Change In Plans

 And Some More Detail On "The Plan":

Things don't always turn out the way you think that they might. Everyone knows this. I thought I would be doing a few events in 2024, and I will still be doing a few, but just not the same few I thought would be the few. 

I know....it's crazy. 

First off, the event I absolutely adore and have attended for years is one that I will not be attending this year. Conflicts with myself and another on the team have scuppered our plans to make the event. This will be the first year that the team has not appeared in the Gents Race in 13 years. That's a pretty good run. Nothing to sneeze at, and if we never go back, well, it was a good run. 

Have fun at the Gents Race if you go. I highly recommend this one.

Image courtesy of Erik Mathy.

The next event I will be attending is coming up very soon. That would be Mid-South. I've never been to this event, and I am excited to witness it first hand. I do have to credit several people for making this happen though. This was not on my radar even two months ago!

This all started with that idea for the Honeman Flyer single speed gravel bike based on a 1930's design. Erik Mathy, a photographer and cyclist out of San Francisco, California, pitched an idea to me that required my buying in, literally and figuratively, to participate in bringing the Honeman Flyer to life. Erik connected me with a local to him frame builder named Liam King of King Fabrications. Li agreed to take on the project, but there were some fits and starts to our communications, and at one point I just figured Li wasn't interested and that was that.

No bike, no Mid-South, and I would have had to have arranged for transportation, housing, get a deferral from Bobby to enter, yada, yada, yada. 

It was all looking insurmountable and I gave up on it by the end of 2023. Meanwhile, Erik thought about the project and realized that he hadn't heard anything about it for a while. Erik's stake in this was that he was going to write up a story and take imagery of the completed bike at Mid-South to pitch to magazines or websites, as he is a free-lance writer as well. He contacted me and when he heard my tale he said he'd get the ball rolling again on his end. As for my logistics issues, Erik said that I needed to contact Ben Witt who was planning on taking several folks with him to Mid-South again as he has done for a few years now. 

Well, Ben was beyond stoked about the entire "Plan", and so he detailed out the finer points for me which included lodging, transportation, and more. Okay, logistically things looked great. Now about getting this bike done, and then I needed to arrange to get the time off at the Collective. This was still not a done deal. 

With Erik's prompting of Li, things got hot on the bicycle front again and the frame and fork were in progress. I went to the Board meeting and got the time off. So.... Game on. As long as this bike turns out well "The Plan" put in place for me will be activated and well..... You'll get the full report afterward. 

The final event I am scheduling for 2024 is my appearance at the Gravel Cycling Hall of Fame Induction ceremonies on May 29th, 2024 in Emporia, Kansas. 

The GCHoF board wants me to be a presenter, so I will be up on stage at some point doing "a thing" for the GCHoF. Can't say what that is now. Stay tuned on that.....

I can say that I will arrive in Emporia the afternoon of the 29th and be staying overnight. Oddly enough my room will be in the same facility where the first DK200's were run out of. I may or may not bring a bike. If I do it will be the Honeman Flyer so I can test it out on some terrain I know fairly well. 

And that is my plan for events in 2024. Again, I cannot take off willy-nilly and do weekend events since I work Saturdays and to boot, my son relies on The Truck With No Name now to get to his job. So, I really don't have much access to a vehicle anymore at this time and that doesn't look to change for a while.

Stay tuned for further updates as the become necessary. You know how things can change......