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Sunday, July 05, 2015

GTDRI: Next Up

Could this be the bike.....
Odin's is over with and now I am looking on to the next gig on the calendar, the Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitational. I've spoken about this ride here before, but once again- you do not have to be "invited" to come. It's just s big, silly name I came up with back in 2006 or so. Anyway, this year is the same route as last year, which you can get the cues for HERE.

So, this one happens in about 3 weeks, (July 25th), so I have to get going on preparations now. I had a week of relative recovery topped with a dollop of head cold, so I was run down most of last week. Now I am on the mend, so I am going to buckle down on some training, all the while being busier than all get out with the RAGBRAI coming up real soon.

I will be choosing between the Tamland and the Black Mountain Cycles "Orange Crush" for this ride. I'm leaning toward the Tamland with its slightly lower gearing. I figure I'll be needing all of that low end if the weather is typical of late July. Last year I used the Tamland but I only had a low gear of 32 teeth out back. Now I have a 36T on there. The BMC only goes to 34T. Both bikes are lower geared now than the Tamland was last year.

Looking beyond this I have the Geezer Ride coming up in August. That will be a piece of cake. 44 miles and I think I'll grab my single speed for this one. Then it will be Gravel Worlds on August 22nd, and for now, that will close out my 2015 campaign. Things will be coming up fast in the next month and a half and then I'll be done for the year with my big events. At least, that's how it looks now.

Stay tuned for more GTDRI updates soon.........
at

2 comments:

  1. BluesDawg12:18 PM

    GT, can you give us more info on your gearing setup for the Tamland? Are you running a MTB 11-36 cassette with the Ultegra 6800GS mid cage derailleur? I think I remember you saying you were going to try that, but I can't find a post where you say how that worked out.

    Thanks,
    Benny

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  2. Guitar Ted5:25 PM

    @BluesDawg: I am using the stock Ultegra 6800 GS rear derailleur with a SRAM PG1170 11 speed cassette with the 36T low gear. Ironically, it took the exact same chain length that the original 50/36 X 11-32T drive train did. So, now I have a 46/36T X 11-36T drive train. Everything shifts and works quite nicely.

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