Friday News And Views

The Guitar Ted Podcast Episode # 33 1/3rd:

Hey, in case you missed it, N.Y. Roll and I did another podcast that dropped last weekend and is available on Spotify, Apple, Google
Podcasts, and other podcast outlets. You can also listen via This Link.

Of course, we talk about not just our tips and tricks for route finding, but that new Tumbleweed handle bar also. Check it out if you have a spare hour to hear our thoughts. 

Programming Note: The next episode, #35, (Hey! I was never good at math!), will be our last one for the year. N.Y. Roll and I plan on taking the month of December off to recharge and spend time with our people. We may meet at some point in there to discuss Season #2 which we plan on cranking up in January. 

If you have any episode ideas, please drop them in the comments below. They do not have to be gravel related, by the way. We can and will be doing podcasts with varying subject matter over the course of the New Year. And as always, thanks for listening, if you choose to.

Virtual Turkey Burn Challenge:

Just a gentle reminder that I put out that Turkey Burn ride challenge a while back and if you wanted to participate, you can read how to do that HERE. 

You have from today through Sunday to complete a metric or full century ride, snap a few images, write a few words, and hit me up at g.ted.productions@gmail.com. Submissions must be in by Tuesday, November 28th. 

I will run my report, if nothing else, but if I get submissions I will run those Starting Monday, December 4th until I get through them all. Again, that is if I get any submissions. 

Last year I got a few and one from Europe! So that was really surprising and fun. Let's see what shows up this year. 

Salsa Cycles announced this promotion last Monday.

I Wouldn't Get Used To This:

Okay, okay! I get that you probably are swimming in ads and promotional sales stuff today, but that isn't really my point here. I'm just trying to point out that these are unprecedented times. 

30% off Salsa bicycles? When has that ever happened before? And I saw one deal that had some specially selected bikes at sixty percent off! 

All of this is unsustainable, of course, and this is really the industry trying to move the pile sitting in their warehouses now so that they can start getting some cash-flow to pay the bills off. 

And if you, as a consumer, don't buy? Well, if enough sit on their hands, there is going to be a reckoning coming soon, and it won't be a pretty thing to see. People will lose their jobs if that's the case, and brands you know well may disappear from the marketplace. 

Compounding this are the boatloads of used bikes on the market as well. Recent models too, not just old, clapped-out rigs. And due to market pressures, those folks are going to have to start taking less money as well, or you know, you may as well just buy a heavily discounted new bike. 

Image courtesy of Sate Bicycle Co.

State Bicycle Co. Announces Fat Bike:

State Bicycle Co. announced on Monday this past week that they now offer a fat bike. Retailing for $999.00 USD, the bike features a Shimano Altus 1 X 9 drive train, Tektro brakes, and a 6061 aluminum frame and fork. 

The frame can handle up to 4.5" X 26" tires and comes with Kenda Juggernauts in that size fitted to the bike. You can check out the Wildberry version HERE.

Comments: State usually has some pretty decent designs This fat bike kind of kicks it back to the old Pugsley geometry with a 71°/73° head/seat tube angle. The bottom bracket is a cartridge square taper type. 100mm wide shell, natch. The axle spacing is also a bit odd in that the fork is a 135mm spaced fork but the rear axle is a 190mmOLD. The price is good, I think, for a decent fat bike for a fat-bike-curious person, or for the tinkerer that wants to bling out a platform. 

Downsides that I can see are the solid aluminum, double-walled rims, which portend a heavy wheel. That rear mech looks like a cheap Altus rear derailleur, quick release wheels instead of through-axles, and a limited gear range. All that adds up and the claimed weight for a size Large is about 40lbs.

Public Service Announcement:

I'm posting this today because the "FN&V" gets a lot of eyeballs on it and this affects the blog here.

The "End of Year" posts will be coming! Now, that isn't necessarily something to be alarmed about, but you should know that the month of December here can be busy.

I'll have multiple posts hitting most days. So that means you may have to scroll down the page, or check out the right side margin for the current posts. Scroll down to "Blog Archive" to find those latest posts listed. Those are clickable links, by the way, so you can go directly to a post from that list.  

I have an "End Of Year Announcements" post already to go which will drop on December 4th that will spell everything out in detail, so stay tuned for that if you'd like to know more. OR - You can go to the Blog Archive, pick any year, and it will take you to December where you can scroll backward to see what a December typically looks like here now. 

That's a wrap for this week! Thank you for reading Guitar Ted Productions!