Friday News And Views

Once unobtanium- now reality

Niner Bikes Releases The MCR 9 Gravel FS Bike: 

Perhaps the most controversial and wildest "gravel bike" ever seen has now made it through production and is available from Niner Bikes.

Dubbed the "Magic Carpet Ride 9" (MCR 9), this bike features Niner's CVA rear suspension in a short 50mm version. It is mated here with a Fox AX fork with a travel rating of 40mm.

It retails in the "5 Star" build (SRAM AXS and high end bits) at an eye-watering 8G+. This then begs a LOT of questions.....

Cool bike and all, but: why not re-cycle an older, FS 29"er design and have a bit more travel, bigger tire clearances, and run a flat bar? Maybe a Jones bar set up? 

I can only think of one reason why and that would be a limitation to a MTB drive train. But.....if you were to go to, say a design from pre-2010? Say you had a Fisher Hi-Fi, which featured 80mm of travel, and geometry that is nothing like today's trail bikes. Well.....I just happen to know where one is, and there will be a project bike coming soon. Stay tuned.......

Gravel Expo/Bike Party 2020:

This deal N.Y. Roll and I have put on the last two years is going to happen again in 2020. The "Gravel Expo/Bike Party" was originally an idea to bring the gravel scene to the local riders in the Waterloo/Cedar Falls area. Out of this grew the "Monday No Drop Gravel Ride" which N.Y. Roll has hosted for two season now.

Year Two of the GE/BP brought our idea to feature Iowa gravel events. We brought in several folks and let them present their ideas for their gravel events. This proved to be very popular.

 The expo was not without issues, and logistically N.Y. Roll and I wrestled mightily with just how to manage demand, room space, and convenience for all concerned. This go-round we are going with a new idea. We are going to have multiple nights with visits from Race Directors and a little bit of information sharing. We have a new venue in the works for the expo, and we have a brand new sponsor for the events.

We're working on details now, but the general idea is that during the dead of Winter, (think mid-January to late January or early February). We are thinking either mid-week night or weekend, or a mix of both. Four sessions, as of now. Expect about 90 minutes for each.  Again, a lot of this is in flux. Stay tuned......

Signs of the "roadie invasion" from 2016 were easy to see if you paid attention

World Tour Pro Quits To Race Gravel:

Wednesday news broke on the web that World Tour Pro and American rider, Peter Stetina, had decided to quit the World Tour and focus on gravel events and endurance MTB events for 2020. 

Citing his excitement and a renewed passion for racing stemming from his racing in the Dirty Kanza 200 and Leadville 100 this year, Stetina is going to go it alone as a privateer racer for 2020.

Comments: This is a huge blow to the profile of road racing in the U.S. Add in that the Tour of California was cancelled for 2020, and one can make a strong argument that serious cracks are evident in the road racing scene in the US. In fact, the signs have been there for several years that something was amiss.

Younger riders have abandoned road racing here, and bicycling in general. So, the road scene was suffering from "aging out". Secondly, the gravel scene has cannibalized whatever was left. Several years ago now, (and I have mentioned this several times here on this blog), it was reported that USA Cycling (USAC) was losing revenue from licensing at an alarming pace. Many Continental and former road Pros took up gravel racing then. Riders like Ted King, who won the DK200 in 2016 (Image shown at left here)

USAC made some half-baked overtures to the gravel scene in the last few years, but now with the cancellation of the biggest road event on the continent, and with current Pro Tour riders looking hard at gravel, (you can bet Stetina isn't the only one), it would appear that the "red alert" has been issued by USAC as a rumor is floating around that they are asking many gravel event promoters and top athletes to meet in January. Furthermore; it has also been mentioned to me that the UCI, (Union Cycliste Internationale) is poking around and will aim to set up a series for Pro riders on gravel

Who are these people, if the rumors are true? My guess is that since Life Time wants to expand to six gravel events, and since they own the DK200, and since that single event is the most well known of the gravel events in North America, that Life Time and their gravel promotions folks are going to be at that table. Probably others as well, but certainly, you'd be nuts not to talk to Life Time if you are USAC/UCI.

This will certainly only be a North American phenomenon at first. The Euro folk are not at all interested in going this direction. It isn't hard to imagine that the "gravel road scene" could be a big deal for USAC, though.  It could have potential for possibly bringing their mission into a more relevant area of cycling than paved road riding.

Cheers folks! That's all for this week. Get out and ride those bicycles!


 

Friday News And Views

Once unobtanium- now reality

Niner Bikes Releases The MCR 9 Gravel FS Bike: 

Perhaps the most controversial and wildest "gravel bike" ever seen has now made it through production and is available from Niner Bikes.

Dubbed the "Magic Carpet Ride 9" (MCR 9), this bike features Niner's CVA rear suspension in a short 50mm version. It is mated here with a Fox AX fork with a travel rating of 40mm.

