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| From v13. A view from MG's Forrester. |
Lately the weather, the way the light is in the sky at morning and at night, and the sounds and smells have been reminding me of Trans Iowa. I guess that's something I'll never forget. I'm sure many Trans Iowa vets and folks that were there for more than a few versions of the event get what I am saying here.
Well, obviously this was the traditional weekend for the event, and it has been on my mind now for weeks. Not in the same way it used to be. No- this time it is more about nostalgia and old memories than worry, stress, and being busy finalizing details.
Last weekend I warned y'all that this weekend would be a big Trans Iowa related weekend for posts. I suppose this is part of that, but tomorrow and Sunday will be longer posts than usual about Trans Iowa. Saturday will feature a post about my current state of mind regarding the events of the past. Sunday will cover the tumultuous, behind the scenes stuff that went on with Trans Iowa v7.
Just another note on that version. It was the version featured in "300 Miles Of Gravel", a short documentary by Jeff Frings. I have not gone over that documentary in the retelling of the tale here, but I do plan on telling about some things behind the making of that film related to me and Trans Iowa that haven't been put down before in one post, or told at all. That will become part of the tales surrounding Trans Iowa v8, as it was at that event's pre-race meeting where the film was debuted.
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| The science behind wheels is pretty complicated. |
Recently I have become aware of a couple of really deep science-driven YouTube videos on wheels and their inner workings. These are definitely NOT entertaining, by the way. They are hard to get through, but contain a lot of interesting bits that make you see how bicycle wheels actually work.
The first is a "tech document" in video form covering how spokes act when loaded and specifically what it is that causes aluminum rims to crack around spoke holes and fail. It was done by a gentleman named Bill Mould and is very well done, from an academic standpoint. It is horrible as entertainment, so don't say I didn't warn you. But, if you are curious, you can learn a lot from it. Here's the link.
The other bit of geekery has to do with fluid dynamics and how air flows around wheels. The wheel company, Hunt, based in the UK, has been working on its own data and through various tests has been able to replicate numbers generated in wind tunnel testing using a "CFD" program digitally. There is also a YouTube video speaking to this, but again, please be aware that engineers, while smart, don't know a lot about communications and sound engineering. The following link is short, but the video production used a room microphone instead of a close up mic on the speaker, so you get a ton of "room ambiance" and detail gets lost in the wash. It doesn't help, (for these American ears) that the speaker has a distinct British accent which makes picking out some of what he is saying difficult.
For example, whenever the speaker says "CFD" (Computational Fluid Dynamics), I thought it was British for "safety". Anyway- the link. Check those YouTube vids out if you have some down time and want to learn more about wheels.
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| Postponed to 2021 |
The annual gathering of the tribe of cyclists who traverse across Iowa is now a line broken. COVID-19 was sure to cause RAGBRAI not to happen, but the "official word" had not been given until Monday the 20th. So, call it what you like- cancelled or postponed - it doesn't matter. The annual ritual is now done. Now it has been interrupted. It's been a weird year, and the loss of RAGBRAI this year will be something most Iowans have never experienced.
We talked about this at the bike shop. It seems hard to gauge what effect the loss of RAGBRAI this year will have. On one hand, traditional RAGBRAI riders are "ageing out" of the event. I noted less and less riders every year over the past several years were bringing in bikes for "RAGBRAI tune-ups". Added to that is the fracturing of the traditional riding base between those doing "Iowa's Ride", (also waiting on this to be cancelled, by the way) and those who were going to stick with RAGBRAI. There is no way of knowing what that would have done in a "normal" year.
What buoys us is that there is a bump in recreational cycling now with the social distancing rules and this makes cycling one of the only options for people to get outside currently. This has bumped up repairs and new bike sales a bit. Will that continue throughout Summer enough to offset the loss of RAGBRAI business? Hard to say now, but losing RAGBRAI for a year will definitely not be a good thing for the cycling industry.
