Randomonium

NOTE: Okay folks, if you haven't been around long enough here to know what a "Randomonium" post is, then here is the deal. I ramble, rant, and randomly moan about all things cycling in one, incohesive, bizarre post. "Randomonium", okay?

The Fargo has new - old - shoes. 

 Fargo Back Up & Running:

This past weekend I got the Fargo sorted with some different tires that actually worked. The solution I found worked super easily. I forgot I had a pair of used Donnelly MSO 700 X 50mm tires. They went on the i23 Team Frequency rims with a burp from an air compressor and have been rock solid since mounted.

I tried the Schwalbe G-Ones on that wheel set that is based upon a Stan's rim dimension and, while I got them on with a plastic tire lever, they are what I would deem as being too tight. Not good if anything were to happen that required a tube to be inserted to continue going. But, that mere fact that the tire went on a Stan's dimension rim tells me it would definitely be too loose for most modern tubeless ready rims. Again- in my opinion- this is inexcusable in 2019.

My Schwalbe may have been an outlier, maybe from a bad batch? Hard to say, but for what I spent on them, I am not willing to take another shot at trying anything from Schwalbe. That brand has been struck from my "willing to buy" list. In 2019, and beyond, there will be, and are now, many, many choices in tires that will work as advertised set up tubeless easily. I know this because I get to try a LOT of tires out in my reviewing gig. If a tire takes multiple tries to get set up the first time, and then will not set up at all after one dismounting, well...... Hard pass. Nuff said.

Rendering of a Scott's Oriole

A Bird Lost? 

(NOTE: This isn't about cycling. So, it is even more random!) Sunday I walked out on the porch and I saw a flash of yellow and black. It was a bird I spooked out of the flower bed. It was so stunning and outstanding in appearance that I thought I had seen a vision. But it was real. It quickly hid in the thick cover of a tree across the street. Hmm...weird, but maybe just something I dreamed up? I still wasn't sure that I saw what I had seen. It was just so yellow and intensely colored that it didn't look real at all.

Then Monday, my wife and I walked out onto the porch and the same thing- An intensely yellow colored and black patched bird jumped out of the flower bed and quickly took cover in the same tree across the street.  Okay- this time I had a witness. I wasn't crazy. There was a weird bird and neither one of us had seen anything like it.

I did some checking online, and the closest thing I could find to what we had seen was a rendering of a Scott's Oriole. It seems to have the same pattern and intensely yellow coloring of the bird we saw. However; the range for this species is no where near Iowa. In fact, it is over a 1000 miles away from its Northernmost range to Iowa. Is this a Scott's Oriole that we had seen, or maybe something else? Is it a lost bird? Maybe.

I wish I would have gotten a picture, but as skittish as this bird was, I am lucky to have seen it twice!

Another drop bar hits the market.

The Off-Road Drop Bar Becomes Commonplace:

With over ten years of blogging here I can go back and see how things have changed over time. One of the things that's changed a ton is the amount of off-road, flared drop bars that are available.

When Trans Iowa started, and when I started riding a lot of gravel, you had about two choices for this type of bar. I used an On One Midge bar. You could get an Origin 8 Gary Bar, (the original one), and there was the odd WTB bar which had survived and were going for $150.00 a pop.

Now that gravel has become such a "thing" we have soooo many more flared drops that it is bewildering. A new one is out now from Shimano's PRO Brand which is called the Discover Big Flare Bar. It's an interesting handle bar that has some cool features- the 30° flare, the nice sweep- and some straight up roadie drop bar parts, like the weird radius to the drop and the shorter extensions. It's an unique bar in that it has such odd bits paired together.

I've yet to use it on gravel, but I'm sure it has its good and bad features there as well. The funny thing is, every bar has to be different, or it is a copy, and that won't do now, will it? No. So we get these weird things put out there at times that, well........they just do not work. And that's the thing with these flared drops. Not all of them really work, and so you get just a few that become the "standards" of the industry. Bars like Salsa Cycles' Cowchipper and Cowbell, which have spawned more than a few near-ripoffs. Or the previously mentioned On One Midge Bar, which spawned an almost perfect knock-off bar by another company, and inspired a few other bar designs. 

