Welcome To The Twentieth Year

 Welcome to the Freakshow that is Guitar Ted Productions! It is here that I will be at liberty to espouse my verbiage in an unbridled, yet entertaining fashion. I have previously been a guest on Jeff Kerkove's site, and I would like to thank him for his incredible generosity. Look for further upgrades to this site as they become technically possible for me to execute! 

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What you just read above the line is my first post on May 11th, 2005. I actually posted twice on that day, and I received my first comments on this blog on the second post welcoming me to the blogosphere.  

By the way, today's header is based upon the last header Jeff Kerkove designed for this site and was the header which ran the longest. I think I used it until at least 2014, maybe longer. This anniversary edition variant, (modded by your's truly), will be there for the remainder of the week. 

The oldest image I have of the Karate Monkey I bought in 2003. This is from May 2005.

My second post from May 2011 was about my 29"er, probably the first one in this part of Iowa, which I put together about two years prior to this image. There are a couple of parts here which tell an interesting story.

I noticed there are Ergon grips on the bike. These would have been the original GP-1's which were given to everyone participating in the first Trans Iowa. The next thing I noted was the orangey stem, which represented a component color popular in the late 1990's. The stem is a Control Tech stem. The saddle is a short-lived WTB effort aimed at commuters. It was shorter and slimmer in profile than most saddles around at the time. I really liked it, but it must not have caught on.

That saddle was given to me at Frost Bike by a WTB rep to try out, a "big deal" at the time because I never had anything given to me to 'just try out' up until that point. This was without any possible way for me to review it, since when I received it I didn't have a blog!

Finally, the Nokon segmented housing. It did make the brakes work great, but it was expensive  and really fiddly to work with. Unless you enjoy stringing beads, I'd not recommend it.

Okay, back to the anniversary.... 

I really am not 'proud' nor do I feel some feeling of 'major accomplishment' as I cross over into having done this for twenty years using my two second fingers on each hand. I mean, I am such a terrible typist, I am really just amazed I fought through the typing difficulties, the technical hurdles, and setbacks which came along the way. I mean, I could have just quit at any time and would anyone care after a while?

So, I am amazed I've stuck to this for two decades more than anything else. I am humbled to have helped, inspired, or entertained along the way. Maybe I made someone mad and they never came back. Well, at least I inspired some passionate reactions from those folks! That is better than not having mattered at all.

As for the future, I always address this subject at the end of each year here on the blog. Suffice it to say that I will address the subject at the end of 2025. 

For now? Ride on!

Thank you for reading Guitar Ted Productions!

Reflections On 20 Years of Blogging

 Public Service Announcement: I am entering the final day of this series of posts. May 11th, 2025 will mark the start of my 20th year of blogging here on "Guitar Ted Productions". There will be a special post for this tomorrow. 

I never thought I'd have my image emblazoned on a t-shirt.

Tomorrow marks the twentieth anniversary of this blog. As I close out this series of posts celebrating the stories of the past twenty years of blogging, I wanted to make a few points and thank a few people for helping me get here and for supporting me throughout all of this.

Thanks: Obviously, the success of this blog and the things which have come out of it are multitudinous and I am incapable of singling out every important person, company, or group which had a hand in this success and the benefits which I have enjoyed. So, I think it is safe to say if you are reading this, you are to be thanked. 

I know this may seem like a cop out, but twenty years is a long time and I would feel badly if I left anyone out of a "thank-you list". I'm sure many of those folks who are part of this blog's success probably wouldn't feel as though they needed any recognition anyway, such is the character of the folks I know. But you do deserve thanks, so please, accept my humble gesture here.

Many things happened to me as a result of the blog. Doing reviews, becoming a figure in both the early twenty nine inch wheeled mountain bike scene and in the gravel cycling scene. Getting to fly across this country from one end to the other to cover events. Meeting famous cycling personalities. Meeting top-tier athletes. Getting bicycles, gear, and more as gifts or from reviews. Meeting fans of the blog from all over. It has all been far more than I would have ever hoped or dreamed. In fact, I never imagined any of it. I didn't really think anyone would notice what I wrote, much less care about any of it. I guess Jeff Kerkove was right to think people would find what I wrote interesting. Had he not goaded me into this, you would not be reading this now.

Getting into a Hall of Fame wasn't on my "to-do" list in 2005.

I will also say I never wanted or expected anything from this blog. There was no plan, desire, or scheme to make money, get things, or to enjoy benefits. In fact, I don't make a dime off the blog - Never have. You'll also note that there has never been a sponsor, ad, or "click here" Google thingy ever on this blog. I'm not monetized here, and never will be. Yes....I am a bit proud of this.

I decided early on to do a daily blog. This was hard in the beginning, but now I find this is not a burden, although you might see it differently. I still enjoy writing things up, thinking about topic ideas, and the process of planning ahead for the blog. It is fun. I enjoy all of it yet. One day this may change. Obviously I won't be blogging forever. Things beyond my control may make the decision for me, but I hope to graciously bow out under my own terms at some point in the not too distant future. Is that a hint? No, it is a recognition of a reality which I can accept or have forced upon me.

But leaving this for another day, the past, my past, has been heavily influenced by this blog. Some of you dear readers can probably say you've also been influenced by what I have been doing here. I am eternally thankful for the mostly positive outcomes of this blog on people. This has been greatly satisfying to me.

I hope you enjoyed the looks back in this series. Tomorrow I will post the entire inaugural post of this blog with the original header in the post. The header tomorrow will be the modified header inspired by Jeff Kerkove's last effort for me which he placed on the blog around 2007 or so and was used until probably 2014 at the least, maybe a bit longer than that. I cannot recall!

Thanks, as always, for reading Guitar Ted Productions!

