What's Up, GT?

A new fork on the Raleigh....

The end of the year business and the "State Of The Gravel Scene" posts have gobbled up all my space for recounting the day-to-day stuff around here. So, without further adieu, here's what has been happening since, or, around Christmas time.....

• Hours cut waaaay back at work. The business climate in bicycle retail has, well.......it sucks. Not just where I work either. But suffice it to say that the purse strings were tightened and Christmas time was a frugal one at the G-Ted household.
• 24hrs of Cumming entry: Sam, my co-conspirator in the 24hrs of Cumming last August started sending me some messages that were......cryptic. Then at the end I get a confirmation that I was in the 24hrs of Cumming and a "Merry Christmas" from Sam. This all a day ahead of registration opening, which.......I don't know how that worked. Point is, I am in with Sam. This time we will be known as "Team Snack Sabbath". 
• 20th Anniversary: Mrs. G-Ted and I celebrated our 20th Anniversary January 2nd. Again- a frugal affair, so no big deal, but it didn't matter because our family was together.  
• Sickness: Yep. Regular readers know I usually get sick around this time of year. Had a 24hr bug, recovered in a few days. 
• Renegade Gents Race 9.0: April 6th. The Careless Whispers are in for their 9th time. Lets see if we can get EVERY team member to the finish on the regulation course! 
• C.O.G. 100 Registration: Opened January 2nd. Sold out two thirds of the field within four hours and we only had a handful of spots left by the end of day one of the registration process. Sold all 75 spots in three days. Added 25 additional spots over the weekend. Pretty surprised by that, I won't lie. I figured finding 75 single speed freaks would be tougher than that.

Then this retro single speed stuff showed up.

Speaking Of Single Speed..........

I got a message between Christmas and New Years from Grannygear. He asked me if I might be interested in some single speed hubs he had, some old White Industries ENO hubs. I said yeah, and he said, no problem. Okay, so filed away for some other time.

Then on the day of my 20th wedding anniversary, I got a heavy box of pretty decent size. What? I opened it, and besides the vintage hubs, there were two Shimano square taper cranks with rings, a White Industries free wheel, two saddles from WTB, and to top it all off- the White Industries ENO freewheel tool!

Thank you, Grannygear! Wow! This is so cool. One of the cranksets is even a 180mm length! That one, a 9000 series crank, has a rare 34T Onza Buzzsaw chain ring too. The stuff needs cleaning and a touch of TLC, but hey! I ain't complainin'! First thing to do after a bit of polishing up will be to get a new set of bearings in the rear hub. Then I'll build up a wheel set for my Blackbuck rig with some rims from Velocity of some sort. Probably some Velocity Blunt SS rims. Anyway, these wheels are gonna be sweet.

That White Industries free wheel will probably end up on the Blackbuck at some point. It's a 21T or 22T job, too low for any gravel travel. The cranks...... Dunno yet. I probably will put one set on the Blackbuck and retire the ano-green Suginos I've run on there for the last ten plus years. One of the saddles is a Pure V, my favorite, so I'll have no trouble finding a home for that. The other is a well worn, possibly an OG from the 90's, WTB SST saddle. I have one and have broken my other. Good time to replace that.

So, there ya go. Some catching up, housecleaning, and whatnot from late last year till the present. Back to "regularly scheduled" postings tomorrow.

What's Up, GT?

A new fork on the Raleigh....

The end of the year business and the "State Of The Gravel Scene" posts have gobbled up all my space for recounting the day-to-day stuff around here. So, without further adieu, here's what has been happening since, or, around Christmas time.....

• Hours cut waaaay back at work. The business climate in bicycle retail has, well.......it sucks. Not just where I work either. But suffice it to say that the purse strings were tightened and Christmas time was a frugal one at the G-Ted household.
• 24hrs of Cumming entry: Sam, my co-conspirator in the 24hrs of Cumming last August started sending me some messages that were......cryptic. Then at the end I get a confirmation that I was in the 24hrs of Cumming and a "Merry Christmas" from Sam. This all a day ahead of registration opening, which.......I don't know how that worked. Point is, I am in with Sam. This time we will be known as "Team Snack Sabbath". 
• 20th Anniversary: Mrs. G-Ted and I celebrated our 20th Anniversary January 2nd. Again- a frugal affair, so no big deal, but it didn't matter because our family was together.  
• Sickness: Yep. Regular readers know I usually get sick around this time of year. Had a 24hr bug, recovered in a few days. 
• Renegade Gents Race 9.0: April 6th. The Careless Whispers are in for their 9th time. Lets see if we can get EVERY team member to the finish on the regulation course! 
• C.O.G. 100 Registration: Opened January 2nd. Sold out two thirds of the field within four hours and we only had a handful of spots left by the end of day one of the registration process. Sold all 75 spots in three days. Added 25 additional spots over the weekend. Pretty surprised by that, I won't lie. I figured finding 75 single speed freaks would be tougher than that.

