always like to incorporate a bit of the vintage or otherwise "old" into my new bike builds, and this one is no different. The specific parts that are old here will actually be some of the most notable/noticeable ones too.

First up, I have the Surly rear hub, which was one of the super rare purple anodized ones they did several years ago. This hub will become the center piece for the front wheel, and will be part of my theme, color-wise, for this build. I like purple. It is one of my favorite colors. That said, I won't be going overboard with it. Just a few highlights will be enough. By the way, the hub was laced to one of my 29"er wheels, which I sacrificed for this build.

Bead blasted panel

The next keystone to this theme is my Chris King head set in purple ano, so graciously gifted to me by George over at Bike 29.com. This head set was amongst the very last three purple ano head sets ever made by Chris King. This head set was in my old '07 El Mariachi, which was torn down for this project.

There will be one other purple bit, but I will cover that in the new parts later.

Another harvested part here is the WTB SST leather covered saddle, which also came from my old El Mariachi. SST's or Pure V saddles are my favorites. I like Brooks B-17's as well, but this is going to be used as a mountain/trail bike, so I don't want a B-17 on there for that reason.

The grips, Ergon Bio-Kork models, were also ripped from the El Mariachi, and will provide a nice, comfy perch for the hands that shouldn't suck any heat out in the cold, but will work great in summer too.

Finally, there are the new, never before installed FSA SLK parts. The seat post, handle bar, and stem have been sitting on the hold shelf waiting for a special project, and this is it.

I'll have more on the parts for this titanium frame coming soon, which I suppose I should name "By-Tor", since the other Mukluk is named "The Snow Dog", eh?

Chasing The Next Trends

2011-12-21T01:30:00.000-05:00

Circa 2007 Haro Sonix w/650B wheels

So, a lot of folks are going to start to wonder, "what's next" in terms of mountain biking. Why? Because we seem to get bored with the latest and greatest at warp speed anymore. You know, "that was soooo 27 seconds ago!". That attitude scares the bejesus outta marketing wonks, and the general public. So....once the newest stuff hits, the next trend is always being looked for, and here is what is going to hit you all upside the head in the coming months and years.

29"ers, once the bastard chile of da mountain bike world, is now "normal". That's bad. Bad for marketing "cutting edge" products. Long travel 29"ers are very problematic, the short chain stays/tire clearance/triple crank clearance trifecta being nigh unto impossible to achieve with big 29 inch diameter wheels. So, the marketers have decided for you that 120mm-130mm is going to be the limit for travel on 29 inch wheeled mountain bikes.

What are you going to do if you want 5" of travel and beyond with "big wheels"? You will get the "compromise wheel solution" called 650B by their supporters. (I still like 27.5"ers, but that's just me.) Why? Because the marketing wonks have latched on to this solution big time. Trust me, you will hear a lot about this wheel size starting next spring for the 2013 model year. I can't even make any hints right now, but I have actually seen some things, and it is coming. Long travel 27......er, 650B- is going to be "the next big thing" in mountain bikes.

Plug In- Charge Up- Tune Out: The other "big deal" you are going to start hearing a lot about is electronic shifting for mountain bikes. That's right- you won't have to tune your bike again, and shifting will be by buttons that won't fail you......well, that is until the power goes out. The only two cables on your bike will be hydraulic lines to your brakes. Yeah, and by the way- that will be an 11 speed set up too. I expect that the range of gearing will stay constant- 11-32/36, but the jumps between gears will tighten up even further. Shimano is really big on the tighter gear ratios right now, so look for that to happen instead of a wider gearing range.

The death of 9 speed will be hastened by all of this with Shimano and SRAM dropping 8 speeds to bare entry level rigs, and 9 speed will be the realm of cheap "mountain bike shaped objects". Real mountain bikes will all be 10 speed systems, or the aforementioned 11 speeds.

Fat-bikes: More than just for snow.

Real. Fat. Tires.: You are going to hear a lot more about "fat-bikes". Not only that, but some are going to start showing up that will be designed for tasks outside of snow/sand riding.

I expect someone will crack open a box someday soon with a fat-bike specific suspension fork. I can see dual suspension fat bikes being sold, (tinkerers are already making convincing examples from 29"er FS bikes), and more materials technology is going to be thrown at this genre' of bike to help make wheels lighter, stronger, and more fun and capable.

There may be some drive train tweaks that will make the bikes work with wide range triples, 9-10 speed cassettes, and 100mm wide rims with 4.5" rubber. I also expect to start seeing someone offer a conversion, or an outright designed 170mm internally geared hub. Belt driven too. Accessories for fat-bikes will start to appear like fenders, racks, and components designed to work in a wide range of temperatures and severe conditions. Tubeless tire systems and tubeless ready tires may even be a possibility.

Those are the things you're going to start hearing a lot more about in 2012 and beyond.......

A Fat, Magic Carpet Ride

2011-12-20T01:30:00.000-05:00

No decals!

Well........I bet it won't take you long to figure out what this is!

I decided to take the plunge and I ordered a new Salsa Cycles Mukluk Ti, or in other words, a titanium Mukluk frame and steel Enabler fork.

Having seen other titanium Salsa Cycles products, I was quite aware of the quality of workmanship that a titanium fat-bike from them would bring to the table. When I saw that Salsa was going to do a flotation bike last year, I knew a titanium one would follow shortly. It just made too much sense. Then when the call went out for pre-orders to Salsa Cycles dealers, like the shop where I work, I jumped on the bandwagon. I didn't know exactly when it would come in, but it has now, and I will begin getting parts for this rounded up.

The Muk 1 comes with a SS dropout and a geared one.

The plan for this frame and fork will be to build up a "summer" fat bike. In essence, I will using this most of the year, and the Snow Dog will be limited to actual winter snow bike duties and outfitted accordingly.

Since most of the year is snow-free here, the titanium bike will be the non-snow rig. (But that doesn't mean I would not ever use it in snow!)

The tentative plan now is to go 1X9 or 10 with a SRAM TT shifter on a Paul's mount thumbie style. If I gear correctly, it should be just peachy for almost anywhere I go with this bike. I will be using an ISIS crank, but I have not determined what it will be just yet. For times I go to the mountains, I may swap over to a Origin 8 Sub Compact crank for even lower gear choices and then I'll use an XT direct mount 2X derailleur. But for now, it's 1X. I may even do a single speed set up at some point.

