Minus Ten Review 2009-31

I still have the frame and fork. I should throw this back together again!

Ten years ago this week I was out riding the South Side of Camp Ingawanis, now known as Ingawanis Woodland, or simply by "Ingie" as the locals know it now. Back a decade ago you could count how many people rode out there in a month on one hand.

There was a white board you were supposed to sign in on, and back then weeks would go by before it had to be erased because there were so many names it was full. I bet that would happen in a single day on a nice weekend now. But back then, the locals didn't want anything to do with driving ten miles to get to good single track. Too much bother!

Now it is no biggie, apparently. Times change and all......

Used to be a race out there too. The first one was ten years ago, and I helped volunteer for it. I keep getting reminded of this by my son. This race is a chief memory for him and he recalls being at "that race in the woods" that we counted bikers at. Keep in mind that he was all of six years old, and barely that. I mean, what can you recall vividly from being six years old? I know I cannot remember much. (But what's new, right? Ha!)

I know it was a big deal to him as he will bring up this memory at random times. I guess it was welded into his consciousness as a "big adventure" with his Dad. I don't know, but here's a piece of advice for any Dads out there that may be reading this that have youginz- You never know what will impact your child and be of importance to them in later years. Be wise- Be good. Keep your promises. Never dismiss a memory your child has even if you think it was no big deal. 

Nuff said.

Minus Ten Review 2009-31

I still have the frame and fork. I should throw this back together again!

Ten years ago this week I was out riding the South Side of Camp Ingawanis, now known as Ingawanis Woodland, or simply by "Ingie" as the locals know it now. Back a decade ago you could count how many people rode out there in a month on one hand.

There was a white board you were supposed to sign in on, and back then weeks would go by before it had to be erased because there were so many names it was full. I bet that would happen in a single day on a nice weekend now. But back then, the locals didn't want anything to do with driving ten miles to get to good single track. Too much bother!

Now it is no biggie, apparently. Times change and all......

Used to be a race out there too. The first one was ten years ago, and I helped volunteer for it. I keep getting reminded of this by my son. This race is a chief memory for him and he recalls being at "that race in the woods" that we counted bikers at. Keep in mind that he was all of six years old, and barely that. I mean, what can you recall vividly from being six years old? I know I cannot remember much. (But what's new, right? Ha!)

I know it was a big deal to him as he will bring up this memory at random times. I guess it was welded into his consciousness as a "big adventure" with his Dad. I don't know, but here's a piece of advice for any Dads out there that may be reading this that have youginz- You never know what will impact your child and be of importance to them in later years. Be wise- Be good. Keep your promises. Never dismiss a memory your child has even if you think it was no big deal. 

Nuff said.

Singletrack Therapy

It was darn near perfect for riding in the woods on Wednesday

On my day off I did something I haven't done in a long, long time. I rode at Ingawanis Woodlands.

It's been more than months, it has been over a year since I last went to the single track trails of Ingawanis and enjoyed the woods. Before that last time, it was nearly a year that I had ridden there. So, what's the deal? Why the hiatus?

Well, when I was writing and running the "Twenty Nine Inches" website, I had to ride up there. All the time. It was the best place within reason to go and test product. Almost no Wednesday went by without me riding the trails up there during riding season. This was probably from about 2007 until the Fall of 2014 when I wound things down with my gig at "Twenty Nine Inches". So, for a solid seven years, I sacrificed doing any other sort of riding but single track, for the most part.

I missed going out on long gravel road explorations. I decided to instigate the 3GR, which happened on Saturday mornings, to scratch that itch, and that helped, but I wanted more. So, when I was finally free from doing TNI stuff, I went whole hog into gravel riding with little else other than that. Now, I always tell my kids, "Too much of any one thing is not good for you.",  and that goes for me too.

Anybody out there remember "Captain Bob's Berm"? This is where it used to be.

So, I loaded up the Singular Buzzard, and despite the lingering effects of a nasty cold, I went up to Ingawanis Woodland to see what is up. The day was beautiful. Nary a breeze, puffy clouds, and upper 70's for temperature. In a word- perfect. 

Now I haven't been up there for a while, as I said, so when I pulled in to the formerly grassy lot, I noticed several things that are not the same anymore. The mostly dirt lot being one. Obviously, the usage factor has multiplied by several times since I used to ride up there. You used to see a whole month's worth of sign in's on the kiosk whiteboard. Now it looks like a green smudged mess! There were new signs up. I noted that the old service road was mown and there was single track running up the center of the former two-track road. Hmm..... I wondered what else had changed around here.......

I've always called this "The Throne Of The Woodland King", but I'm probably the only one that ever has. 

Well, fortunately not a whole lot else has changed. I found that the old service road "trail" was as potentially confusing as the road was back in the day when it split the trails into the Inner and Outer loops. That all changed when Karmen Woelber rerouted and added some bits along either side of that service road. Old timers would know what is original and what isn't. I noticed that the rocks are more prominent than ever. It used to be rare that you saw rocks out there. Can you believe that?