Then this retro single speed stuff showed up.

Speaking Of Single Speed..........

I got a message between Christmas and New Years from Grannygear. He asked me if I might be interested in some single speed hubs he had, some old White Industries ENO hubs. I said yeah, and he said, no problem. Okay, so filed away for some other time.

Then on the day of my 20th wedding anniversary, I got a heavy box of pretty decent size. What? I opened it, and besides the vintage hubs, there were two Shimano square taper cranks with rings, a White Industries free wheel, two saddles from WTB, and to top it all off- the White Industries ENO freewheel tool!

Thank you, Grannygear! Wow! This is so cool. One of the cranksets is even a 180mm length! That one, a 9000 series crank, has a rare 34T Onza Buzzsaw chain ring too. The stuff needs cleaning and a touch of TLC, but hey! I ain't complainin'! First thing to do after a bit of polishing up will be to get a new set of bearings in the rear hub. Then I'll build up a wheel set for my Blackbuck rig with some rims from Velocity of some sort. Probably some Velocity Blunt SS rims. Anyway, these wheels are gonna be sweet.

That White Industries free wheel will probably end up on the Blackbuck at some point. It's a 21T or 22T job, too low for any gravel travel. The cranks...... Dunno yet. I probably will put one set on the Blackbuck and retire the ano-green Suginos I've run on there for the last ten plus years. One of the saddles is a Pure V, my favorite, so I'll have no trouble finding a home for that. The other is a well worn, possibly an OG from the 90's, WTB SST saddle. I have one and have broken my other. Good time to replace that.

So, there ya go. Some catching up, housecleaning, and whatnot from late last year till the present. Back to "regularly scheduled" postings tomorrow.

Friday News And Views

Gettin' the Band back together again.

Confirmed Renegade:

The registration for the 7th annual Renegade Gents Race opened up March 1st and I wondered if we would be making our 7th straight appearance there. As many of you readers know, this event has been my favorite ride of the year for quite some time now.

March 1st went by without any chatter from my social networking teammates. I decided to throw out a Tweet which expressed my wondering about the status of Team Careless Whispers. (More on the name in a moment)

In the meantime between Wednesday and yesterday morning, I resigned myself to the understanding that someday the streak will be broken. Just like all those years I went to Frostbike and now I haven't gone in two years. I think it is healthy to have a sense of things ending at some point, because they will. We all like to romanticize things and think we will never see the end of.......fill in the blank. Relationships, jobs, luck, and that bottle of beer won't last forever. So it is with my streak of Renegade Gents races. Someday that won't happen anymore, and I was okay if the end was this year. Of course, I didn't want that, but I accepted that it could happen. 

That said, I am happy to report that the Careless Whispers will once again be lining up for the seventh consecutive time. Oh yeah, about that name...... Well, when this whole deal got started there was banter between the teammates that knew each other already about what the name of our squad should be. Something about the fact that almost all of us had had facial hair came up and then Sam, I believe it was, suggested we should name our team in honor of George Michael, who was famous for not only music, but that studly 5 o'clock shadow he sported in the 80's. Thus the "Careless Whispers" name, as that was a famous hit song by George. I think something born out of the look of ZZ Top would have fit better, but hey! It is what it is. 

 Clinic Time:

 Friday morning, SRAM rep extraordinaire, Dan Jennings, came by to give our shop employees a SRAM e-Tap demo. This is SRAM's wireless, electronic shifting group. I was pretty impressed with several aspects of the system.

Now before I go on I will say that I am not a big fan of SRAM mechanical road shifting action. The whole "Double Tap" thing is annoying and less efficient, in my opinion, than Shimano's mechanical groups. However; I reverse my preferences when it comes to electronic shifting based upon a few things I've experienced so far.

The SRAM e-Tap is completely wireless, so you do not have any wires between components at all. No fishing wires through frames, no junction boxes, or hideous , limp wires flopping around your stem and rear derailleur. It also is super easy to set up. A monkey could set up a SRAM e-Tap derailleur and shifter set up. Shimano is a lot more fuss and you have to plug it into a computer to finalize the set up. But the big deal in the end is the ergonomics and in that area I think the way you depress the SRAM e-Tap levers and the feedback you get is superior to Shimano's Di2.

Make no mistake- both are really awesome. Shimano Di2 may shift faster, but having never to have to tune up the shifting and always getting precise, consistent shifts despite the conditions and circumstances blows mechanical shifting out of the water. Both Shimano Di2 and SRAM e-Tap are really that much better. It is also that much more expensive. These choices will have to be a less expensive alternative before many cyclists ever see the benefits, but I believe that will happen someday.

A Little T.I.v13 Update:

Get ready folks, Trans Iowa is only two months away. You are going to hear a lot about this in the next eight to ten weeks. Just a heads up for y'all.

