Friday News And Views

Welcome to the start of the second to last month of 2013. Now let that sink in for a moment or three.......

 T.I.V10: The registration process for the next Trans Iowa started today. I will be updating the roster later today with whatever names I receive in the digital mail box. If as in years past, the Finishers of Trans Iowas  take maybe around 20 spots, then that would leave 100 or so to split up between the Vets and Rookies. Maybe I'll be surprised and we'll see a lot of Finishers come back. Who knows. One thing is for sure, the Finishers get first take, and Veterans can make sure their post cards come in November 11th-16th. Rookies get their turn starting November 18th, and I bet within a day or two of then the spots will be all gone. See the site here.

It'll be fun to see which folks jump on board this year.  I already know that a fella from Germany is going to try to get in, and I've heard about another Canadian guy that's supposedly going to jump in the mix.  Stay tuned....

26.3lbs of carbon wonder bike.

Beargreased: I got to assemble this crazy fat bike yesterday. A Carbon Beargrease XX1. What a cool fat bike! It really is hard to understand the enormity of those carbon tube shapes until you actually lay your eyes on this beast. The profiles and their size are cartoonishly huge. (Those are technical terms, by the way.)

One minor detail I was glad to see was the use of DT Swiss' excellent RWS through axles. These couldn't be easier to use. Very nice, and the wheels slotted into the frame with zero drama. That isn't always the case with through axle stuff.

And as long as we're talking fat bikes, it seems that many companies are waiting out to see just what the rules will be regarding fat bikes in racing. As in "not in the snow racing" racing. The dividing line seems to be where the wheel standards will go. Many in the industry are thinking that the 170mm rear standard will win out for "racing"/all year usages, and if this is the case, and the governing bodies see fit to declare such standards for racing, the companies in the industry will start developing new rims and components geared to the 170mm type bikes.

This bears watching. More as I hear about it.......

Update On Uncle Dick's:

I've begun to use the Uncle Dick's Bead Slip this past week. Here are my thoughts on it so far....

It adds an extra, somewhat tedious step to tire mounting that you ordinarily do not have. So, "Is it worth the trouble?", is the question here.

My initial response is that it is in certain circumstances. You've got to know when those circumstances are worth it, is all. I've had the benefit of 14+ years of being a bicycle mechanic, so I maybe am a bit ahead of the curve in that manner, but if you are not, here's my advice: Use this on tubeless tires, steel rims, plastic rims, or on really tight fitting tire/rim combos. Everything else is probably a situation where this product really isn't all that necessary. I mean- you could use it all the time, but many times you really wouldn't need to.

Here's a good example of using this product when it makes a big difference: I mounted some new 27 X 1 1/4 tires on steel rims the other day and many, many times this results in a portion of the bead that will not slip up into place on the rim, no matter how hard you try to make it do so. I brushed on the Uncle Dick's on the tire beads and the airing up of these tires went so easily it was ridiculous.

While it did take time to paint the beads with the Bead Slip, it easily paid off in time saved possibly wrenching the tire with a tool trying to coax the bead up into place. What was also noticeable was how the tire actually spread out and took on a fuller profile on that steel rim. Nice!

More on that stuff as I get time with it......

That's a wrap for now folks. Have a great weekend and I hope ya'all get a good ride in soon.