Fleet Review: Part 2

Last week I presented my "Fleet Review: Part 1" where I showed off all my gravel bikes. Click the link to see those in case you missed that. This time I am featuring my off-road and fat bike bicycles.  This will not be everything and there will be at least one more Fleet Review post after this one. 

Okay, here we go with a look at the off-road specific bikes I have here at Guitar Ted Productions

2003 Surly Karate Monkey

2003 Surly Karate Monkey

This is my very first 29 inch wheeled bicycle. Well.....the frame and fork, headset, and seat collar are 2003 bits! The rest is far newer than 2003. Of course, if you remember, Surly wasn't selling complete Karate Monkeys back then. Just a frame and a fork.  

Long-term blog readers have seen this bike before. It has had disc brakes and drop bars on it for most of the time I've owned it. It never has had a derailleur mounted to the frame. Always single speed! It even has briefly been a fixed gear bike.  

Notable bits are the XTR hubs, vintage 2000 or so. Those are laced to Salsa Delgado rims. The head set came out of my 1996 Diamond Back V-Link Pro and is a Race Face head set. The apple green Brooks B-17 was gifted to me for this bike by one of you dear readers. The chain wheel is from a mtbr.com member who had a cottage company called Homegrown or something to that effect. He only did single speed stuff in various anodized colors.  

I could have placed this bike in my "other" category, since it is mainly my commuter bike, or in the gravel category, as it was my main gravel bike for years, or as a mountain bike, because this is what it is, a mountain bike. 

I have kept this bike because 9a) I really like it, and 9b0 it was the bike I have done my longest ever one day ride on, approximately 165 miles, on the first Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitational in 2006. 

2006 OS Bikes Blackbuck

2006 OS Bikes Blackbuck:

This is an oddball bike. Well.....aren't all first gen 29"ers oddball? They all look like they've been rammed head on into a brick wall with those steep, out of fashion head angles. The Blackbuck is no exception. 

But even if the Blackbuck had modern slack, long and low geometry, it would still be weird. It has parallel head tube and seat tube angles. The bike could be had with the special Blackbuck fork, which was a short axle to crown affair with a long offset giving this bike a steep 74° head tube angle and razor sharp, super nervous handling. (Yes, I have the steel rigid Blackbuck for as well) It is a single speed specific design, yet you could get this floating rear derailleur hanger if you wanted to gear it up. The blackbuck has a really short wheel base, in comparison to modern 29"ers, and it carves Mid-West single track with precision as a result. 

The fork is a Bontrager Switchblade with 38mm offset. The 470mm axle to crown works nicely here giving the bike a 71-ish degree head angle. The head set is from Chris King's first run of pink anodized head sets. The brake levers are 1996 Avids with adjusters to make them work with cantilevers or linear pull brakes. I built the wheels using White Industries hubs donated to me by my friend in SoCal. The rims I won at a giveaway at QBP for Frostbike when only myself and one other person showed up for a giveaway of a pair of Salsa Gordo rims. Back when 29"ers were still considered weird! 

The anodized seat collar, a Salsa model, was given to me by Tim Krueger when he still worked at QBP. The green ano cranks are Sugino branded and were anodized by a local guy back in the 2000's. 

Great bike. Nice to ride around here in the Fall because the sticks and blow-downs cannot rip off a rear derailleur, since there isn't one to rip off! 

2005 On One Inbred

2005 On One Inbred: 

Here we have a really rare one since it is a very early On One Inbred. I got this from a distributor on close out because they were going to be On One dealers in the USA, then something happened on the back end business-wise and whatever stock the distributor had they closed out before any were announced to the public.  Anyway, I grabbed this size 18" example with its matching steel segmented fork in early 2006. 

I set this bike up as a single speed and entered the first Dirty Kanza (now Unbound) in 2006, so this is one of the first 34 bikes to do that event. (Along with myself, of course!) Anyway, I grew tired of the bike and sold it to a coworker not many years afterward. Then the bike went out of my reckoning for years. The coworker, Craig, gave it to his brother who was going to college. Then he used it as a mountain bike in Kansas and Colorado. Eventually the brother grew tired of the bike, and because I had told Craig I wanted first dibs on teh bike if it ever was to be sold, he brought it back to me. 