It retails in the "5 Star" build (SRAM AXS and high end bits) at an eye-watering 8G+. This then begs a LOT of questions.....

Cool bike and all, but: why not re-cycle an older, FS 29"er design and have a bit more travel, bigger tire clearances, and run a flat bar? Maybe a Jones bar set up? 

I can only think of one reason why and that would be a limitation to a MTB drive train. But.....if you were to go to, say a design from pre-2010? Say you had a Fisher Hi-Fi, which featured 80mm of travel, and geometry that is nothing like today's trail bikes. Well.....I just happen to know where one is, and there will be a project bike coming soon. Stay tuned.......

Gravel Expo/Bike Party 2020:

This deal N.Y. Roll and I have put on the last two years is going to happen again in 2020. The "Gravel Expo/Bike Party" was originally an idea to bring the gravel scene to the local riders in the Waterloo/Cedar Falls area. Out of this grew the "Monday No Drop Gravel Ride" which N.Y. Roll has hosted for two season now.

Year Two of the GE/BP brought our idea to feature Iowa gravel events. We brought in several folks and let them present their ideas for their gravel events. This proved to be very popular.

 The expo was not without issues, and logistically N.Y. Roll and I wrestled mightily with just how to manage demand, room space, and convenience for all concerned. This go-round we are going with a new idea. We are going to have multiple nights with visits from Race Directors and a little bit of information sharing. We have a new venue in the works for the expo, and we have a brand new sponsor for the events.

We're working on details now, but the general idea is that during the dead of Winter, (think mid-January to late January or early February). We are thinking either mid-week night or weekend, or a mix of both. Four sessions, as of now. Expect about 90 minutes for each.  Again, a lot of this is in flux. Stay tuned......

Signs of the "roadie invasion" from 2016 were easy to see if you paid attention

World Tour Pro Quits To Race Gravel:

Wednesday news broke on the web that World Tour Pro and American rider, Peter Stetina, had decided to quit the World Tour and focus on gravel events and endurance MTB events for 2020. 

Citing his excitement and a renewed passion for racing stemming from his racing in the Dirty Kanza 200 and Leadville 100 this year, Stetina is going to go it alone as a privateer racer for 2020.

Comments: This is a huge blow to the profile of road racing in the U.S. Add in that the Tour of California was cancelled for 2020, and one can make a strong argument that serious cracks are evident in the road racing scene in the US. In fact, the signs have been there for several years that something was amiss.

Younger riders have abandoned road racing here, and bicycling in general. So, the road scene was suffering from "aging out". Secondly, the gravel scene has cannibalized whatever was left. Several years ago now, (and I have mentioned this several times here on this blog), it was reported that USA Cycling (USAC) was losing revenue from licensing at an alarming pace. Many Continental and former road Pros took up gravel racing then. Riders like Ted King, who won the DK200 in 2016 (Image shown at left here)

USAC made some half-baked overtures to the gravel scene in the last few years, but now with the cancellation of the biggest road event on the continent, and with current Pro Tour riders looking hard at gravel, (you can bet Stetina isn't the only one), it would appear that the "red alert" has been issued by USAC as a rumor is floating around that they are asking many gravel event promoters and top athletes to meet in January. Furthermore; it has also been mentioned to me that the UCI, (Union Cycliste Internationale) is poking around and will aim to set up a series for Pro riders on gravel

Who are these people, if the rumors are true? My guess is that since Life Time wants to expand to six gravel events, and since they own the DK200, and since that single event is the most well known of the gravel events in North America, that Life Time and their gravel promotions folks are going to be at that table. Probably others as well, but certainly, you'd be nuts not to talk to Life Time if you are USAC/UCI.

This will certainly only be a North American phenomenon at first. The Euro folk are not at all interested in going this direction. It isn't hard to imagine that the "gravel road scene" could be a big deal for USAC, though.  It could have potential for possibly bringing their mission into a more relevant area of cycling than paved road riding.

Cheers folks! That's all for this week. Get out and ride those bicycles!


 

Iowa Gravel Expo/Bike Party v2 Report

Schwag table at the Iowa Gravel Expo/Bike Party

Last year N.Y.Roll and I put on what N.Y.Roll dubbed as the "Iowa Gravel Expo/Bike Party". I was asked to help promote and facilitate it as the speaker. Our focus was to bring a light to the gravel scene and shine that also on beginners, or what we sometimes call "gravel curious folk", who wonder about gravel riding and if it is for them.

I figured it was only going to attract a few locals. If we got 35 people, or so I thought, it would be considered a success. Now, I have to say that N.Y. Roll thought it would be much better attended than that and in the end, he was right. We had standing room only and something like 85+ people up there!

So, with such an attendance and enthusiastic response afterward, we planned on doing the Expo again the following year. This attendance issue brought N.Y. Roll and I a lot of concern, and we were constantly bouncing ideas off one another for months leading up to the next Expo. Possibilities such as having vendors, maybe some media, and of course, a bigger venue than we had for "Year One". However; in our efforts to keep the event local, we were met with several road blocks.

