Guitar Ted's Ride For Jacob: Gear Review

Now the tale has been told about the first GTRFJ, so it is time for the promised gear review. This will include a bit of commentary on crank length, wheels, and some technical opinions. Then after this I will give a few closing thoughts about this ride. Now on to the review. 

I used my Gen I Fargo, as mentioned previously. This bike is set up in a fairly unique way. I am using a 9 speed cassette with a Deore XT 9 speed triple crank set. 46/36/28 is the tooth count for the crank. The arm length is also odd at 180mm. The shifting is done via an ancient pair of Gevenalle levers. If you are not familiar with Gevenalle, check the link for details on them. 

The brakes are also odd, being the TRP HyRd hydraulic calipers with mechanical actuation. The wheels are actually box-stock Trek Sawyer wheels featuring the venerable Duster rims laced to Shimano disc brake hubs. These are shod with Surly Extraterrestrial tires at 29" X 2.5". The seat post is a Salsa Ti Regulator which is topped with a Brooks Cambium C17 saddle. The handle bar is the Redshift Sports Kitchen Sink bar with lower Cruise Control Grips. The Kitchen Sink handlebar bag is also present, as was a ShockStop stem. My top tube bag is a prototype J-Paks top tube bag which MG gifted me years ago now. I also used a Wahoo Elemnt ROAM as a GPS data collector more than anything else. 

The Gen I Fargo after the GTRFJ

Comments: Well, I know this bike like the back of my hand, so when I say anything about how it rode or how it handled, it is with some deeper perspective. Having said this, I was not really in tune with what to expect from the crank set. Here is my take on the subject after having spun the cranks around for the better part of seven hours.

One hundred and eighty millimeters doesn't seem like a whole lot of difference from 175, but there couldn't be a more noticeable difference in my opinion. Crank revolutions were down in terms of strokes per minute, but leverage was noticeably better. The result was that my legs were less worked over, but my speed was severely impacted. It was really not very comfortable to spin a high cadence, but medium to lower cadences were fine, and using the gears to keep myself in a "RPM sweet-spot", was paramount to getting around. I also found that "kicking" the pedal at the nearest point to six o'clock during a grinding climb was a better technique than trying to spin pure circles as I would on a shorter crank set.  

The wheels and tires were heavy, but they worked, and the tires were extremely comfortable. I ran the front at about 17psi and the rear at about 19psi. There was no squirming in corners, no bouncing, and the damping of vibrations was actually really good.  

I'd rather run lighter wheels and tires, but this is what I have now. This bike deserves some nicer wheels though. As far as the crank set goes, I think I am going back to 175mm, and I have an SLX triple 9 speed crank waiting to go on this bike soon. 

Wearables: I wore a PCL kit from Voler, which is good stuff and it worked quite well. I had on a Twin Six base layer, Mint Socks, and Shimano RX6 shoes. (Now called RX600)

I had an orange bandana on which had been given to me by a former church band mate who is now dead. (A tribute to Larry) I also wore my newer Trek Circuit helmet.  

I kept track of some data on my Apple Watch as well. The iPhone was also invaluable as a navigation tool. Besides these things, I had a pair of Hand-Up gloves in my jersey pocket in case things got too sweaty and the handle bar became too hard to grip.

Everything worked with my kit, so there is really nothing else to add but that I was satisfied with it all.

Final Comments: Now on to my thoughts about this ride. I am going to - most likely - keep doing this ride in honor of Jacob every year I am able. It will be called GT's Ride For Jacob. I will gladly accept anyone who wants to come and ride with me, but I am not binding my putting on this ride based on participation by others. If someone wants to ride, so be it. If not? I'll go anyway.

My feeling is I just want to have a good day on the bike, pass through a few towns, go at it easy, and see some sights. I may move it around some, I may do exactly the same route, (with the roads I missed though!) next year. I don't know. So, if you were wondering if this might be something you could come along and ride, yes - it might be this as well.

Overall I feel good about my ride this year, and since this has a different meaning for me now, it seems new and I am motivated to do this some more. Maybe on a different bike next time though. Stay tuned on this front.....

Thanks for reading my GTRFJ recaps and review.