Two Things: Pack Fodder

 The Gravel Cycling Hall of Fame announcement will happen at 9:00am CST today, January 27th. I usually have something up for my readers in the morning, and I have not forgotten about you. Thank you for reading this blog, by the way. 

So, to get you early-birds satisfied I have a "pack fodder" version of my ongoing "Two Things" posts for you to check out. And do come back to read my announcement/commentary on the GCHoF announcement. I've got a bit of a spicy take on it all. I think you might find it interesting. Thanks and enjoy! 

Weird. I'd never seen anything like it before.

Holey Bolt:

When I was a little shaver, maybe seven or eight years old, my parents would buy me these Converse basketball shoe knock-offs from K-Mart. They almost always blew out along the edges where my foot bent and sometimes in other places. I went through a pair or two every Summer. 

My Grandpa saw me wearing these once when I was with my folks visiting his farm. He looked at me and casually said, "So, those must be the shoes you wear to church, eh?" And I looked at him funny, thinking he was crazy to think this, and replied, "No! These have holes in them, Grandpa!". 

He would reply, "Right. They are "holey", so you wear them to church!"

Ahem.....Anyway. The bolts in the image here came off a Dura Ace crank from the early 1970's, and while you might never see it in a church, only one of this pair is "holey". I get it. Someone was trying to save weight. By the way, I don't know which side the one with the hole was on. I would guess the non-drive side. And no- It wasn't drilled after manufacturing. It was machined this way from the get-go, from what I can tell. The hole goes all the way through, by the way.

If you've ever seen a set of crank bolts like these, give me a shout out in the comments. I'd love to learn more about this. 

Image courtesy of RAGBRAI

The Hordes Of Cyclists Are Coming!

Word came out this past weekend that RAGBRAI is coming through Cedar Falls, Iowa on its 52nd annual ride. If you do not know about RAGBRAI (Where have you been hiding?), it is the world's largest recreational week long cycling ride. Tens of thousands will take to the county roads and village streets to cross the state of Iowa in seven days during the last full week of July. 

Cedar Falls is the adjacent and attached town to Waterloo, so I expect that this announcement will have some bearing on us at the Collective. I say that because in the past, whenever RAGBRAI came through here, people would be looking for cheap options to go for a day or two and hang with the RAGBRAI crowd. I'm ready as I have a lot of road bikes we can scarcely give away in the shop. I would love nothing more than to have RAGBRAI-curious folks wipe us out of that inventory. 

But I also know that things aren't too cheery or on the upswing economically, and although we have crazy low pricing on our bikes, even that may not convince those folks that are curious about this ride to jump in and buy a bike. That is if there even is a demand. We will see. 

I do know that since the Collective does not offer a retail repair service that I won't have to deal with last minute non-sense concerning this event like I used to. That's something I don't miss at all.

Remember to check back in today after 9:00am CST for the GCHoF announcement and commentary.