Once in a great while you get the super-weird bar and it works, for some reason. The Woodchipper and Luxy Bar come to mind here. But those are certainly acquired tastes, and it is easy to see why those bars are so polarizing.

Anyway, what a long way we have come! I never would have guessed that in 2019 there would be so many choices for off-road and flared drop bars as there is now. I'm still amazed by it all.

Randomonium

NOTE: Okay folks, if you haven't been around long enough here to know what a "Randomonium" post is, then here is the deal. I ramble, rant, and randomly moan about all things cycling in one, incohesive, bizarre post. "Randomonium", okay?

The Fargo has new - old - shoes. 

 Fargo Back Up & Running:

This past weekend I got the Fargo sorted with some different tires that actually worked. The solution I found worked super easily. I forgot I had a pair of used Donnelly MSO 700 X 50mm tires. They went on the i23 Team Frequency rims with a burp from an air compressor and have been rock solid since mounted.

I tried the Schwalbe G-Ones on that wheel set that is based upon a Stan's rim dimension and, while I got them on with a plastic tire lever, they are what I would deem as being too tight. Not good if anything were to happen that required a tube to be inserted to continue going. But, that mere fact that the tire went on a Stan's dimension rim tells me it would definitely be too loose for most modern tubeless ready rims. Again- in my opinion- this is inexcusable in 2019.

My Schwalbe may have been an outlier, maybe from a bad batch? Hard to say, but for what I spent on them, I am not willing to take another shot at trying anything from Schwalbe. That brand has been struck from my "willing to buy" list. In 2019, and beyond, there will be, and are now, many, many choices in tires that will work as advertised set up tubeless easily. I know this because I get to try a LOT of tires out in my reviewing gig. If a tire takes multiple tries to get set up the first time, and then will not set up at all after one dismounting, well...... Hard pass. Nuff said.

Rendering of a Scott's Oriole

A Bird Lost? 

(NOTE: This isn't about cycling. So, it is even more random!) Sunday I walked out on the porch and I saw a flash of yellow and black. It was a bird I spooked out of the flower bed. It was so stunning and outstanding in appearance that I thought I had seen a vision. But it was real. It quickly hid in the thick cover of a tree across the street. Hmm...weird, but maybe just something I dreamed up? I still wasn't sure that I saw what I had seen. It was just so yellow and intensely colored that it didn't look real at all.

Then Monday, my wife and I walked out onto the porch and the same thing- An intensely yellow colored and black patched bird jumped out of the flower bed and quickly took cover in the same tree across the street.  Okay- this time I had a witness. I wasn't crazy. There was a weird bird and neither one of us had seen anything like it.

I did some checking online, and the closest thing I could find to what we had seen was a rendering of a Scott's Oriole. It seems to have the same pattern and intensely yellow coloring of the bird we saw. However; the range for this species is no where near Iowa. In fact, it is over a 1000 miles away from its Northernmost range to Iowa. Is this a Scott's Oriole that we had seen, or maybe something else? Is it a lost bird? Maybe.

I wish I would have gotten a picture, but as skittish as this bird was, I am lucky to have seen it twice!

Another drop bar hits the market.

The Off-Road Drop Bar Becomes Commonplace:

With over ten years of blogging here I can go back and see how things have changed over time. One of the things that's changed a ton is the amount of off-road, flared drop bars that are available.

When Trans Iowa started, and when I started riding a lot of gravel, you had about two choices for this type of bar. I used an On One Midge bar. You could get an Origin 8 Gary Bar, (the original one), and there was the odd WTB bar which had survived and were going for $150.00 a pop.

Now that gravel has become such a "thing" we have soooo many more flared drops that it is bewildering. A new one is out now from Shimano's PRO Brand which is called the Discover Big Flare Bar. It's an interesting handle bar that has some cool features- the 30° flare, the nice sweep- and some straight up roadie drop bar parts, like the weird radius to the drop and the shorter extensions. It's an unique bar in that it has such odd bits paired together.

