GCHoF Trip Report: Part 3

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From my Instagram story. Image by Taiki Sakamoto

This is the report from my whirlwind trip down and back again from here to Emporia, Kansas over three days to attend the GCHoF 2024 inductions ceremonies. 

Today I will be covering some bicycle scuttlebutt, some Unbound/Emporia news, and I will be discussing a new project I am entering into with a new friend I met from Japan. 

First, the impact of Unbound on its host city.

"It's going to be chaos!"

We rolled into Emporia early on Wednesday morning and so we stopped at their local Walmart for some supplies. I hadn't been in town 15 minutes when I ran into Joe Reed. Joe was a host for myself and MG a couple of times that I have been to Emporia to race and to support MG in the first XL event. 

Joe now owns the Mulready's Pub on Commercial Street. He indicated to me that the local businesses were forecasting a LOT of extra people in town for the Unbound events. Now, I may have misheard Joe, but I am pretty sure he said 25,000 extra people. Now I know that "officially" the Visit Emporia folks are estimating it at 12,000 extra folks. Let's say it is 15,000, but whatever it actually was, Emporia has already seen an overwhelming amount of folks run into and out of town in the span of less than a week. 

Google says that the 2022 population of Emporia was just shy of 24,000 souls. So, yeah.... This town is affected by Unbound. Joe was thinking it might be overwhelming with this year's expanded race roster. "Chaos" was the word he used, and he was in a trepidatious state when I saw him that day. You have to wonder at what point does Life Time say, 'no mas!', pull the plug on growth, or move the event to another city with more infrastructure capable of handling a bigger crowd. 

The impact economically on Emporia cannot be replaced easily if the event moves. It was obvious while we were there that business was brisk. One shop owner indicated to me that it was the biggest money-maker for them all year and that the wish was that this sort of impact could be extended further throughout the year. But things change, nothing lasts forever, and Unbound won't be the same in 2030 as it is today, if it still exists then. 

Hey! You never know.

Pinion Drive:

Viral Bikes which is owned and operated by Steve Domahidy who was once the engineer and partner in Niner Bikes was in town as well. Steve chatted me up and showed me the latest Viral model, the Wanderer, which has a Smart Shift Pinion gear box drive train. 

The Pinion Gear Box is an internally geared "transmission" for the bicycle designed to give the rider a 600% range in gearing. Steve explained it to me in simple terms by saying it would be like a 1X drive train with a 9T high gear and a 56T low gear. Crazy! While the drive train is amazing, the shifting is all electronic now and nearly removes the need to back off the pedaling to shift, which is a hallmark of internally geared bicycle drive trains up to this point. The Wanderer model utilizes TRP's electronic drop bar lever shifters and are wired to a battery in the down tube which in turn is wired to the controller in the gear box. I 'think' Steve said you can shift up to 6,000 times on one charge. There is also a mechanically shifted option as well. 

The Wanderer frame features a decoupled seat tube design and a flex-plate.

Steve designed the Wanderer frame in titanium with a decoupled seat tube and a flex plate which allows the seat tube and post to move or flex somewhat rearward giving the rider relief from washboard, rougher, uneven terrain, and the like. This view (above) is of a pre-production sample and the production bikes will look slightly different. Especially in regard to the flex plate, which is incorrect as shown here. 

You can learn more about this model HERE. 

"Bike peeping" is a past-time during the run-up to Unbound race day.

Scuttlebutt: Things I heard about down in Emporia that are interesting included sightings of a SRAM AXS Xplr 13 speed set up on some Pro bikes that will be ridden in the event. You had to figure that SRAM would have something to upstage Shimano and their recent release of GRX Di2 12 speed. Hopefully SRAM will have the bugs buffed out of the system because 12 speed AXS XPLR caused all kinds of consternation on the mechanic's pages when it was introduced. 

A new GPS computer contender is slated for release this month sometime from smart/trainer watch brand COROS. Dubbed the COROS Dura, it promises a very long battery life and ease of use. (Ha! I'll be the judge of THAT!) I'm hopeful that this one pans out because I have had dismal luck with the GPS heads out currently. 