The wheels will be a bit different. I am going to use a Surly rear single speed hub as a front hub and a Salsa Cycles rear 170OLD hub. These will be laced to Fatback UMA II 70mm rims that are drilled out. No need to have the widest rims on a summer fat bike build, and the Fatback rims will be lighter than Rolling Darryls too. Tires will eventually be Husker Du's. (They are not quite available yet.) I also have spare 3.8 Larry tires to swap over to if I desire.

The rest of the build will be pretty swanky stuff, most of which I already have. Chris King head set, FSA stem, carbon bars, and carbon seat post. I'll probably get a WTB SST saddle on there, and Ergon Bio-cork grips. Brakes will be the new Elixir 9's from Avid in a pewter hue, which should go well with titanium. The blades will be carbon fiber on those as well.

It will be awhile before this one is ready to roll, but I will put up some progress reports on the build as I go. Stay tuned for the "as yet to be named" titanium Mukluk!

Fat-Bike At Night

2011-12-19T01:30:00.000-05:00

Night riding adventure!

I've made a little loop out from the house that I can take on the Snow Dog. It takes me through the Green Belt and around that little lake-pond out there, then back on the bike path towards the house.

It isn't a spectacular route. It isn't all that difficult, but it is fun, and at night the trails take on another dimension. Things get a bit tougher, and with the fat-bike it goes a little slower. Just right, really, for the training I need to be getting in right now.

Mostly, I don't have to worry about any obligations at night. My wife is doing her exercise routine anyway, or she is doing household work that I am not invited to partake in, (because I would totally screw up the laundry, as a for instance), and my children are off to bed. I may as well fit a bike ride in then as any time, right?

The big key to unlocking the potential night rides now was getting a "real" light. That Lezyne Super Drive I have been writing about lately really does alright at night in the woods. I ran it at the 300 lumen setting, and it worked really well. Now I need to remember that light I use for the helmet the next time I go out!

Spooky light in the sky

So the other thing I have been doing is messing around with my Panasonic LX-3 out there. It takes in a ton of light, and I have to get myself a tripod at some point, but for now, I have been just trying to use things like my bicycle seat to steady the camera on for these longer exposures.

The last shot here is me holding the camera on top of my head, pointing it straight into the sky. The air was full of frost coming down and that left a spooky image which I thought was kind of cool. (That bright spot is a star) Maybe its just me, but I get a kick out of messing around like this with my camera.

Well, that isn't all that is going on out there. I have a bit of an obstacle to cross. A very steeply cut bank with about a foot of ice cold water running through it at the bottom. Without a bike as heavy as the Mukluk, I could leap across this chasm, but with it I am forced to get across by using the bike as a pick.

It gets kind of sketchy at night, the ground is super slick, and the bank is very steep. Made for a few tense moments there, but I made it across. I didn't realize that I had doused my rotor with water though, and it froze over the surface of the rotor after I got back to riding. Hitting the brake the first time was a bit scary! After a few hard applications though, it went away and I was off bounding through the woods again.

I think the Lezyne light and a torch strapped to my helmet will be a killer combo for doing more of this sort of riding in the coming weeks. Well, at least until it snows! Then I may have to modify my route somewhat.

I Could Take The Rest Of The Year Off Now, But...

2011-12-18T01:30:00.000-05:00

There is always the "but", no? Well, yes, there always is that, and in my case, I am not stopping here. So what in the world is the title about?

My personal blogging "PR" for a year has now officially been smashed. Previous record for a year was 372 posts, (for those keeping track at home).

Well, now with that out of the way, here are some bits to chew on for your Sunday.....

Kingdom Bike Project Savant 140

Long Travel 29"ers: While some may scoff at the need for a really long travel 29"er, that doesn't seem to dampen the enthusiasm of others to make such products available. Here we see a rendering for a carbon fiber frame from "Kingdom Bikes Project" called the Savant.

(Note: They didn't call it an "Idiot Savant", which I find mre appealing, but that's just me.)

So, a carbon frame with carbon swing link that is convertible to a 120mm travel. The planned design has really slack angles too. Crazy slack in the 140mm mode for a 29"er at 67* head/69.5* seat angles.

Not sure how that'll work, but hey! Pre-order is available, so you can jump in and find out, presumably, next spring. With these numbers it seems that you could set the bike up with a 100mm travel and get reasonable angles and bottom bracket heights. Hmm......

Origin 8 Scout 29 V4

Origin 8 Scout 29 Updated: This is a spy shot of the Scout 29 from Origin 8 that is due for an update in the coming year. This will mark the fourth update of this model that I am aware of.

This time, Origin 8 is promising lighter steel tubing. That should make for a livelier ride quality, and obviously shed some grams.

The last generation or two of this bike was pretty porky, but handled really well with a 470mm axle to crown fork on tight single track. No word on any major changes to the design beyond the tubing change.

If that geometry stays intact, the Scout 29 with a lighter frame may just jump up the ladder as an excellent choice for a budget single track screamer.

Yes: That's really "that guys" grave site!

Ibis Ripley 29: You're looking at the only Ibis Ripley 29"er that is rideable in existence right now. It is being "real world" tested to sus out any flaws in the design, but I suspect this will be close to final production, in terms of the silhouette.

The Ripley is a much anticipated release, and with no surprise, since its 26"er sibling is a very desirable and much lauded bike. This Ripley has a lot to live up to.

The Ripley is using a similar idea to the Yeti SB 95 in that the short link pivots are so close together they were integrated into an eccentric. Whether or not this plays out to be a good idea, that has yet to be determined from a longevity/maintenance perspective. However; the indications are that it should be a really good design.

Chances are this will end up becoming Ibis' best selling bike in short order, judging from all the hoopla it generated at Eurobike when it was unveiled. Prices will be steep, but I don't think that will deter the bikes success in any way. Ibis' other high end offerings have a good track record of sales as well.

Okay, that's all for today. I'm going back to sip on my Christmas coffee and chill out for a while as I celebrate the season!

Triple D Training Update

2011-12-17T03:45:00.000-05:00

Okay, so this event is a month away now and Christmas, New Years, my wedding anniversary, and all that goes with that stands between my training and the time of this event.

Who came up with this schedule anyway?

No snow either......yet!