Well, the fork came home first. It was cracked though, after years of mountain abuse, so it went to the scrap heap. The frame came later with a lot of teh parts bolted to it you see above. Craig didn't charge me a penny! So, I have it back now and it doesn't get ridden much, but I have this history with it and..... 

You know? 

The wheels I built from WTB Frequency i23 rims on American Classic hubs. The handle bar is a Wilde branded made by Nitto of Japan. The shifters are SRAM TT bar end shifters on Paul Components base mounts. The fork is an On One Carbon version of the steel fork. 

Origin 8 Scout XLT

  2016 Origin 8 Scout XLT: 

This is a bittersweet addition to this list. This was my son Jacob's last bike. An Orgin 8 model frame I sourced on close-out to take the place of the 2012 Salsa Cycles Mukluk he had outgrown. Most of the parts came over from the Salsa, but the wheels are Beargrease wheels I got from N.Y. Roll. The fork was the replacement fork from his Mukluk which had been recalled. I never cut the steer tube because I figured Jacob might outgrow this bike and then I could swap the fork over to a larger frame, but that need never came.  

I struggle with keeping this or selling it, or giving it to a needy kid, or.... I don't know what the right thing to do is for myself yet. But my feeling is this bike is likely going away at some point. But right now I have it, so here it is..... 

2025 Salsa Cycles Titanium Mukluk

 2015 Salsa Cycles Titanium Mukluk (Ti Muk 2)

Long-time readers know this bike. It's the Rohloff equipped, dynamo hubbed fat bike I call the Ti Muk 2 because I had a 2011 Titanium Mukluk for a while before this bike came here. 

This was a very special bike because my brother, MG, rounded up a bunch of folks to make this purchase super-low cost for me. They paid the majority of the asking price, I paid essentially very little, but the main point is that this bike was a gift and a surprise one at that. 

It's my main Winter commuter and sometimes single track machine. It has carbon Whiskey rims and the tires are tubeless and this makes riding this bike way easier than most fat bikes are to ride. The 14 speed internally geared hub has all the range I'd ever want here. It is the perfect Winter bike for me.  

2014 Blackborow DS

2014 Salsa Cycles Blackborow DS

DS stands for "Dual Single Speed". The bike has an odd "dinglespeed" set up where you can manually drop the chain on an inner set or an outer set of gears. As long as the teeth count from both cogs equals the other set, the chain doesn't need to be shortened or lengthened and you don't have to re-tension the drive train. 

So, you end up with a Low or High gear set up. This allows this bike to be simple, light in weight, yet it has a low enough gear to crawl through very deep snow with its 100mm wide rims and 4.8" tires. 

And oddly enough, the bike is stock but for a Thompson seat post and the saddle. 

2011 Salsa Cycles Mukluk

2011 Salsa Cycles Mukluk

Another very special bike to me. I got the frame and fork for my 50th birthday funded by several friends. So, it is hard to let this one go, even though I rarely ride it these days. 

This one needs a new drive train, and I probbaly should rebuild the wheels....again. This bike has had a few wheel issues since I have had it, with the worst being centered around a pair of bad Phil Wood fat bike hubs.  

This one could also very easily become a frame on the wall thing too. We will see..... 

That's a wrap on the off-road stuff I have. Next will be utility bikes and parts bikes. Stay tuned..... 

Country Views: 4th of July 2026

Escape Route: Waterloo alleys

I had been looking forward to the 4th of July this year. Not because it was a big date in history, America's 250th, but because I needed to get out into the country. The 4th was a date I had circled since coming back from the BRAN experience. 

BRAN caused damage. I had some nasty saddle sores I needed to allow to heal. And, of course, I needed a bit of time to recover from the week. I saw progress in both areas over the last half of June, but it was slow. Then it got beastly HOT. 

So, June was slipping away and the 4th of July weekend allotted me some space to make a plan to get on a bike and grind some gravel. Then it rained all day Thursday, on Friday morning, and again early Saturday morning. Was I going to be able to squeeze in a ride? The weather looked clear between about 9:00am and maybe 2:00pm or so. I decided to take off and do a run South and East of Waterloo. 

Day lilies lined the ditches along Ansborough for several miles.