Friday News And Views

Twenty Years Celebration:

If you've been reading here recently you are most likely aware that this weekend marks the 20th year anniversary of this blog. The actual date is May 11th, which is Sunday.

I've been celebrating each weekend with stories culled from this blog's past. I have been using headers from the past ten years to celebrate as well since earlier this year.

Tomorrow and Sunday will be special anniversary themed posts which will attempt to convey my feelings regarding this auspicious occasion! Ha! So, look for those posts to go up and then the look back will be concluded. I'm not sure what series will replace this, or even if there will be a series! One thing of note about this blog is that many times I have no idea which direction the blog will take until it rounds a corner.

The Latest On The Guitar Ted Podcast:

Last week N.Y. Roll and I recorded a conversation regarding a few different subjects. We really nerded out over geometry for gravel bikes. N.Y. Roll brought the geometry chart in for a 1989 Specialized Rock Combo, a drop bar 26"er MTB many regard as an example of the first "gravel bike". (By the way, and for the record, I do not regard the Rock Combo as anything but a 26"er MTB with drop bars.)

We comped this bike against a current Specialized gravel bike and found some interesting points to discuss. Then we moved on to discussing the tariffs and their impacts on the cycling scene.  There is more to listen to, so I won't spoil it all here. Listen to Episode 74 HERE.  

Episode #75 is recorded but I won't have it out until later this weekend. It's a great chat with Mike Marchand, former DK200 and Gravel Worlds champion. Mike was also a part of the first industry backed gravel racing team. We talked about early events on gravel which inspired events you made have heard of before. All that plus more in Episode #75 coming soon!

Is this a Sensah (Sentyeh) 14 speed rear derailleur? Image nicked off  the web

Moar Gears!

Long ago now, back when DynaSys 10 speed Shimano MTB drive train bits were introduced, I was able to go to Minneapolis, Minnesota for a super-rare Shimano tour/marketing event. At this event were several Shimano "Skunk" riders - Riders Shimano had retained as test riders for the product development.

I was told a LOT of eye-opening stuff while I was there. One Skunk rider told me Shimano had working prototype group sets in every gear range from 11 speed to 14 speed! At the time, I thought 14 speed was probably something I'd never see in my lifetime, but here we are.

While it isn't Shimano, (yet), this Chinese brand known as "Sensah" in the West has shown a 1 X 14 speed group, which is electronic, (natch!), at the recent Shanghai Bicycle Show. Images I've seen, shown on a You Tuber's channel I sometimes view, made the group set look pretty finished and consumer ready. In that same video it was mentioned that SRAM will likely be dropping a 2X13 road group set this Summer. (Didn't they just drop 12's?) 

Gear Wars? I guess... But it seems the march toward more cassette cogs is inevitable. Heck, I haven't moved off 11 speed yet!

Fiber Spokes:

Another 'trend' which seems to have legs now coming out of the Shanghai Bicycle Show are Aramid/polymer fiber spokes, like the BERD spokes I have mentioned here on the blog. Another alternative company making these now from China, called Goosyn, is pushing the idea big time at the show. Used mostly to absorb vibrations from gravel and rougher roads, these spokes are not seen as a road biking alternative, but are used on mountain bikes.

Traditionally BERD spokes have been something of a luxury item since they cost about $8.00 each. That's going to set your wheel price at a pretty premium level, even if you don't consider the carbon fiber rim. 

Now with this sort of push, it will be interesting to see if the competitive market between BERD and Goosyn might start to drive the prices down a bit. Obviously, with the chaos induced tariff situation, things might be a bit murky for the near future, but hopefully more affordable options will be presented because this idea really does work.

Image courtesy of Cannondale

New Cannondale Synapse: Road, All Roads, Or Gravel?

Maybe this bike is everything, eh? Check this thing out. Cannondale's new Synapse, which traditionally has been their "endurance road bike" for over a decade or more, is now a new design with a claimed 20% better ride quality than the outgoing model.

Most of the range is carbon, and eye-watering expensive. But there are reasonably priced models in the range like the one pictured here which is mechanical 105, 2X, with 50/34 gears up front and a 11 - 36T cassette. Pretty decent gearing for most places, and definitely gravel friendly. Oh, and all this for a very decent price of $3,999.00 USD.

But what about tire clearance, and what about the geometry? Well, Cannondale says you can stick a 43mm tire in the back and a 48mm wide tire up front and still have 4mm of clearance around the tires. Yep. That'll play on gravel. They also have pretty decent geometry, with my only nit being the bottom bracket drop is a bit conservative on the two largest sizes. With a hair steeper than 71° at the headtube, I'd say this will work just fine on gravel.

So, here's the deal: Why are we fooling around with anything else?  I mean, this is the all -around bike which most people should buy. Maybe add some utilitarian features to make it more practical, but this is more in the world I think we all wanted when "gravel" bikes were first talked about, at least on this blog. 

The Synapse is not trying to be the next "bro MTB thing", it isn't trying to be super-aero at the expense of versatility. Yes- it could be more practical. (Internally routed cables through the head tube? Yuck!), However; this bike speaks to me as where the whole gravel thing should be headed, especially in how Cannondale is marketing it. Good job here, C'dale! Now let's improve upon this ideal going forward.  

That's a wrap for this week. Thanks for reading Guitar Ted Productions! get out there and ride those bicycles! 

Blogging Through It

 Public Service Announcement: I am entering the final days of this series of posts. May 11th, 2025 will mark the start of my 20th year of blogging here on "Guitar Ted Productions". There will be a special post for this upcoming, but for now, please enjoy another look back at this topic from the days gone by on G-Ted Productions.

 May was always a time when I would give about a week-long Trans Iowa recap while behind the scenes I was recovering from a physical and emotional beat-down. I know it is perhaps hard for anyone to understand, but this was always a very difficult month starting out after a Trans Iowa.