Then you add in the fact that I was pretty much totally out of whack health-wise for a week. It started a week ago with a severe stomach virus and shooting fluids out of both ends until I was so dehydrated that I had a piercing head ache, and muscle cramping to the point I couldn't sleep well, if at all. This went on until Tuesday, when I was able to retain anything without spontaneous eruption, and the long road to recovery began there.

So, needless to say, my chemistry has been unbalanced for a while, and even just casually riding to work and back was a major undertaking. I did get that night ride in, and then Friday afternoon I finally got a proper training ride in again, the first in well over a week.

So, yeah.......my preparation for this event is waaaay off schedule!

That's why these Holidays are really going to mess with things. I just don't see myself getting into any kind of a groove going into this deal. So, ya know what? I'm just going to go for a ride that day.

Did some pond circumnavigating....

Oh, don't get me wrong- I am going to triple D, toeing the line, and riding, but that is exactly it- I will be out for a ride that day.

I have zero designs on being in any semblance of "shape" or "fitness" for this deal. Not after being drug down to the edge, having my health in such disarray for over a week, and then not being able to schedule anything close to "regular" training up to the event.

Truth be told, I am still not up to 100%, and if I push things too far, to soon, I won't get back to 100%. I just had to mentally make peace with that for this event. I have to set a different goal, and for this event, it is going to be exploring a new area by bike. Others will be racing. I will be riding. For fun.

So, there ya have it. If I can even cover a majority of the miles others get in, then fine. That will be a win for me. I just have to concenterate on getting better at this point.

Friday News And Views

2011-12-16T01:30:00.000-05:00

Videos To Waste Away Your Friday By: Okay, today I am going to feature a couple of things that tickled my fancy recently in the form of videos. The first is from a U.K. persona, Ed Oxley, better known on the "inner-web-o-sphere" as "Great Rock". He is a mountain bike guide and skills instructor, and generally all-around good egg, from what I know of him. And.........he has a rockin' beard!

Edventure from Whitenosugar Productions on Vimeo.

Well, recently the video above made the rounds and it is really representative of his humor and shows what you can do to just have fun and "adventure by bike". Check it out. (Note: There may be a foul word in here, but with that dialect, I have a hard time knowing if I've been offended or not. On the whole this is harmless. I would definitely let my kids watch it, for instance.)

Next up we have this sent to me by T.I. Vet "Dr. Giggles". It is one of those electro-vox-animated deals that you see a lot of, but the subject matter, (concerning cyclist's propensity for odd, pain related activities and for excessive spending on gear), really hits close to home. I found myself laughing, despite myself, at a few points. A bit long at 7-plus minutes, and definitely Not Safe For Work due to language.

The "no-name" "Neck Romancer", er..whatever!

A Bit On The Surly Black...er Necro...er....Whatever! Black Pugs!

In what can only be termed as "ludicrous", a recent paint scheme naming frenzy surrounding the innocent looking fat-bike in the image here has occurred.

First shown as the "Black Ops Pugsley", this bike was basically a "murdered out" Pugs with a twist on the typical parts spec. Okay. No big deal, right?

Well, a certain "importer" has used "Black Ops" as a branding name and, (we're guessing), because of that, made Surly change the name. Surly then chose "Necromancer" as the designation for this special Pugs. Well, the "dark" nature of this name brought howls of disapproval from the peanut gallery, and apparently, to assuage them, Surly made yet another change to the name. Now called the "Neck Romancer", it has gotten to the point of being ridiculous and has gone waaay too far. How about we just call it the "Black Pugs" and be done with this madness?

Besides all of that nonsense, the bike itself seems pretty cool. It feels shorter and more nimble than a Mukluk, but doesn't weigh much different, and they both are great bikes. This is a pretty rare bird right now. The "Black Pugs" is tough to come by due to high demand. We were lucky to score this one for a customer at the shop where I work.

At the 450L/High setting

Update On The Lezyne Super Drive: Well, I got out on the bike the other evening with the Lezyne Super Drive attached to the Snow Dog. Here are my initial thoughts...

This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine! Uh.......'scuse me! Well, you might find yerself singin' the same tune when/if you try the Super Drive. It is a commuter's dream light, I think. Bright, yes, but that beam pattern! Look at how it floods and throws light down the trail in my, (not so great, I know), shot here. Very even, not much of a hot spot at all, and no halo/ring effect from the lens. The light color is also really good.

Of course, that is on High. What about the other settings? Well, Medium/300lumens is just as impressive and boots the run time up a bit. Only when dropping off to the 150 lumen setting do you see a dramatic dip in visibility, but honestly, I could ride gravel in the country as fast as I dared to go in the day for the entire 4.5 hours of run time available on Low setting. 150 lumens is really quite enough for that sort of riding.

Again, it is the quality of the beam pattern and throw that get me excited about this light. I'll give it some more runs before offering a final opinion, but this thing is really impressing me so far.

Ode To An Old Bag

2011-12-15T01:30:00.000-05:00

The time was coming and I knew it. I couldn't put it off forever, but I wasn't quite ready to cut the ties just yet. Then, suddenly, an opportunity came and I opted to accept it. With that fateful decision made, the die was cast.

I'm sorry Old Bag, but it is time for me to move on......

The last load......

You were good. Really good, and I didn't think that we would get on as well as we did. When you came to me, I scoffed at the idea that I needed such a contraption to use for commuting, or for anything else, really. But I found that you, Old Bag, were awesome at hauling stuff I might need to repair my bike, and clothes that I needed to wear, or for other errands that I could do by bicycle. And that wasn't all. There were all the trips we went on as well.

The Old bag and I went to California and saw Santa Cruz, Monterey, and San Francisco. We went to Texas, Utah, Nevada, and Minnesota.

We did events like the Dirty Kanza 200, Gravel Worlds, and The Renegade Gents Race together. We did CIRREM, a few Fargo Adventure Rides, and several Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitationals together. I don't even want to think about all those gravel road recon miles and Trans Iowas we did!

We were in airports from Georgia to Illinois, Texas to Minnesota, and more. We went camping. We went on adventures by bicycle. Yeah.......there were a lot of memories with you, Old Bag, but now it is time to make memories with another.

Even though you are not quite dead yet, you are showing your age. That zipper is getting worse, and the travel stained material is starting to show a lot of wear. You were good. You never complained through it all though, I'll hand that to ya.

