Loose Ends

I was reminded once again why off-roading in Northeast Iowa in the Summer is often a bad idea.

This is Monday......right? Not sure. It's been a weird six or seven days what with my schedule, a holiday, and a weekend all running together to make it so I wasn't sure what day it was several times throughout the period.

Anyway, back to the regular grind, right? I will find my feet in a hurry, I am sure. So, a few things to clean up on that have happened of late that didn't make the blog in the last several days. I guess it could almost have been a "Randomonium" post, but there actually is a common thread, so, no....... Just some loose ends here this time to cover.

First off, it is not only the height of "green" here in the Mid-West, but it is also the traditional time of year that I abandon mountain biking in the local area. It's been that way for years, and thanks to Ingawanis Woodlands, or otherwise I'd never have gotten much done in Summertime back in the old "Twenty Nine Inches" days. Well, there and Cedar Bend Park. Those were mainstays back in the day. That said, I almost never went anywhere in the local area due to the height of "jungle season". The time of year here when our river bottom oriented trails are water-logged, overgrown with vegetation, and rife with mosquitoes. In other words, absolutely no fun at all.

We have a local group here that for the last ten years, well.....around that long....have been busting their butts trying to fight with the regular seasons. They've had some successes for sure, but this year is quintessential "jungle season" conditions, and, well...... The results have been predictable. No one is having much fun with the soft trails locally and everyone that can goes to Ingawanis Woodlands.

Yep. Same song, second verse.

Testing the Spank Vibrocore handle bar has been challenging.

So, gravel travel has been the ticket around these parts. It's interesting hearing the tales of roadies this year. More close calls. More crashes in group rides leading to broken bikes and bones. Bah! Like Jeff Kerkove used to say, "The Road is the devil!", when he spoke of road riding. Now, admittedly, I am not a roadie. I ride gravel, and I like mountain biking a lot. Take that for what it's worth. But you can have road riding. I don't have any interest in it at all right now.

At any rate, I have enough to get done with "Riding Gravel" to keep me gravel riding for the rest of the year. One of the latest review items is the Spank Vibrocore drop bar I am reviewing for the site. It's not an easy product to talk about, by the way.

First of all, even Spank says this bar "changes the vibrations" from harmful ones to a rider to less harmful ones. Note- they do not claim that vibrations will be absent. This makes talking about this bar difficult, because what are harmful vibrations for you, and what are they for me? See where I am coming from? It's an odd world of marketing claims and products out there, and we all have to navigate it when considering products. That said, I like the bar fine. It's got a great flare and drop shape, and that 31.8mm top section is brilliant. I just have to do some more riding to suss out the rest.

Not that I mind. Riding the gravel roads is fun and, obviously, I enjoy it. But with July running on, and August staring at me from a few weeks away, I already feel like time is running short, and it seems like Summer just got rolling here. Plus I have the GTDRI and Gravel Worlds to get ready for. Sheesh! It's daunting. Lots to do- little time to get it done.