I spotted this deer down on the opposite shore of the Cedar River from my little "outlook" I visit when I ride at Ingawanis.

There were lots of deer around. Young ones. I scared up three right away, then another couple later on. When I didn't clean a steep climb trying to use too tall a gear, I stopped and heard several noises in the woods that indicated the wildlife was busy. Squirrels, deer, birds, and more were afoot in the underbrush and flying above me. I even saw a fox.

I stopped in the part of the trail system they call "The Bottoms". Such a travesty that this section is not named for the guy who tirelessly worked to maintain both sides of the Camp Ingawanis trails and put that section in. At least call it by his name. But no. It's "The Bottoms". Well, I call it "Paul's Loop".

Looking up the Cedar towards the Boy Scout Camp. Those ripples in the water are marking the confluence of the Quarter Section Creek with the Cedar.

Looking downstream on the Cedar River from my little "outlook".

As I came out of Paul's Loop I ran across another confusing bit of trail that ended up just being a cutoff so you wouldn't have to do the steep climb back out. Lame. But not unprecedented. Whenever riders find something too tough or difficult, or even mildly annoying, they cut it off and "sanitize" the trail.

Peek-a-Boo! I see you!

To the right here is the rocky, tough little bit. To The left- easy street. You can see which one gets used most.

To be fair, there is a lot less sanitization than I feared there would be, but it is creeping in. You can see little bits and places where folks are rounding off sharper bends, avoiding the rocks, or lensing out corners.

The service road trail is weird. Why have that? It's confusing when you don't know the trails. And good luck knowing where you are at if you are new here. The sign posts don't help you at all. To me, it doesn't matter. Even though I haven't ridden out there in a long time, I know right where I am at at all times. But I have over a decade of experience running around out there to bank off of. New folks? Not so much.

I'd heard that a straight shot up a hillside had been turned into switchbacks to help maintain the soil and trail. This was excellent. I was stoked on the new bit for sure, and later on that my favorite old switchback turn was still mown and ride-able. However; some new bit going straight from Quarter Section Creek right up the steep hillside has been put in and that seems incongruous with making trails sustainable. You put in one awesome upgrade and took it right back to zero with a stupid fall line section of single track? I'll say it again- Stupid move.

Ingawanis is still awesome and the best place to ride single track around. Don't get me wrong. I love it. But that new bit I found late into my ride made me dismayed. It's things like that which can end up just making a trail system goofy. Especially when it was a totally unnecessary move. That distance could be better traversed using the original trail, but whatever.....

Before anyone here pulls the "Why don't you get involved in trail maintenance" card, let me just say that all previous attempts I have made to lend a hand have been rebuffed but for the one time I showed up unannounced while maintenance was happening one day. In fact, I have been mocked on social media and put down for my views on how these trails could be more user friendly before. So, yeah. It isn't like I haven't tried. I'll just leave it to the powers that be. Nuff said........

So, anyway.... I thoroughly enjoyed my ride Wednesday and the trails were awesome. I'll have to come up a little more often now that my gravel appetite has been satiated for a while.

 

Singletrack Therapy

It was darn near perfect for riding in the woods on Wednesday

On my day off I did something I haven't done in a long, long time. I rode at Ingawanis Woodlands.

It's been more than months, it has been over a year since I last went to the single track trails of Ingawanis and enjoyed the woods. Before that last time, it was nearly a year that I had ridden there. So, what's the deal? Why the hiatus?

Well, when I was writing and running the "Twenty Nine Inches" website, I had to ride up there. All the time. It was the best place within reason to go and test product. Almost no Wednesday went by without me riding the trails up there during riding season. This was probably from about 2007 until the Fall of 2014 when I wound things down with my gig at "Twenty Nine Inches". So, for a solid seven years, I sacrificed doing any other sort of riding but single track, for the most part.

I missed going out on long gravel road explorations. I decided to instigate the 3GR, which happened on Saturday mornings, to scratch that itch, and that helped, but I wanted more. So, when I was finally free from doing TNI stuff, I went whole hog into gravel riding with little else other than that. Now, I always tell my kids, "Too much of any one thing is not good for you.",  and that goes for me too.

Anybody out there remember "Captain Bob's Berm"? This is where it used to be.

So, I loaded up the Singular Buzzard, and despite the lingering effects of a nasty cold, I went up to Ingawanis Woodland to see what is up. The day was beautiful. Nary a breeze, puffy clouds, and upper 70's for temperature. In a word- perfect. 

Now I haven't been up there for a while, as I said, so when I pulled in to the formerly grassy lot, I noticed several things that are not the same anymore. The mostly dirt lot being one. Obviously, the usage factor has multiplied by several times since I used to ride up there. You used to see a whole month's worth of sign in's on the kiosk whiteboard. Now it looks like a green smudged mess! There were new signs up. I noted that the old service road was mown and there was single track running up the center of the former two-track road. Hmm..... I wondered what else had changed around here.......

I've always called this "The Throne Of The Woodland King", but I'm probably the only one that ever has. 