Things like parking, alcohol serving limitations, how to cater food, space costs, and location of venues all were huge roadblocks for our event as we had meager resources for such big plans. To be sure, Cedar Valley Cyclists and Europa Cycle & Ski, both financial supporters in our efforts, plus our first year and eventual second year host, Doughy Joey's Peetza Joynt, are to be commended for stepping up to the plate and helping us. Without them, nothing would have happened, but the resources we had, as wonderful as they were, didn't have the horsepower to launch the event to the levels we were thinking.

Attendees were treated to free Doughy Joey's Peetza courtesy of our sponsors.

In the end, the attendance issue really became our perceived biggest problem and the one that kind of has pushed us toward a new idea for this event going forward. That will be discussed later. The end result was that we came up with the idea to have two sessions and to kind of corral people into choosing one or the other to attend and we ran with that. This allowed us to use the same venue and its benefits. It ended up working out really well with comfortable amounts of room for everyone in both sessions. Had we run one session as we did our first year, the room wouldn't have held everyone that attended this year. Blame that on fire codes. It is what it is.

So, we had eleven presenters, some from first time events, and all are Iowa based events. We had BikeIowa.com, one of our sponsors, who sell the Pogie Lites I reviewed, and have a great calendar of Iowa based gravel events on their site as well. We also had a great presentation by Andrea Cohen of the Gravel Scouts. Both sessions were well received by attendees and everything went pretty smoothly. We had some nice schwag handouts with cool stickers, chain lube samples from DuMonde Tech, and slap koozies from Bike Iowa.

Doughy Joey's staff kept the pies coming and the beer flowing and accomplished all that smoothly and unobtrusively. The venue was excellent in that way. I think we maybe could have used a small P.A., but that would have brought it's own issues and we would have had a different set of problems there since the upper room we used isn't sealed off from the remainder of the public space there. All in all, it was the best it could have been. N.Y. Roll and I are grateful to the staff and owners of Doughy Joey's for allowing us the opportunity to put the event on.

Dan from the Snaggy Ridge 105 telling us how the gravel based event has affected Tipton, Iowa.

The takeaways I gathered from this Expo were many. I learned more about how gravel cycling events are benefiting small towns like Tipton, Alden, and Lynville, Iowa. I learned how initiatives to promote healthy living are affecting people in Grinnell, the Iowa City area, and Alden Iowa and this from gravel based events and organizations. I saw event directors with a lot of experience rubbing shoulders with inexperienced directors and LOTS of shared information was dispersed during the Expo. We also hosted Mark Wyatt of the Iowa Bicycle Coalition, and his ideas along with those of Scott Sumpter of Bike Iowa are going to help shape what the Expo will become in the future.

Which brings me back to the point I alluded to earlier. The point about attendance. On one hand, we cannot really facilitate more people using the venue we have used. It is limited and we understand that. The event has potential to help more cyclists and event directors. It has the potential to help civic organizations and local governments to promote rural Iowa. The event has growth potential in terms of businesses involved in cycling and gravel cycling in particular. The potential is not going to be realized where we are now, so things must change to get this event where it has the potential to go.

What will that look like? Well, I cannot say for certain. We heard a lot of ideas, and there has to be more people brought into this to help guide the future of the Iowa Gravel Expo. One thing is for sure, maybe two- That is that Waterloo/Cedar Falls is probably not where the event will end up, although there is one idea floated out there which would make the event "multi-centered", so to speak. The other thing is that N.Y. Roll's and my guidance in this event is not enough, and has the distinct possibility of ending. It's something that has to be on the table for this idea to grow, and in my opinion, the idea is too good to be limited by my and N.Y. Roll's limited resources.

In the meantime, what N.Y. Roll and I have started is a success. We think, and many others do as well, that it is an awesome concept that has great potential. I know that I will be involved in the short term, at the least, in where the event goes from this point.

THANK YOU: Sponsors- Europa Cycle & Ski, Cedar Valley Cyclists, Dave Roll, Riding Gravel, Bike Iowa, Doughy Joey's Peetza Joynt, Andrea Cohen/Gravel Scouts, Scott Sumpter/Pogie Lites, The Event Directors, DuMonde Tech, Mark Wyatt/Iowa Bicycle Coalition, and most importantly- all the attendees who came to learn more about Iowa based gravel events!

Iowa Gravel Expo/Bike Party v2 Report

Schwag table at the Iowa Gravel Expo/Bike Party

Last year N.Y.Roll and I put on what N.Y.Roll dubbed as the "Iowa Gravel Expo/Bike Party". I was asked to help promote and facilitate it as the speaker. Our focus was to bring a light to the gravel scene and shine that also on beginners, or what we sometimes call "gravel curious folk", who wonder about gravel riding and if it is for them.