Usually by the time the whole story of the latest Trans Iowa had been posted I was back on the bicycle in some form. But working at a bicycle shop gave no quarter at this time of the year. So, I tried to ignore all that and just ride, blogging through all of that, and do review work which I'd write about as well.

Then Trans Iowa ended and I felt a big hole in my life and in my writing staring me down. Writing the "Trans Iowa Stories" series helped somewhat. But then we had the pandemic and well..... That was something, wasn't it?

Image courtesy of Twin Six

I don't think I've ever blogged through something like the pandemic before it happened and I probably never will again. Those were strange days and while it was happening I did not know what I might end up writing about.

However; it seemed I had all kinds of things to do in terms of writing, and review opportunities sprang up when I figured there would be an end to that for a while considering all the shortages in the industry.

I even bought a new frame and fork. Well, to be honest, lots of people were doing the same thing. But I managed to get this Twin Six Standard Rando v2 just early enough that I was able to buy enough parts for it, pinch others in my stash for the build, and get it up and running as a single speed.

In a twist of irony, my employer at the time, Andy, was buying one of these bikes as well, and was planning a single speed set up. I, on the other hand, was planning a geared set up using SRAM Rival parts. Well, after one thing and then another, we changed our minds. We ended up buying parts from each other and swapping build ideas. Andy did a geared set up while I went single speed.

Once the Stormchaser single speed review bike went back to Salsa Cycles in late Spring, I had dreams of getting a dedicated gravel single speed. While the Rando can only handle maybe 45mm tires on the right rims, it still turned out to be a really nice single speed. The bike figured heavily in my riding then until later in the Summer when I moved almost exclusively to my Noble Bikes GX5. And that due to my "quest" to finish out riding every gravel road and dirt road in Black Hawk County, which I managed to do.

So, May turned out to be a month of hope and excitement in 2020, all in the face of uncertain times.

One That Got Away

  In celebration of the twentieth year of this blog, I have a few tales to tell. This post is one of them. This series will occur off and on throughout this anniversary year, I hope to illuminate some behind-the-scenes stories and highlights from the blog during this time. Enjoy!

Public Service Announcement: I am entering the final weeks of this series of posts. May 11th, 2025 will mark the start of my 20th year of blogging here on "Guitar Ted Productions". There will be a special post for this upcoming, but for now, please enjoy another look back at this topic from the days gone by on G-Ted Productions. 

Salsa Cycles Stormchaser in its debut color and configuration

I'm sure that if you are a seasoned cyclist there is probably a bicycle in your past which was "one that got away". A bicycle which, for whatever reasons, was one you sold, had stolen, or lost for a reason which you wish you had back again.

Now, you may be romanticizing this old memory, and in reality, maybe that bicycle is not "all that", but maybe it was great. I don't know your story, but for me "that bike" is the original Salsa Cycles Stormchaser which, ironically, was never "mine". It was a review bicycle for RidingGravel.com.

Of course, this was during the early, dark days of the pandemic, and I admit, this may have had something to do with my feelings toward the bike. The Stormchaser was my companion for many lonely gravel grinders that Spring. Rides where I was contemplating all the madness and trying to find peace for my mind and soul. The quiet Black Hawk County countryside helped with this. The Stormchaser was the vehicle which transported me there.

Of course, the Stormchaser was not perfect. Its brutal front fork gave no quarter. The aluminum frame was not the steel feel I prefer in a ride. I probably would have modded the thing to death had Salsa Cycles let me keep the bike. But that shiny, new-penny hue, the simple lines of the bike, and its single-speed purpose were very fetching. I liked the way the bike looked a lot.

I did end up stuffing 50mm tires into the frame and this helped the front end be smoother and not so unforgiving. I likely would have kept the big tires on this bike with a Redshift Sports ShockStop stem and had been just fine.

But......it wasn't meant to be. Salsa Cycles wanted the bike back, and at the time, I could easily see why. Bicycles were in super-short supply. The shop I was working at couldn't get anymore new bikes, and even bicycle staples like tubes and bar tape were non-existent in warehouses all across the country. I imagine the Stormchaser I tested ended up under some customer who had ordered one which Salsa couldn't get from overseas from its supplier. So, yeah....

And it isn't as though I don't have cool, fun to ride bicycles anyway. But in another world, where there was not a pandemic induced shortage, maybe the Stormchaser would have been available to me to keep. I don't know. If this were the case, it is very likely  that I would have not purchased the Twin Six Standard Rando v2 or had the Honeman Flyer built. So, maybe things worked out the way they should have anyway.

And in the end, I have memories and stories on this blog from a time I don't think we want to repeat, ever. But memories of the Stormchaser and my contemplative, peaceful 2020 rides will always bring a smile to my face. I think this is okay, and thanks to Salsa Cycles for even giving me the chance to try this out at a time when they really did not have any reason to allow me to enjoy such a bike. So again, thanks Salsa Cycles! I still am very appreciative of that opportunity.

And that's "the one that got away" story for me. What is yours?

Early Thoughts On Gravel Growth

 In celebration of the twentieth year of this blog, I have a few tales to tell. This post is one of them. This series will occur off and on throughout this anniversary year, I hope to illuminate some behind-the-scenes stories and highlights from the blog during this time. Enjoy!

 In 2012 about this time of the year I had just put on the eighth Trans Iowa event. There were tons of other gravel events with several years of editions behind them. There were also a lot of new events hitting the internet with promises of challenge, scenery, historical context, and fun times. There were new products designated as "gravel" products by this time, which was a new thing. Gravel cycling was in the midst of changes.

Gravel was changing by 2012 - Image by Wally Kilburg

I sensed this by 2012 and wrote a post saying as much back in May of that year. It was kind of a prototypical post which pointed toward my "State of the Gravel Scene" posts I started writing in 2018.

