Virtual Turkey Burn Ride Report: Guitar Ted

 This is the first of several Virtual Turkey Burn reports I received this year. (It's mine!) I VERY lightly edited the submissions where I found a mistake. Images are credited to the authors. Thanks for reading these and for submitting a report if you did so. Remember that some of these reports fall on double-post days, so be sure to scroll down the page to make sure you don't miss any content! 

The Pre-Burn:

A few things changed with my plans when I found out a few days ahead of Thanksgiving that we would be getting a big Arctic blast on Thanksgiving day. So, I bailed on riding gravel because the wind chills were supposed to be in the single digits and winds were to gust to 25mph. That's not fun, and I wouldn't get far anyway in those conditions. Especially since this would be my first cold weather ride in a long time. 

I went with my Ti Muk 2 because I have some nice 45NRTH pogies that go with that bike and my plan to ride in the Green Belt, out of the wind, would make the drive train on that bike ideal. Lots of twigs and branches make for ripped off derailleurs and the internally geared Rohloff hub keeps the single speed type drive train intact for wood-munching, in case that needed to happen. 

I also planned on breaking up the mileage into multiple days, but I needed to get my tail wagging on Thanksgiving Day to make it work and my goal was to get in 20 miles before noon and the Thanksgiving meal.

Beaver damage. I saw lots of evidence of beaver activity in the Green Belt.

The Green Belt lake under sullen skies.

To get 20-plus miles I would need to ride a lot of alternative trails. Going straight through and back wasn't going to add up to 20 miles. So, I added in a loop around the Green Belt lake first. Then I noted that there was a new mown trail through a prairie meadow that is sandwiched between the lake and the Green Belt trails along Black Hawk Creek and bordered on the South by Martin Road. That added a half mile. 

The new nature trail "lollipop" section

View from Marky-Mark trail.

I went left on the section after Ridgeway Avenue, up and around on the East side of the Green Belt, near the old dog track area, and then back to go under HWY 20 and then back on forgotten old trails to the East there and in the Robinson Bird Sanctuary. I also added in the bit of trail South of Shaulis Road that many people ignore as well. 

This is the end of the line for the Green Belt Trail. This is about two miles from Hudson, Iowa.

My ride track from Ride With GPS. I got in 22.2 miles on Day One

At the Southernmost end of the trail I was at 11 miles. That was promising for a 20 mile goal. So I reset the goal to 22 miles, tried following the way I went out as best I could, and ended up with 22.2 miles on Day One. 

Turkey Burn Day Two:Blue Skies And Brutal Winds

Friday dawned Sunny and clear, but the Northwest wind was 20mph and was gusting to 30mph. The wind chill was in the single digits below zero, so yeah.... I waited until afternoon when the ambient temperatures was around 21°F and the wind chill was up above zero degrees. Barely, but it was above zero. 

I dressed appropriately and headed Northwest into the wind along city streets, alleys, bike trails, and sidewalks until I got out to Big Woods Lake. I figured on riding the bike path around that lake and then coming back I'd ride the opposite side of the Cedar River on bike trails and see if I couldn't get at least 20 miles in. I wanted to leave myself with only twenty miles left to reach a metric century which I figured I could pull off in the last two days of the challenge. 

Old Shirey Way. IYKYK

Bridge across narrows at Big Woods Lake

I tell ya, that wind was nuts. I stayed warm enough, but it was a big time workout getting out there to the turnaround point and into a tailwind at times. I ended up stopping once at the turnaround to take a 'nature break' and once again midway back. 

Taking a break for a minute in George Wyth State Park

I had to stop at the old cement elephant. One of the last remnants of old Robinson Caruso Park.

The route for Friday. 21.2 miles.

I made it back home in a bit over two hours and with 21.2 miles on the GPS device. That added to my previous day total brought me up to 43.4 miles. I would only need to score 20 more miles in two days to reach my goal. It seemed like a piece of cake, especially since Friday was to be the worst day out of the four days I had to get this done. 

I figured on biting off some of this on Saturday depending upon how I felt after two brutal days in the wind and cold. Plus I had to work Saturday morning and play in the church band Sunday morning. 

On to the next day......

Day 3: Goin' Round In Circles:

Saturday, day three of the challenge, I awoke to single digit temperatures and light winds. I had to commute to work so I decided to take a slightly longer route to work and an even longer one back from work. Anything I could add with my short commute would be money in the bank. I did not GPS this bit but I got in 2.5 miles round trip. 

Day 3 Route: I rode around the cemetery 12 times!

Then after lunch the temperatures jumped up to a balmy 24°F but more importantly, the wind backed off quite a bit, so I decided to hit up the cemetery for some laps. 

I went around the outer loop 12 times and then went in and rode every other "road" in the cemetery before exiting and adding a loop of mostly alleys. That gave me 10.4 miles right there.

Adding things up then, I had 22.2 + 21.2+ 2.5 + 10.4 for a total of 56.3 miles so far. That left almost 7 miles to get the metric. Would I get there Sunday? On to the next day.....

Day 4: Remember The Commute!

With only seven miles left to cover I tried to think of an out-and-back that was short and which would cover the necessary distance. I really had not decided on a route until just before I left the house. My old commute to work was about 4 miles. Out and back would definitely get me the mileage needed and should only take an hour at a casual pace. Once again, the winds were out of the Northwest and it was in the low 20's for temperatures. 

