Rear View 2020: The Third Quarter

Gravel: It's what was on the menu for Summer 2020.

 Hello Readers! Once again I am doing the annual retrospective on what went down over the year of 2020. This post will focus on the Third Quarter of the year. The next post will cover the Fourth quarter and the previous two quarters have been posted already for a total of four, one each week of December on Thursdays.This is the third "Rear View" post of the series. 

July started off with great weather, a hushed atmosphere due to the pandemic, weird times at work with no new bikes to sell, and the expectation of a new bike to my stable- the Standard Rando v2. I was in parts acquisition mode already and had just gotten everything rounded up when the frame and fork arrived in early July. Then it was building up and test riding the thing, and by the end of the month I had determined that this bike, which I had dubbed "The Gravel Bus", was a winner. 

July also saw me kicking in the pursuit of "The Quest" into high gear. Almost every ride now was focused on bagging new roads. Roads and parts of Black Hawk County I'd never been to before. This began a shut-down of sorts where I ended up not considering any ride in the country unless it contributed somehow to me riding another section of gravel I hadn't yet ridden in the County. But I did not quite yet have that locked down 100%. I did squeeze in one more big ride not related entirely to bagging new roads. It was the "Ride To Indy" that I did in early August. That was supposed to be my solo "Guitar Ted Death Ride" and I suppose that's what it was because yes- I bonked! I wanted to ride 100 miles but ended up with something like 75 miles before I had to call Mrs. Guitar Ted in to pick my limp body up in Independence, Iowa. I suppose the pandemic times played into my failure to get to 100 miles since I was so freaked out about being inside a convenience store that I forgot to buy anything to eat. I even sat outside in Independence rather than hang out inside an air conditioned building waiting on my bail-out ride. Mental, I'll tell ya. 

This may have been the best Summer I have ever experienced for gravel riding. So many days like this!

 August continued on with incredibly awesome weather and more rides for "The Quest". The end of the month saw my son return to school, and football practice. I was admittedly a bit apprehensive about all of that, and my fears turned out to be true when my son contracted COVID-19 in early September. His symptoms were nearly non-existent, and we all avoided getting it, and thankfully he recovered quickly. While we avoided getting infected then, it was a tense time around the home. Football games cut into my weekend gravel activities a bit up through the end of the month and beyond, but seeing my son play was a great source of pride and joy. 

In other bike related news for me, I sold off my Trek Sawyer and it went to a good home where it is getting ridden on single track, like it should be. not sitting in my collection collecting dust like it had been. I also passed on the mechanic owned and legacy bike from my past job to Andy, where I work now, as it fit him a lot better than it fit me. And in a way, that was right, because Andy had worked at the old shop as well. I am happy to see that he has been riding it regularly since he got it. I also got my old On One Inbred up and going again, which has been fun. 

The bike industry woes of short supply on parts and complete bikes cut into what would have been a very good year for me as a mechanic. I was doing okay, but it was obvious by September that it would be a sparse, long, and frugal Winter. Not unlike what I had as a situation going into Winter the previous year. At least I knew what to expect there.

Next: The Fourth Quarter and the end of the 2020 Rear View series.