I figured it was only going to attract a few locals. If we got 35 people, or so I thought, it would be considered a success. Now, I have to say that N.Y. Roll thought it would be much better attended than that and in the end, he was right. We had standing room only and something like 85+ people up there!

So, with such an attendance and enthusiastic response afterward, we planned on doing the Expo again the following year. This attendance issue brought N.Y. Roll and I a lot of concern, and we were constantly bouncing ideas off one another for months leading up to the next Expo. Possibilities such as having vendors, maybe some media, and of course, a bigger venue than we had for "Year One". However; in our efforts to keep the event local, we were met with several road blocks.

Things like parking, alcohol serving limitations, how to cater food, space costs, and location of venues all were huge roadblocks for our event as we had meager resources for such big plans. To be sure, Cedar Valley Cyclists and Europa Cycle & Ski, both financial supporters in our efforts, plus our first year and eventual second year host, Doughy Joey's Peetza Joynt, are to be commended for stepping up to the plate and helping us. Without them, nothing would have happened, but the resources we had, as wonderful as they were, didn't have the horsepower to launch the event to the levels we were thinking.

Attendees were treated to free Doughy Joey's Peetza courtesy of our sponsors.

In the end, the attendance issue really became our perceived biggest problem and the one that kind of has pushed us toward a new idea for this event going forward. That will be discussed later. The end result was that we came up with the idea to have two sessions and to kind of corral people into choosing one or the other to attend and we ran with that. This allowed us to use the same venue and its benefits. It ended up working out really well with comfortable amounts of room for everyone in both sessions. Had we run one session as we did our first year, the room wouldn't have held everyone that attended this year. Blame that on fire codes. It is what it is.

So, we had eleven presenters, some from first time events, and all are Iowa based events. We had BikeIowa.com, one of our sponsors, who sell the Pogie Lites I reviewed, and have a great calendar of Iowa based gravel events on their site as well. We also had a great presentation by Andrea Cohen of the Gravel Scouts. Both sessions were well received by attendees and everything went pretty smoothly. We had some nice schwag handouts with cool stickers, chain lube samples from DuMonde Tech, and slap koozies from Bike Iowa.

Doughy Joey's staff kept the pies coming and the beer flowing and accomplished all that smoothly and unobtrusively. The venue was excellent in that way. I think we maybe could have used a small P.A., but that would have brought it's own issues and we would have had a different set of problems there since the upper room we used isn't sealed off from the remainder of the public space there. All in all, it was the best it could have been. N.Y. Roll and I are grateful to the staff and owners of Doughy Joey's for allowing us the opportunity to put the event on.

Dan from the Snaggy Ridge 105 telling us how the gravel based event has affected Tipton, Iowa.

The takeaways I gathered from this Expo were many. I learned more about how gravel cycling events are benefiting small towns like Tipton, Alden, and Lynville, Iowa. I learned how initiatives to promote healthy living are affecting people in Grinnell, the Iowa City area, and Alden Iowa and this from gravel based events and organizations. I saw event directors with a lot of experience rubbing shoulders with inexperienced directors and LOTS of shared information was dispersed during the Expo. We also hosted Mark Wyatt of the Iowa Bicycle Coalition, and his ideas along with those of Scott Sumpter of Bike Iowa are going to help shape what the Expo will become in the future.

Which brings me back to the point I alluded to earlier. The point about attendance. On one hand, we cannot really facilitate more people using the venue we have used. It is limited and we understand that. The event has potential to help more cyclists and event directors. It has the potential to help civic organizations and local governments to promote rural Iowa. The event has growth potential in terms of businesses involved in cycling and gravel cycling in particular. The potential is not going to be realized where we are now, so things must change to get this event where it has the potential to go.

What will that look like? Well, I cannot say for certain. We heard a lot of ideas, and there has to be more people brought into this to help guide the future of the Iowa Gravel Expo. One thing is for sure, maybe two- That is that Waterloo/Cedar Falls is probably not where the event will end up, although there is one idea floated out there which would make the event "multi-centered", so to speak. The other thing is that N.Y. Roll's and my guidance in this event is not enough, and has the distinct possibility of ending. It's something that has to be on the table for this idea to grow, and in my opinion, the idea is too good to be limited by my and N.Y. Roll's limited resources.

In the meantime, what N.Y. Roll and I have started is a success. We think, and many others do as well, that it is an awesome concept that has great potential. I know that I will be involved in the short term, at the least, in where the event goes from this point.

THANK YOU: Sponsors- Europa Cycle & Ski, Cedar Valley Cyclists, Dave Roll, Riding Gravel, Bike Iowa, Doughy Joey's Peetza Joynt, Andrea Cohen/Gravel Scouts, Scott Sumpter/Pogie Lites, The Event Directors, DuMonde Tech, Mark Wyatt/Iowa Bicycle Coalition, and most importantly- all the attendees who came to learn more about Iowa based gravel events!