Well, fortunately not a whole lot else has changed. I found that the old service road "trail" was as potentially confusing as the road was back in the day when it split the trails into the Inner and Outer loops. That all changed when Karmen Woelber rerouted and added some bits along either side of that service road. Old timers would know what is original and what isn't. I noticed that the rocks are more prominent than ever. It used to be rare that you saw rocks out there. Can you believe that?

I spotted this deer down on the opposite shore of the Cedar River from my little "outlook" I visit when I ride at Ingawanis.

There were lots of deer around. Young ones. I scared up three right away, then another couple later on. When I didn't clean a steep climb trying to use too tall a gear, I stopped and heard several noises in the woods that indicated the wildlife was busy. Squirrels, deer, birds, and more were afoot in the underbrush and flying above me. I even saw a fox.

I stopped in the part of the trail system they call "The Bottoms". Such a travesty that this section is not named for the guy who tirelessly worked to maintain both sides of the Camp Ingawanis trails and put that section in. At least call it by his name. But no. It's "The Bottoms". Well, I call it "Paul's Loop".

Looking up the Cedar towards the Boy Scout Camp. Those ripples in the water are marking the confluence of the Quarter Section Creek with the Cedar.

Looking downstream on the Cedar River from my little "outlook".

As I came out of Paul's Loop I ran across another confusing bit of trail that ended up just being a cutoff so you wouldn't have to do the steep climb back out. Lame. But not unprecedented. Whenever riders find something too tough or difficult, or even mildly annoying, they cut it off and "sanitize" the trail.

Peek-a-Boo! I see you!

To the right here is the rocky, tough little bit. To The left- easy street. You can see which one gets used most.

To be fair, there is a lot less sanitization than I feared there would be, but it is creeping in. You can see little bits and places where folks are rounding off sharper bends, avoiding the rocks, or lensing out corners.

The service road trail is weird. Why have that? It's confusing when you don't know the trails. And good luck knowing where you are at if you are new here. The sign posts don't help you at all. To me, it doesn't matter. Even though I haven't ridden out there in a long time, I know right where I am at at all times. But I have over a decade of experience running around out there to bank off of. New folks? Not so much.

I'd heard that a straight shot up a hillside had been turned into switchbacks to help maintain the soil and trail. This was excellent. I was stoked on the new bit for sure, and later on that my favorite old switchback turn was still mown and ride-able. However; some new bit going straight from Quarter Section Creek right up the steep hillside has been put in and that seems incongruous with making trails sustainable. You put in one awesome upgrade and took it right back to zero with a stupid fall line section of single track? I'll say it again- Stupid move.

Ingawanis is still awesome and the best place to ride single track around. Don't get me wrong. I love it. But that new bit I found late into my ride made me dismayed. It's things like that which can end up just making a trail system goofy. Especially when it was a totally unnecessary move. That distance could be better traversed using the original trail, but whatever.....

Before anyone here pulls the "Why don't you get involved in trail maintenance" card, let me just say that all previous attempts I have made to lend a hand have been rebuffed but for the one time I showed up unannounced while maintenance was happening one day. In fact, I have been mocked on social media and put down for my views on how these trails could be more user friendly before. So, yeah. It isn't like I haven't tried. I'll just leave it to the powers that be. Nuff said........

So, anyway.... I thoroughly enjoyed my ride Wednesday and the trails were awesome. I'll have to come up a little more often now that my gravel appetite has been satiated for a while.

 

Minus Ten Review- 22

Stopped by a train. A theme that has been repeated a lot ten years later!

On the blog ten years ago I had a ride report from Lebanon Hills up in the Twin Cities. I'm not sure 100%, but I believe it was my first rodeo up there after hearing reams about it from Jason Boucher and Brent Gale of Twin Six. It was all they had said and more.

I was smitten by how the local trails organization, MORC, had made the trails so fun, challenging, easy to navigate, and clear. Totally unlike what we had here, (and to a great degree, it still is unlike what we have here), for soft trails. I told anyone that would listen after I got back to the W'loo/CF area that MORC and later on I would mention THOR, which runs trails in Nebraska, were models for what we should have at Ingawanis Woodlands and for the soft trails in the area here. But I guess I didn't have a clue, judging from the responses I got ten years ago and since then.

I also reported on a ride I did in the area where I got stopped by a train coming back into town after riding some gravel roads. Hmmm........ Ten years later, I am still getting stopped by trains. Many folks may not know this, but Waterloo is a railroad town. It gets a lot of publicity from having been the town where John Deere and from its history in meat packing with the shuttered Rath Packing. But before those companies got their roots laid down in Waterloo, the railroad was already here and Waterloo was a hub for the industry in Iowa along with several other cities. Some of those cities have lost the railroad industry, but not Waterloo. Therefore; we have a lot of freight trains switched out here, and a lot of rail traffic. Thus the crossings and chances to get stopped.

Some things haven't changed in ten years of writing this blog.  

Minus Ten Review- 22

Stopped by a train. A theme that has been repeated a lot ten years later!

