Friday News And Views

Stick 'em up!

Riding Gravel News:

There are a couple of things to chat about here regarding the site I am partnered in with Ben Welnak, better known for his Mountain Bike Radio podcasts. Of course, that site is RidingGravel.com. Ben is definitely better at the promoting thing than I am. He's got t-shirts and stickers, and who knows what all going on for his various ventures. So, it shouldn't come as any surprise that he's been tweaking the look of the site, adding an "About" page and even something for anyone wanting to advertise. Ben is the man when it comes to all of that. Heck, all I know about is rocks, rock and roll, and bicycles. I'd never be able to do all of what Ben does so well.

So, anyway.......Ben came up with a plan to revamp the look of the logo and he sent me about two dozen renderings and we finally came up with the new logo, as seen on the stickers in the image here. Yep.....there is a heck of a lot of stickers there! If you want some, give me a holler and I'll work out how to get you some.

Beyond stickers and web design, we are active in the gravel road community putting on events, and now......helping support them with real labor!  Yep. I'll be working Checkpoint #3 with Ben and a couple of others for this weekend's running of the Almanzo 100. I've actually never been to this seminal gravel road event, so it is about time I did that, yes? Yes, I believe so, and helping to cheer on the riders is a good way for me to do that, I think. Oh......and yes- we will have stickers to hand out. Be nice! I'm planning on having my son be there and I think I will put him in charge of those. We will see..... Anyway, this all happened at the last minute when another entity pulled the plug on helping so Ben decided we'd step in and fill that void. Hopefully we can pull it together and give a good showing.

Rubber godz

The Religion of Rubber:

I don't think anything else about bicycles engenders more passionate feelings than tires. Just those rubber skins we either put a tube into or use sealant with. That one component that touches the ground, goes round and round, and gives us feedback from the surfaces we ride on. Tires. Those odd, mostly black, sometimes knobbly bits of circular goodness. They are just tires. 

But with the near zealous, religious fervor these mere things engender, you'd think that people were talking about gods. It's weird. There is no doubt that, more than anything else I write about, tires generate the most interest than anything else. Then it is maybe geometry of bikes, and finally, Trans Iowa.  I could probably write about new tires for months and no one would notice I wasn't writing anything else. Tires.......yeah. It's just really a weird thing.

So, I will be writing more about tires, real soon, and that shouldn't be a surprise at all. I have the Panaracer Gravel King 40's to wrap up, but I will say those are some very nice tires. Then it's on to a couple of unknowns. One I am doing some consulting on, so I cannot talk about that, but the other is coming and it is something brand new. New tires from a new brand. I'm sure these will raise some passionate feelings both good and bad. You know, tires always seem to do that. In the future I'll be looking at those WTB Riddler tires too. The ones we gave away a couple pair of at Trans Iowa. They looked pretty interesting.

Sheesh! It wasn't too long ago that every gravel road rider worth his or her salt ran Schwalbe Marathon series tires and that was your only/best choice. Maybe things were simpler and easier back then. I know that there was a lot less chatter about tires for gravel road riding!

Okay, that's a wrap on this week. Maybe I'll see ya at Almanzo, or if not, go have some good bicycling adventure!