Friday News And Views

Do you know what it means?

Fun Fact For The Day:

Since this popped into my inbox a few days ago, and the big SRAM component news dropped yesterday, I thought it might be fun to share a tidbit about SRAM.

First of all, having worked in bicycle shops for 20 years, I've heard all manner of mispronunciations of this brand's name. The most common of those being "shram". Note: There is no "sh" in SRAM. But my favorite one of all time is "S-Ram". Yep! I have no idea where that came from, but I do recall hearing it from more than one person. I suppose the fact that it is actually an amalgamation of the letters from the founder's names makes the moniker an odd one for us to figure out.

"SRAM" comes from the names of the founders, Scott, Ray, and Sam, with the "Ray" being the middle name of Stan Day, who just stepped down as SRAM's head honch after 31 years. So, now you know.

One thing I forgot to mention yesterday about the new stuff SRAM is showing and that was regarding the electronic Reverb dropper post. They are asking $800.00 for it. Really. ya know, I get that top drawer technology has high prices, but $800.00? Nope. Not happening. 

Another Bike Sees The Light Of Day:

Winter was melted last weekend, the trails are all icy, and so are the gravel roads. This is a tough time of year around the Cedar Valley. I usually spend a bunch of time resurrecting certain bikes that haven't gotten a lot of love in the previous riding season. Bikes like the On One Inbred single speed special. The "Limited" model, I believe. Limited to being a single speed. There are zero provisions for gears on this rig.

That's fine with me, of course, and I really do like this as a mountain bike. It's old school, second generation 29"er geometry suits me fine and works perfectly around here in our tight, twisty single track. It doesn't have a very slack head tube, and the bottom bracket isn't dumped very low on it. The chain stays are longer than what is fashionable these days too. But in my opinion, things have swung too far that way. Most present day mountain bikes are not very Mid-West friendly anymore.

So, the only thing I'd change here is the wheels. They are wheels like I described in a post on rims here a while back. Early-ish 29"er wheels with narrow rims. It's funny, because these are Sun-Ringle' wheels which were supposedly "All Mountain" wheels and the rims maybe are 28mm outer width. In other words, these are gravel bike wheels now! Oh yeah......all mountain. Anyone remember when that was a niche in trail bikes?

Same place, a year ago, we held the first Iowa Gravel Expo/Bike Party

Iowa Gravel Expo/Bike Party

Tomorrow starting at 1:30pm at Doughy Joey's in Cedar Falls, Iowa, I will be hosting the second Iowa Gravel Expo/Bike Party. along with N.Y. Roll.

Last year we were focused on rank beginner gravel riders. This year we are focusing on Iowa based gravel events. We have compiled a list of events and we have about 5-6 folks from various Iowa gravel events scheduled to speak at this expo. We hope that afterward folks will be enlightened as to where to go to enjoy gravel rides during the rest of 2019.

Last year we had one session which ended up being standing room only. So we developed a way to split the crowd into two sessions and each can be accessed only by obtaining a guest ticket (free, no purchase required) via Tikly, an online ticketing site. The evening session can be accessed here. The afternoon session access is here. You have to choose one or the other so we can get as many people as possible.

There will be free pizza provided until it runs out during each session. Attendees will be able to purchase beer and soft drinks at a bar located in the back of the upper room we will be holding forth at. There are still some spots left so don't delay and join us tomorrow at Doughy Joey's.

That's it for this week. have a fantastic weekend and get out for a ride!

Friday News And Views

Do you know what it means?

Fun Fact For The Day:

Since this popped into my inbox a few days ago, and the big SRAM component news dropped yesterday, I thought it might be fun to share a tidbit about SRAM.

First of all, having worked in bicycle shops for 20 years, I've heard all manner of mispronunciations of this brand's name. The most common of those being "shram". Note: There is no "sh" in SRAM. But my favorite one of all time is "S-Ram". Yep! I have no idea where that came from, but I do recall hearing it from more than one person. I suppose the fact that it is actually an amalgamation of the letters from the founder's names makes the moniker an odd one for us to figure out.

"SRAM" comes from the names of the founders, Scott, Ray, and Sam, with the "Ray" being the middle name of Stan Day, who just stepped down as SRAM's head honch after 31 years. So, now you know.

One thing I forgot to mention yesterday about the new stuff SRAM is showing and that was regarding the electronic Reverb dropper post. They are asking $800.00 for it. Really. ya know, I get that top drawer technology has high prices, but $800.00? Nope. Not happening. 

Another Bike Sees The Light Of Day:

Winter was melted last weekend, the trails are all icy, and so are the gravel roads. This is a tough time of year around the Cedar Valley. I usually spend a bunch of time resurrecting certain bikes that haven't gotten a lot of love in the previous riding season. Bikes like the On One Inbred single speed special. The "Limited" model, I believe. Limited to being a single speed. There are zero provisions for gears on this rig.