On the blog ten years ago I had a ride report from Lebanon Hills up in the Twin Cities. I'm not sure 100%, but I believe it was my first rodeo up there after hearing reams about it from Jason Boucher and Brent Gale of Twin Six. It was all they had said and more.

I was smitten by how the local trails organization, MORC, had made the trails so fun, challenging, easy to navigate, and clear. Totally unlike what we had here, (and to a great degree, it still is unlike what we have here), for soft trails. I told anyone that would listen after I got back to the W'loo/CF area that MORC and later on I would mention THOR, which runs trails in Nebraska, were models for what we should have at Ingawanis Woodlands and for the soft trails in the area here. But I guess I didn't have a clue, judging from the responses I got ten years ago and since then.

I also reported on a ride I did in the area where I got stopped by a train coming back into town after riding some gravel roads. Hmmm........ Ten years later, I am still getting stopped by trains. Many folks may not know this, but Waterloo is a railroad town. It gets a lot of publicity from having been the town where John Deere and from its history in meat packing with the shuttered Rath Packing. But before those companies got their roots laid down in Waterloo, the railroad was already here and Waterloo was a hub for the industry in Iowa along with several other cities. Some of those cities have lost the railroad industry, but not Waterloo. Therefore; we have a lot of freight trains switched out here, and a lot of rail traffic. Thus the crossings and chances to get stopped.

Some things haven't changed in ten years of writing this blog.  

Dirt Home From Work

Brown ribbon of goodness.

Once in a while I'll get the itch to take a mountain bike off road, and many times I scratch that itch by commuting to work, then I do a "Dirt Home From Work" route.

I have whittled down the mountain bike side of the stable to one suspended hard tail with gears, a single speed with no suspension fork, and a front suspended single speed. I have platform pedals on the Singular Buzzard, so that is the bike I take to work most often.

Interestingly, the way I set up the wheels back a few years ago was weird.......then. Now it is becoming something that might be a lot more familiar in the coming years. Not "plus" sized, but not "normal 29"er sized either. I did mine by way of a little trickery. I used a really wide rim and some of the bigger volume 29"er tires around at the time.

The thing I was after was volume, but without the vagueness. Wider rims support sidewalls better, and with the really wide Duallys, I got max width out of a 2.35" and 2.4" tire. Now the back measures 2.45" and the front measures 2.5" wide. I can also run those tires down under 20psi with no worries about squirming or vagueness in handling. That's the goal of the new move to 2.5"-2.8" tires coming out now.They are big enough to translate the traction benefits without the issues with vagueness in cornering. But I could go on and on about that.....

The point is I got on a mountain bike. First time in a while too. I would assess the ride as being fun, but I sure am rusty! I need to get in a few more of these "Dirt Home From Work" rides and then hit up Ingawanis Woodlands for the real thing.

Dirt Home From Work

Brown ribbon of goodness.

Once in a while I'll get the itch to take a mountain bike off road, and many times I scratch that itch by commuting to work, then I do a "Dirt Home From Work" route.

I have whittled down the mountain bike side of the stable to one suspended hard tail with gears, a single speed with no suspension fork, and a front suspended single speed. I have platform pedals on the Singular Buzzard, so that is the bike I take to work most often.

Interestingly, the way I set up the wheels back a few years ago was weird.......then. Now it is becoming something that might be a lot more familiar in the coming years. Not "plus" sized, but not "normal 29"er sized either. I did mine by way of a little trickery. I used a really wide rim and some of the bigger volume 29"er tires around at the time.

The thing I was after was volume, but without the vagueness. Wider rims support sidewalls better, and with the really wide Duallys, I got max width out of a 2.35" and 2.4" tire. Now the back measures 2.45" and the front measures 2.5" wide. I can also run those tires down under 20psi with no worries about squirming or vagueness in handling. That's the goal of the new move to 2.5"-2.8" tires coming out now.They are big enough to translate the traction benefits without the issues with vagueness in cornering. But I could go on and on about that.....

The point is I got on a mountain bike. First time in a while too. I would assess the ride as being fun, but I sure am rusty! I need to get in a few more of these "Dirt Home From Work" rides and then hit up Ingawanis Woodlands for the real thing.

Minus Ten Review- 46

Can you believe this was Ingawanis Woodlands?

Ten years ago on the blog I wrote about my experience at what is now Ingawanis Woodlands with Mike Reimer and Jason Boucher then both of Salsa Cycles. I wrote last week that it was the "second big honor" of that week back then. It was only second because of the time when it occurred, not because it was in some way less than the other thing.

Anyway, check out this image. Those of you who now ride Ingawanis Woodlands may not recognize this at all. This was a service road that ran near to the perimeter of the parcel of land which then was known as the South Side of Camp Ingawanis, and before that, it was the Girl Scouts of America camp portion of Camp Ingawanis.

All that is left of this service road is a portion that runs straight back off of the gravel road to the South end of the property. However; ten years ago, the trails crossed this road at four different points along the way. If you really pay attention, you can see where this was yet today. However; I am willing to bet that unless you've been riding there since before the big logging days, you won't know about this road, which is now choked off with underbrush.

