Guitar Ted Productions Rearview 2009: Part IV

<===I was rewarded with a primo fall color ride in October. The air was literally golden!

October/November/December: Well, this month started out on a somber note when my father in law had to go in for emergency open heart surgery. Not only that, but due to the circumstances, I had to cancel my participation in the Big Wheeled Ballyhoo. First off- Thank you Matt Gersib for taking up the slack there. I let you and everybody down, and I felt like a total chump in the early part of the month. While it was out of my control, there it is. I felt about as low as you can back then. Thankfully I was able to get in some awesome fall color rides that picked up my spirit again. That golden color was awesome and that one ride in particular was like being in another world entirely.

The Ballyhoo itself suffered a freak snow storm but even though attendance was not what we originally had hoped for, good times were had anyway. My feeling, and this is just my personal opinion, is that the Ballyhoo idea is just cursed. At least from my end of things. I've been clubbed over the head twice now. I get the idea. Don't look for me to be involved in promoting that again.

Moving on from that personal low point, I was spending the rest of the month getting things in order to close out some testing for Twenty Nine Inches before the snows came. I also was getting the first recon of the T.I.V6 course readied. That happened and d.p. and I were really excited about the first quarter of the course we got to lay eyes on.

Besides those two huge events, I got a lot of riding in on the Salsa Big Mama, I got the Gun Kote Salsa El Mariachi back and started to build it up, and my long running "Touring Tuesdays" took it's final bow in the beginning of November. I did start up the "Trans Iowa Thoughts" posts though in October which will help keep folks in T.I.V6 up to date with how the event develops.

November kicked off with a big, big surprise from my friend George Wissell from Bike 29. I had been giving him some grief over three NOS purple anodized Chris King headsets he acquired. Well, he saw my El Mariachi, and gifted me one of the treasured purple ano headsets to install on it. (Once again- Thanks!) I was floored!

Then I started out with a new series for the replacement of "Touring Tuesdays" called "Bike Shop Tales" which is going to be my outlet for telling the story about my early shop rat days at Advantage Cyclery. I also posted a retrospective on my year with Salsa Cycles Fargo.

After a week or so into November, there was a big pow-wow in Grinnell about Trans Iowa V6 which got the ball rolling on a lot of details concerning the event. I posted the registration announcement immediately following and the madness of post cards, gifts, and people coming out of the woodwork to get into T.I.V6 began.

In between all of that I got in a great gravel ride with A-Lo, d.p., and for a short bit, mtbidwell. I also raided the Camp for the final times doing last minute Specialized 29"er testing, and did a lot of after work rides for the same reasons. Winter was coming. The fading daylight, the feel in the air, and the Turkey Burn Ride all pointed to snow and soon.

Well, we barely got a week into December and we got not just a little dump, but we got walloped with 15 inches of snow which shut down not just the off road cycling, but just about everything. So, I turned to writing to take my mind off things. I started Gravel Grinder News to chronicle all the gravel racing/culture in the nation these days. I also did a lot of stuff on the sites I write for, getting year end stuff in order.

Finally, it always amazes me, but this time of year is when a lot of gear testing opportunities crop up and I was busy with a lot of that coming right into the end of the year. The snowing, blowing, and cold still persists, and getting to ride is really tough now. Hopefully 2010 won't continue like December has!

That's a wrap on the "Rearview For 2009". I will follow this up with an outlook for 2010 in my next post.

Guitar Ted Productions Rearview 2009: Part IV

<===I was rewarded with a primo fall color ride in October. The air was literally golden!

October/November/December: Well, this month started out on a somber note when my father in law had to go in for emergency open heart surgery. Not only that, but due to the circumstances, I had to cancel my participation in the Big Wheeled Ballyhoo. First off- Thank you Matt Gersib for taking up the slack there. I let you and everybody down, and I felt like a total chump in the early part of the month. While it was out of my control, there it is. I felt about as low as you can back then. Thankfully I was able to get in some awesome fall color rides that picked up my spirit again. That golden color was awesome and that one ride in particular was like being in another world entirely.

The Ballyhoo itself suffered a freak snow storm but even though attendance was not what we originally had hoped for, good times were had anyway. My feeling, and this is just my personal opinion, is that the Ballyhoo idea is just cursed. At least from my end of things. I've been clubbed over the head twice now. I get the idea. Don't look for me to be involved in promoting that again.