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What's In A Name?
Recently a petition promoted by Cyclocross Magazine has been circulated around on social media calling for the name of the Dirty Kanza events to be changed due to the claims of it's derogatory and racist underpinnings, which the petition claimed were the unwittingly perpetuating this by the use of the name.
A firestorm of support for the petition and a counter-storm of support for the event arose which was, frankly, getting ugly and less about what was actually going on and more about....well, you'll see here.
I have posted the response that Life Time made public on Monday evening, 4/20/20. In the open letter to the gravel community it is explained that the aforementioned petition on behalf of the Kaw Nation, (the Native American tribe which gave its old name "Kanza" to the state of Kansas, many businesses, and the event in question), was not made with the Kaw Nation's knowledge or blessing. However; Jim Cummins, one of the founders of the event, did actually contact the Kaw Nation, discussed the controversy, gave his explanation of the naming of the event, what the event was about, and what that all meant to him and thousands of others, and the Kaw Nation was impressed enough to co-sign the letter shown here today.
One party took action on their own without consulting the supposed "offended party", made a statement attacking the other party, and caused a social media firestorm. The other side actually made the effort to contact the potentially offended party, be diplomatic, have a discussion, and come to a mutual understanding with the, as it turns out, not offended party. Now they stand together and have come away with a mutual respect of one another. I'm not going to discuss that further only to say I think it is obvious which party did things correctly and which one did not.
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I will make a comment on this in the form of a personal story. Many of you readers here know that I was among the 34 riders at the first Dirty Kanza 200. When I signed up for the event I already had been privy to behind the scenes talks about this event, as Jim Cummins and his partner, Joel Dyke, were in communication with myself and Jeff Kerkove as they developed their ideas which eventually became the Dirty Kanza 200. One of the working names for the event was the Flint Hills 200. (You can find this reference on this very blog from 2005.) But when the event was announced publicly, the name was "Dirty Kanza 200 ".
When I signed up for the event I was digging for any information that I could about the event, because I knew nothing about Kansas, the Flint Hills, or the name "Kanza". Here is a bit about what I had found out posted on this blog January 13th, 2006:
" 1. New Endurance Event Gets a Name!: The Kansas based endurance race spawned by the idea of Trans Iowa has been officially named. Called Dirty Kanza 200 Miler, it will be an unsupported endurance test over the very hilly Flint Hills region of Kansas. Named for the Native American tribe that inhabited the region, this event will take place on May 20th. Look for more details on this site soon."
I knew about the Kanza tribe because of what Jim and Joel put out there about their event's name. So, I recall looking up information about the Kanza people. I learned a lot about them, and I came to know a small piece of their story. I can say that this built empathy and a new perspective about them and their plight over the centuries. I do know also that the "dirty" part of Dirty Kanza was about the gravel roads. Never did I once read, or believe the two things were conjoined in a way which was meant as a derogatory, racist comment. In fact, that would have been the furthest thing from my mind. Then someone suggested that it was, "in fact", racist. Trouble was, it wasn't someone that was connected to the Kaw Nation or that knew about Jim and Joel's history in the naming of this event.
I have a theory that when "someone is speaking for someone else". I'm not getting the true story, context, or the intangibles that can only come from the source. I knew where Jim and Joel were coming from, and I knew that the petition was driven by something other than a complaint of the Kaw Nation. (At least it was never connected to the Kaw Nation) Now that I have seen the letter, things make a ton more sense to me.
You can read the letter for yourself. Please, make up your own mind.
That's a wrap for this edition of FN&V. have a great weekend!
7 comments:
I'VE HEARD BEFORE AND AGREE FOR MYSELF THE SENSE OF SMELL IS A POWERFUL TRIGGER OF MEMORY. LET THOSE SPRINGTIME SCENTS BRING BACK FOND MEMORIES. ALSO, ON THE LINES OF DK 200. WASN'T THE NAME OF THE LAND RUN 100 CHANGED TO MID-SOUTH FOR SIMILAR REASONS?