Speaking of the "big logging days", when a company came in and took tons of trees out of both sides of Ingawanis, you also probably didn't get to ride out there when the canopy of trees was such that you were in darkness nearly 2/3rds of the time you were riding out there. I can remember one particular ride when I was out there riding as it was raining. The tree cover was so thick that I never got wet, and the trail, for the most part, stayed completely dry. You couldn't get that ride in today. You'd get soaked. So many trees were logged off, and others lost in various wind storms since then.

The '07 Mamasita from Salsa Cycles.

So, back to that ride ten years ago. That was the day that a lucky few of us got to experience the Mamasita. This was the end of what I would call the first generation of 29"er geometry and development. It was the extreme example of the cycling industries use of then current day technology in an effort to get 29"ers to "handle like 26"ers.

For instance, it was understood that the trail measurement of the front end of 29"ers needed to be "shorter" in order to get "quicker" (unstable) handling like 26"ers had. The only way to do that in 2006 was to steepen the head angle of the frame. Fork offset was "frozen" by years of dogged adherence to "NORBA geometry" for 26"ers at 38mm. Every fork manufacturer used this offset. There were no other choices. So, Salsa decided to steepen the head angle to compensate on the first Mamsitas to a whopping 73° degrees! It worked in one way. However; it made it so that the Reba suspension fork wanted to bend backward, instead of slide on its bushings and compress. The head angle was too steep.

Trek/Gary Fisher working with Fox effectively ended this nonsense the following year when the first Fox 29"er forks came out with a generous 51mm of offset for 29"ers and 46mm of offset for 26'ers. The fork crown forgings now existed to give designers more ways to utilize a better combination of offset, head angle, and wheel size to give us the "slack/long" geometries we see today on trail bikes. 29"ers brought this to reality.

That was quite a ride back in '06, and looking back on it, it was first and foremost a beginning of new friendships. It was secondly a moment in mountain biking history that I got to taste and see. Thirdly, it marked the beginnings of the riding in Ingawanis Woodlands on a regular basis and was a time that cannot again be repeated due to the changes out there.

Minus Ten Review- 46

Can you believe this was Ingawanis Woodlands?

Ten years ago on the blog I wrote about my experience at what is now Ingawanis Woodlands with Mike Reimer and Jason Boucher then both of Salsa Cycles. I wrote last week that it was the "second big honor" of that week back then. It was only second because of the time when it occurred, not because it was in some way less than the other thing.

Anyway, check out this image. Those of you who now ride Ingawanis Woodlands may not recognize this at all. This was a service road that ran near to the perimeter of the parcel of land which then was known as the South Side of Camp Ingawanis, and before that, it was the Girl Scouts of America camp portion of Camp Ingawanis.

All that is left of this service road is a portion that runs straight back off of the gravel road to the South end of the property. However; ten years ago, the trails crossed this road at four different points along the way. If you really pay attention, you can see where this was yet today. However; I am willing to bet that unless you've been riding there since before the big logging days, you won't know about this road, which is now choked off with underbrush.

Speaking of the "big logging days", when a company came in and took tons of trees out of both sides of Ingawanis, you also probably didn't get to ride out there when the canopy of trees was such that you were in darkness nearly 2/3rds of the time you were riding out there. I can remember one particular ride when I was out there riding as it was raining. The tree cover was so thick that I never got wet, and the trail, for the most part, stayed completely dry. You couldn't get that ride in today. You'd get soaked. So many trees were logged off, and others lost in various wind storms since then.

The '07 Mamasita from Salsa Cycles.

So, back to that ride ten years ago. That was the day that a lucky few of us got to experience the Mamasita. This was the end of what I would call the first generation of 29"er geometry and development. It was the extreme example of the cycling industries use of then current day technology in an effort to get 29"ers to "handle like 26"ers.

For instance, it was understood that the trail measurement of the front end of 29"ers needed to be "shorter" in order to get "quicker" (unstable) handling like 26"ers had. The only way to do that in 2006 was to steepen the head angle of the frame. Fork offset was "frozen" by years of dogged adherence to "NORBA geometry" for 26"ers at 38mm. Every fork manufacturer used this offset. There were no other choices. So, Salsa decided to steepen the head angle to compensate on the first Mamsitas to a whopping 73° degrees! It worked in one way. However; it made it so that the Reba suspension fork wanted to bend backward, instead of slide on its bushings and compress. The head angle was too steep.

Trek/Gary Fisher working with Fox effectively ended this nonsense the following year when the first Fox 29"er forks came out with a generous 51mm of offset for 29"ers and 46mm of offset for 26'ers. The fork crown forgings now existed to give designers more ways to utilize a better combination of offset, head angle, and wheel size to give us the "slack/long" geometries we see today on trail bikes. 29"ers brought this to reality.

That was quite a ride back in '06, and looking back on it, it was first and foremost a beginning of new friendships. It was secondly a moment in mountain biking history that I got to taste and see. Thirdly, it marked the beginnings of the riding in Ingawanis Woodlands on a regular basis and was a time that cannot again be repeated due to the changes out there.