Moving on from that personal low point, I was spending the rest of the month getting things in order to close out some testing for Twenty Nine Inches before the snows came. I also was getting the first recon of the T.I.V6 course readied. That happened and d.p. and I were really excited about the first quarter of the course we got to lay eyes on.

Besides those two huge events, I got a lot of riding in on the Salsa Big Mama, I got the Gun Kote Salsa El Mariachi back and started to build it up, and my long running "Touring Tuesdays" took it's final bow in the beginning of November. I did start up the "Trans Iowa Thoughts" posts though in October which will help keep folks in T.I.V6 up to date with how the event develops.

November kicked off with a big, big surprise from my friend George Wissell from Bike 29. I had been giving him some grief over three NOS purple anodized Chris King headsets he acquired. Well, he saw my El Mariachi, and gifted me one of the treasured purple ano headsets to install on it. (Once again- Thanks!) I was floored!

Then I started out with a new series for the replacement of "Touring Tuesdays" called "Bike Shop Tales" which is going to be my outlet for telling the story about my early shop rat days at Advantage Cyclery. I also posted a retrospective on my year with Salsa Cycles Fargo.

After a week or so into November, there was a big pow-wow in Grinnell about Trans Iowa V6 which got the ball rolling on a lot of details concerning the event. I posted the registration announcement immediately following and the madness of post cards, gifts, and people coming out of the woodwork to get into T.I.V6 began.

In between all of that I got in a great gravel ride with A-Lo, d.p., and for a short bit, mtbidwell. I also raided the Camp for the final times doing last minute Specialized 29"er testing, and did a lot of after work rides for the same reasons. Winter was coming. The fading daylight, the feel in the air, and the Turkey Burn Ride all pointed to snow and soon.

Well, we barely got a week into December and we got not just a little dump, but we got walloped with 15 inches of snow which shut down not just the off road cycling, but just about everything. So, I turned to writing to take my mind off things. I started Gravel Grinder News to chronicle all the gravel racing/culture in the nation these days. I also did a lot of stuff on the sites I write for, getting year end stuff in order.

Finally, it always amazes me, but this time of year is when a lot of gear testing opportunities crop up and I was busy with a lot of that coming right into the end of the year. The snowing, blowing, and cold still persists, and getting to ride is really tough now. Hopefully 2010 won't continue like December has!

That's a wrap on the "Rearview For 2009". I will follow this up with an outlook for 2010 in my next post.

Guitar Ted Productions Rearview 2009: Part III

Continuing on with Part III of the Rearview for 2009...........

July/August/September: July started out pretty mellow with the last plans for the GTDRI and figuring out whether T.I. should move its date or not. (It stayed the same by popular vote). The the GTDRI in the middle of the month came on a very cool, (by July standards), weekend and was a brutal, fun, epic event. Topped off by what might be the most intense weekend of cycling at the end of the month with the Second Fargo Adventure Ride/Rock Lake Trail ride weekend. Intense, but totally awesome! By the end of July I was being told I had taken another step up in terms of riding and fitness. Good to hear! All the riding was paying dividends, and so far 2009 was a high point in my cycling life, and it wasn't over yet!

Well, the dog days of August came and things did back off a bit. Much news of 2010 stuff was coming and test riding for Twenty Nine Inches was going along as usual. Behind the scenes I was prepping for Interbike for the first time as the "leader of the band" instead of the "hired gun" that I was just a few years earlier. Different feelings for sure! Also, I got invited to the Fisher Bikes Press Camp in Park City, Utah. I was floored!

The end of August brought up a competitive event in the Good Life Gravel Adventure. I was scheduled to stay in the D Street Hotel, and the next day I was slated to go check out the site of the Big Wheeled Ballyhoo at Potter's Pasture in Nebraska. Big weekend! So big that I only got about three hours of shut eye going into a 140 mile gravel grinder. Well, you know- that caught up to me in a big, big way on the ride. I was falling asleep on my bike!! I had heard of that before from Jeff Kerkove and his experiences at 24 hour events, but I didn't quite believe it really could happen. I'm here to tell ya. YES. It can happen!

Then to top that all off, MG and I, (MG comes up an awful lot in this tale of 2009, did ya notice that? In a good way, mind you.), well we took off for Brady, Nebraska and more specifically, Potter's Pasture that very night after the GLGA. Good thing Corey "Cornbread" Godfrey gifted us that case of Red Bull Cola. Man! Crack cocaine in a can! That stuff roolz! Anyway........we got there, how I can't quite recall!