A lot of people were into the spirit of celebrating the USA's 250th. 

Getting out of town now to the South has been made a bit more complicated due to construction and a bridge out on the Sergeant Road Trail. So, I backtracked a route I typically use getting into town. Going backward on a route may as well be a new, unforeseen route. Everything looks and feels different! I ended up getting dumped out on Ansborough Avenue not far from Highway 20. Not at all where I wanted to be. Oh well! I made it work. 

 

It has been a while since I took Ansborough Avenue out of town to the South. This was the first road I used as a regular gravel riding route back in the mid-2000's. I'd ride Ansborough to Tama County and back home. About a 35 mile ride round trip. 

Today I was going to head South until I reached Quarry and turn East. Maybe I'd get in around 30 miles. At least I wouldn't have to come back through Waterloo's convoluted street layout! 

Tall corn provides excellent privacy for a "nature break". 

 

Annual check of corn growth on the 4th. 

I rode the XLBird on its first out of town gravel ride. Things went smoothly, and I'll have a specific write-up on the bike this week. But yes, I like it. I also liked the roads. The recent heavy rains have smoothed out the loose gravel and vehicles have accelerated the transfer of gravel from all across the roadway to the typical three clear lines. 

Corn is looking great. No wonder with all the rain and humidity of late. It's perhaps not as exceedingly tall as it can be at this time of the year, but it is still "man high on the 4th of July!" 

 

You can see some chicory alongside the road on the right here. 

Quarry Road had obviously been maintained recently as the gravel was thick. The rain helped it not be so loose, but it was a chore to find a good line. One positive out of the weather situation was that there was zero dust. A very unusual situation! 

Quarry Road was also lined with various wild flowers. I love seeing the flowers dancing and bobbing in the breezes. My favorite flower to see is the Chicory. I love their color. I think they are a bit early this year, but I'll take it!

 

Fellow gravel grinders Robert and Cary Fry. 

I stopped on the bridge over Miller Creek to take a quick break. I ate an Epic pemmican bar, drank some water, and listened to the swollen creek as it gurgled on its way to the Cedar River not too many miles away. 

Suddenly I heard voices and I looked back West up Quarry Road and spied two riders coming my way. It turned out to be Robert and Cary Fry out for a gravel ride. What a surprise! They were on their way to LaPorte City, so I rode about a mile with them before I turned North up Foulk Road. I told Robert he and Cary were maybe the third, maybe fourth occurrence ever of me meeting another gravel rider out around Waterloo in 20 years of grinding gravel.  

I call these lonely four cottonwood trees on the East side of Foulk Road "The Four Sisters". 

 

Evidence of our recent heavy rains. Many have stated they received between 4" to 6" in the area just on Thursday!

Foulk Road is FLAT. Lots of pedaling on Foulk Road. If you are bucking a headwind, or bashing through thick, fresh gravel - or heaven forbid, BOTH - it is a real mental slog to ride this section. Fortunately only the gravel was mildly troublesome on this particular ride. 

There is a pair of aggressive Labradors now on a place just North off the corner of Schrock Road and Foulk Road on the West side of Foulk. One is a yellow lab and the other is black. They both came out on the road and had me stopped until their foul-mouthed owner came out to call them off. Just a head's up in case you go by there..... 

Waterloo displayed 1,776 flags around the Veteran's Memorial complex in honor of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. 

I made it back home with a little over 28 miles in. Not anything to write home about, although I just wrote an entire post about it! But it is what it is. A start back to regular riding, I hope, and perhaps this stupid weather will cooperate for a while. We will see! 

Two Things

Graphic courtesy of the Weather Front app

Wet Weather

This weekend was washed up in many ways due to a wet weather pattern which kicked in on Thursday and kept things dicey as far as riding all weekend.

The worst part is that now the Cedar River and its tributaries will be flooding for a while and that makes things hard around here. Camping, hard surface trails, and soft trails all get affected by this. 

Southern Minnesota was hit hard with many 8" to 10" rainfalls on Wednesday. There is a lot of that land which drains into the Cedar River. So, that is all coming down as well to add to what we got here. Friday we received even more rain, so....yeah... 

 The graphic here shows rain accumulation for Thursday. Pink is more than 4" of rain. Red is up to 4", and yellow is up to 3". That's just Thursday.