Friday News And Views

From last week's Fargo Reunion Ride

Turn The Clocks Back:

This Saturady night we "fall back" an hour to Standard Time from Daylight Savings Time. Don't forget to set those clocks back an hour.

In terms of the season, the time is running short to get things in this year. The Fargo Reunion Ride a week ago now was my last big, planned ride of the season. Now I just have to figure out where I stand in regard to my Cup-O-Dirt standings and see what it is I have to do to get that taken care of. I can make it work by doing three more 100 mile each rides. That wouldn't be tough to do but for finding the time, as each would be a day shot just riding bikes and recovering. I have several "metric" centuries, but I need 12 of those and I think I would need to do six more to get it done that way. I'm thinking three centuries are an easier goal at this point!

Anyway, there are no "planned" rides anymore this season/year. Everything from here on out will be mostly just for the fun of it or a stab at the Cup-O-Dirt deal. I'll likely have a review of my "season", such as it was, coming up in December when I do my 2016 Rear View series, like I do every year on the blog. 

I'm probably bringing this up to show. Or maybe I'll bring........something else!!

Bikepacking/Endurance Seminar at Ingawanis Woodlands:

Before you go and set those clocks back, check out the Bikepacking/Endurance Seminar which will be held at Ingawanis Woodlands at the Eagle Lodge  at 4:00pm until about 7:00pm on Saturday afternoon/evening. Camping is encouraged, and I will be there along with a few others that will be yakking about set ups and techniques you can use to get better experiences while pursuing gravel events, bikepacking adventures, or for your own touring or cycling fun.

No entry fee, and all we are asking is that you bring some clean, 5 cent deposit empty cans to help bring some revenue for Bremer County Conservation. Make sure those are in bags, by the way. There will be chili and vittles. There will be a campfire and some talk. Check it out.

I probably will bring something more gravel oriented to talk about, but I haven't settled on what that will be 100% just yet.

Kitty-kitty!

 Country Views:

The occasional posts I was doing throughout the Summer dubbed "Country Views" was well received. As we get on into "Brown" season and then into "White" season, the interesting views will be fewer and further in between.

However; that doesn't mean that I don't- or won't- be seeing cool, interesting, or odd stuff. So, I think since it is getting so that entire posts of "Country Views" will be hard to do, I will save interesting bits and put them here in "Friday News And Views".

In that vein here is something that I had happen to me this past week. I was out on a gravel road ride when I came upon two cats in the road. Cats are a commonly seen animal out here, but they typically are shy and wary. They don't typically saunter down the middle of the road, as these two were doing. Initially I passed the pair by, and they seemed to not mind my prescence but were content to wander in the opposite direction. I stopped not long after seeing them to scrape some Levl B Road mud from my bike. The wheels were tossing bits of dirt off like an old time manure spreader.

Well, as I was busying myself with that, I heard the faint "meow" of a cat and then again, getting closer by the sounds of it. I turned my head in the general direction of the sound and here are the same two cats coming back to have a look-see. They didn't get real close, but within about ten feet, and then they sat down and watched me.

I am sure I was as unusual to them as they were to me. Cats just never have approached me on the gravel roads. Dogs? All day every day. Cats? They run the other direction, typically. So, that was another first for me, and my "Country View" for this post.

Have a great weekend and get out and ride those bicycles!

Friday News And Views

From last week's Fargo Reunion Ride

Turn The Clocks Back:

This Saturady night we "fall back" an hour to Standard Time from Daylight Savings Time. Don't forget to set those clocks back an hour.

In terms of the season, the time is running short to get things in this year. The Fargo Reunion Ride a week ago now was my last big, planned ride of the season. Now I just have to figure out where I stand in regard to my Cup-O-Dirt standings and see what it is I have to do to get that taken care of. I can make it work by doing three more 100 mile each rides. That wouldn't be tough to do but for finding the time, as each would be a day shot just riding bikes and recovering. I have several "metric" centuries, but I need 12 of those and I think I would need to do six more to get it done that way. I'm thinking three centuries are an easier goal at this point!

Anyway, there are no "planned" rides anymore this season/year. Everything from here on out will be mostly just for the fun of it or a stab at the Cup-O-Dirt deal. I'll likely have a review of my "season", such as it was, coming up in December when I do my 2016 Rear View series, like I do every year on the blog. 

I'm probably bringing this up to show. Or maybe I'll bring........something else!!

Bikepacking/Endurance Seminar at Ingawanis Woodlands:

Before you go and set those clocks back, check out the Bikepacking/Endurance Seminar which will be held at Ingawanis Woodlands at the Eagle Lodge  at 4:00pm until about 7:00pm on Saturday afternoon/evening. Camping is encouraged, and I will be there along with a few others that will be yakking about set ups and techniques you can use to get better experiences while pursuing gravel events, bikepacking adventures, or for your own touring or cycling fun.

No entry fee, and all we are asking is that you bring some clean, 5 cent deposit empty cans to help bring some revenue for Bremer County Conservation. Make sure those are in bags, by the way. There will be chili and vittles. There will be a campfire and some talk. Check it out.