The Potter's Crew was awesome, the trails were surreal, and the time spent there way, way too short. Then I had to travel all day and into the night to get home. What a wild, great weekend.

So after that it was a short ten days to fly out to Utah and partake of some fine Fisher 29"ers, meet some outstanding racers, company wonks, and media peeps, and suffer in the thin mountain air. Yeah, I got my reality check in terms of fitness when I went there! I was hangin' on to the back for dear life. So much for "taking the next step" in my fitness and riding skills! Oh well! It was fun none the less, if not a wee bit humbling.

Then right back at it to Nevada and Interbike. This time I kept it to three days and out, which worked great from a work standpoint, although socially it was pretty devastating. No nights on the town for me! No free beer at the end of show days. No schwag bags. But staying in Vegas any longer than three days isn't very appealing to me. Not at all! Maybe its just me, but it is a soul-sucking joint as far as I'm concerned. After a bit of a scare with the aircraft coming out of Chi-town, I made it home.

That closed out September and next post I'll detail out the end of a pretty amazing year.

Guitar Ted Productions Rearview 2009: Part III

Continuing on with Part III of the Rearview for 2009...........

July/August/September: July started out pretty mellow with the last plans for the GTDRI and figuring out whether T.I. should move its date or not. (It stayed the same by popular vote). The the GTDRI in the middle of the month came on a very cool, (by July standards), weekend and was a brutal, fun, epic event. Topped off by what might be the most intense weekend of cycling at the end of the month with the Second Fargo Adventure Ride/Rock Lake Trail ride weekend. Intense, but totally awesome! By the end of July I was being told I had taken another step up in terms of riding and fitness. Good to hear! All the riding was paying dividends, and so far 2009 was a high point in my cycling life, and it wasn't over yet!

Well, the dog days of August came and things did back off a bit. Much news of 2010 stuff was coming and test riding for Twenty Nine Inches was going along as usual. Behind the scenes I was prepping for Interbike for the first time as the "leader of the band" instead of the "hired gun" that I was just a few years earlier. Different feelings for sure! Also, I got invited to the Fisher Bikes Press Camp in Park City, Utah. I was floored!

The end of August brought up a competitive event in the Good Life Gravel Adventure. I was scheduled to stay in the D Street Hotel, and the next day I was slated to go check out the site of the Big Wheeled Ballyhoo at Potter's Pasture in Nebraska. Big weekend! So big that I only got about three hours of shut eye going into a 140 mile gravel grinder. Well, you know- that caught up to me in a big, big way on the ride. I was falling asleep on my bike!! I had heard of that before from Jeff Kerkove and his experiences at 24 hour events, but I didn't quite believe it really could happen. I'm here to tell ya. YES. It can happen!

Then to top that all off, MG and I, (MG comes up an awful lot in this tale of 2009, did ya notice that? In a good way, mind you.), well we took off for Brady, Nebraska and more specifically, Potter's Pasture that very night after the GLGA. Good thing Corey "Cornbread" Godfrey gifted us that case of Red Bull Cola. Man! Crack cocaine in a can! That stuff roolz! Anyway........we got there, how I can't quite recall!

The Potter's Crew was awesome, the trails were surreal, and the time spent there way, way too short. Then I had to travel all day and into the night to get home. What a wild, great weekend.

So after that it was a short ten days to fly out to Utah and partake of some fine Fisher 29"ers, meet some outstanding racers, company wonks, and media peeps, and suffer in the thin mountain air. Yeah, I got my reality check in terms of fitness when I went there! I was hangin' on to the back for dear life. So much for "taking the next step" in my fitness and riding skills! Oh well! It was fun none the less, if not a wee bit humbling.

Then right back at it to Nevada and Interbike. This time I kept it to three days and out, which worked great from a work standpoint, although socially it was pretty devastating. No nights on the town for me! No free beer at the end of show days. No schwag bags. But staying in Vegas any longer than three days isn't very appealing to me. Not at all! Maybe its just me, but it is a soul-sucking joint as far as I'm concerned. After a bit of a scare with the aircraft coming out of Chi-town, I made it home.

That closed out September and next post I'll detail out the end of a pretty amazing year.

