Friday News And Views

Gravel Worlds '18:

Tomorrow is Gravel Worlds and I will be lined up again for my fifth time at this event. (Sixth if you count the Good Life Gravel Adventure, which is what the event was named prior to GW's)

This year's course promises to be completely different and we're (my friend, Tony, and I ) looking forward to some different roads this time around. I am taking the BgP MCD Black Mountain Cycles rig, the same I used for the 24hrs of Cumming, and I feel pretty confident that rig will do me right. Myself on the other hand......

So, stay tuned for my typical multi-post debrief starting this coming Monday.

Morse Cage- a collaboration between King Cages and Wolf Tooth

From The "Why Didin't They Do This Before?" Files:

Wolf Tooth Components announced this week that they have done a collaboration with King Cages to bring us riders a water bottle cage that has several choices for mounting positions.

This is achieved by utilizing an alternating pattern of holes and slots. Wolf Tooth noticed that this resembled the "dot slash dot" pattern of Morse code, so they dubbed the cage the "Morse Cage".

It is available in titanium (shown here) or stainless steel. It's one of those simple ideas that makes you think, "Why aren't all water bottle cages like this?" It just makes so much sense to me. Added to that is that these are manufactured by King Cages, which in my humble opinion are the best water bottle cages anywhere, and this seems to me to be a no-brainer.

I think about those bikes that you'd like to carry a 24oz water bottle on the seat tube but your Tangle Bag doesn't allow it to clear, or maybe it's the top tube that prevents you from doing that. If you could mount that cage a bit lower..... Or maybe if you could scoot that cage down underneath the down tube toward the bottom bracket a hair more, it wouldn't interfere with the front tire. You can probably think of other scenarios where a cage like this might be a problem solver.

It's The End Of The Season And You Know It:

With apologies to REM

So, in my mind, Gravel Worlds marks the end of Summer. Yeah......I know. No one will probably agree with me on this, but right after Gravel Worlds the day light time takes a huge hit, which is really noticeable. The weather begins to cool down, if only a tic, and trees start to show signs of turning. The weeds die down, and bugs seem to be less of an issue. The woods open up, and it usually stays pretty dry during this time. That means it is prime season for mountain biking here.

Fall has always been the best time for off road here in Iowa since I've been off-roading, which.......well it's been a while, okay? I'm no spring chicken here!  But the point is, despite climate changes and all, Fall remains the best time to get your off road on with big, knobby tires. It's a well kept secret too. Many serious off road folks are done with the mtb season here by the end of August, and then, of course, it becomes cyclo cross season, so the mtb trails are generally bereft of folk. Too bad. They are missing the best riding of the year, most years.

It may be different where you live, and I get that, but around these parts, Fall is looked forward to. We were just talking at the shop about how we are ready to grab our wool stuff and breathe in some crsip, Fall air while buzzing some single track. This change of seasons thing is pretty awesome, if you ask me.

Well, that's all for this week. Have some fun on two wheels wherever you are!