Guitar Ted Productions Rearview 2009

It is time again for the year end review that I've been doing on this blog for several years now. It has been a tremendous, tumultuous, and exciting 2009.

Let's get right to it........

Jan/Feb/March: The year started off in the deep freeze here and cycling was not really happening. Cycling related stuff was though, and the main thing was the announcement that I would be the head writer at Crooked Cog Network. Well, a lot changed with that. (Coming later) Also of note at the beginning of the year was the Touring Tuesdays posts, the first reference to "Gravel Grinder News", which has become its own blog now, and T.I.V5 roster and sponsorship stuff. Going into February the weather broke enough that riding commenced once again. Several muddy attempts at mountain biking, a new Raleigh Rainier, and the bike to-do at Miltown Cycles before Frost Bike happened.

When March came in we experienced several ups and downs in the weather. I got in some interesting rides on sheet ice structure from ice jams, and lots of muddy tire testing. Trans Iowa recon was done that stitched up the last loose end on the loop for T.I.V5. The Big Wheeled Ballyhoo was being planned out and lots of news was happening with that in March. A Misfit Psycles diSSent arrives for testing and also I built up a Salsa Cycles Big Mama for testing on Twenty Nine Inches.

Behind the scenes there was much wrangling about the death of the Crooked Cog Network and that was affecting me in a big, big way. It was looking more and more like I would inherit Twenty Nine Inches and the rest of the old network looked to be flotsam and jetsam, left floating in a digital sea for the foreseeable future, or killed off completely. In fact, much of the time it was teetering on the whole thing going up in smoke with no Twenty Nine Inches at all. Weirdness and stressful times for sure.

Also, I had entered, and then had to back out of CIRREM, and I entered the Dirty Kanza 200. Riding was already at an advanced state over 2008. Good stuff, but as we will see, not quite good enough for the DK 200!

Okay, that covers the first quarter of 2008. Stay tuned for the second quarter coming tomorrow.