New gravel racing tires from IRC are on the horizon. I heard about this from a couple of IRC reps and there is a possibility that something might show up here to be tested soon. Stay tuned!

A gift from Japan. Thank you Sakamoto-san!

Writing Project: 

I spent about a half an hour, maybe a little more than that, with a Japanese journalist named Taiki Sakamoto who is an editor for "Bicycle Club" magazine from Japan. This was on Thursday morning right before I left Emporia. 

This meeting was made possible by an event which goes back to 2019 and the C.O.G 100, the last gravel event I helped organize and was involved in. The women's category winner was Kae Takeshita. She has ridden in Japan with Taiki Sakamoto and when he was sharing his vision for a gravel oriented article with Kae, she told him to get a hold of me, based upon her interactions with me in 2019, she felt that I would be a good person for Taiki to talk with about this idea he had. 

So, that happened at Unbound. Taiki wants me to write about the beginnings of gravel here, the culture of gravel, then, now and in the future. I am excited to give Sakamoto-san my best take on those subjects and hopefully I will be able to share this here with you all at some point. 

With that I am wrapping up my trip report. Depending upon what the fall-out from yesterday's Unbound event is, I may or may not have thoughts to share on that. We will see. Stay tuned, if I do that, it might appear here later in the week. Otherwise it is back to the regularly scheduled blog for now.

Thank you for reading the blog!

GCHoF Trip Report: Part 2

This is the report from my whirlwind trip down and back again from here to Emporia, Kansas over three days to attend the GCHoF 2024 inductions ceremonies. In this Part 2 I will cover each inductee and my thoughts on them, their speech, and their impacts on the gravel cycling scene. Tomorrow I will have my last look at this trip and some thoughts on bicycles, the race, and Emporia Kansas in general.

Okay, so the event started out with the get-together and a meal, (if you bought the ticket for that) at the fabulous Grenada Theater on Commercial Street in Emporia, Kansas. I want to thank Shimano, the main sponsor for this, and all the other sponsors for the event. It was really a great time. 

This year we were entertained and led through the ceremony by none other than cycling influencer Marley Blonski, who was wearing a great sparkling pink dress. I love sparkles! It was an awesome dress. Anyway, Marley did a great job and did not miss a beat when her microphone lost battery power. She just popped out from behind the podium and amped up her voice a bit and that got us through that rough patch. She also navigated a switch in the way the nominees were presented on the fly seamlessly. She did a wonderful job and I thought she was fantastic given the potential pitfalls she was handed to navigate. 

Now on to each nominee in the order that they were presented....

Jay Petervary:

We nearly lost Jay last September when he was hit from behind by a young driver on a dirt road North of Salida Colorado while Jay was attempting another solo Tour Divide run. He was left on the side of the road broken and with an unintended course change in life. After months of physical healing and mental healing Jay was able to be there for his induction, and he made it a point to underscore how this was not a moment taken lightly for him. 

Jay made his name doing the ultra-distance stuff like the Iditarod and, of course, the Great Divide/Tour Divide race. Tour Divide could be the longest "gravel race" in the world, and I, for one, believe that to be a true statement. That said, I was not aware until recently, (I was told by Jay himself in a message), that Trans Iowa was his first "proper" gravel event that he ever was a part of. He and his wife, Traci, came and rode their tandem for T.I.v6, the version noted for it's rain, lightning, floods, and for its shortened distance. Jay gave a not insignificant portion of his acceptance speech concerning that and also his first DK200, which he rode in, about three years after Trans Iowa v6. 

There is no doubt that Jay Petervary hearkens back to the earliest beginnings of gravel in that he came from the same background that many of the first gravel grinders did. However; I feel it was the attention that "JayP" brought to gravel by attending T.I. and the DK that was a very influential part of his contributions to getting him this recognition. Then factoring in his influence during his tenure as a sponsored athlete at Salsa Cycles and it is apparent that Jay has a place in the GCHoF which is well deserved. Jay has undoubtedly spurred on many a rider via his actions as a rider, and an event director now, to "Ride Forward" and take on challenges on gravel and dirt. 

Linda Guerrette: 

Known best as a photographer and for telling the story of gravel through her imagery, Linda came up to the podium and gave a very interesting and inspiring acceptance speech in her own, down to Earth style. 