All the times I over-stuffed you. All the times I hurriedly kicked you under an airplane seat. The bumping, the banging. The frozen slush, the wet mud. The time I left a muffin inside of you until it was pulverized to bits. (Not found until weeks later!) None of it fazed you in the least. I can only hope that your replacement is as hardy, as worthy as you are.

It isn't like I am throwing you out to the curb either. Oh no! I wouldn't do that to you, faithful Old Bag. Nope, but you've paid your dues, and now it is time for retirement. Thanks Old Bag, you done good!

Lezyne Super Drive: New Generation LED Light

2011-12-14T01:30:00.000-05:00

It's not all that big

The good folks at Lezyne sent over this new Super Drive LED light to be reviewed on The Cyclistsite. It is one of three models Lezyne is introducing for 2012.

I thought I would give everyone a sneak peek at this much anticipated light.

The Lezyne lights have been teased since Interbike and were strongly rumored before then, but details were somewhat scarce. The line up includes this top of the line Super Drive, the Power Drive, and the Mini Drive.

The range has some zap to it power-wise too. The top end Super Drive sports 450 lumens, the Power Drive has 300 lumens and the Mini Drive has a high power of 150 lumens. All are self contained units. No separate battery packs here. My first impression upon looking at the Super Drive was, "Man! That thing isn't very big."

It is about the size of a Mag Lite Mini, if you are familiar with those older Halogen bulbed flashlights. It is light in weight, and the model I have here is anodized in a nice pewter hue.

The package contains everything you need to get up and rolling. There are two mounts to match up with 25.4mm or 31.8mm bars, a thumbscrew to fasten the clamps, the proprietary battery, torch body/lens with mounting base, the USB charger cord, and the instructions.

The torch has a rear cover that unscrews to allow access to the inner cavity where the battery resides. Install the battery, hook up the USB cord to the covered port at the base of the torch body, and plug it into your powered USB port on your computer, or USB power wall wart. The instructions claim a four hour charge time, but my example was charged fully in just over three hours out of the box.

Interestingly, the light is made to flash softly as it charges. When it stops, the light is fully charged. If you want an assurance that it is done charging, the instructions say unplug the USB cord, then plug back in, and the light should flash once, indicating a full charge. My example didn't do this right off. I un-plugged and plugged back in three times before I got the "one flash then off" signal.

Once charged up, you can expect the following run times:

High: 450 lumens- 1.5hr
Medium 300 lumens- 2.5hr
Low 100 lumens- 4hr
Flash 300 lumens- 5hr

To turn on the unit, hold down the button on the top of the torch for 1.5 seconds. It illuminates at high power first. Hit the button again to tab down to Medium, and so on through to Flash mode, and then it will cycle around back to High. To power down, hold the button down for 1.5 seconds.

The light indicates low power by kicking down to the Low mode and flashing occasionally indicating approximately 15 minutes of reserve battery power. Additionally, you can re-charge from any point in the discharge of the battery without affecting the run times according to Lezyne. Leaving the battery plugged into the USB charge cable and a computer/power source after a complete charge also is not detrimental to the unit.

The light mounted up to my bars easily, and it has a swivel which allows for a few degrees of tilt side to side to adjust the beam as you like it. Of course, up and down is adjusted simply by twisting the bar mount on the bars. Sadly, there is no helmet mount included. The Lezyne Super Drive MSRP is $109.00.

I haven't had a chance to ride this with this light yet, but my impressions are that if it can live up to its claims it will be a great little light. I'll have more to say soon after I get some rides in on it.

Note: Lezyne sent this light over to be reviewed on The Cyclistsite at no charge. They did not bribe me nor pay me for this post, and I will strive to give my honest opinions and thoughts throughout.

Righting A Wrong

2011-12-13T01:30:00.000-05:00

Pofahl Custom 29"er

I've got a lot of bicycles. No denying that fact. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, by the way. I don't think it is a bad thing as long as I actually use each one that belongs to me when I can.

The trouble is that I have this other gig where people want me to ride their bikes and other stuff. That is also a lot of fun, but it takes time away from the personal bikes. Sometimes the old favorites get parts pinched for projects. Sometimes they just sit and linger unloved.

This gets on my nerves, as I don't like having stuff I don't use around like that. So, this feeling got to a point where I figured I'd better do something about it and I have been refurbishing and primping my older personal rigs when I can find the time. This one, my custom Pofahl 29"er, has been fixed to the point I could ride it again yesterday.

The Pofahl was designed to have a custom bar installed that never happened. So, I started out with a drop bar. The bike has seen several handle bar iterations, but now I have set it back to its "original" drop bar state. The bar here is a Woodchipper. The stem holding it up is a fairly new Bontrager Race Lite.

Looking for some back roads action

This is a single speed specific bike, so I only use disc brake capable, single speed specific wheels on it. These wheels were to go on another bike I have that ended up geared instead. These Industry 9 wheels were then bounced around from project to project for a bit until they were also just sitting around. Well, that wouldn't do!

So they went on the Pofahl- again- and with some good gravel grindin' Vulpines for tires. Everything else has been on this bike for some time now.

My favorite parts are the cranks and the seat post. The cranks are from my old Diamondback V-Link Pro, and are the venerable Race Face Turbine LP's converted to single speed use. They are 180mm ones too. The other part I like here is the Syncros post, a 410mm non-offset aluminum one. That was off my old Klein Attitude.

I threw some old white bar tape on to get it going, but now that everything seems to be happy together, I will be getting some proper bar tape on it. Then it will be off to riding gravel and B Maintenance roads somewhere.

If there is any change, I think it will be to go with a honey colored B-17 Brooks and a new bar wrap of leather bar tape to really set off the bike. Oh yeah.......and a less flashy stem!At least she's rideable. That's the main thing for me. I look forward to getting out on this bike soon.

On The Road To Recovery

2011-12-12T01:30:00.000-05:00

You know, there are some things in most of our lives we'd rather forget. Things like that window you broke when you were seven, the time you put the car in the ditch in high school, or maybe ever asking that one person out. Whatever it is, we all have those moments. I had a weekend that was mostly forgettable on that same level.

Lincoln Stars vs Waterloo Blackhawks

Now.....don't get me wrong. There were some highlights. That said, it wouldn't take a whole lot to rise above the depths of what was Friday. Yeah....there were about four hours in there I'd rather not ever go through again!

Got kids? well, if you do, you will understand the following. My son came down ill on Wednesday night. Bad vomiting, stomach ache, head ache- the typical 24 hour deal. Well, he ended up sharing that with the entire Guitar Ted household.

