The GTDRI Stories: The Fargo Comes Home

Late November 2008 near Cedar Falls, Iowa

"The GTDRI Stories" is a series telling the history, untold tales, and showing the sights from the run of Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitationals. This series will run on Sundays. Thanks for reading!

During Interbike time in 2008, Salsa Cycles announced that their newest 29'er would be an adventure bike dubbed the "Fargo". The same bike we had seen at the GTDRI only a few months earlier that was known as "Black Electrical Tape". Now it had a proper name, and the legendary model from Salsa Cycles has since carved out its own niche within cycling.

But more personal to me, and to the GTDRI in particular, was the fact that over the ensuing weeks and months since the 2008 GTDRI, I had become enamored of the whole idea behind the Fargo, or as I knew it then, the "Black Electrical Tape" bike. This proceeded to involve me in a breakout ride for the bike in Minneapolis' on the Minnesota River Bottoms Trail on the same day that Barack Obama was elected President of the USA in a historic election. A day I shall never forget.

Obviously, my association with the website, "Twentynine Inches.com" had a lot to do with this, but here's the deal- I was the only "media" person on this ride. The rest of the bunch included my friend at the time, Rob Walters, and everyone else was an employee of Quality Bicycle Products or Salsa Cycles. So, to have been invited up for this auspicious occasion was a great honor and privilege that I didn't take for granted then, nor do I now. 

All this fall-out from the GTDRI was leading to a day where I would end up coming home with the very bike I was assigned to test ride that day. Not only was this a result of GTDRI, this bike would end up being used for many future GTDRI rides. In a way, this ride, the Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitational, was made for a bike like the Fargo. The Fargo was also pretty much all about rides like the GTDRI. It was a perfect marriage.

That same bike from above as it sits today in 2022. (Notice that one of the water bottles is the same!)

Now, a full 14 years down the road, that Fargo still carries me on adventures. While the old GTDRI is a done deal, and I do not expect that I will revive the ride as it once was anytime soon, I still will do those "death rides" in the future, and I'll probably be on this bike to do them. One day, big mileage, ride-till-I-can't rides that are like the origins for the GTDRI. 

Now, they say "Never say never!", and I understand that circumstances may change, so I am not saying I wouldn't entertain a one-off revival of the GTDRI, but I don't plan on it. But, let's say it were to happen. Well, "if" it did, this is the bike I'm using for it. 

The image that graced the GTDRI home page for years is actually from the 2008 version

 Bonus: About That Image:

The above image was the one many of you that checked out the Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitational page saw when you landed there. In fact, it still is there. A weird, low angle shot of a bottle of New Belgium Beer and someone's crossed legs. A plastic bag of garbage and an unidentified figure lurk in the Sun washed background. So....why this image?

 This is from the post-ride socializing after the 2008 version. That year we were still buzzing about this new Fargo bike we knew then by the name "Black Electrical Tape". We were sitting with Jason Boucher, his family, (that's actually Jason's wife in the background), and Matt Gersib, whose crossed legs you see there. There may have been a couple of the others from the ride milling about here as well. 

I was giddy about how things had turned out and what I really wanted was to document Jason, the bike, Matt, and I because I knew then that this was a monumental moment in this ride's history. It was a monumental moment for the reasons detailed above, and for other reasons as well. Not the least of which was the friendship that was forming between myself and Matt. 

That is why this image is on the GTDRI page.  I've always had a certain affinity for this image as it represents a moment in time that became immensely important to me down the road.

So it was that the "soft debut" Fargo was one of the results of the third GTDRI. In three years, this ride had already resulted in some amazing outcomes that would endure to this day. But there were more GTDRI's to come, obviously, and next week we'll start on the next one from 2009. 

Next: Reversed Influence