Friday News And Views

Which color would you get?

Anniversary Time And A Jersey Announcement:

An anniversary was reached yesterday for me. Two years have passed now since I aligned with Ben Welnak and RidingGravel.com. Well, at least officially. We had been collaborating on certain things before that, but the melding of the old Gravel Grinder News with RidingGravel.com was not announced until December 1st, 2014.

Now we have often spoken with each other, Ben and I, about doing a jersey for Riding Gravel. I figured as long as I was riding in events I should be repping the company, ya know? So, it went from a casually mentioned thing to full on project status recently. I am happy to report that now it is actually going to happen, and I will have a "team" jersey for the events I ride in next year. The only question remaining now is what color I will be wearing.

By the way, it is possible to get one of these or yourself, and there will be an opportunity to do just that, to be announced later. Stay tuned for that. However; for now, if you would actually order one of these, you need to help choose which colorway we will go with. Hit me up in the comments here, or click that link and take the survey and let me know. Once a color has been chosen, finer details on how to order one for yourself will be released here and elsewhere on the RG site and social media.

Whichever color gets chosen is good with me, but I do have a personal favorite, which I will talk about after a color has been chosen. Stay tuned for that and the finer details on the process of getting these out to be announced soon. Oh, and thanks for taking the time to weigh in on this.

Global Fat Bike Day is tomorrow

Global Fat Bike Day:

Saturday is the so-called "Global Fat Bike Day". Hmm...... I may or may not participate. It just so happens that this always falls on the opening day of shotgun season for deer hunting. Not a good day to be traipsing about the woods out in the country, and probably not a good day to ride the gravel roads. You never know where those slugs are flying.

That leaves running around in the Green Belt as my best option here. Meh. I'm not really all that excited about riding a fat bike just because it is a certain day.  Maybe I will, but maybe I'll do something else.

In fact, I think I should be taking care of Trans Iowa recon. That first section needs to be looked at. Yes...... I may have to deal with hunting, but hopefully the "Truck With No Name" won't be mistaken for a deer as much as a cyclist would be. Besides, it is supposed to snow next week and when the roads get snowed in I may as well wait till Spring, and I'd rather not have to do that.

Then again, I may not do either. We will see. Global or not, I'm sure a throng will be riding locally, at the State level, and nationally here and there. Hopefully they all have a good time.

Spotted Horse Is On:

In my "Planning Ahead" post on Wednesday I mentioned one of the events I was interested in was the Spotted Horse Gravel Ultra. I mentioned that this was an iffy commitment, not in small part due to the fact that I knew at the time that it may not even be held again.

Well, lo and behold, yesterday I see that the date for 2017 was announced, so it is actually being planned to occur again in October of 2017. Pencil in the 7th for this long, arduous 200 miler.

So, I have that on as a solid commitment this time. I mentioned that I had signed up for it this year but the Fargo Reunion Ride happened and I had to go do that. I am very glad that I did, but I also really want to give the Spotted Horse a go, so seeing that they committed to doing it again, I am going to commit to going to do it. There's another chance to fly the RidingGravel.com colors that I mentioned above!

All right folks, that's a wrap for this week. If you go do the Global Fat Bike thing, have fun and stay safe! Otherwise, get out there and don't get shot by a deer hunter!