How About "ATRB"?

 

First of all- the internet is up at "Guitar Ted Productions" again. WooHoo! Although I suppose I could have used my iPhone as a 'hotspot', as a couple of you suggested, what you didn't know was that my phone does not work in the house without WiFi. Like, barely at all. This is why I have to get away from the G-Ted Headquarters to get a decent enough signal to do anything. And by the way, it's been like that for years no matter what phone I had. I can recall many times having to stand outside on a cold January evening just to be able to chat with someone. An anomaly of this house or something.... anyway. 

That's enough about that! What I really wanted to share today is about a name. Now, I completely understand that this ship has sailed. Marketing has fully entrenched the idea that the word 'gravel' attached to any marketing spiel is gold. The category is off the rails and fully built into the vernacular of cyclists. There is, as they say, no turning back. 

So, what I have in mind doesn't matter anymore. But I'm throwing it out there regardless. Just as an aside, I may or may not have already mentioned this name.........back in 2012, when it mattered, but the term "gravel" took off anyway, despite my voiced misgivings about the name and the perceptions it engenders. Water over the dam now.....

So, I was riding to work, there is this section of old trolley car trail, part of an old inter-urban railway system here that was, regrettably, left to die because of cars, of course. This old remaining section of the inter-urban railway is now a narrow pea gravel and dirt trail that hugs the side of a low bluff near the Cedar River. As I was pedaling up a grade on the Noble GX5 with the FLO Cycling G700 wheels, I thought about how this bike looks, at first glance, like some weird Pro racer's rig with a frame bag or two, and how most people probably are amazed that a 'road bike' is doing this sort of rustic, rough track with no issues. Then it dawned on me. 

This bike is a "ATRB". It is, for all intents and purposes, an 'all terrain road bike'. It just makes perfect sense. But, yeah........ Too late to turn the ship back to port now.