The post I wrote in 2012 is interesting, to me at any rate, because of who commented on it. There were two regional publishers and one current Gravel Cycling Hall of Fame member in there chatting about what they thought of all the changes going on.

Of course, looking back on this thirteen year old collection of thoughts about where the gravel cycling scene was headed should tell you a few things. One: Gravel wasn't "new" then and it isn't now either. A lot more about the gravel cycling scene has passed away than anyone probably even considers today, unless you were around in the scene then. There are things people would be shocked by which we accepted as common practice back then. (Cue sheets, no chip timing, no aid stations, etc.)

But it wasn't about products aimed at gravel riders, it wasn't about event innovations, it was about what one of the commenters said, which was: "You don't have to be Joe-racer-head to really enjoy one of these events." It was also about this, which another commenter said, "The interest in off piste cycling events is growing in general (simply) because they are less mediated and more fun (focus on fun)".

I also was able to discuss this on my last two podcasts in the "Where We Came From" series and I think the general consensus is gravel cycling has become more about "joe racer-head" and it has more mediation and  less focus on fun. At least in the upper echelons of the sport.

One thing is certain, which is gravel cycling is as big world-wide as it ever has been. Is this sustainable? Ehh...... Who knows? I will say the subject has been one which has been written about a ton here on this blog for the past twenty years, and today's highlighted post is evidence of this.

Four Wheels, Gravel, Dirt, and Craziness

 In celebration of the twentieth year of this blog, I have a few tales to tell. This post is one of them. This series will occur off and on throughout this anniversary year, I hope to illuminate some behind-the-scenes stories and highlights from the blog during this time. Enjoy! 

Today and tomorrow will feature things from Trans Iowa and how those things were featured on the blog. Then next week I'll delve into my reportage of the events here, and then we'll be done with Trans Iowa related subjects in this series, so if your are getting a little 'T.I. fatigue', I get it, but there is no denying the fact of Trans Iowa being a 'big deal' here on this blog.

Trans Iowa v2 recon was done partly with a 1996 Toyota Camry

Over the years of doing Trans Iowa I must have driven or ridden in a car for around 15,000 miles, or probably more. Most of that being on gravel roads and some Level B dirt. To do all of the recon and day-of event driving we had to use cars and trucks. This post will detail some of the vehicles which made an appearance on the blog.

A few were only referred to and never really shown fully here, like Jeff  Kerkove's Mazda 3, which did two complete passes of the first Trans Iowa course. That vehicle also was used for Trans Iowa v2 course recon. I did a bit of recon in a 1996 Toyota Camry for this version of Trans Iowa as well. Let me say here that compact cars do not make a good gravel recon vehicle! We had this confirmed later as David Pals and I used his Volkswagon Beetle on a sub-zero recon for Trans Iowa v4.

Trans Iowa v3 saw the debut of my 1991 Honda Civic hatchback wagon which I referred to as "The Dirty Blue Box". This vehicle was used for recon and the event for v3, some recon duties for v4, recon and the event for v5, and was then retired due to a failed distributor and struts which needed replacement. Those repairs being more expensive than the car was worth.

The Dirty Blue Box after getting stuck in a muddy Level B road during v4 recon.

I remember after v5 and having driven the entire weekend in that Honda. I was sooo beaten up due to the non-existent suspension and the poor ride quality of that car on gravel. Otherwise it was a nimble vehicle and amazingly adept off-pavement. I was able to push it out solo when I got stuck in a muddy Level B road once due to the lightweight nature of its construction.

I then used a 1999 Lexus as a recon and event day vehicle, one year overlapping with the Honda's service. During v4 it was the vehicle we stuck finishers in to warm them up. David Pals also used a couple of his vehicles for Trans Iowa, with the aforementioned Beetle and another Volkswagon SUV for v6.

After the Honda failed I purchased the "Truck With No Name" which had the longest run with Trans Iowa. From doing v6 recon all the way to recons for the last Trans Iowas, the "TWNN" was there. This truck was purchased with gravel travel in mind.

Although this truck was two-wheel drive, it got me through some dirt roads which I was amazed we were able to get through. Probably the most memorable moment for me in the TWNN was the half-mile drift on a muddy Level B road during T.I.v8 when I somehow managed to keep out of the ditches and thread the needle between passing cars while crossing a county blacktop.

While the TWNN served through the rest of Trans Iowa's run, we used several other vehicles through the last seven Trans Iowas which deserve mentioning, along with their owners. Most notably, Wally Kilburg and George Keslin, who used George's Ford F-150 4X4 several years in a row for recons and photography duties during several Trans Iowas.

George Keslin's F-150 immediately after fording a muddy Level B Road I thought we'd get stuck in!

Tony McGrane assessing his situation during T.I.v12

Tony McGrane always had a Ford F-150 4X4 at the ready to assist with event day at Trans Iowa also. His getting stuck in T.I.v12, and his subsequent spectacular unstucking of himself will always stand out as a chief memory for me at Trans Iowa. Tony probably used at least a couple different trucks during his volunteering days for Trans Iowa as he routinely upgraded vehicles. One note a lot of folks may not know, but Tony did the final recon to check cues for Trans Iowa v14 solo in his Ford. I'll always be grateful for that!

Matt Gersib's Subaru Forester was invaluable during the last few Trans Iowa events.

 The last vehicle and owner I will mention here is Matt Gersib's Subaru Forrester. If there ever was a chase vehicle suited for Trans Iowa, it was this one. Economical, nimble, but totally off-road capable, as evidenced when Matt drove Tama County's 270th Street Level B road. Yes! He drove through that section!

If you know this road, you will understand what a feat this was. It is something that scared the crap out of me when Matt decided to traverse this difficult, and most of the time, impassable road. But he made it and it remains as one of the best Trans Iowa ,moments I ever shared with anyone.

