Rear View 2024: Third 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!

Mid-Summer saw the continuance of reviewing duties and more Country Views posts. There was even one more significant trip to do as well. Let's dig in... 

Again, the reviewing opportunities continued to flow in and I sprinkled in a couple long-term reviews as well. Here's the list for the third quarter of things that were reviewed here:

• Redshift Sports ShockStop Short Stem
• WTB 700 X 50mm Resolute
• WTB 700 x 45mm Vulpine
• WTB 700 X 45mm Vulpine S
• SILCA Terra Floor Pump
• Delium Tires review
• Guitar Ted Lube-Off review wrapped up for 2024
  
• Long-Term Review of Atomik/Berd Wheel Set
• Long-Term Review of the Lazer Kineticore Strada Helmet

There were newsy items as well which included my getting published in the Japanese publication, "Bicycle Club". There was news out of SRAM concerning the new Red AXS XPLR 13 speed group. The SBT GRVL mess was covered which ended up resulting in a big change for that event in 2025. I wrote an article about gravel culture, past, present, and future. Finally, my ten year annoiversary of getting hit by a truck on the Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitational was recounted. 

Not all reviews are positive: Delium Tires was one such review.

By far the highlight for me for this quarter was my trip to Chicago. Illinois to see my old friend Ari Andonopoulous. We had not seen each other in a bit over seven years. 

I was happy that things worked out so I could spend some quality time alone with Ari. We went out to a local bar for burgers, then we went back to his place and hung out in his garage full of cycling repair tools, bikes, and accessories. 

Later on Mrs. Guitar Ted and Ari's wife, Jamie joined us and we had thin crust pizza from a local pizza joint. It was a fabulous evening and one that I treasure to this day. Thanks to Ari for being such a great host. 

Riding time was about the same as in Spring and I got plenty of good ones in. There were some struggles with time, but overall it was a s good as it was going to get what with my new schedule and responsibilities. 

With that it is time to review the last quarter of the year and that will close the Rear View for 2024. The last post in this series will go up next week. Then it will be on to a look at what's in store for 2025 and what I think will happen here on the blog.