Image courtesy of Allied Bicycle Works

All Road? Wait A Minute.....

Allied Bicycle Works just posted news on their Echo model, a "road bike" which Allied places in a category called "All Road". 

Hmm..... Where have I heard THAT term before? I think I was talking about this concept at least 16 years ago now. "Gravel" is such a poor term for what bikes I love most are, and "All Road" is much preferred, but back in the day when these more capable road bikes became available through the bicycle industry, some knuckle headed marketing department went with "gravel bikes" and the name, unfortunately, stuck. 

"Gravel" means nothing now. It can describe adventure bikes, racing bikes with fat tires, mountain bikes with drop bars, or touring bikes. The term is attached to so many things because "gravel sells" that it has become a term which has been diluted to the point most are becoming deaf to its meaning. Or what it originally meant, at any rate. 

Allied, and other road bike purveyors, finally woke up and saw that people have been abandoning strictly paved riding. These riders have escaped the danger of distracted drivers, increased numbers of automobiles and trucks on roads, even though statistics show per capita mileage has decreased. The number of vehicles on the road has increased, so volume of traffic has been on the rise. 

With the effect of riders abandoning pavement, the brands offering pavement-centric, racing based road bikes suffered. Bikes with drop bars, wider, more capable tires, and better rider comfort based on geometry and fit, became desirable as these bicycles could tackle any road surface. You know.....

All Roads?

So we've seen a big push by brands trying to say they are "road bike" makers stuff wider and wider tires into their frames so people could ride, you know, all roads instead of just smooth paved ones. And now Allied has finally just capitulated and called these things what they are, "All Road" bikes. 

The Echo has pretty standard geometry from a "gen I gravel" standpoint. It can handle up to 45mm tires. It still has capabilities for standard road drive trains. I suspect this sort of bike will start to become wnat the brands will badge as "Road Bikes" in the future, avoiding the "all road' tag, because - if I am not mistaken, Giant has a claim on the name, or did at one time. 

Meanwhile "gravel" is becoming a "drop bar mountain/aero/racing" hybrid and maybe we just need to embrace what is becoming the "New Road Bike". Because I'm not all that excited about a bike which is designed for the needs of less than 1% of gravel riders, which seems to be what many brands are interested in making now. 

Happy 250th!

Red, White, and Blue

Happy 4th of July!

Guitar Ted Productions is taking teh day off to ride in honor of the United States of America;'s 250th anniversary.

Hopefully, if you observe the 4th, you can get out and celebrate by pedaling as well. And even if you don't observe the 4th, get out and ride that bike of yours!

It'll do ya good.

If the ride happens today I should have a report on Monday. Stay tuned..... 


 

Friday News And Views

Twin Six 3X2 32"er frame set (Image courtesy of Twin Six)

 Order Up! 32"er Companies Pushing Big Wheels:

You may have noted some promotions over the past week, week and a half, by several small purveyors of 32"ers. The orders are going in and minimums must be met to get production started. 

Esker, Twin Six, Curve Cycling, and others were pushing social media posts hard recently in hopes of getting riders to bite on this enticing, (for taller folks, mostly) technology.  

I know someone who has an order in, and I'm sure many of you out there are either in line to get one, or are considering it. One thing to note here: 32 inch wheels will probably not have the "gen I issues" 29"ers had. So, biting on the 32'er bait shouldn't get you an obsolete rig in five years. 

Hopefully..... 

 I'm very curious about 32"ers. But I do not need another bicycle. Plus, I'm willing to wait to see how things shake out. If this is all that and a bag of chips, I can get one whenever I want in the near future. And this means that if things change in regard to geometry, etc with 32"ers, I will not have bought into something that will be obsolete. 

Maybe....

Seeing on social media that Trek will have hard tail and FS 32"ers out in February 2027. (Heard they were taking orders now.) Specialized, Pivot, and Ari Cycles are rumored to be doing 32"ers as well. So, perhaps it won't be obsolete right away.  

Probably..... 

Guitar Ted Approved:

Well folks, I found a silver seat post and a saddle and now the Singular Cycles Peregrine Mk4 is all finished (for the near future - I make no guarantees!)

