Two Things

Sorted for now.

Raleigh Tamland Two Tire Update:

The other day I posted about my wheel swap on the Raleigh Tamland Two and I stated that I needed to find some suitable rubber for the frame and fork that allowed more clearance. That has happened now.

The tires I chose from the stash were a pair of Donnelly USH 700 X 40mm tires that I received from Donnelly back in 2019 to review. (Standard Disclaimer) These tires have a file-like tread and are pretty much a low/no tread design. 

I like these tires,, at least that was my feelings about them when I thought about them the other day. You might not think that a "no tread" tire would be good for gravel, but I did not have any issues with that which I can recall now. Well, now we will find out, won't we! 

They are 40's..... Yeah, I would have rather have had 45mm tires but I don't have anything right now that I can put on this bike. There was a brief moment where I thought I was going to use my 700 X 47mm Teravail Rutlands but when I measured the Cazaderos on the Raliegh at that time they measured right at 47mm, so yeah, no go on the Rutlands.

New Podcast Episode:

On Tuesday I was able to interview Don Person, which is a name you may not know. However, if I said he goes by 'shiggy', that may ring a bell with you. He has been a legend in the tire testing/knowledge area, especially for anything off-road, for decades. 

You may also be interested to know that shiggy was also responsible for bringing the flared drop bar back to life in a collaboration with On One's Brant Richards in the early 2000's. At that time Brant had reached out to shiggy for design advice which in turn resulted in the venerable Midge Bar. That handle bar was arguably the genesis of flared drop bar usage in gravel riding as well as MTB. 

If you want to hear shiggy give the timeline and history on that subject, and hear his tales of tire design, see the link HERE. The episode is a long one, so be forewarned. I think it is our longest to date at about an hour and a half.

The first portion of the podcast features some talk about a new event format coming from The Spinistry down in Texas which I think is really creative and unique in gravel. Check that out and let me know what you think of that idea. Again, you can listen to "The Guitar Ted Podcast" wherever you get your podcast feed from or hit the link HERE to listen from Spotify.