A couple of things to note. One- Plus Six and Active Finishers registration closes up shop tomorrow. So, there will be two mail deliveries to go until that window shuts up. So far there are 12 registered out of a possible 25. Keep in mind that if I don't get 25 folks I will throw the extra slots into the Veteran's Lottery batch which will be a minimum of 55 roster slots.
Two- The Veteran's window to send in cards ends a week from tomorrow. There are several on the list so far, and I expect many more are on their way. However; should there not be over 55 cards sent in, the list will all automatically transfer in on the roster without a drawing, since it wouldn't be necessary. We'll see......
A final note- Rookie Registration has not opened up yet, and won't until the17th. I got one card already and it won't transfer in because of the early arrival. Just a note to ya'all there to make sure you've read the instructions which are linked from the Trans Iowa site.
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| Maxxis Ravager |
One of the several things "gravel" to come out of Interbike was a tire that is kind of a curious beast. It has an aggressive tread, is tubeless ready, and is 40mm wide.
Okay, so let's take a look at how this "all-road", adventure bike thing is playing out here for a minute. It would seem that the marketing machine is dictating to us now that an "adventure bike" is a road bike, with big saddle to bar drop difference, a stiff carbon fork, and a big, almost racing bike sized chain ring mated to mountain bike sized tires, or tires that mimic mtb designs.
I disagree with that notion, (and make no mistake, it is where this is all going in terms of design and the narrative the companies are pushing), but let's just focus on this tire for now. The tire is cool and all, but just think about history for a minute here.
29"er tires were not very numerous ten years ago and of those offerings, 2.1- 2.2"ers were the norm. Racers using 29"er tires were often seen going with 1.8"ers. Guys that were pushing into the 26"er only realm of XC like Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski of the Gary Fisher/Subaru XC racing squad were doing this back then. Why? Because those tires were seen as capable, (barely), and light enough to actually use in that discipline.
But what has this got to do with this Maxxis tire? Consider that 1.8" is equal to 45.7mm, and you can see where I am going here. These 40mm-45mm tires are verging on 29"er territory, and when you design such an aggressive tire, maybe you are looking at a "mtb-lite tire", and not an "all-road" tire, so much. Call this thing a "monster-cross"tire then. Maybe that is what it is. Well, at any rate, the Ravager seems to fall into the end of the spectrum that is more dirt/single track and less "road". I just thought it was an interesting tire from that standpoint.
The whole adventure bike thing, as described by the industry now, is another post for another day. Short version: They are missing the boat big time as far as bringing back riders and bringing in new ones because of how they are portraying these niche bikes now.
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| One of the several connections I have with Brian and Alexa |
Today is a special day for a couple that have special connections with myself. Yes......a bicycle is part of the story, so hold on here.
I normally don't get off topic here too far, but today is a special occasion since a former co-worker of mine is marrying a women I've known since she was born. Literally since she was born. I used to be very close to her family, and since I know both of the folks in this marriage, and one of them bequeathed the Surly 1X1 to me , I wanted to give a G-Ted Productions "Congratulations" to the couple.
So, I am attending the nuptials and will be off gallivanting around Central Iowa all weekend long. I won't be getting any bicycling done, but that's excusable for this deal, in my opinion. I wouldn't miss this and since it is happening so close, I don't have to. I am not sure I'll have much else going on except maybe keeping tabs on cards coming in for Trans Iowa, so don't look for any adventurous posts come Monday!
Okay, that's a wrap. Forget about football and get outside and ride, y'all!!
2 comments:
Giggles and I loved those wtb mutanoraptors in 700x45 . We had those on our early 2000's Gunnar Ruffian 29er singlespeeders.
Is it the width or the tread design that you have reservations about? This got me thinking that these tires would be ideal for forest service roads and logging roads where I grew up. But then again, those are probably ideal for MTB vs a gravel bike.
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