@graveldoc - Land Run/Mid-South was a situation where the event name was based upon a despicable event - not a supposed racially charged name. Two different things.
Mark, I have discussed how I grew up in Western New York with the Seneca and Tuscarora Reservations and having family buried on Native American land that is leased to the city of Salamanca NY. I grew up walking cornfields near the Oatka (Oh-At-Ka) Creek. Point being, I enjoy the fact of recognizing Native Americans in a positive light, and I never correlated Dirty Kanza with a besmirchment of the Kaw Nation. I think this effort by a few was a much to do about nothing, other than themselves. I would rather see people who were outrage and still are about the name do something else an be constructive for the Native Americans. They are looking for teachers and other professionals to be in their community. If you have a skill set that they are looking for, go be an agent of change for the long term, not the short term. And we need a donut ride soon.
GT - I appreciate the nuance you are bringing into this discussion, rather than the knee-jerk reactions that we tend towards. Without taking a position on this event name, I do think it is important to emphasize a couple of points (again, in the interest of nuance):
1) Just because some members of a group, nation, or ethnicity declare that a cultural/religious/etc name is ok to use outside it's typical context does not mean that this use is without offense to others in the group, nor that it might still perpetuate problematic stereotypes (for reference: the debate within native communities over the name of the Washington NFL team.)
2) Even if DK is completely endorsed by the Kaw Nation and confers benefit to the originators of the name Kanza, it is worth considering if we should be using native names and imagery for sporting events and mascots at all. I am firmly in the camp that native mascots are a problematic appropriation (we say lots of nasty things about the opposing team, and it that team is linked to real people, that's not cool); use of place names is more of a grey area, but worthy of reflection. In this case, I'd be WAY more comfortable with the KANZA 200 without the adjective DIRTY. There's just such a long history (and present) of native names and imagery being misused in sport - more often than not an insult on top of the real injury communities have experiences historically and to this day (one example: feared impact of COVID on reservations and native communities).
Anyway, not an easy decision to reconsider the name of an established and iconic event, but thanks again for injecting some thoughtfulness into the conversation.
@NY Roll - Yes- Donut ride is a must as soon as we can do that again.
@Pete Wituki - In relation to your point #1- I address that specifically in the next Riding Gravel Radio ranch podcast. I encourage you to listen to it.
Regarding point #2- "Appropriation" happens all the time. What must be considered is whether or not it is understood to be used in a negative way, or is it being used in an honoring way. Positive or negative. I would refer you to NY Roll's comment above, or what I took away from "Dirty Kanza" in 2005/2006 as I learned more about that people. In these cases, I think it can be said that this "appropriation" led to awareness and was positive.
Consistent, logical conclusions to what is considered as "cultural appropriation" today would lead to no awareness of any cultures outside of your own. In other words, divisiveness,and exclusionary boundaries would be the norm. I can't use anything from your culture, and vice-versa. Otherwise we have grey areas, which is what we do have in reality. Each case is different, and within cases, you'll have positive and negative results.
It's a very complex, and not easily understood thing. Respect, love, and honoring are probably the best practices going forward. The bad stuff isn't going away, and all we can do is minimize the impacts of it.
I believe what I just described as "best practices" is what Jim Cummins did with the Kaw Nation. It is a good prototype. Let it be that and I hope that moving forward we see more of that and less of what we saw regarding the "petition" promoted by Cyclocross Magazine.
@guitarTed. Regarding Landrun vs DK event naming. Thanks for the clarification; I stand corrected.
So many great thoughts expressed above. Since I've had a chance to chew on this awhile. I'd like to explain my thinking on Land /run in light of racist points of view. With the events of the Land Run, the indigenous peoples of the time were so badly uprooted and mistreated, they were dehumanized to the point that rascist points of view have developed and persist to this day. Certainly still lots of room for appropriation and healing.
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