I've yet to use it on gravel, but I'm sure it has its good and bad features there as well. The funny thing is, every bar has to be different, or it is a copy, and that won't do now, will it? No. So we get these weird things put out there at times that, well........they just do not work. And that's the thing with these flared drops. Not all of them really work, and so you get just a few that become the "standards" of the industry. Bars like Salsa Cycles' Cowchipper and Cowbell, which have spawned more than a few near-ripoffs. Or the previously mentioned On One Midge Bar, which spawned an almost perfect knock-off bar by another company, and inspired a few other bar designs. 

Once in a great while you get the super-weird bar and it works, for some reason. The Woodchipper and Luxy Bar come to mind here. But those are certainly acquired tastes, and it is easy to see why those bars are so polarizing.

Anyway, what a long way we have come! I never would have guessed that in 2019 there would be so many choices for off-road and flared drop bars as there is now. I'm still amazed by it all.

Friday News And Views

T.I.v14 Registration Update:

The first phase of registration for the 14th Trans Iowa was completed Wednesday. There were six spots available which were not claimed, so I am pushing those down to the Vets & Finishers classes which now will have 61 slots available to fill before I would require a lottery. Last year I didn't have to do that. Maybe I won't have to do that this year. Hard to say. But if the Vets and Finishers don't add up to more than 60, there will be open spots getting kicked down to the Rookies. I'll know more on October 18th when the Finishers and Vets window for registration closes.

So.......yeah! Did you see that Dan Hughes, (T.I.v13 winner), Greg Gleason, (T.I.v10 overall winner, T.I.v 12 co-winner), Walter Zitz, (T.I.v12 co-winner), and Eric Brunt (T.I.v8 overall winner), are on the roster? Plus Mark Johnson is signed on in the SS/Fixed category, as always, and is a threat to win the overall as well as the SS/Fixed category. Sarah Cooper is signed on, but she will not be racing for the Open Womens category, as she is going to give it a go on a tandem with veteran/finisher/super-volunteer Steve Fuller.

Interesting field so far in terms of the competitive, pointy end of the T.I. field. It will be cool to find out who amongst the finishers and Vets comes back, and ultimately who will be the new gun coming out of the Rookie class.There is always someone or two that ends up pushing the front of the race every year.

"Ultra-premium" tire levers "optimized for carbon fiber rims"? How did we do tire removal without these?

Spendy Levers:

Silca is now a US owned and operated company and when they came out of the gates with that track pump for $400- plus dollars, I figured it was just a stunt to get attention and then they would go back to being reasonable. But ohhhhh nooooo! I was very wrong about this. In fact, everything Silca has proffered since then has made me shake my head in disgust and disbelief. The latest is a pair of $18.00 tire levers.

Eight. Teen. Dollars!

The marketing blather may as well not exist after I saw the price. Look....... I've been a mechanic in a bike shop setting for nearly 20 years. Tire levers are not an issue for carbon fiber rims unless you are using metal ones or are hamfisted. I've been working on taking tires off and installing them on carbon rims for well over a decade. Any ol' lever will do the job, (again, as long as it is not metal), and my current favorite is the Pedros levers. Did you know that you can buy three sets of Pedros tire levers for the price of a pair of Silca ones? Oh......and if you can mount a tire without levers, you should. Many times you can.


Question: When will the Wallmart family buy Silca like they did Rapha? These two brands were made for each other.Those Walton boys oughta look in to that. Otherwise I don't see the point here. That sort of money for tire levers is just goofy.

But they will probably sell out by the caseload. Meh!

Ignore that "Clement" branding. It's "Donnelly" now.

 Big Gravel Tire:

So, many gravel tires that exist are in the 35mm-45mm size range and for good reason. Most "gravel/all road" bikes won't fit anything bigger than that. At least in 700c sizes. Cyclo Cross bikes? Fahgeddaboudit. 

However; now there are a few rigs sporting capacity for up to 2" wide 700c rubber. And let's not forget that many Fargos and the like are used for gravel travel and those bikes might benefit from a bigger tire which is a gravel specialist. 

So, there are not many tires that fit the bill for fast, voluminous casings, and that have a modicum of traction for the hard packed dirt sections. The MSO tread design does have what many riders like, and about a year ago, Donnelly Cycling introduced the 700 X 50mm MSO with a tubeless ready casing. Then it was still Clement, and the tires I have to test are branded as such. That said, going forward they will have Donnelly branding, but they will be the same tire. I don't have a bike with a "gravel specific" geometry that fits these so they will likely go on the Fargo Gen I bike with a tubeless set up.