I probably will bring something more gravel oriented to talk about, but I haven't settled on what that will be 100% just yet.

Kitty-kitty!

 Country Views:

The occasional posts I was doing throughout the Summer dubbed "Country Views" was well received. As we get on into "Brown" season and then into "White" season, the interesting views will be fewer and further in between.

However; that doesn't mean that I don't- or won't- be seeing cool, interesting, or odd stuff. So, I think since it is getting so that entire posts of "Country Views" will be hard to do, I will save interesting bits and put them here in "Friday News And Views".

In that vein here is something that I had happen to me this past week. I was out on a gravel road ride when I came upon two cats in the road. Cats are a commonly seen animal out here, but they typically are shy and wary. They don't typically saunter down the middle of the road, as these two were doing. Initially I passed the pair by, and they seemed to not mind my prescence but were content to wander in the opposite direction. I stopped not long after seeing them to scrape some Levl B Road mud from my bike. The wheels were tossing bits of dirt off like an old time manure spreader.

Well, as I was busying myself with that, I heard the faint "meow" of a cat and then again, getting closer by the sounds of it. I turned my head in the general direction of the sound and here are the same two cats coming back to have a look-see. They didn't get real close, but within about ten feet, and then they sat down and watched me.

I am sure I was as unusual to them as they were to me. Cats just never have approached me on the gravel roads. Dogs? All day every day. Cats? They run the other direction, typically. So, that was another first for me, and my "Country View" for this post.

Have a great weekend and get out and ride those bicycles!

Rear View 2015- Part 3

I PR'd my coldest commute ever in 2015

As detailed in my Rear View Part 1, the year started out bad in terms of health. I was so sick most of the time I hardly turned a pedal in January and February.

There were a few bright spots. One was when I felt good enough to ride and the air temperature was -17°F and I was not going to miss riding my bike just because it was so cold! Careful layering and riding the Blackborow DS kept me warm and safe. It wasn't so bad, really.

It may have, in the end, actually made me more susceptible to becoming sick again, as I ended up battling some malady or another after this as well. It had to rank as one of the worst starts to a year, in terms of cycling, that I have ever endured. Not since the mid-90's had I endured such dismal cycling opportunities due to ill health, weather, and other circumstances.

Of course, I eventually got all of that kicked and started riding more in earnest once the weather broke in March and after a final bout with some possible food poisoning when I was in El Paso, Texas visiting family. When I returned, gravel riding started and I pretty much stuck to that until much later into 2015.

There was a gravel ride to and from Ingawanis to attend a fund raiser/clinic on endurance riding which was fun. 

Dodging large agricultural implements on a 3GR ride in June.

I held a few 3GR rides in 2015, but they were few and far between due to my traveling schedule and for other reasons. It just never seemed to be something I could do on a regular basis in 2015. The rides I did get in were fun and well attended.

I was blessed by a visit from T.I.Vet, Warren Wiebe in July

I ended up doing a lot of solo gravel rides whenever I could find the time to fit them in. I also rode a lot more in different parts of Black Hawk and surrounding counties. Earlier in the year I did a couple longer rides up into Bremer County on unfamiliar roads. I spent a lot of time riding South on Aker Road and then over to the East at times off that road.

On a couple of occasions I rode West over to Grundy County which proved to yield a few good adventures. On one I found a Nalgene bottle knock off which I picked up and now I use that as my water container at work. On another ride later on into the Fall I went North through parts of Butler County and then into Bremer County and on back home through Cedar Falls. The new roads invigorated me and I had a lot of fun doing some different routes at my own pace.

There were a very few outings on the fat bike and those were almost all exclusively into the Green Belt with a couple of rides into George Wyth to bag a couple of new trails that I had heard of so I could keep up my string of having ridden every dirt trail in the park since 1992 that has ever been put in. Many are gone now, but I remember them and now I have the new ones to ride as well.

I got to ride with my co-worker at Europa Cycle and Ski, Andy, on our fat bikes and we dove into much of Geo Wyth that day along with some of the trails on the South side of the Cedar River as well. Oddly enough, I didn't ride any of my mountain bikes at all for most of the year. If it was dirt, I used the Blackborow DS almost exclusively with the Bluto suspension fork. Although Ingawanis is a lot of fun, and the trails were good most of the year, I just never seemed to get a day when I could get up there, or I chose to ride gravel instead.

I managed a couple of "Dirt Home From Work" rides on the ol' Inbred

I spent several weeks following my son's football team in the Fall.

This bike bedeviled me and caused me to start Project 1X1

I got to ride with another co-worker, Joel, for the first time this past Fall.

Yes- this was just about a month ago!

Now it is just dreary, wet, and cold!

The mountain bike thing got done at Ingawanis later in November, but even then I rode my Blackborow! Mountain bikes have been gathering dust, for the most part, in 2015. Maybe '16 will play out differently and those bikes will gather dirt, mud, and trail dust!