Man! This cold weather riding sure sucks the life out of ya!

Trolley Car Trail at 3:00 in the afternoon. Look at that low angle Sunlight!

The Day 4 route covered 9.4 miles.

So, that was it! I made the challenge work! I have to admit that this was a big time motivation to ride. I know I wouldn't have ridden otherwise! Not in these brutal temperatures. But.......I did ride. And I am grateful that I did. 65.7 miles total. I'll take it.

Maybe I am a little bit down about not doing one big ride out in the gravel, but on the other hand, I consistently got on the bike for four days in a row in some pretty challenging weather. So, I think I actually benefited more from having to do things the way I did do them as opposed to a one-shot deal and then not riding at all the rest of the days. I'll have more to say when I wrap up this VTBC series, probably this weekend. 

Next: I have two shorter reports I am combining in one for Tuesday. I have two longer reports which will run on Wednesday and Thursday. Stay tuned for more Turkey Burn reports soon!

Bikes Of 2024: King Fabrications "Honeman Flyer"

 It's another December here on the blog. You know what that means? Yep! Another round of my bikes I used in 2024. This round-up will not include some of the bikes I did not use this year much, or at all. I focus only on the bikes that played a big role in my riding during this year.  As always, any changes or future plans for any bike I feature will also be detailed. I hope that you enjoy this year's round-up. 

The King Fabrications "Honeman Flyer" in March of 2024 in Oklahoma. Image by Erik Mathy

The story of this bike is well told, but if you are pretty new here and don't know about the backstory, a brief synopsis to bring you up to speed here will suffice. 

The idea was spawned when I saw an old advertisement posted on Face Book by frame builder Steve Garro of Coconino Bikes. He mentioned that a spec drawing recreated in the ad showing a 1930's era track bike ridden to National Championships in the late 30's by Willie Honeman might actually make a great gravel bike. I said as much on the blog here and then one thing led to another, (See "People Of 2024: Erik Mathy") and I ended up with an exact copy of the geometry of the Pop Warner designed and built bike which Willie Honeman used in the 30's. Extrapolated to fit me, of course. Willie was of smaller stature than I. 

The Honeman Flyer in its most recent incarnation.

I won't get into all nitty gritty of the bike and how it rides. That can be read HERE. What I will say is that I was very surprised by how much I liked this bike and how often I wanted to ride it. I would even throw some shoes on just to ride it around the neighborhood for ten minutes some days. That's an example to show you that there is something to this bike, for me at least, and I am very happy with it. 

I also will say that I did not expect that I would love riding this bike. In the beginning of the project I thought it could be a failed experiment that might end up sitting around the shop for years until I decided to scrap it. But that will not be happening! Thankfully... By the way, yes, a custom bike I had made in 2007 did end up like that minus the scrapped part. I gave it to a friend who loves it now.

Maybe at some point I can get away for a really long ride on this bike. I have some ideas for that..... 

As far as changes go, I went through several seat posts before landing on one of my four Salsa Cycles Regulator Ti posts. I could see going back to a no-offset post again though. So, if one pops up on my radar in titanium I may have to bite on that. Otherwise there is nothing I am seeing here that will change anytime soon.

People Of 2024: Bobby Wintle

 In my travels and life during the year, I have been blessed to be supported, befriended, and on occasion visited by some pretty awesome folks. Sometimes I visited them. (Hopefully they were equally blessed!) I wanted to take some extra space to recognize and celebrate these people at the end of the year. I hope you gain some insight and appreciation for what these people mean to me this year and beyond. 

Bobby Wintle (back to camera) and Rhett Shull playing guitar the night after Mid-South was done.

Mid-South was a highlight of 2024 for me for many reasons, but maybe the "cherry on top" was seeing Bobby Wintle and being able to hang out with him for a bit the day after Mid-South was over. 

This might seem silly to some of you out there, but I often feel like the outsider in groups and when it comes to other people's events I often feel like I really am more of a bother than a "guest". Never mind that maybe some see me as a "big deal" in the gravel community. I just often feel like a third wheel and that I don't fit in. So, when I was drug along with the Northfield Crew to this rented house in Stillwater to witness those Northfield guys cook up a special supper for Bobby, his close crew members, and special guests, I was left sitting and wondering what the heck was I even doing there. 

Now I will add that Bobby had made it plain that he was "so glad I was there", and he said so several times. But being me, that did not register at the time. Anyway, when Bobby had shown up at this special gathering, he took a bit of time to drag me away. We walked a few blocks over to his house, and Bobby showed me around. We chatted a bit, mostly small talk, and then we returned to the party. 

Well, that finally registered with me. I don't know exactly why Bobby did that for me, but I knew that meant a lot to him, and he wasn't kidding around when he said he was stoked to have me there. 

And that really made the trip super special for me. Not that it wouldn't have been so without this experience, but yeah.... It was one of those small things I'll remember for a long time that made me feel really good. Definitely a highlight of 2024 for me. 

Shout out to Rhett Shull here as well. I had a chance to speak with him, he of the guitar You Tube community, and seeing a guy I've watched online for a long time that is a stellar guitar player was fun. Definitely another highlight of 2024.