Happy New Year!

Happy New Year

Okay, you made it into another realm of time known as "2025". You have another chance to ride. Let's go! You know what? You shouldn't wait until New Year's Day to think this is your next chance at doing this-or-that in cycling (or in anything, really) You should have this new feeling every day you wake up. Buuuuuuutttt, that's a whole other story. 

I'll just say that I hope all your dreams, goals, and desires come true in 2025.

Now, let's catch up, shall we? I've been posting so much on things past that what is recent and present has, largely, been ignored here. So, I thought I'd get that taken care of here today. 

The first thing to know about me and any December of the past two decades is that I try to pre-schedule and have written up posts for the entire month of December by the end of the first week or ten days of the month. That way I get some time off to relax from blogging/writing and I get a bit of rest to recharge. 

I'm not sure how this happened, but 2024 was my highest output for blog posts in a single calendar year. I beat the old record by three posts, and the new record is 392. I would guess that the Virtual Turkey Burn Ride Reports are to blame for this new record, so again - Thank You to those who sent in a report last year. 

So, I haven't been doing a lot of planned rides either. December is pretty much a rest month from all of those activities. It makes sense for me since my wife's and my daughter's birthdays are two days apart from each other mid-month and the next week is Christmas followed by my wedding anniversary, which is tomorrow. (26 years! Woo!)

I have tinkered with a few things in the shop. One which I have previously spoken of here in that Roval rear wheel. I had a bit of a hurdle when I came around to replacing nipples on those Aerolite spokes, which like to twist up like a ribbon when you tighten the nipples up. I needed room to get my bladed spoke holder as close to the exposed part of the nipple as possible and yet be able to turn the nipple with a tool to tighten it. 

The modded Shimano spoke wrench

I needed a spoke wrench that looked like a spanner wrench, not a traditional spoke wrench. There are some online, but I made one out of an older Shimano aluminum spoke wrench by filing its bladed spoke holder out to 3.3mm. I managed to get the job done, so that worked out well.

With all the downtime from writing I was noting that a few posts I made in early December were totally going off the hook. Why that was is still a mystery to me. Maybe it has something to do with bots and "AI", or maybe someone linked to a forum and that drew a ton of hits. Anyway, there wasn't really anything especially remarkable about any of the posts that were garnering the big numbers of views versus the ones surrounding them. I'll be keeping an eye out for anomalys like those in 2025.

We had an ice storm around mid-month in December which put the kibosh on any riding for a few days. It also stopped me from working one day as well, which, to be honest, isn't ever ideal since I work so few days a week as it is! 

Then two days before Christmas I got some intestinal bug or something which caused a lot of pain and discomfort. Finally it "passed", (sorry....) and I was on the mend by the 27th. However; the illness and the inclement weather we've had kept me off my bikes and I was going a bit stir crazy there for a bit. 

These types of situations are always cause for concern because I have the time to think. Think about doing this or that with some bicycle I own. Many might remember my Shogun 1000 post here a while back and my saying I missed riding fixed gear. Well, it has been a disease of late as I find myself looking at Surly and Paul disc brake fixed gear hubs to convert a certain bike I have sitting around here. 

Might happen, might not happen, or it may be happening now. Stay tuned .... 

I finally received that handle bar from Good Grief Cycles on the 27th and again - with all the time to think, I decided against putting the bar on my Blackbuck and I am put it on my old Karate Monkey which I want to put back into the rotation of gravel bikes here which I plan to I use in 2025. My idea was to set the bike up as a "throwback" gravel machine. I just need an old Persian rug to make a "top tube snake" out of and then I'd be spot-on. (If you know, you know) 

Okay, that's about it for notable cycling related stuff here. Tomorrow I kick off things again with a "State of the Gravel Scene" post and a surprise announcement. Make sure you check it out!