The Project 1X1 happened, I did a few Periscope broadcasts, and Trans Iowa registration came and went. Meanwhile, I kept rather busy riding gravel and doing reviews. test riding parts, and swapping out bits and pieces all the while.

I got some much needed house work stuff done after my last event for the year, which was Gravel Worlds in August. The Fall went on forever, and early Winter was unusually warm, and I kept riding all along. It's been a great year for that, barring the first three months or so, but the end is making up for the beginning for sure.

So, that about wraps up my Rear View for 2015 here. I hope you enjoyed stopping by and reading about my adventures, my opinions, and I also hope that some of this craziness was helpful to someone in some small way. I thank you all for stopping by.

Next up, I will ponder what 2016 may have in store, put out my thoughts on bikes, technology, and maybe a few plans on events for the coming season. Maybe more, we'll see what comes out of this addled brain! Stay tuned.......

Rear View 2015- Part 3

I PR'd my coldest commute ever in 2015

As detailed in my Rear View Part 1, the year started out bad in terms of health. I was so sick most of the time I hardly turned a pedal in January and February.

There were a few bright spots. One was when I felt good enough to ride and the air temperature was -17°F and I was not going to miss riding my bike just because it was so cold! Careful layering and riding the Blackborow DS kept me warm and safe. It wasn't so bad, really.

It may have, in the end, actually made me more susceptible to becoming sick again, as I ended up battling some malady or another after this as well. It had to rank as one of the worst starts to a year, in terms of cycling, that I have ever endured. Not since the mid-90's had I endured such dismal cycling opportunities due to ill health, weather, and other circumstances.

Of course, I eventually got all of that kicked and started riding more in earnest once the weather broke in March and after a final bout with some possible food poisoning when I was in El Paso, Texas visiting family. When I returned, gravel riding started and I pretty much stuck to that until much later into 2015.

There was a gravel ride to and from Ingawanis to attend a fund raiser/clinic on endurance riding which was fun. 

Dodging large agricultural implements on a 3GR ride in June.

I held a few 3GR rides in 2015, but they were few and far between due to my traveling schedule and for other reasons. It just never seemed to be something I could do on a regular basis in 2015. The rides I did get in were fun and well attended.

I was blessed by a visit from T.I.Vet, Warren Wiebe in July

I ended up doing a lot of solo gravel rides whenever I could find the time to fit them in. I also rode a lot more in different parts of Black Hawk and surrounding counties. Earlier in the year I did a couple longer rides up into Bremer County on unfamiliar roads. I spent a lot of time riding South on Aker Road and then over to the East at times off that road.

On a couple of occasions I rode West over to Grundy County which proved to yield a few good adventures. On one I found a Nalgene bottle knock off which I picked up and now I use that as my water container at work. On another ride later on into the Fall I went North through parts of Butler County and then into Bremer County and on back home through Cedar Falls. The new roads invigorated me and I had a lot of fun doing some different routes at my own pace.

There were a very few outings on the fat bike and those were almost all exclusively into the Green Belt with a couple of rides into George Wyth to bag a couple of new trails that I had heard of so I could keep up my string of having ridden every dirt trail in the park since 1992 that has ever been put in. Many are gone now, but I remember them and now I have the new ones to ride as well.

I got to ride with my co-worker at Europa Cycle and Ski, Andy, on our fat bikes and we dove into much of Geo Wyth that day along with some of the trails on the South side of the Cedar River as well. Oddly enough, I didn't ride any of my mountain bikes at all for most of the year. If it was dirt, I used the Blackborow DS almost exclusively with the Bluto suspension fork. Although Ingawanis is a lot of fun, and the trails were good most of the year, I just never seemed to get a day when I could get up there, or I chose to ride gravel instead.

I managed a couple of "Dirt Home From Work" rides on the ol' Inbred

I spent several weeks following my son's football team in the Fall.

This bike bedeviled me and caused me to start Project 1X1

I got to ride with another co-worker, Joel, for the first time this past Fall.

Yes- this was just about a month ago!

Now it is just dreary, wet, and cold!

The mountain bike thing got done at Ingawanis later in November, but even then I rode my Blackborow! Mountain bikes have been gathering dust, for the most part, in 2015. Maybe '16 will play out differently and those bikes will gather dirt, mud, and trail dust!

The Project 1X1 happened, I did a few Periscope broadcasts, and Trans Iowa registration came and went. Meanwhile, I kept rather busy riding gravel and doing reviews. test riding parts, and swapping out bits and pieces all the while.

I got some much needed house work stuff done after my last event for the year, which was Gravel Worlds in August. The Fall went on forever, and early Winter was unusually warm, and I kept riding all along. It's been a great year for that, barring the first three months or so, but the end is making up for the beginning for sure.

So, that about wraps up my Rear View for 2015 here. I hope you enjoyed stopping by and reading about my adventures, my opinions, and I also hope that some of this craziness was helpful to someone in some small way. I thank you all for stopping by.

Next up, I will ponder what 2016 may have in store, put out my thoughts on bikes, technology, and maybe a few plans on events for the coming season. Maybe more, we'll see what comes out of this addled brain! Stay tuned.......