Guitar Ted Productions Rearview 2009: Part II

<===Furry riffing.......

April/May/June: Boy, did things ever get crazy starting about right here in the year! First up we had the ongoing tribulations behind the scenes with what was to become of my web writing career, such as it was. It was not being resolved, and so on one hand I was planning a new website venture with an old Crooked Cog writer and on the other hand I was trying to get the Twenty Nine Inches deal done. Stacked on this was my trip to Sea Otter, planning for Dirty Kanza, and final preparations for Trans Iowa V5. I also had a family vacation to plan and my regular shop job was heating up with the weather. Cyclists were coming in with repair work which I had to stay on top of with four days of work there to do it in.

Sea Otter was bittersweet. It was my last hurrah with the old set up on Twenty Nine Inches. Tim, the former owner, was not along for the trip, and I was out on my own for the first time ever. I did get to meet up with my new contributor/web conspirator Grannygear though, so that was a highlight for sure. The Cyclist was launched with the aforementioned former Crooked Cog writer, but after a few weeks, that writer backed out due to some weirdness, and Grannygear stepped in graciously to assist. By this time I was the sole entity running Twenty Nine Inches which was a shambles on the business side, but was chugging along nicely otherwise.

Then it was Trans Iowa V5 time. That event went off really well. So well in fact that d.p. and I decided on a T.I.V6 at the finish line of T.I.V5 at the end of that event. Again, an epic time was had by all and as always, it was a special, memorable weekend for me. Things were in a bit of a slow down for a week or so now, which was a welcome thing! I got in some awesome training rides for the DK 200. I was really feeling much better about riding the full 200 miles than ever before. Even friends were commenting on my form. Well, as the event approached, I contracted a head cold and well, that about shot me in the foot.

I DNF'ed due to being sick, beating myself up in an ungodly wind, and suffering under a blistering hot sun. But after that day, we split Kansas for a friends place in Nebraska for a week and I had an incredibly good time. I rode some sweet Nebraska single track, and hooked up with my good friend, Matt Gersib for some great times. Then it was back to Iowa.

Then it was Guitar Ted Death Ride recon time, some test riding at the Camp, and general life pacing for the rest of June. The weather was fine, and summer was coming on, but it was strangely cool for this time of year. Well, the weather may have been cool-ish, but the happenings were heating up again! Next post on the Rearview for 2009 will happen on Wednesday. Stay Tuned!

Guitar Ted Productions Rearview 2009: Part II

<===Furry riffing.......

April/May/June: Boy, did things ever get crazy starting about right here in the year! First up we had the ongoing tribulations behind the scenes with what was to become of my web writing career, such as it was. It was not being resolved, and so on one hand I was planning a new website venture with an old Crooked Cog writer and on the other hand I was trying to get the Twenty Nine Inches deal done. Stacked on this was my trip to Sea Otter, planning for Dirty Kanza, and final preparations for Trans Iowa V5. I also had a family vacation to plan and my regular shop job was heating up with the weather. Cyclists were coming in with repair work which I had to stay on top of with four days of work there to do it in.

Sea Otter was bittersweet. It was my last hurrah with the old set up on Twenty Nine Inches. Tim, the former owner, was not along for the trip, and I was out on my own for the first time ever. I did get to meet up with my new contributor/web conspirator Grannygear though, so that was a highlight for sure. The Cyclist was launched with the aforementioned former Crooked Cog writer, but after a few weeks, that writer backed out due to some weirdness, and Grannygear stepped in graciously to assist. By this time I was the sole entity running Twenty Nine Inches which was a shambles on the business side, but was chugging along nicely otherwise.

Then it was Trans Iowa V5 time. That event went off really well. So well in fact that d.p. and I decided on a T.I.V6 at the finish line of T.I.V5 at the end of that event. Again, an epic time was had by all and as always, it was a special, memorable weekend for me. Things were in a bit of a slow down for a week or so now, which was a welcome thing! I got in some awesome training rides for the DK 200. I was really feeling much better about riding the full 200 miles than ever before. Even friends were commenting on my form. Well, as the event approached, I contracted a head cold and well, that about shot me in the foot.

I DNF'ed due to being sick, beating myself up in an ungodly wind, and suffering under a blistering hot sun. But after that day, we split Kansas for a friends place in Nebraska for a week and I had an incredibly good time. I rode some sweet Nebraska single track, and hooked up with my good friend, Matt Gersib for some great times. Then it was back to Iowa.