And wouldn't ya know it? I got the worst end of the stick. My insides were at war with me, and they almost won. Almost. (There was a bit there where I wish they would have won, and that I could just die. Really. )

I won't go into all the gory details. Just know that when devoid of almost all bodily fluids, you really get weak, and the hurt is really bad. It has been a slow walk back from that pit the rest of the weekend. Not that I am back yet either. I'm not. You just don't bounce back at my age like you used to.

So, no bike riding for me this weekend. It was pretty darn nice out there too, for a mid-December weekend, that is. I actually was planning on doing some Trans Iowa recon, but alas. Not to be.

I did get to play my guitar at the church, make a lot of noise, and went to a hockey game with my two kids, who are almost recovered themselves. Mrs. Guitar Ted is the one sick now. She's coming along though. One of those deals.......

Hope you got to ride some roads or trails this past weekend. Me? I'm still on the Road To Recovery.

T.I.V8: The Registration Is Done, Now What?

2011-12-11T01:30:00.000-05:00

Registration closed last night and the roster is set for another Trans Iowa. First I'll give my thoughts on the folks that got in and then I'll give you a look at what's next in terms of Trans Iowa.

Well, it turned out to be pretty interesting at the end there! A last small slug of Vet entries took away whatever hope a few Rookies had of sliding into T.I.V8 without sitting on The Waiting List to see if they can get in. Veterans came within two of filling out their class this time, which surprises me a bit, I guess, especially considering who didn't get into the event from the Finishers and Veterans pool.

Notable Trans Iowa folks that are generally factors in the event like Tim Ek, Joe Meiser, and Sean Mailen elected not to come back. That said, there are Rookies in the event that are amongst Tour Divide finishers and premier rando events like Paris-Brest-Paris. (I'll let them introduce themselves when the time is right.)

Then there are some folks entered into Trans Iowa V8 that go waaaaay back to the beginnings of the event in '05. It's great to have finishers and vets from those early editions signing on to T.I.V8. Of course, we also have several folks back with extensive Trans Iowa experience, and most notable of these is Jim McGuire, who has been in every edition of Trans Iowa so far. (I am pretty sure he is alone in that distinction now.)

And let's not forget the 41 Rookies, most of whom I have never met, and I look forward to seeing you all in April! Last, but not least, we have 4 Women that will be toeing the line in Grinnell. I'll be rooting for all of that class to finish big time. Thanks for taking the chance!

So, what's next? This was a great question I got from one of the Rookies while Registration was still on. Here's the details of what will be happening on my end, and what you need to be paying attention to in the coming months.

The Waiting List: First off, it is a reality that some of you Roster spot holders will end up finding out- for whatever reasons- that you won't be at T.I.V8. If that is the case, please let me know ASAP. There are about 15 people sitting on the list that could have a shot at getting into T.I.V8 if you drop out before January 31st. After 1/31/12, the Roster will not be replenished from the Waiting List. Generally I get from 3-7 early drop outs. Most folks pop off the Roster in the month preceding a T.I., which is too little time to be prepared for a triple century plus event.
On my end, I have to tidy up recon, formulate cue sheets, set time limits, get odds and ends like number plates, (or not), and find some Volunteers. Grinnell details will be hammered out, and Pre-Race Meat-Up details will be finalized. All this during the Winter and early Spring, when I can fit it in. I'll be dealing with sponsors, getting logistics squared away, and contacting you all via e-mail about the Pre-Race Meat-Up menu.
Meanwhile, you all should be training, experimenting with gear choices, be making reservations for a motel, (See the site for details on our lodging deal), and making sure you are going to be at the Friday, April 27th Pre-Race Meat-Up. This meeting is mandatory to be able to ride in T.I.V8. Don't be late, and don't miss it. You will not ride if you are either one of those.
The Day of the event starts out really early! You should plan on being at the start line by 3:30am, with the controlled roll out at 4:00am sharp! You will have an allotted amount of time to travel gravel roads 51 or so miles to Checkpoint #1. If you are late- even by a minute- your day will be done. Those that get through will get another set of cues leading them to Checkpoint #2. Again, another time limit must be met. Those fortunate enough to reach Checkpoint #2 before the cut-off, and want to continue, will get another set of cues to the finish in Grinnell, Iowa. You must finish by 2pm Sunday, April 29th to be considered a Finisher.

Okay, that's a brief and incomplete overview of the events leading up to T.I.V8 and some brief descriptions of the event itself. I'll go over more of this in detail in the coming weeks and months. If there are any questions, please leave a comment, or send an e-mail to me.

Friday News And Views

2011-12-09T01:30:00.000-05:00

With Trans Iowa V8 Registration coming to a close Saturday, here is where things stand at the moment.

Finishers registration closed last week, and the Rookies filled their class last Monday. Since then, six lonely entry spots for Veterans have been dangling out there, waiting to be picked off.

As far as I know, one of those is going to get nipped by a T.I.V7 vet today. (Promised overnight letter I was alerted to should show up today) That would leave 5 entries. If those go unclaimed by Vets, then at midnight Saturday night, the first five names on my Waiting List will appear on the roster to fill them. Of course, those will all be Rookies.

That will leave at least 15 names on the Waiting List for T.I.V8. If I get anyone on the Roster that can't make it to T.I.V8 , and they let me know before January 31st, 2012, the Waiting List #1 position would get first crack at a chance to claim the spot, and so on. If your name doesn't appear on the Roster this weekend, you are on the Waiting List. Stay tuned....

Short Stay Syndrome: I got a few great comments on the post this week about short chain stay "all mountain" hard tails. Now I want to share a few more thoughts on the subject in terms of full suspension bikes.

DeVinci Atlas 29 FS: 16.9" chain stays

I saw a great example of what happens when designers try to cram a front derailleur, suspension linkage, and all with super-short chain stays into a design with 29 inch wheels at Interbike this past September.

It isn't that you can't have short chain stays, but you will have difficulties with regards to front derailleur overlap, and any decent tire clearances.

The Atlas 29 was sporting really short, (for a full suspension device), chain stays at sub 17 inches. However clever the seat tube and linkages may be, the tire clearance was limited to sub-2.3" tires, (at best), and a triple chain ring set up would probably only barely work with XC-ish tires on board. The bike was shown with a 2X set up at the show, and narrow, XC type race tires.