That's fine with me, of course, and I really do like this as a mountain bike. It's old school, second generation 29"er geometry suits me fine and works perfectly around here in our tight, twisty single track. It doesn't have a very slack head tube, and the bottom bracket isn't dumped very low on it. The chain stays are longer than what is fashionable these days too. But in my opinion, things have swung too far that way. Most present day mountain bikes are not very Mid-West friendly anymore.

So, the only thing I'd change here is the wheels. They are wheels like I described in a post on rims here a while back. Early-ish 29"er wheels with narrow rims. It's funny, because these are Sun-Ringle' wheels which were supposedly "All Mountain" wheels and the rims maybe are 28mm outer width. In other words, these are gravel bike wheels now! Oh yeah......all mountain. Anyone remember when that was a niche in trail bikes?

Same place, a year ago, we held the first Iowa Gravel Expo/Bike Party

Iowa Gravel Expo/Bike Party

Tomorrow starting at 1:30pm at Doughy Joey's in Cedar Falls, Iowa, I will be hosting the second Iowa Gravel Expo/Bike Party. along with N.Y. Roll.

Last year we were focused on rank beginner gravel riders. This year we are focusing on Iowa based gravel events. We have compiled a list of events and we have about 5-6 folks from various Iowa gravel events scheduled to speak at this expo. We hope that afterward folks will be enlightened as to where to go to enjoy gravel rides during the rest of 2019.

Last year we had one session which ended up being standing room only. So we developed a way to split the crowd into two sessions and each can be accessed only by obtaining a guest ticket (free, no purchase required) via Tikly, an online ticketing site. The evening session can be accessed here. The afternoon session access is here. You have to choose one or the other so we can get as many people as possible.

There will be free pizza provided until it runs out during each session. Attendees will be able to purchase beer and soft drinks at a bar located in the back of the upper room we will be holding forth at. There are still some spots left so don't delay and join us tomorrow at Doughy Joey's.

That's it for this week. have a fantastic weekend and get out for a ride!

Rear View '18- Iowa Gravel Expo/Bike Party

From the inaugural Iowa Expo/Bike Party. Image by Izabel Stevenson

Welcome to the Guitar Ted Productions Rear View for 2018. This time I'm doing things a bit differently with this series. I am pulling images that were illustrative of important moments in 2018 and writing a bit of a story about those. Hope that you enjoy the looking back.

Iowa Gravel Expo/Bike Party:

Back in January I had some snow to ride on but the big event for the month was the inaugural Iowa Gravel expo/Bike Party, an event partly cooked up by N.Y. Roll and sponsored by Riding Gravel and the shop where I work.

I was thinking that it would be something geared toward the beginner gravel cyclist and that's how we promoted it. I figured we would be really lucky to get 35 people to attend in the upper room of Doughy Joey's Peetza Joynt in Cedar Falls, Iowa. N.Y. Roll had a feeling all along that it would pull more folks than that. We kind of had a friendly banter about this all the way up to and during the event itself. I kept saying we wouldn't have very many people, and he kept saying we would.

Just before we were to begin, N.Y. Roll and I made a friendly wager that was an "over-under" bet. I took less than 50 people, he took the over. As people streamed in, he leaned over and said, "That's 50 right there!", and I just smiled. In the end, I think we had something over 80 odd folks attend, and the event was deemed a big success. I was blown away most by how far people had come to attend. One gentleman, Gene, was driving through on his way from Michigan back to Northwest Iowa and stopped to attend. We had folks from Cedar Rapids and Des Moines attending, and of course, a bunch of locals.

Talking to gravel grinders about gravel grindin'. Image by Izabel Stevenson

Well, we're doing it again this coming year, only it will be February 9th, same place, but in two sessions to accommodate more folks. Tickets (free) will be available so we can even up attendance at both sessions. This year the focus will be on Iowa Gravel based events.

Rear View '18- Iowa Gravel Expo/Bike Party

From the inaugural Iowa Expo/Bike Party. Image by Izabel Stevenson

Welcome to the Guitar Ted Productions Rear View for 2018. This time I'm doing things a bit differently with this series. I am pulling images that were illustrative of important moments in 2018 and writing a bit of a story about those. Hope that you enjoy the looking back.

Iowa Gravel Expo/Bike Party:

Back in January I had some snow to ride on but the big event for the month was the inaugural Iowa Gravel expo/Bike Party, an event partly cooked up by N.Y. Roll and sponsored by Riding Gravel and the shop where I work.

I was thinking that it would be something geared toward the beginner gravel cyclist and that's how we promoted it. I figured we would be really lucky to get 35 people to attend in the upper room of Doughy Joey's Peetza Joynt in Cedar Falls, Iowa. N.Y. Roll had a feeling all along that it would pull more folks than that. We kind of had a friendly banter about this all the way up to and during the event itself. I kept saying we wouldn't have very many people, and he kept saying we would.