Of course, there are so many other vehicles and memories I could share, but these were the chief ones. I know I probably forgot someone or some cars or trucks, so if you have any chief memories which align with this post, let me know in the comments. 

On The Bunny Trail

 In celebration of the twentieth year of this blog, I have a few tales to tell. This post is one of them. This series will occur off and on throughout this anniversary year, I hope to illuminate some behind-the-scenes stories and highlights from the blog during this time. Enjoy! 

 We are in the final stretch of celebrating the 20th year of blogging here at Guitar Ted Productions. In about a month the day will arrive which will mark when this blog started. Expect there to be a bit more 20th Year posts as the day approaches.

A Level B road in Tama County during Trans Iowa v7, Image by Steve Fuller

When David Pals and I started thinking about running a seventh Trans Iowa the date of the event was sort of a given. By this time I had determined I would set Trans Iowa's date whenever the last full weekend of April was. This had been the default anyway, with the exception of Trans Iowa v5, which I pushed back to being the first weekend in May due to my involvement covering the Sea Otter Festival in mid-April. Having a week of separation between those events was not ideal for putting on Trans Iowa

But by 2011, when Trans Iowa v7 was run, I was no longer doing a trip out to Sea Otter, so we were solidly back to the last weekend of April for Trans Iowa. It wasn't until registration for T.I.v7 was about to open that I was made aware by a potential entrant that the weekend we had chosen was Easter weekend.

I had a small bit of anxiety over this. I understand the importance of this event to many, including myself, and was afraid we'd get a lot of push-back over the date if we stuck to it. I was in favor of changing the date, but David allayed my fears and sent me some information about how Paris-Roubaix had been held during an Easter weekend once upon a time in heavily Catholic (at that time) France and there was no real issues with this happening.

So, I capitulated and put my fears behind me and we forged on ahead with it. Trans Iowa v7 was one for the record books. We had eighteen finishers that year out of 76 with 40 of those riders being "rookie" first-timers. We had our very first female finisher of a Tans Iowa in Janna Vavra. It would turn out to be the last Trans Iowa I put on with David Pals as co-director.

John Gorilla finishes T.I. v7 on a prototype Warbird with his wife Adele looking on. Note the bunny ears.

 We had a crazy, epic flip-flop during the last hours of this event where leader John Gorilla, riding a prototype titanium Salsa Cycles Warbird, had five flats and relinquished his lead to eventual surprise winner Dennis Grelk. John ended up coming in fifth place.

We had one of the legendary stories of the early gravel days happen at this event. Earlier in the event, on Saturday morning, Corey "Cornbread" Godfrey blew his derailleur off his bike and damaged his frame to the point which he was looking like a sure DNF. However; he hitched a ride back to the start in Grinnell, had the local bike shop fix his bike up as a single speed, returned to the course, and caught up with some buddies. He ended up riding the entire rest of the event. Although he had to be DQ'ed for outside assistance, his determination to ride and complete the course was without peer, and stands as one of the outstanding accomplishments of Cornbread's Hall of Fame career in gravel.

It turned out to be quite the Easter Sunday that year, and is one I won't soon forget, especially since this was the event which was documented by Jeff Frings and won an Emmy award for regional best documentary. That documentary is called "300 Miles Of Gravel", in case you are interested in seeing it.

Where Were We?

 In celebration of the twentieth year of this blog, I have a few tales to tell. This post is one of them. This series will occur off and on throughout this anniversary year, I hope to illuminate some behind-the-scenes stories and highlights from the blog during this time. Enjoy! 

Again with the Trans Iowa stuff. I know, but April was essentially "Trans Iowa Month" here, and I suppose you could add in the first week of May with my reporting on the just completed event for the year. This time I wanted to shine a light on cue sheet navigation. It was something I took great pains to explain in detail here on the blog, so many of you long-time readers will probably recall this being a big deal.

A typical Trans Iowa cue sheet

I was chatting with Cedar Valley Bicycle Collective board member Nick Arendt at our most recent board meeting and he brought up cue sheet navigation while we were discussing Iowa Wind And Rock, (happening today and tomorrow, actually!). 

Nick said something which I've heard before, but is something I do not consider often, and is probably something most folks who have never used a cue sheet in an event would think about. Now, this probably is somewhat unique in terms of how I implemented cue sheet navigation, so others may have a different viewpoint, but if you had ridden in Trans Iowa, or as Nick, in the only C.O.G.100 event, you know first hand what Nick meant when he told me he didn't really ever know exactly where he was during the event.

I suppose it may seem very odd as to why I would have made the cues so precise, yet so vague at the same time so that riders knew exactly where to turn, but had no idea in a macro sense where the points were on a map. No sense of space beyond the immediate was portrayed on the cues. I went as far as not identifying towns and villages on the cues. Unless a rider saw a water tower emblazoned with the village's name, or a Post Office, business, or official government office of some sort, they would never know where they were in relation to ....well, anything!

Finishers of Trans Iowa knew where the start and end points were. But where did they go? Image by A. Andonopoulous

It was not uncommon for Trans Iowa finishers to ask me at the end of the event, "Where did we go this year?" Some of them would understand in a general sense given some knowledge of highways in the state and where they had crossed them, but most had no idea where they had been, especially in the earlier versions before GPS was widely available to cyclists. Of course, later into TI's run cyclists could have used a track of where they had been on their GPS enabled computer afterward to gauge where the route had gone, but many riders did not have this available to them during those days.

So, it was imperative not only for the riders to pay attention to every detail on the cues, but for me and those who reviewed my cue sheets to get every detail critical to navigation right. It was also a difficult task to edit this information down to a clear and concise reading with no confusion induced by the information I did give riders. This was facilitated by those I had volunteer to check my cues out. People like Jeremy Fry, Wally Kilburg, George Keslin, Tony McGrane, and others who would either look over my cues or use them to navigate the route in the field.

