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| Remember kids, if you don't blog it, it never happened! |
This one was unique as it featured a big event and people that haven't been back since. On the one hand there were a few riders in attendance that day of note. David Pals- then my co-director of Trans Iowa, Jason Boucher, then head of the Salsa Cycles brand, Matt Wills, and my good friend and brother, Matt Gersib were there. Jeff Bonsall and Michael Beck both rode in this edition of the GTDRI and have never been back. It was great having those guys along that year. Secondly was Jason Boucher;s special "secret bike". It was the first time anyone had seen a Salsa Cycles Fargo production bike outside of QBP folks.
Of course, we couldn't talk about the bike, and what is more, we didn't know what it was called, because Jason covered up the name on the top tube carefully with black electrical tape. Thus the name of this particular Fargo became "Black Electrical Tape". I wonder what ever became of that particular Fargo?
So, I was honored to have had that happen at my little ol' ride. The bike was really cool! Of course, I would say that, but even back then, before I had a Fargo, I thought this was such a great idea for a bicycle. And to boot, the first public outing of this bike was on a gravel adventure ride.
In fact, we didn't know it at the time, but the decal on the frame, "Adventure by Bike", was to become the catch phrase for Salsa Cycles, and then the rest of the industry also caught the bug. Bikepacking was yet to become a "thing", gravel adventuring was still in its infancy as a trend, and the Fargo helped spark all of that. So, again- I was floored looking back upon this event to understand a bit the magnitude of Jason bringing "Black Electrical Tape" to the ride.
All on a little deal called the "Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitational". Who'da thunk it?
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