My world will get more and more consumed with this as time passes. I have some in the field recon of a reroute to do, I have to check on a couple of other route details while I am looking at the course, and then it is on to drafting cue sheets so they can be checked in the field in April.

I am crafting a few e-mails tailored to specific groups- Rookies, Veterans/Finishers, and Volunteers, so that I can communicate some important points concerning the upcoming event. Look for those to go out very soon. Then I have the Truck With No Name in for servicing so it will be in tip-top shape for the event. I have a "check engine" light and an oil leak to be looked in to.

Anyway, I have a lot on my plate and very little time to deal with it all. This has been an odd year for me and Trans Iowa. Every year is different, but this one has presented its own difficulties. I hope to rise to the challenge and overcome the obstacles and once again put on a good event for all to enjoy.

That's it for this week. Have a great weekend and get out and ride!

Friday News And Views

Gettin' the Band back together again.

Confirmed Renegade:

The registration for the 7th annual Renegade Gents Race opened up March 1st and I wondered if we would be making our 7th straight appearance there. As many of you readers know, this event has been my favorite ride of the year for quite some time now.

March 1st went by without any chatter from my social networking teammates. I decided to throw out a Tweet which expressed my wondering about the status of Team Careless Whispers. (More on the name in a moment)

In the meantime between Wednesday and yesterday morning, I resigned myself to the understanding that someday the streak will be broken. Just like all those years I went to Frostbike and now I haven't gone in two years. I think it is healthy to have a sense of things ending at some point, because they will. We all like to romanticize things and think we will never see the end of.......fill in the blank. Relationships, jobs, luck, and that bottle of beer won't last forever. So it is with my streak of Renegade Gents races. Someday that won't happen anymore, and I was okay if the end was this year. Of course, I didn't want that, but I accepted that it could happen. 

That said, I am happy to report that the Careless Whispers will once again be lining up for the seventh consecutive time. Oh yeah, about that name...... Well, when this whole deal got started there was banter between the teammates that knew each other already about what the name of our squad should be. Something about the fact that almost all of us had had facial hair came up and then Sam, I believe it was, suggested we should name our team in honor of George Michael, who was famous for not only music, but that studly 5 o'clock shadow he sported in the 80's. Thus the "Careless Whispers" name, as that was a famous hit song by George. I think something born out of the look of ZZ Top would have fit better, but hey! It is what it is. 

 Clinic Time:

 Friday morning, SRAM rep extraordinaire, Dan Jennings, came by to give our shop employees a SRAM e-Tap demo. This is SRAM's wireless, electronic shifting group. I was pretty impressed with several aspects of the system.

Now before I go on I will say that I am not a big fan of SRAM mechanical road shifting action. The whole "Double Tap" thing is annoying and less efficient, in my opinion, than Shimano's mechanical groups. However; I reverse my preferences when it comes to electronic shifting based upon a few things I've experienced so far.

The SRAM e-Tap is completely wireless, so you do not have any wires between components at all. No fishing wires through frames, no junction boxes, or hideous , limp wires flopping around your stem and rear derailleur. It also is super easy to set up. A monkey could set up a SRAM e-Tap derailleur and shifter set up. Shimano is a lot more fuss and you have to plug it into a computer to finalize the set up. But the big deal in the end is the ergonomics and in that area I think the way you depress the SRAM e-Tap levers and the feedback you get is superior to Shimano's Di2.

Make no mistake- both are really awesome. Shimano Di2 may shift faster, but having never to have to tune up the shifting and always getting precise, consistent shifts despite the conditions and circumstances blows mechanical shifting out of the water. Both Shimano Di2 and SRAM e-Tap are really that much better. It is also that much more expensive. These choices will have to be a less expensive alternative before many cyclists ever see the benefits, but I believe that will happen someday.

A Little T.I.v13 Update:

Get ready folks, Trans Iowa is only two months away. You are going to hear a lot about this in the next eight to ten weeks. Just a heads up for y'all.

My world will get more and more consumed with this as time passes. I have some in the field recon of a reroute to do, I have to check on a couple of other route details while I am looking at the course, and then it is on to drafting cue sheets so they can be checked in the field in April.

I am crafting a few e-mails tailored to specific groups- Rookies, Veterans/Finishers, and Volunteers, so that I can communicate some important points concerning the upcoming event. Look for those to go out very soon. Then I have the Truck With No Name in for servicing so it will be in tip-top shape for the event. I have a "check engine" light and an oil leak to be looked in to.

Anyway, I have a lot on my plate and very little time to deal with it all. This has been an odd year for me and Trans Iowa. Every year is different, but this one has presented its own difficulties. I hope to rise to the challenge and overcome the obstacles and once again put on a good event for all to enjoy.

That's it for this week. Have a great weekend and get out and ride!