I hope to get that done this weekend but I also will be testing a different sealant combination so I may not have everything in hand until next week. Hint: It will be a competitor to Stan's Race Day sealant.

Okay, more soon..... Have a great weekend!


 

Friday News And Views

T.I.v14 Registration Update:

The first phase of registration for the 14th Trans Iowa was completed Wednesday. There were six spots available which were not claimed, so I am pushing those down to the Vets & Finishers classes which now will have 61 slots available to fill before I would require a lottery. Last year I didn't have to do that. Maybe I won't have to do that this year. Hard to say. But if the Vets and Finishers don't add up to more than 60, there will be open spots getting kicked down to the Rookies. I'll know more on October 18th when the Finishers and Vets window for registration closes.

So.......yeah! Did you see that Dan Hughes, (T.I.v13 winner), Greg Gleason, (T.I.v10 overall winner, T.I.v 12 co-winner), Walter Zitz, (T.I.v12 co-winner), and Eric Brunt (T.I.v8 overall winner), are on the roster? Plus Mark Johnson is signed on in the SS/Fixed category, as always, and is a threat to win the overall as well as the SS/Fixed category. Sarah Cooper is signed on, but she will not be racing for the Open Womens category, as she is going to give it a go on a tandem with veteran/finisher/super-volunteer Steve Fuller.

Interesting field so far in terms of the competitive, pointy end of the T.I. field. It will be cool to find out who amongst the finishers and Vets comes back, and ultimately who will be the new gun coming out of the Rookie class.There is always someone or two that ends up pushing the front of the race every year.

"Ultra-premium" tire levers "optimized for carbon fiber rims"? How did we do tire removal without these?

Spendy Levers:

Silca is now a US owned and operated company and when they came out of the gates with that track pump for $400- plus dollars, I figured it was just a stunt to get attention and then they would go back to being reasonable. But ohhhhh nooooo! I was very wrong about this. In fact, everything Silca has proffered since then has made me shake my head in disgust and disbelief. The latest is a pair of $18.00 tire levers.

Eight. Teen. Dollars!

The marketing blather may as well not exist after I saw the price. Look....... I've been a mechanic in a bike shop setting for nearly 20 years. Tire levers are not an issue for carbon fiber rims unless you are using metal ones or are hamfisted. I've been working on taking tires off and installing them on carbon rims for well over a decade. Any ol' lever will do the job, (again, as long as it is not metal), and my current favorite is the Pedros levers. Did you know that you can buy three sets of Pedros tire levers for the price of a pair of Silca ones? Oh......and if you can mount a tire without levers, you should. Many times you can.


Question: When will the Wallmart family buy Silca like they did Rapha? These two brands were made for each other.Those Walton boys oughta look in to that. Otherwise I don't see the point here. That sort of money for tire levers is just goofy.

But they will probably sell out by the caseload. Meh!

Ignore that "Clement" branding. It's "Donnelly" now.

 Big Gravel Tire:

So, many gravel tires that exist are in the 35mm-45mm size range and for good reason. Most "gravel/all road" bikes won't fit anything bigger than that. At least in 700c sizes. Cyclo Cross bikes? Fahgeddaboudit. 

However; now there are a few rigs sporting capacity for up to 2" wide 700c rubber. And let's not forget that many Fargos and the like are used for gravel travel and those bikes might benefit from a bigger tire which is a gravel specialist. 

So, there are not many tires that fit the bill for fast, voluminous casings, and that have a modicum of traction for the hard packed dirt sections. The MSO tread design does have what many riders like, and about a year ago, Donnelly Cycling introduced the 700 X 50mm MSO with a tubeless ready casing. Then it was still Clement, and the tires I have to test are branded as such. That said, going forward they will have Donnelly branding, but they will be the same tire. I don't have a bike with a "gravel specific" geometry that fits these so they will likely go on the Fargo Gen I bike with a tubeless set up.

I hope to get that done this weekend but I also will be testing a different sealant combination so I may not have everything in hand until next week. Hint: It will be a competitor to Stan's Race Day sealant.

Okay, more soon..... Have a great weekend!