Rear View 2024: Fourth Quarter

 Hello! it's time again to review the year on Guitar Ted Productions. The "Rear View" has been a staple of the blog since almost the very beginning. This year there will be four Rear View posts looking back on the year in quarters. I'll also have a post looking ahead at 2024. Enjoy the look back and thanks for reading Guitar Ted Productions!

October kicked off with more reviewing duties. I had Tifosi Moab eyewear and a State Monster Fork v2 in for testing. I also reviewed some Cross Point waterproof socks, Redshift Sports Top Shelf Bag, and some Twin Six Thermal bib tights in a 3/4's length, which I really have been leaning on here for colder weather riding. 

I also continued to pull some thoughts on products I have used and enjoyed long-term. This period featured a review of the Ergon BT Gravel Handlebar Tape. 

Most of those reviews were wrapped up in November in preparation for Winter to settle in and make riding hard to do. The trend of reviews for 2024 has carried through right up until the end of the year though. I purchased some 45NRTH Draugenklaw drop bar pogies and reviewed them in December and I was offered another review opportunity on some sealant and tires as well. Stay tuned on that...

Warm weather persisted right through until the end of October with 80's being pretty common for temperatures. We also were very dry once again, and the gravel was super-dusty. The weather was not very Winter-like later, but we did have a skiff of snow and some brutal cold off and on during the month of December.

The low Sun angle of late Fall is reflected in the shadows on Weiden Road's Level B section.

I announced the fourth annual Virtual Turkey Burn Ride Challenge and invited people to send in a report with images to share here on this blog. I ended up receiving nine  reports from all over the place including Washington State, Kansas, Illinois, Tennessee, Iowa, the United Kingdom, and Spain! It was ridiculous and I did not expect such a great response to the challenge. 

Reports extended into the first part of the second week of December here on the blog, so it was good that I started the "Rear View" two weeks earlier than normal this year! Working up the posts for the last month took up the majority of my spare time in late November and early December. 

My son used the Truck With No Name as a trade-in for a vehicle in October

I ended up without a vehicle in the first time in probably 40 plus years when I let my son use the Truck With No Name as a trade in on a used 4 X 4 SUV for himself so he could commute to work. So, now truly carless, I have found that I don't plan on going anywhere that is not local. It's a new game for me!

On the writing front I wrote an article or two on the 25th year of the 29"ers existence, and by extension, the 25 year anniversary of the WTB Nanoraptor 29"er tire, or "The Tire"as it came to be called by some.  I also celebrated 10 years of owning my Salsa Cycles Blackborow DS fat bike. 

Early December was spent writing up all the end-of-year stuff and doing a couple projects in the Lab. I get out and ride when the weather permits, but that first week of December was brutal. Anyway, that brings us up to date and with my last post of 2024, I will take a look forward into what I think my future will bring in terms of cycling and this blog. 

Thank you for following along with me on my retrospective of 2024.