Just before we were to begin, N.Y. Roll and I made a friendly wager that was an "over-under" bet. I took less than 50 people, he took the over. As people streamed in, he leaned over and said, "That's 50 right there!", and I just smiled. In the end, I think we had something over 80 odd folks attend, and the event was deemed a big success. I was blown away most by how far people had come to attend. One gentleman, Gene, was driving through on his way from Michigan back to Northwest Iowa and stopped to attend. We had folks from Cedar Rapids and Des Moines attending, and of course, a bunch of locals.

Talking to gravel grinders about gravel grindin'. Image by Izabel Stevenson

Well, we're doing it again this coming year, only it will be February 9th, same place, but in two sessions to accommodate more folks. Tickets (free) will be available so we can even up attendance at both sessions. This year the focus will be on Iowa Gravel based events.

Iowa Gravel Expo/Bike Party 2019

The Iowa Gravel Expo/Bike Party 2019 sponsored by RidingGravel.com will happen on February 9th, 2019 at Doughy Joey's, upstairs in the party room, in Cedar Falls, Ia. This is the same venue we used last year.

Finer details will be determined later, but put this on your calendar now if you are interested.

The date happens to coincide with the Iowa Games Fat Bike Race which will be held earlier in the day in Cedar Falls at George Wyth State Park. Come race your fat bike, or watch the event, and then hit Doughy Joey's for some drinks and grub while we gab about all things gravel. The agenda will include, but may not be limited to, the following topics:

• Iowa Based Gravel Events: If you have a gravel event based in Iowa and would like to promote it, or just say a few words about it, we will be allowing time for this at the Expo. 
• Chain Lube Strategies: We will talk about drive train maintenance for Iowa conditions and we will be giving out free samples of chain lube at the event. Limited supply! 
• Drive Train Choices and Usage: We will discuss the differences between 1X and 2X drive trains and how to best use either effectively in Iowa. 

There will be beer, soda pop,  and pizza available for purchase at the venue. A cash bar will be set up for attendees, (must be 21 or older), and we may have further surprises. Stay tuned.......

Iowa Gravel Expo/Bike Party 2019

The Iowa Gravel Expo/Bike Party 2019 sponsored by RidingGravel.com will happen on February 9th, 2019 at Doughy Joey's, upstairs in the party room, in Cedar Falls, Ia. This is the same venue we used last year.

Finer details will be determined later, but put this on your calendar now if you are interested.

The date happens to coincide with the Iowa Games Fat Bike Race which will be held earlier in the day in Cedar Falls at George Wyth State Park. Come race your fat bike, or watch the event, and then hit Doughy Joey's for some drinks and grub while we gab about all things gravel. The agenda will include, but may not be limited to, the following topics:

• Iowa Based Gravel Events: If you have a gravel event based in Iowa and would like to promote it, or just say a few words about it, we will be allowing time for this at the Expo. 
• Chain Lube Strategies: We will talk about drive train maintenance for Iowa conditions and we will be giving out free samples of chain lube at the event. Limited supply! 
• Drive Train Choices and Usage: We will discuss the differences between 1X and 2X drive trains and how to best use either effectively in Iowa. 

There will be beer, soda pop,  and pizza available for purchase at the venue. A cash bar will be set up for attendees, (must be 21 or older), and we may have further surprises. Stay tuned.......

Iowa Gravel Expo/Bike Party Report

Guitar Ted pontificating. Image by Izabel Stevenson

The Saturday evening gig at Doughy Joey's almost didn't happen. Both myself and NY Roll, who was also helping to put this on, were deathly ill on Friday. I was fighting the flu and NY Roll had food poisoning, (he thinks). At any rate, collective sighs of relief were had by both parties when on Saturday morning we both woke up feeling human again. Whew!

So, I puttered around getting stuff together most of the day as we had to head over to the venue at 4:30pm to set up. NY Roll was already there, so we started hauling stuff in from the car. Oh yeah......I said "we". I should mention that my 17 year old daughter decided to help out. Izabel took all the images for today's post, by the way.

Anyway, people started coming in almost as soon as we got there. Des Moines was represented, and a few locals were showing up. I wasn't expecting a huge crowd. I had told NY Roll that if we got 30 folks I would consider it a success. He was fully convinced we were going to see a lot of folks. So we made a friendly wager that there would be more than 50 or less. I took the "under". Well, I was sooooo wrong!! 

People started coming and for a while, there was a line of people waiting to sign in for the raffle for tires and a seat bag. It was crazy! I was busy yakking to folks and before I knew it, NY Roll said, "That was 50!", and there were still folks rolling in. I think we eventually had 76 show up. Amazing!