Then it was Guitar Ted Death Ride recon time, some test riding at the Camp, and general life pacing for the rest of June. The weather was fine, and summer was coming on, but it was strangely cool for this time of year. Well, the weather may have been cool-ish, but the happenings were heating up again! Next post on the Rearview for 2009 will happen on Wednesday. Stay Tuned!

Guitar Ted Productions Rearview 2009

It is time again for the year end review that I've been doing on this blog for several years now. It has been a tremendous, tumultuous, and exciting 2009.

Let's get right to it........

Jan/Feb/March: The year started off in the deep freeze here and cycling was not really happening. Cycling related stuff was though, and the main thing was the announcement that I would be the head writer at Crooked Cog Network. Well, a lot changed with that. (Coming later) Also of note at the beginning of the year was the Touring Tuesdays posts, the first reference to "Gravel Grinder News", which has become its own blog now, and T.I.V5 roster and sponsorship stuff. Going into February the weather broke enough that riding commenced once again. Several muddy attempts at mountain biking, a new Raleigh Rainier, and the bike to-do at Miltown Cycles before Frost Bike happened.

When March came in we experienced several ups and downs in the weather. I got in some interesting rides on sheet ice structure from ice jams, and lots of muddy tire testing. Trans Iowa recon was done that stitched up the last loose end on the loop for T.I.V5. The Big Wheeled Ballyhoo was being planned out and lots of news was happening with that in March. A Misfit Psycles diSSent arrives for testing and also I built up a Salsa Cycles Big Mama for testing on Twenty Nine Inches.

Behind the scenes there was much wrangling about the death of the Crooked Cog Network and that was affecting me in a big, big way. It was looking more and more like I would inherit Twenty Nine Inches and the rest of the old network looked to be flotsam and jetsam, left floating in a digital sea for the foreseeable future, or killed off completely. In fact, much of the time it was teetering on the whole thing going up in smoke with no Twenty Nine Inches at all. Weirdness and stressful times for sure.

Also, I had entered, and then had to back out of CIRREM, and I entered the Dirty Kanza 200. Riding was already at an advanced state over 2008. Good stuff, but as we will see, not quite good enough for the DK 200!

Okay, that covers the first quarter of 2008. Stay tuned for the second quarter coming tomorrow.

Guitar Ted Productions Rearview 2009

It is time again for the year end review that I've been doing on this blog for several years now. It has been a tremendous, tumultuous, and exciting 2009.

Let's get right to it........

Jan/Feb/March: The year started off in the deep freeze here and cycling was not really happening. Cycling related stuff was though, and the main thing was the announcement that I would be the head writer at Crooked Cog Network. Well, a lot changed with that. (Coming later) Also of note at the beginning of the year was the Touring Tuesdays posts, the first reference to "Gravel Grinder News", which has become its own blog now, and T.I.V5 roster and sponsorship stuff. Going into February the weather broke enough that riding commenced once again. Several muddy attempts at mountain biking, a new Raleigh Rainier, and the bike to-do at Miltown Cycles before Frost Bike happened.

When March came in we experienced several ups and downs in the weather. I got in some interesting rides on sheet ice structure from ice jams, and lots of muddy tire testing. Trans Iowa recon was done that stitched up the last loose end on the loop for T.I.V5. The Big Wheeled Ballyhoo was being planned out and lots of news was happening with that in March. A Misfit Psycles diSSent arrives for testing and also I built up a Salsa Cycles Big Mama for testing on Twenty Nine Inches.

Behind the scenes there was much wrangling about the death of the Crooked Cog Network and that was affecting me in a big, big way. It was looking more and more like I would inherit Twenty Nine Inches and the rest of the old network looked to be flotsam and jetsam, left floating in a digital sea for the foreseeable future, or killed off completely. In fact, much of the time it was teetering on the whole thing going up in smoke with no Twenty Nine Inches at all. Weirdness and stressful times for sure.

Also, I had entered, and then had to back out of CIRREM, and I entered the Dirty Kanza 200. Riding was already at an advanced state over 2008. Good stuff, but as we will see, not quite good enough for the DK 200!

Okay, that covers the first quarter of 2008. Stay tuned for the second quarter coming tomorrow.