And the Atlas was not the only bike showing the compromises made by designers. The much lauded Yeti SB 95 with its short-ish chain stays, barely had much more room than the shown Racing Ralph 2.1"ers were taking up. On the other end of the scale, the new Salsa Cycles Horsethief, with plenty of tire clearance, room for a triple crank with ease, had almost 18" chain stays.

It's easy to see that other bikes with shrinking chain stay measurements are also making similar compromises. (Kona Satori, Rocky Mountain Element 29) So, the limitations of design seem to indicate that, (as of now), there is no easy answer for riders looking for the shortest chain stays and a full suspension design. (By the way, the same limitations exist in hard tails as well.)

About Three More Weeks: That's how long it is until 2012 and there will be some big changes coming for some things I am involved with. I can not let all the details loose right now, but I am excited to see how a project I and a colleague have been working on behind the scenes will come out. So far.......so good! I am hoping everything else goes smoothly so this can come to a fruitful ending and I think many of you will appreciate the new things coming as well.

In other news of end-o-the-year happenings, I made a goal at the end of April this past spring to set a personal record for blog posts on this site this year. You know.....just to see if I could do it. Well, I am smashing the old record to bits, and it is likely I will never post as much as I have this year again. Maybe. I don't know....maybe I will. It isn't like I am going to shut this down, but I may return to "normal" levels for 2012. What is happening on some other fronts may affect that.

Well, that's probably not very interesting stuff to a lot of you, but thanks for reading! I appreciate it.

And get outside this weekend! Stay out of the malls, big box stores, and shop local, ya'all. Take some pics, and go on an adventure.

The Training Rides Begin

2011-12-08T01:30:00.000-05:00

With the Triple D Race coming up sooner than later, I had thoughts of getting on the stick and training. Riding the set up, tweaking a bit, and checking things off my list needed to start happening.

Monday evening I got in a bit over an hour, but my current lighting is not all that great. In fact, I thought I was really in for a bad ride at first. Of course, (and I really hate to admit this), but it is the first night ride I've done all year! Well, maybe I did one other one. But whatever. I have not ridden at night in a long time, and I had trouble seeing well.

It came back to me by the end of the ride, and things weren't so bleak, but these lights I have are marginal at best. I found out today that help is on the way though. I am to be getting a Lezyne Supedrive light and it's already "in the mail", so soon I can test that out on some night rides to get the hang of riding at night again.

The bag set up seems good. I am going to ad a Mountain Feed Bag to the handle bar though for easy access to grub. Grub will be important! I may re-arrange a few items in the bags as they are, but basically this is the set up.

Image courtesy of Milltown Cycles

Oh yeah. There is one other, small, minute, inconsequential detail that I need to attend to before Triple D.

Rumor has it that titanium Mukluk frames are in.

Rumor also has it that I may, or may not be buying one to set up as my winter bike. I can neither confirm, nor deny that this may be the case.

If that should be a rumor that is true, then I would be looking at a big swap over project from my current Snow Dog to the titanium bike. Well.........if it was true and all!

And if this were to be the truth, then what would become of the Snow Dog? Oh, I've got some ideas! Definitely. I've got some ideas. They include using a pair of Uma II 70mm rims I just happen to be sitting on down in The Lab.

But......you know, it's all a moot point unless I do actually get this rumored titanium Mukluk frame. Stay tuned.......

Short Stays Syndrome

2011-12-07T08:15:00.000-05:00

Image courtesy of Singular Cycles

Ever since 29"ers hit the scene, it seems that everyone wants them to handle like 26"ers.
This is most evident in the latest movement to get the shortest chain stays possible on 29" wheeled bicycles.

Short chain stays make bikes more______. (Fill in the blank, there are a lot of things folks will put in here.) The funny thing to me about all of this is that most folks are calling these short chain stayed bikes"All Mountain Hard Tails", which is a bit of an oxymoron, really.

This new popularity for these rigs is fascinating. On one hand, you have folks clamoring for slack head angles and long forks while at the other end you have the short chain stays and rigid, efficiency of an XC racing rig. This isn't really anything new though. This was tried with 26"ers long ago.

Those bikes had geometry which was abandoned for the most part. Too sketchy on the down hills and too easily looped out on steep climbs. In many ways, I see the 29 inch versions of these bikes as being even worse than the 26 inch versions.

Yes- I have tried the sauce. I had it all from the 120mm fork to the shorter chain stays. I did not have the slacker head angle, but it wouldn't have made any difference. The problems with the 26 inch versions of this idea did crop up with the bike I set up too. But......I ended up really liking it in its final version. What was that? Well, it was a short, rigid forked version that transformed the bike into a single track ripper.

Short and Quick

The bike was the Origin 8 Scout. A heavy frame, probably about as heavy as many as these steel "All Mountain Hard Tails" are, but without the slack head angle, as I stated before. I wasn't thinking I'd ever get the bike to be fun, that is until I set it up as shown here. Then it all clicked. Lower front end, more balanced weight distribution, (ie: not all on the rear of the bike), and the shorter wheel base made getting it to giddy-up around tighter corners a breeze. I still have this frame, but I simply detest the rear drop out/brake set up. Really nasty design there.

Then I see things like the prototype Singular above which gets me thinking about how a low slung, shorter wheel base, shorter rear ended bike would make for a killer single track bike. You can keep the long forks and really slack front end. Not necessary. Really- just get a full suspension bike and be done with it.

To my mind, this whole shorter stay thing belongs in XC/Trail hard tails with fast geometry and short wheel bases. Not in a category dominated by full suspension bikes. You know, that domination of full suspension in the AM category happens for a reason. A really good reason!

Scraping Off The Barnacles

2011-12-06T01:30:00.000-05:00

Winter time at the shop:

So, yeah..... it's slow going time at your local bicycle shop right now in terms of repairs. I am keeping busy, but it is that kind of "busy" where you take a little extra time with everything. Just to stretch things out to the maximum time limits. You know.....something like this:

So, let's see.....this spoke wrench fits okay. Maybe I'll try that adjustable one for kicks. Hmm.....it's only .25mm out of true, but maybe I can get that out. Let's see......

Yeah...that's the deal now. Everything takes more time. Experimentation. Learning new things. Oh! And "project bikes"!