A full house! Five more people and we would have been making the Fire Marshall upset. Image by Izabel Stevenson

A lot of people stayed and hung out well after I was finished. This started at 6:00pm and this image was taken at about 9:30pm. Image by Izabel Stevenson

There was free Grain Belt beer and pizza for all. Image by Izabel Stevenson

So, we had folks from all over Iowa and a couple of guys stopped in from Michigan as well! I was totally blown away by the attendance. The crowd was attentive for the most part and I received a lot of great feedback from people that talked to me afterward.

A few event directors were in attendance so we had them speak on behalf of their events. The Iowa City Gravel event director was there as well as the guys from the first time "Three Bridges" event which is happening in June from Waverly. We also talked about getting another Geezer Ride going locally this Spring for the gravel rookies in the area and, of course, anyone else that just wants to come and have fun. Then I was approached by the guys from Cresco Bikes that want to do a route in their neck of the woods and host a Geezer Ride, so it looks like I'll be heading North at some point to help with/ride that event.

Lots of great connections were made and I am hopeful that the Waterloo/Cedar Falls area can come together and get a vibrant, fun, inclusive gravel community together and that we start seeing a lot more gravel travel in the area. It certainly won't hurt to have more people on bicycles having more fun.

Soooo.... The $64,000.00 question: Will there be another Iowa Gravel Expo/Bike Party? Based upon the feedback we have received already? That answer would be a "yes". Very positive feedback. So, I don't know what that will look like, but I assume that this time next year we can expect something akin to what we had, at least, and maybe more. However; this was financed out of pocket, so funding for something like this in the future is a big question too. Stay tuned on that front......

Thank Yous: NY Roll, (financing) Riding Gravel (personality, resources, schwag), Doughy Joey's (venue), WTB (tire giveaway) Lezyne (seat bag giveaway), Izabel Stevenson (assistance, photography) and everyone who came out that made this evening worthwhile in spades!

Iowa Gravel Expo/Bike Party Report

Guitar Ted pontificating. Image by Izabel Stevenson

The Saturday evening gig at Doughy Joey's almost didn't happen. Both myself and NY Roll, who was also helping to put this on, were deathly ill on Friday. I was fighting the flu and NY Roll had food poisoning, (he thinks). At any rate, collective sighs of relief were had by both parties when on Saturday morning we both woke up feeling human again. Whew!

So, I puttered around getting stuff together most of the day as we had to head over to the venue at 4:30pm to set up. NY Roll was already there, so we started hauling stuff in from the car. Oh yeah......I said "we". I should mention that my 17 year old daughter decided to help out. Izabel took all the images for today's post, by the way.

Anyway, people started coming in almost as soon as we got there. Des Moines was represented, and a few locals were showing up. I wasn't expecting a huge crowd. I had told NY Roll that if we got 30 folks I would consider it a success. He was fully convinced we were going to see a lot of folks. So we made a friendly wager that there would be more than 50 or less. I took the "under". Well, I was sooooo wrong!! 

People started coming and for a while, there was a line of people waiting to sign in for the raffle for tires and a seat bag. It was crazy! I was busy yakking to folks and before I knew it, NY Roll said, "That was 50!", and there were still folks rolling in. I think we eventually had 76 show up. Amazing!

A full house! Five more people and we would have been making the Fire Marshall upset. Image by Izabel Stevenson

A lot of people stayed and hung out well after I was finished. This started at 6:00pm and this image was taken at about 9:30pm. Image by Izabel Stevenson

There was free Grain Belt beer and pizza for all. Image by Izabel Stevenson

So, we had folks from all over Iowa and a couple of guys stopped in from Michigan as well! I was totally blown away by the attendance. The crowd was attentive for the most part and I received a lot of great feedback from people that talked to me afterward.

A few event directors were in attendance so we had them speak on behalf of their events. The Iowa City Gravel event director was there as well as the guys from the first time "Three Bridges" event which is happening in June from Waverly. We also talked about getting another Geezer Ride going locally this Spring for the gravel rookies in the area and, of course, anyone else that just wants to come and have fun. Then I was approached by the guys from Cresco Bikes that want to do a route in their neck of the woods and host a Geezer Ride, so it looks like I'll be heading North at some point to help with/ride that event.

Lots of great connections were made and I am hopeful that the Waterloo/Cedar Falls area can come together and get a vibrant, fun, inclusive gravel community together and that we start seeing a lot more gravel travel in the area. It certainly won't hurt to have more people on bicycles having more fun.

Soooo.... The $64,000.00 question: Will there be another Iowa Gravel Expo/Bike Party? Based upon the feedback we have received already? That answer would be a "yes". Very positive feedback. So, I don't know what that will look like, but I assume that this time next year we can expect something akin to what we had, at least, and maybe more. However; this was financed out of pocket, so funding for something like this in the future is a big question too. Stay tuned on that front......

Thank Yous: NY Roll, (financing) Riding Gravel (personality, resources, schwag), Doughy Joey's (venue), WTB (tire giveaway) Lezyne (seat bag giveaway), Izabel Stevenson (assistance, photography) and everyone who came out that made this evening worthwhile in spades!