The seat post is an old Campagnolo aero post. If you are familiar with those, you know they are not very long! I was able to get the correct seat height and still have the minimum insertion mark inside the seat tube, but only just! 

The saddle is a tried and true WTB Silverado, which has been my 'go-to' saddle of late. The two pieces cap of the build and now everything is ready to go for a longer gravel ride. 

The final 'approved by Guitar Ted' action was to sticker the frame up with a Trans Iowa sticker and a 'Jacob' sticker in honor of my late son. So I'm pleased with the switcheroo and all systems are go for gravel travel now. 

Image courtesy of Giant Bicycles

Giant Announces Revolt Advance SL Model With Carbon Hub/Spoke Wheel System

On Tuesday of this week online sites were going ga-ga over Giant's newest gravel bikes. The Revolt Advance SL is the range topper with racing focused geometry and parts. 

And how about those wheels? Carbon hubs and spokes with a wheel weight under 1,300 grams total for front and rear wheels.  

Comments: Fun stuff for the bike nerds to geek out over, but dive into the marketing, specs, and geometry and really let it sink in. This is a bike for the less than 1% of gravel riders. It is a Pro level racing bike and much of the "feature list" descriptions could have been pulled directly from marketing of Tour de France bikes from the 2000's. "Stiffer", "feedback from racers". and  aero everything, of course. 

Is this a bike for The Every-person? No. It is not. But that is who will end up buying this bike because "weight", "aero", and "Pro racing" sells bikes to.....I guess some folks? Anyway, congratulations on race-ifying gravel bikes, Giant.  

And is it just me, or does this bike resemble every Chinese brand gravel bike I've seen recently? Hmm.... 

Date Set For GT's Ride For Jacob:

Thanks to Nick from the Board of the Cedar Valley Bicycle Collective, I have secured a date for GT's Ride For Jacob. We will be riding from the North parking lot at Big Woods Lake starting at 8:00am on Saturday, July 25th. 

The ride will consist of a loop from the parking lot at Big Woods Lake to gravel North of Waterloo, Iowa. We will pass through Janesville, Iowa, cross the Cedar River, then we will go on to cross the Shell Rock River and travel through Shell Rock, Iowa. From this most Northern point of the loop we will head West and South towards New Hartford, our last pass-through town. 

The ride will end by coming into Cedar Falls from the West toward downtown on mostly bike path. There could be a stop downtown if folks are so inclined. The ride from downtown to the parking lot at Big Woods Lake is a short one all on bicycle path.  

Stay tuned for any further updates here or on the ride site.  

Image courtesy of WTB

WTB Teases New Unreleased Hub, Hints At New Wheels To Come:

A press release from WTB on Wednesday pointed out a new hub WTB has designed which is being used by the Cannondale Factory Race Team and won with at a recent Elite XCO World Cup event.

Looking through the release I was able to glean out that the rear hub will use a "DLC ratchet ring-drive system". It may be similar to DT Swiss' ratcheting drive design. This is a fairly commonplace move since the patent ran out on the design formerly held by DT Swiss. 

Dubbed "Frequency 7X" hubs, the set for MTB usage is a claimed sub 300 grams for the pair. These hubs spin on "oversized Enduro bearings" and are claimed to be tough enough for World Cup MTB while being amazingly light. 

The press release hinted that these, as yet unreleased hubs, will appear with new carbon rims for MTB and gravel use. So, look for some news on the wheel front from WTB in the near future. Another tidbit I gleaned from a thread on social media is that WTB is also working on an aero gravel tire design. Could it be that the new rims, hubs, and tire will be presented as a racing wheel system for gravel which is very aero? 

Could be a thing. 

That's a wrap on this week! If you are a US citizen, enjoy a safe and enjoyable 4th of July weekend! Get out there and ride some bicycles! 

Do That Again (At Least Once)

I have been saying for several years that I wanted to do a sub24 trip and...... I haven't done one. I don't know why, exactly, it's just that other stuff took precedence, or I let it do so, and I never got around to it. 

But the BRAN trip taught me that I can do this, and it also showed me I had better do it sooner than later or I won't ever do it. 