I did not know, however; that Linda was also a participant in early gravel races, such as the DK200. But that wasn't how she got into the GCHoF. Actually, it was from an opportunity after losing a job in 2014 to try photography then, as it was an interest of hers. Linda gave herself two months to "make it work", and she did some imagery on the Tour Divide route that year, since it was near to where she lived at the time. After a chance meeting with one of the racers who suggested she sell her imagery to cycling brands, Linda found work that made that risk of being a photographer worthwhile for her. 

Then Linda, taking her experiences as a rider as a guide, found ways to illuminate that grind, that story of "fighting the demons" to overcome and finish gravel events, and put that into images that described the,as she put it, the Spirit of Gravel. 

Now, you'll see a lot of "click-bait" articles online these days that claim some knowledge of this "Spirit", but they are almost always B.S. Linda? She gets it, and in her speech, it was apparent to all in attendance that she understands why that term was coined in the first place. Again, Linda is a very deserving member of the GCHoF and I am glad she's in the hall.

 Selene Yeager:

Selene Yeager, or "The Fit Chick", as she became known as through her time as a magazine writer, was also an accomplished athlete in the early days of "monster-cross" events.  Many people hold those types of events as "gravel-adjacent" events that had many of the same elements as today's gravel races. Given a platform at Bicycling Magazine by Bill Strickland in the late 1990's, Selene advanced her career and became an advocate for women in cycling including gravel cycling. 

Selene has expanded her influence from writing into the podcasting realm and continues to inspire athletes to push beyond their perceived boundaries. Selene has certainly impacted the gravel scene as a result, especially when it comes to women and gravel cycling. 

Her speech was a heartfelt thank you to her husband, Dave Pryor, and to the aforementioned Bill Strickland. Then Selene also touched upon this idea of a "Spirit of Gravel" and I thought she did a great work in explaining it in her view. Not unlike Linda's view, and I thought that Selene nailed it and this was far from what you'll read in most endemic cycling media concerning this subject. 

Selene then ended her acceptance speech by cementing the fact that menopausal women are not sidelined and incapable of great athletic feats. Her work is ongoing in that realm and I applaud her for this and for her induction into the GCHoF. 

Nick Legan:

Nick Legan has been a mechanic, an athlete, an author, and a cycling industry insider who has - through all of those ways - influenced and changed gravel cycling. I've had the honor to know Nick a tiny, very tiny bit, and I can say that Nick is the nicest, hardest working man in terms of advancing gravel in many ways that I have known. 

There is no doubt that Nick has a hand in influencing how this gravel scene has gone and grown over the years. Then you have his athletic accomplishments in gravel events on top of that and well, Nick deserves to have a place in the GCHoF alongside the rest of us. 

Nick's speech was an emotional one, as were the others, but perhaps more poignantly so in this instance because of the loss of his father recently and because his mother was there to witness this occasion. I feel like Nick represents one of those stories in gravel that is untold generally, but the more that you know about his story, the more amazing it becomes. This is a prime reason for the GCHoF to exist and I am happy that Nick has made it into the GCHoF. 

Post Card Entries was the Gravel Icon Award winner for 2024.

Post Card Entries:

The Gravel Icon Award, which was introduced at last year's GCHoF ceremonies, and was first won by the Salsa Chaise Lounge, was awarded to "Post Card Entries" this year. Since they didn't have a screen shot or any physical item to show on stage I give you this rendition of "post card entry" from a T.I.v11 card I received. 

Post cards were the main form of entry into most of the early iconic gravel races such as Trans Iowa, the Almanzo 100, Gravel Worlds, and many other smaller regional gravel events like the Ragnarok 105, which still utilizes post card entries to this day. While today's registration processes are mostly digitized, they are without personality, cheer, inventiveness, and not packed with hopes and dreams of the entrants, like those old post cards were. So, the GCHoF Board recognized the importance of that form of registration and chose Post Card Entries as this year's Gravel Icon Award winner.