"What is a project bike?", you may ask. Well, it is one of those deals a mechanic takes on that he/she will "get to" at some time or another. Basically, the "get to" is code for "winter time project". My project bike this winter is this Lejeune road bike I picked up several months ago from an unknown seller. That's right. I never met the guy. The sale was brokered through my boss at the shop where I work.

So, here's what I know about this bike: Circa '72-'73 Lejeune with Campagnolo Record components. Lejeune is French and so are the threads on the bottom bracket shell and steer tube.

Wheels have the 36 hole Fiamme "Red Label" tubular rims on high flange Campagnolo hubs. The rims were mounted with tubulars but they were.....ah, crusty! I peeled those things off pronto and pitched them. No use saving those flaking masses of cotton and rubber.

Decals look okay where they are not missing chunks. In those days, decals were tranfers and were not clear coated over.

It's funny looking at how "fine" bicycles used to be made. Of course, for its day, this was the top-o-the line racing bicycle. Reynolds 531 steel tubing joined in a lug construction style. These were hand made frames, and being "production run" issues, the finishing isn't top notch where customers were not apt to look.

I mean, take a look at that serial number, as an example. Sloppy. Poorly done. And the bottom bracket shell is, ah.......rough, shall we say? All part of the "charm" of these old timers, I guess you could say. But then again- how many folks can say they have a hand made bike with a full Campy Record group, serial number 198? Not many, I would guess!

The days have been spent doing what needs to get done at the shop, but I have been sneaking in during off hours and taking this old bike apart. I have been cleaning up the frame, and will scrape all the barnacles off it and the components as best I can.

The plan is to carefully clean it, restoring the finish a best I can, and restoring the components to working order. The grease is completely dried out! I also will de-lace the wheels and probably go with clincher rims from Velo Orange.

Tubulars were checked into, but oh! The prices! No thanks.

I'll be going with the widest shoes that fit, and I suspect 30mm will be pretty good here. That'll make a nice, cushy, smooth rolling bike I can ride on pavement and gravel. (Yes- I said "gravel")

Fortunately for me, the bike was nearly in rideable condition when I got it, save for the deflated and decaying tubulars. It shouldn't take a whole lot to get this old girl out there for some fun rides later on next season. I'll update this as I go along, so look for more on this rig here later.

Winterizing

2011-12-05T01:30:00.000-05:00

The basic set up

With my intentions of doing the Triple D Race this coming January, I have had to make some modifications to the Snow Dog. I had it set up nicely for summer time adventures in the single track, muddy woods, and on gravel road rides, but not ideally set up for a long wintertime ride. Not one like The Triple D at any rate.

So, here it is with a basic set up that I may tweak a lot,or not much at all. We'll see after I get to start riding it.

The major change was getting the 3.8"ers off and putting the claimed 4.7"ers on. Big Fat Larrys are definitely bigger tires. No doubt about that.

The next item swap had to do with bottle cages. Since toting around frozen water isn't too appealing, water bottle cages don't make a ton of sense, so those cages came off. I'll likely either run some insulated bottles in the top tube bag or do a hydration pack with some long hose going up my arm or something. I'm not really worried about this. I'll figure it out soon.

So, yeah.....bags! I swapped over the Revelate Tangle Bag from the Orange Crush to the Mukluk and kept the Planet Bike Snack Pack on the top tube as well. That big ol' red bag is an ancient Jannd seat bag. I figured it will either carry some spare garments and tools, or some food and tools. I have to do a load test to see what will work there. Likely it'll hold the spare clothes and some tools/tube.

The lighting will include the Blackburn Mars tail light, another blinky from Trek I have, and a Cat Eye flasher we got from T.I.V2. Up front I have a BBB commuter light for back up and I will have a Lezyne Superdrive any day now as a primary light. I may ditch the BBB light and go with my hacked Eveready lamp set up as a back up.

I also swapped out cranks and now have a 2X9 set up with the Origin 8 Sub Compact that has rings swapped to a 32/22T combination. I probably will not use the 22 X 36 combination, so chain rub is not an issue on the rear tire for me. I may use the 32X36 though, so that's why it stays on there.

More additions will come, like a computer, possibly a Salsa Cycles Minimalist Rack for the front. (That may carry another bag and may be a place to mount lights, or I just might want it for later adventures.)

Trans Iowa V8: Post Cards!!

2011-12-04T01:30:00.000-05:00

With every Trans Iowa since 2007, I have witnessed some awesome creativity on the part of you- the T.I. participants. I never really knew what to do with all of them, (by the way, I have kept a lot of them!), and I have found that sharing them on my blog turns out to be fun and a good outlet for this stuff.

Trans Iowa uses a system of postcard entry, and with that, entrants are free to be creative with the entries, as long as they are legible and completely filled out. This year my family helped judge the top cards I have received. So, for your viewing pleasure, here are the ones we thought deserved merit as the cards chosen to seen on this blog this time around.....(click for enlargement!)


Obligatory Trans Iowa reference, with style!


Obligatory Pork reference. This was the best.

Obligatory training reference: This wins for creativity


Not really sure what the context is, but it is weird!


Obligatory cycling reference. Nostalgia points.


Gotta Love These Guys!

Shock Value


Somber rural scene FTW!


Director's Choice Award


That's All Folks!

22 spots left to fill, and 9 of those go to the Rookie Class. looks like by Monday that class should fill out. I suspect the next day, or Wednesday by the latest, the event will be full. I'll post comments on the roster after we get it done and closed, but there is much to say from my perspective that I have found interesting. Stay tuned!

Trans Iowa V8 Registration Update

2011-12-03T01:21:00.001-05:00

From Nebraska With Love

Trans Iowa V8 Registration Update;

So we have a horse race between the Veterans and the Rookies. They both sent in about 20 entries each for the next running of Trans Iowa. The Finishers surprised me by taking in 22 spots off the top.

Well, I still think that the Rookies will fill their class out first, but we'll see.

The day of Registration opening, (with post cards), is always a treat for the folks at the shop. They were all standing at the door at 9am when the store opens to see what the guy in the van would bring in. Well, it was these lovely flowers and the plant that you can see right here.

Then there was the massive drop off by Fed Ex and then later it was UPS. All told I figured about a dozen or more sent in cards over night express. The U.S.P.S. came with about 16 cards, and e-mail found another Finisher to add to the list. We even got a few cards driven up and delivered in person.