Every year these people suggested edits and helped me make Trans Iowa cues the best possible. It was a hard task with a new course every year all 14 years I put this event on. While processes were refined and things were eased by the end of the run, it was by no means an "easy task". Giving explanations every year on the blog was also a bit tedious, however, I felt it could never be pointed out enough how the cues worked.

And I am glad I took the space here to do that. It made for an experience you cannot get anywhere else in cycling. Well......there is Iowa Wind and Rock! And the Ragnarok 105 uses cues yet, I think... So you still can get this experience as long as they keep those events going.

Radio-Radio

 In celebration of the twentieth year of this blog, I have a few tales to tell. This post is one of them. This series will occur off and on throughout this anniversary year, I hope to illuminate some behind-the-scenes stories and highlights from the blog during this time. Enjoy!

Of course, this is another Trans Iowa related post. It is April, after all, and for 14 years, the month of April was dominated by Trans Iowa talk, so go figure, right? Anyway, I figured I would write about the evolution of what became to be known as "Trans Iowa Radio". Here's a bit I posted on the eve of Trans Iowa v8 in 2012.

 Special Notice: To the regular readers of this blog: You will notice that for about the next week's worth of posts that the subject matter will be entirely about Trans Iowa. This event happens over the course of the weekend. You will notice several "Trans Iowa Radio" posts with an mp3-type audio track button which you can click on and listen in to reports filed live from the event. Then there will be a post race recapping of the event which typically takes five to seven posts for me to wade through. 

Those "mp3-type audio posts" were done on a service called "Hip-Cast". It wasn't the first audio-posting service I had used though. I cannot recall what it was I used in 2005 and 2006, but it was pretty rudimentary. I know there were some T.I. Radio posts done on a service called "Audioblogger" for a couple years, at least. Then in the closing years of Trans Iowa, audio call-ins were posted on the RidingGravel.com site.

 Interestingly, the audio updates I posted for Trans Iowa v7 on Hip-Cast played a big part in the Emmy winning documentary, "300 Miles Of Gravel" by Jeff Frings. It captured the essence of those updates excellently, and is a great time-capsule for this important part of Trans Iowa. 

Guitar Ted, (R) posting a Trans Iowa Radio update for T.I.v6

Whatever service I was using, the "updates" were of varying quality. In the earliest years of Trans Iowa, when I assumed no one would ever listen, I was doing fake commercials and fake sponsors reads because, why not? The entire point was just a way for me to pass the time, stay engaged, and keep myself from wandering off into some farmer's pasture drunk with sleep deprivation at 3:00am in the morning.

The thing was, people were listening! I had a lot of negative feedback over the course of the first several Trans Iowa events because I wasn't either being serious, or thorough enough, (usually both) for the listeners. I knew things had taken a turn when after Trans Iowa v3 I learned I had listeners in Poland because we had two Polish immigrant brothers in the event that year! People wanted facts and that at a constant rate so they could "keep tabs" on their kid, relative, husband, girlfriend, wife, or they were just a fan of someone.

This came to a head during T.I.v5 when I had a wife of a participant wanting an update and she called me at 4:00am in the morning to get it. She was upset because I hadn't "reported" on him for the last couple of T.I. Radio updates. This is when I felt the need to delineate what "media coverage" meant for Trans Iowa. I wasn't there to give play-by-play. I was running an event, and I did not have time, nor the resources, to pull off any blanket coverage of the event, and furthermore, I did not want this for Trans Iowa.

Trans Iowa Radio updates direct from the racers was first made available during Trans Iowa v9.

 Trans Iowa was, in my opinion, an event where one was disconnected from the modern world. Making it a media circus wasn't in my plans. I did not like cell phones either, but hey! Safety and rider tracking were done via those devices, so I necessarily had to allow for those to be in play. The thing was, people used them to connect to racers, and vice versa. Support, from the outside, in any form, was minimized as much as I could back then, because it was integral to the experience I was cultivating. Cell phones were an evil necessity and more Trans Iowa Radio wasn't in my plans.

But pressure from outside the event did not get less as the years went by. Once I was acquainted with Ben Welnak, who I joined forces with in RidingGravel.com in 2014, it was determined that a Trans Iowa Radio call-in feature could be implemented, so any rider could "check in" at any time to let folks know how it was going. This seemed fine to me, so from Trans Iowa v9 onward this was how Trans Iowa Radio worked.

I still did my updates, but those were sprinkled in with the rider audio-posts, so the feature actually did become an event-long report in a way. Yes, people still complained it wasn't good enough, but I was done listening to that complaint by the point Trans Iowa Radio was facilitated on Riding Gravel.

When Trans Iowa ended in 2018, riders did not know the event had been terminated until 2:00pm the Sunday T.I.v14 ended when my post announcing the end was published. I know Ben told me afterward some people got on after the event and posted some nice words, but I haven't had the heart to listen to those messages. Maybe I should befor the site disappears forever....

Double-Duty

 In celebration of the twentieth year of this blog, I have a few tales to tell. This post is one of them. This series will occur off and on throughout this anniversary year, I hope to illuminate some behind-the-scenes stories and highlights from the blog during this time. Enjoy!

 There was a time on the blog here when I was doing "double-duty" as an onsite festival reporter AND preparing to unleash the ultra-distance gravel event called Trans Iowa within weeks of each other

Yeah.....that wasn't very smart of me to do. But, I lived through it all, and somehow I was successful. Obviously big props have to go to my volunteers for Trans Iowa at the time and to my co-director in those days, David Pals.

Hammer Nutrition for Trans Iowa v10

Late March and early April was the time I had a lot of things coming to a point. Getting sponsored items in for the event was one of the biggies.