The gear is all there. I may as well use it. I know it works. There is only one thing I might have to change and that is the sleeping pad. The Thermarest Basecamp is flipping huge. I'd have to find an alternative which wasn't so massive so it did not take up so much space on the bike. Honestly, my old, ancient Thermarest pas might be okay from that standpoint. 

But no excuses. This has to happen at least once more this year. That's the goal. Small, I know, but it would be better than zero. And I have places I can go local to me as well. Maybe they are not that exciting, but that is my perspective. And in the end, it is the options that matter not "how cool/uncool" those places may seem to me. 

So, I better get on this. It's now or maybe never.....
 

What Is Up With With Selle SMP Saddles?

 Note: This review is of a used Selle SMP saddle Guitar Ted purchased from the Cedar Valley Bicycle Collective. Selle SMP is not aware of this review and all opinions are Guitar Ted's. 

Looking at saddles over the years a strange looking choice popped up which has always intrigued me. The Selle SMP saddles looked......weird compared to everything else I was seeing. I couldn't wrap my mind around the shape. It looked broken. And the huge cut-out section was odd too. Everything about the saddle seemed a bit off to my eyes. Plus, they weren't inexpensive either. 

Then a friend of mine showed up with a well worn one on his bike. He had purchased it new, so it was obvious he liked it and had a lot of time on it. So, of course, I had to ask. "How is that thing to ride?" He said it was the most comfortable saddle he'd ever used. It did not make him numb, and that was a big issue for him in the past. 

Okay.....sample of one. I filed that away in the brain trust, and then kept on riding. 

We're gonna get to the bottom of this....

Then on the recent BRAN ride I noted Jayme had these Growtac shifters on his bike and he offered me a quick test ride on his bike to try them out. (Another subject for another time) I then noted he had a Selle SMP saddle on his bike. So, I also got to see how this saddle felt. 

And you know what? It may look weird, but that short ride told me there was something to this oddball of the cycling saddle world. It just so happened that not long before BRAN a Selle SMP Pro saddle was donated to the Collective. So, when I returned from BRAN, I purchased the saddle and well......here we are!

What It Is: The Selle SMP Pro is their intermediate level saddle for MTB, gravel, or road for both Men or Women. It has a real leather cover, (in black only), or a MicroFiber cover in several different colors. The rails are made of AISI Stainless steel. A carbon railed version is also available. The shell is made of carbon reinforced Nylon 12. The padding is a foamed elastomer. 

The overal width of the SMP Pro is 148mm and the length is 278mm. Claimed weight is 350gm with the stainless steel rails and drops to 295gms with carbon rails. Cost for the Selle SMP Pro is $269.00USD with stainless steel rails and $449.00 with the carbon rails. 

Intentions: The intent of this review is to find out if the Selle SMP works for me at all. I want to see how it feels on longer rides. Is it the bees knees like many say it is, or just an oddball saddle that is merely different and works okay? Is it worth the asking price? How well is it made? How hard is it to set up correctly? 

That last point was something Jayme shared with me. He straight up told me if I set it up incorrectly it won't work for me. He pointed out his saddle and asked me to note how much tilt it had nose-downward. He claimed if I set it up level, with a "bucket/dip in the mid section, it would be bad. "You'll want it tipped down in the nose more than you'd think", he instructed. Although it should be noted that Selle SMP says to start out at level and the nose tilt can be anywhere from +10° to -25° after adjustments. 

But Jayme has a point. I did not catch that my WTB Silverado had slipped back in the seat post clamp at BRAN until Day Two and by then I had already done some nerve damage and caused saddle sores I only just recently have overcome. Set-up means everything with a saddle. So I am prepared to be open to different saddle set ups than I would normally think of doing. 

Initial Impressions: This saddle is not light. So, anyone looking to cut weight on a build probably wouldn't look at this saddle as an option. One likely is looking here at an SMP for relief from numbness or for comfort - or both.  

 It is well made. Very well made. I am impressed with the build quality of this saddle and there are not many saddles I've seen which rival the SMP. The leather is soft, pliable, and has a very even grain. Of course, there is every possibility this saddle is "broken in" already. But it does not appear to have many miles on it as the cover looks pristine and I don't see any marring, wear areas, or scratches. 

In the next post I will talk about set up and have a ride impression for you.  

So, here we go..... Stay tuned.