One lonely card was left under the door too. And that was all the hoopla for the day.

So now we have about 39 spots left to go between the two classes. Finishers are done. I suspect we'll see the event fill out to the 100 roster limit, but it may take a few days into next week to get it there.

Interesting note; Lots of Rookies are coming in as single speeders. Read into that what you will.

Other than this, I think the field is well rounded with seasoned Trans Iowa veterans, finishers, and new blood in the Rookie Class. Finishers from almost every version of Trans Iowa are in the roster for T.I.V8 and one Veteran, Jim McGuire, continues his streak of being in every Trans Iowa that has been run. Other unexpected returning folk were noted as well. It looks like it will be a fun reunion, at the very least.

My gut feeling is that the "curse" of bad weather on even numbered years is going to be ended. I just think this time the weather is going to be great. I'm excited about this one, (at least for now!), and I am looking forward to seeing everyone in Grinnell come April.

Friday News And Views

2011-12-02T01:30:00.000-05:00

From last week's recon mission

Trans Iowa V8 Registration: The big news around here today is Trans Iowa V8 registration which opens for Rookies and Veterans, and which closes for Finishers.

The cards, express mail packages, and drop-offs will be something to behold as folks scramble to insure themselves that they can lay claim to one of the 79 roster spots left over, (so far), which are split in between Veterans and Rookies evenly.

My gut feeling is that the Rookie class will fill up much more quickly than it did last year. Then it took the entire week to go to the maximum but as you may recall, there were more spots to fill for the Rookies. The Veterans got to choose first and only took 29 spots out of an available 40. The eleven leftovers were added to the 40 for the Rookies and that totaled 51 spots.

This year the Registration runs together on the same week. The Veterans may not fill their quota, or they might, but the (now) 39 spots going to Rookies will go well before the week is out. After the week is up, I'll see what the Veterans have claimed, and if there are any leftovers, a few Rookies might sneak in. Stay tuned....

Triple D Update:

I am going to transform the Snow Dog from "summer set up" to "winter set up". This will include pulling the older Bontrager triple crank off, and replacing the tires and tubes.

The replacement crank will be an Origin 8 Sub Compact 29 crank. This crank is special for its 2X set up which places the bolt pattern for the granny gear ring more towards the outside, and the outer ring is a standard 104BCD which I am bolting a 32T Salsa ring to. The inner ring will be a 22T. The offset rings to the outside should gain me some clearance when I place the chain in the granny and in the lowest gear out back. The reason for doing that will be necessary due to the tire swap.

I have a set of 4.5" Big Fat Larrys to go on here along with the Surly "Lite" fat bike tubes to go inside them. These tires will be wider than the old Larry 3.8"ers and I have barely enough chain to tire clearance as it is in the lowest of gears. The combination of the Origin 8 crank and leaving off a couple of the highest gears on the cassette should prove to be plenty good in terms of drive train clearance. The wider tires will get me that "extra little bit" of float to get me through the trail fluff.

There will be other tweaks involving water bottle cages, bags, and lights, but I'll detail those gear swaps and additions later. All in a quest to get the right set up not only for this winter, but for Triple D in particular.

More Fargo Love:

I was chatting with Ben Witt on the phone the other day and he was asking me again about what I thought about the Fargo Gen II.

I told him he was right: The bike is waaay better than the old Fargo, well.......at least off road it is. I still think Fargo Gen I has its place, but for pure, fast single track action, this version has it all over the old one. I love the way this bike handles off road.

I was also discussing some suspension fork choices and interestingly, Ben says they have had success with 100mm forks on these. He claims that setting up the fork with maximum recommended sag works fine with the 100mm of travel. (Note: Salsa recommends 80mm forks here.)

I will be tracking down a fork for this in the future for squish duties.

Okay folks, that's it. I'll be busy with T.I.V8 registration for a lot of the day today. Look for an update tomorrow! Have a great weekend, and ride a bicycle if ya can!

What A Big Wheel Is Good For

2011-12-01T01:30:00.000-05:00

Just the other day a huge debate was started amongst big hit/all mountain/down hill riders on a site called Pinkbike concerning whether or not the 29"er has a place in "big terrain", downhill style riding.

5 inch travel Lenz Mammoth

While I won't delve into all the hyperbole and histrionics you can find in the comments there, I will say that all along I thought that the use of 29"ers for down hill especially was somewhat suspect. All Mountain? Maybe. Maybe not....

But what I think is missing here, and the thing that should be super obvious, is that key components for doing things beyond trail riding on 29"ers is simply just not there.

Oh sure- you've got your ,(now discontinued), WTB Dissent tires, the Sun Ringle' MTX 33 rims and for a long travel, big hit fork you have......a Manitou Dorado? A White Brothers Groove?

Yeah.....go look at what the 26"er guys are using. Marzocchi 888's, Rock Shox Boxers, and Fox 40's. Rims? Tires? Fagedda bouddit! The equipment is so much better I don't know how a reasonable comparison can be made. The arguments being made right now are not really based on an apples to apples comparison.

6 x 6 Lenz Lunchbox

Yet some folks are doing things with little bits of marginal equipment that are eye opening. Lenz Sport being at the epicenter of this phenomenon, but they are certainly not the only folks.

Intense did a 29"er DH bike that showed some promise, and with proper tires, rims, and forks, perhaps the 29 inch, long travel, All Mountain/DH bike might find a place in some folks stables.

Maybe.

Then again, there is another, painfully obvious thing that is holding back big wheels in this arena. That is physics. You can only make chain stays so short before there isn't room for but one chain ring, and limited tire clearances. You can only make a head tube so short, and yet you can not get those bars down lower with a 150mm plus travel fork on these rigs. Front derailleur issues are rampant here.

So, in the end analysis, I think there is a practical limit to what 29"ers can do effectively well. I didn't say that 29"ers could not do down hill, or that they can't be made into a fine All Mountain rig for somebody. What I am saying is that for most folks, there is going to be things big wheels are really good for, (hard tails, single speeds, XC to Trail Bike FS applications), and 26"ers will likely rule everything bigger, badder, and more gravity oriented than that.

Where does that leave 29 inch full suspension bikes? I think right where the meat of the market is. The 120-140mm range should work fine for 29"ers, and of course, 26 inch wheels will also still be made in these ranges. It's hard to predict, but I think it is very safe to say that big 26 inch full suspension bikes are not going away anytime soon.