There is today's mail and tomorrow's mail and then that's it! So far we have a pile of 77 entrants with more sure to come. The lottery drawing will take place on October 31st, because trick-or-treat, ya know?
I plan on hosting a live drawing for the Rookie Class on my Periscope account which you can access from Twitter at @guitarted1961. Just keep checking back for an exact time for that. All Trans Iowa related Tweets are hashtagged #TIv14, so you can search that on Twitter to keep tabs on the goings on with this. I will not be posting the live feed anywhere else, so don't even ask. If you cannot do Twitter, or won't, then you'll have to wait until I upload the roster to the Trans Iowa v14 page later that evening.
Episode #23 of the Riding Gravel Radio Ranch podcast is up and ready for you to check out. Here is the page you can listen to it on and pretend to be working. (Or whatever.....ya know? )
It's been a while since we've posted a podcast, but my partner, Ben Welnak, has been involved in a big cross-state move for he and his family which caused a lot of disruption on the podcast side for Riding Gravel. Now that things have settled down a bit, we're both hoping that the podcast becomes a bit more "regular".
I know. We've said that before! But we cannot always predict how the changes in life will go and that almost always will be more important than the podcast is. Honestly, I like doing the podcast. I find it to be fun and enjoyable. I missed doing it all Summer long. (Our last podcast previous to #23 was back in May!!) So, if you tuned out over the past several months, I get it, but give it another chance and we will see if we cannot be a bit more regular going forward.
This episode deals with the changes to the Dirty Kanza 200 registration, some Trans Iowa stuff, news about stuff I am reviewing, and more. Check it out, please, and if you do, let me know what you think. Thanks!
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| Thinking of fixing it for Winter |
I've had a hankerin' for riding fixed gear again. I don't know quite where that comes from either. It's kind of weird.
Why deny the free coasting fun of "normal" bicycles and hamstring yourself to some 19th Century technology? I know........there are benefits, it's great for your pedal stroke, yada, yada, yada.............
And there are those of you reading, no doubt, that are proficient in the fixed gear ways. I get it. The thing is, I don't understand why I sometimes gravitate toward fixed gear riding. I almost always am a klutz at it. I forget I cannot coast and I about launch myself and tweak my knee. Then I have that anxious few seconds when I approach the curb and I am not in a good part of my pedal stroke to pop that front wheel up. Or how about when I stop and my "chocolate foot" isn't in the prime starting position? (Don't know what "chocolate foot" is? See Hans Rey.... It's old skool trialsin/mtb lingo)
I actually have a rat-rod Raleigh Grand Prix converted into a fixed gear bike in the garage and my 1X1 Surly has a flip-flop hub with a fixed cog on one side. Then I also have that Tomi cog in the picture as well. One of the three is getting some use this Winter, maybe all three. We will see. If we get inundated with snow and it gets super cold, well maybe the fat bike rules. Time will tell.
Have a great weekend and hopefully you get to ride your bicycles!
5 comments:
Still love riding fixed. Don't give a hoot that it ain't the latest "thang" anymore. Actually that's good cause now you don't have to watch skatr punks take a sidegrinder to the fittings on a classic road frame. I got smacked head on really hard back in August by a lady who was going a little too fast downhill. The toptube and downtube were buckled and the forks pushed back so far the front wheel contacts the pedals. Oh well, time to start scouring CL for another 80's Schwinn or Raleigh. True track frames are just too twitchy for me and anyway part of the appeal of the fix is that they should be cheap and cheerful. Is there anything more silly than a $4ooo fixed gear?
@philip Cowan- Oh! That sounds like a rough crash there. Glad that you are okay.
I should post about my Grand Prix. It's a pretty interesting story.
'84 Schwinn LeTour frame that I bought from Dan W for $40 still going strong. I alternate between that and the Dummy for commuting. It's geared 50X20 in the Summer, 50X21 Spring and Fall. I would love to get something I could put bigger tires into, so I could ride it on gravel. Not sure about riding fixed in the Winter, though. I prefer flat pedals in the Winter, and you can't do that with fixed.
Great minds think alike! This weekend will see my Monocog reporting for winter duty by going back to fully rigid and installing tomi cog. It's my preferred setup for winter gravel vs regular MTB or CX bike.
@Exhausted_Auk- I must be doing it wrong then. I've never used anything but flat pedals riding fixed gear!
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