This wasn't told on the blog here, but stacks of products and prizing usually took up plenty of space in the Guitar Ted Headquarters during early April. It was not very fun for the rest of the family who had to work around the inconveniences Trans Iowa put upon them. This only added to my stress in putting on this event, but ya know..... I did what I had to do!

The other part of all this was preparing the odds and ends many do not think about. Things like pens. Clipboards and tape. Making sure the truck was ready. Number plates. pipe cleaners, zip ties, and paper clips. Markers. Maps.

I had a checklist and I was constantly going over it. But again, not much about this was ever written up here at the time. But on top of all this, for three years in a row, I went to cover Sea Otter for "Twentynine Inches", the website I was contributing to at the time from 2007 - 2009 when I attended Sea Otter for the final time. After this time I was the sole proprietor of the site and I decided not to go, as I had a California based contributor who covered the event for me.

An extra windy day at Sea Otter in 2008

I was happy to have been able to go to Sea Otter for those three years. However; travel time and all the missed opportunities for being with my family and taking care of Trans Iowa business really made Sea Otter a pain for me. The experiences in the Monterrey area will be a highlight, for sure, but having Sea Otter right before Trans Iowa was really, really hard. In fact, I pushed the date for Trans Iowa v5 into the first week of May because of my previous two years of dealing with one week of separation between the two events.

Leaving Sea Otter in 2009. This was the last thing I saw at the venue on that day.

 Like the image above, my time at Sea Otter is a misty haze of memories. I'll likely never go back there again, and I am fine with this thought. I do also know I never made any effort to go back, mostly because of Trans Iowa, and because of this reason, I just got used to not having to be there with "boots on the ground" to cover any news coming from this show.

Of course, having my previously mentioned friend, Grannygear, there who was more than happy to go every year to cover news and send images was a huge help. However; even without the help, I wasn't planing on going there again as long as Trans Iowa was around.

But for three years, I was there and for many years afterward, Sea Otter news figured heavily in this blog's writings. And it probably still will as long as Sea Otter continues to be the place where cycling brands and marketers release information and new products. 

What A Hoot!

 In celebration of the twentieth year of this blog, I have a few tales to tell. This post is one of them. This series will occur off and on throughout this anniversary year, I hope to illuminate some behind-the-scenes stories and highlights from the blog during this time. Enjoy!

Yesterday I told you about how Robins make me nostalgic for Trans Iowa, but Robins were not the only birds which moved me in such a way. There was another bird associated strongly with Trans Iowa, in my opinion, and it may surprise you to learn it is not a hawk, or the eagle, but the owl.

The full moon as seen during Trans Iowa v9

Ironically there is not a long history of owl soundings or sightings connected with Trans Iowa for myself. No, it was on towards the end of this event's run which is where the owl influence comes in. Two specific times, actually.

One was at the end of Trans Iowa v13 as I sat in my truck in the parking lot of the finish line space in the park. There is a small lake or pond there, and around about 4:00am a right proper hootenanny started. Owls all around the lake went bananas with constant, loud hooting for at least a half an hour straight. It was amusing, to say the least! 

But the last Trans Iowa was when this bird cemented its place in my memories as something special. It was around 1:00am, MG and I were parked just West of HWY 146 near Montezuma, Iowa, and MG was fast asleep in his Subaru.  This was on an East-West gravel road. I was standing outside in the cold, waiting for DNF calls and trying not to wake Matt up. There was a tall stand of evergreen trees just to the Southeast of me. The moon was up, and suddenly the lusty hoot of a barred owl went up, breaking the stillness of the night air. A few seconds later, an answering call came across the prairies.

Time stood still and I was at once filled with wonder and awe at the situation I was in at the time. Many feelings were felt which I have not the words to aptly communicate to you, the reader. 

It is a moment fixed in my mind so securely now I can see the image of the backlit pine tress in my mind. Now whenever I hear a barred owl's call I think about this moment in time again.

A T.I.v14 rider navigates down a gravel road in his "bubble of light". Image by Jon Duke

 The moment on the road during T.I.v14 makes me think about night riding as well. This night riding thing, both for Trans Iowas and for other events and fun, has sure come a long, long way since this blog started. I look at the image above and marvel at how bright the light is on the bike and I know how well one can see to ride these days with current lighting systems available in 2025. It is insane to consider riding at night with what we used to use at the speeds we were riding at back then.

I think about the Moonlight Metric event I rode in back in 2011 or 12 where I had this homemade light that put out like 150 Lumens at maximum power. Ha! I'd consider something like that light as a toy now! I wrote a post a few years ago now about the evolution of lighting for gravel bikes. You can check that post out HERE.  

Now I use a light far brighter than the light I used for the Moonlight Metric which would last most of the night, and costs less than 100 dollars. Rechargeable battery tech inside which would have made my head spin in 2011. Yeah..... There is just no comparison.

We live in some pretty awesome times, when you stop and think about it. Yes, there is a lot of bad stuff, but don't forget about the good stuff as well. 

When The Robins Sing

 In celebration of the twentieth year of this blog, I have a few tales to tell. This post is one of them. This series will occur off and on throughout this anniversary year, I hope to illuminate some behind-the-scenes stories and highlights from the blog during this time. Enjoy!

When I was young we had football practice starting in early August. Two-a-days, which consisted of one morning practice and another in the afternoon. I don't think the High School Athletic Association here allows this anymore, but during those days, it was a common practice.

When I was out of school, every early August for many years afterward would trigger the feelings I had of being excited for another year of high school football. I only experienced this football thing in August for four years, but somehow, the heat of August, the humidity, the way the Sun shone, all those things made me feel "football feelings" for the next ten-plus years in August.

The "fingernail moon" sets in the Western sky on the dawn of Trans Iowa v10 in 2014.