And I gave the acceptance speech. Nuff about that! (There is a video on You Tube somewhere of that, if you care to find it)

 Overall this was an interesting and worthy class of entrants and I was proud and honored to be a small part of the goings on that Wednesday evening. There was an after-party, which Mrs. Guitar Ted and I attended briefly, since she cannot stand for long periods of time. But, in the short time that I was there, I received more congratulations on being in the GCHoF than I did the year I was inducted. Maybe not to be wondered at since I was in the first class and no one really was on to the whole thing quite yet back then. 

Part 3 tomorrow.....

GCHoF Trip Report: Part 1

I'm going to guess that this rig wasn't going to Unbound Gravel!

This is the report from my whirlwind trip down and back again from here to Emporia, Kansas over three days to attend the GCHoF 2024 inductions ceremonies. I'll have a three-part report. The "meat" of which will be seen here tomorrow where I go over each of the new inductees. 

Mrs. Guitar Ted and I went down on Tuesday and stopped short of Emporia as we wanted to get her some "real" Korean food in Kansas City. That turned out to be a somewhat successful venture.

I will leave it at that, as far as the restaurant. We stayed overnight there in KC which left us a short jaunt to get down to Emporia and get me delivered to the GCHoF group ride which was to set sail at 11:00am. Mrs. Guitar Ted and I arrived early enough that we had time for coffee, so we went over to the Gravel City Roasters shop and then we had to wait....

Seems like we hit "peak coffee" time!

This delayed us and well, I had but ten minutes to switch out my shirt for a jersey, my shoes for cycling shoes, throw on a helmet, and get my tires pumped up for the ride. In a hilarious twist of fate, Allison Tetrick was also running behind, so we conspired to arrive together, so if we were late we would have at least each other to keep company as we tried to catch back up. 

As you can see, we made it. Barely! They were clipping in and rolling out as we pulled up. Crazy timing, but hey! It worked. Then it was spinny-spinny-spinning the single speed Honeman Flyer along city streets until we made the right turn onto gravel to do the same loop we did last year. 

We stopped at the "Bird Bridge" again.

The stop at the bridge where the famous murder took place happened again. We all stopped as Jason Strobehn started in on the historical aspect of our stop and then asked for all the GCHoF'ers to come onto the bridge for photos. Just then, as if on cue, a black pickup truck came rumbling down the hill from the West and right into the throng of riders. The driver was being waved through kindly by us riders, but then the truck stopped right at the approach to the bridge. An older, skinny man with straw hat on sat behind the wheel of the truck with a dog at his side. He leaned out of the window and pointed a bony finger at the bridge and asked if we knew what happened, "...right over there!"

This occurrence was not planned!

The man, who had married into one of the families involved in the ordeal, began to tell us the details of the murder from his viewpoint. It was a chance meeting, but so on point that some did not believe it wasn't a plan, but Jason insisted it was just a random happening. At any rate, it was appropriate and an extra bonus for what otherwise would have been a "routine" outing for us. 

The humble beginnings of a physical presence for the Gravel Cycling Hall of Fame. 

After the ride I had a nice chat with LeLan Dains who is on the board of directors for the Gravel Cycling Hall of Fame. There is now actually a "hall" and some physical specimens on display there. It is just getting off the ground now and there is a lot to be done, but it is at least a start.

A picture of Allison getting her picture made.

Then I talked with Steve Domahidy of Viral Bikes for a bit. I'll have more about that in a follow-up regarding bicycles later. Then I had quite a long conversation in two parts with Allison Tetrick. Mrs. Guitar Ted and her really hit it off, by the way, and we spent quite a while chatting about this and that over the course of an hour or so at a venue which is normally a hatchet throwing place but had been "taken over" by Specialized Bikes for the Unbound weekend. 

Allison's 2023 GCHoF plaque.

The best story out of that conversation was Allison's leaving her GCHoF plaque in Emporia last year and finally being reunited with it this year! Anyway, it was great to get to know Allison a little better. She's got a special fundraiser going on now where you can buy one of two custom bandanas she had designed and made and the money goes to supporting youth MTB. Check it out HERE.

And with that I will close out Part 1. Stay tuned tomorrow for the breakdown on each inductee, and a surprise. Then Sunday I'll have the final report with some bicycle hardware and a new article I am going to be featured in will be revealed as well. Stay tuned.....