Now days, it is the song of the Robin which makes me feel a thing I used to experience every April. Of course, I am talking about Trans Iowa. This whole upcoming month of April on this blog used to be dominated by news of the next Trans Iowa event which always happened during the last week of April.

Robins come back to Iowa, if they even leave parts of the state anymore, around the end of February and early March.  However; they often will not start in the morning with their distinctive chaotic warble until late March or early April, depending upon the weather. As soon as I hear my first Robin song of the year, my mind immediately shifts into "Trans Iowa mode". Even after seven years have gone by since the last T.I.

The early morning Sun illuminates the faces of the lead pack during Trans Iowa v10 (Image by Guitar Ted)

The image above represents a time where Robins made a deep mental impression on my mind. I was far out ahead of the riders during the opening hours of Trans Iowa v10 in 2014. I decided to park at the top of one of many big rollers on the course to see if I could spot the lead pack coming and alert my volunteers at the first checkpoint. Maybe I could give them an ETA so they would be ready to get the riders through as quickly as possible.

I arrived at the spot shown above about 40 minutes too early. In the meantime, I stood outside my truck, straining to see when a small dark splotch might move over the Western horizon representing a small pack of riders. As I stood looking Westward, the Sun began to rise, and Robins in the nearby trees in the ditch to the North started singing loudly.

I'm not sure I ever really described what this was like to do in a way which would make an impression on you dear readers of Guitar Ted Productions. But it was a sublime, serene time which I cherish. I was blessed to have several of these types of moments during Trans Iowas. Just soaking it all in, waiting for the brief sighting of riders, anticipating their arrival, experiencing a brief moment of chaotic greetings, then hearing the rider's chatter and the gritty sound of tires on gravel disappear into the landscape again.

Robins singing in Springtime bring all this back to me again and again. But they are not the only birds to figure heavily into my Trans Iowa memories.

Rocks And Dirt

 In celebration of the twentieth year of this blog, I have a few tales to tell. This post is one of them. This series will occur off and on throughout this anniversary year, I hope to illuminate some behind-the-scenes stories and highlights from the blog during this time. Enjoy!

 One of the things I used to write about here was my occasional trips to Texas which happened over the course of the first half of the 20 years of this blog. These were to see my wife's family and to let them spend time with my two kids. The side benefit was that I was able to ride in the Franklin Mountains which are right in the city of El Paso where my folks lived.

The "Tin Cowboy" of Conlen, Texas.

 We used to travel by car down I-35. We used Highway 54 starting in Wichita Kansas and then we'd go all the way across Kansas, diagonally through the Panhandle of Oklahoma, and the Panhandle of Texas, then diagonally, more or less, across New Mexico, and finally to El Paso on the very Western tip of the state of Texas. 

Along the way I kept seeing this tall, goofy looking statue in the Panhandle of Texas standing in a lawn in a tiny "spot-in-the-road" village. I kept trying to get an image of it, but I was either driving, it was at night, or I would miss getting the shot because we were doing 65 -70mph while I was trying to take the shot. After several missed opportunities, I finally got him in 2010. I know that is an odd story, but I think the "Tin Cowboy of Conlen, Texas" is a treasure from times gone by, and I doubt many know about this oddity. Sometimes I wonder if it is even still there....

The trail runs down the center of this image and off to the left.

Now on to things that actually were important to the blog here!

I never was successful in telling you dear readers about the difficulty in riding trails in the Franklin Mountains. It is hard to convey how different this type of riding is. The terrain is unforgiving, the heat is devastatingly hot and dry, and riding ten miles is akin to riding three times that much single track here. Oh, and if you are a flatlander, like myself, the elevation will kick your butt as well.

I did find one image, posted here, that might help portray the difficulty of riding in the Franklin Mountains. There is a trail running right down from the center of the image which sweeps off to the lower left as you look at it there. Notice the size of the rocks? They are mostly all loose, shifty, and if you go even a tiny bit off the tread of the trail you are met with nasty, pokey things called "plant life".

It was always fun, but always brutal and hard. Then near the end of my days riding there I discovered the West side of Franklin Mountain is where the fall out from the smelting plant had occurred and had altered the environment. ("Asarco - Look it up some time. It is a really sad story) It was then I realized why I never saw wildlife, much for plant life, and hardly anyone riding that side. It was all due to the decades of contamination. The one time I rode the East side was a revelation. People, flowers, animals.... Just crazy.

From the recon of Trans Iowa v6 in March, 2010

Those El Paso trips were generally taken during Spring Break. When I arrived back home, it was Trans Iowa time! I had loose ends to tie up, courses to check, and cue sheet production to take care of. It was always a busy, stressful month, month and a half, which led up to the event. 

I chose to show an image for this post which came from March 2010. It may look somewhat unremarkable to you, but this image represents a few things which were important to me for several years.

First, this recon was for our first Trans Iowa out of Grinnell, Iowa, and the city could not have been better to us. Grinnell had a special place in my heart then, and it still does to this day. We pulled out from in front of Bikes To You, the bike shop on Broad Street in downtown Grinnell,  a total of nine times before I put Trans Iowa to bed in 2018.

The second thing this image reminds me of is that it was the first Trans Iowa which I used the "Truck With No Name". The previous year was the swan song for the "Dirty Blue Box", my 1991 Honda Civic hatchback/wagon. That Toyota truck saw some really bad roads, and despite it being a two wheel drive vehicle, it always pulled me through. It was featured here on the blog several times.

I spent hours and hours plying Iowa's gravel roads in that truck. I finally let it go last year when I allowed my son to trade it in on a vehicle for himself. I'll tell ya, I got all the goody out of that truck! The dealer told me several weeks later they had to scrap the truck out because a frame rail on it was so rusted it was about to fall apart, which would have broken the truck in half!