Rear View '17: Part 3

The look back on the year for 2017- dubbed "Rear View", is a traditional year ending series on the blog each year here. This is Part 3.

Looking on into June of this year things seemed to dry up. No more Wednesdays full of rain! This was good, but since it got more and more dry over the Summer, into Fall, and now Winter, it is looking not so great for next year unless we see a big turn around in the weather patterns here.

But back to June!

I really didn't have a whole lot going on as far as gravel events at this time. Odin's used to fill the spot in mid to late June but with that event ending its run I no longer have any big plans during June, so I went "just riding" a lot!

Some of that was to search out the course for my "Tour of Dirt Roads" style homage to the Pirate Cycling League who do a ride every year down around Lincoln, Nebraska where the search out all the good dirt roads. With the successful ending of the Geezer Ride at the Broad Street Brewing Company in Reinbeck, I decided we'd start and stop the GTDRI there as well. Road "O" figured heavily into my route plans. A ride long ago prompted me to put that stretch of dirt roads into the route, as well as some choice gems in Tama County, plus some others I knew about but had bypassed all these years for whatever reasons.

July saw many good rides and with the GTDRI the first weekend in August I didn't have anything going on all month to worry about. I got my old Badger custom drop bar bike rebuilt up for the third, and hopefully last, time and the addition of some skin wall Soma Cazaderos were the finishing touch there.

My Badger got up and running again this past Summer

On the gizmo front, I received a new Shimano action sport camera from being selected in a Tour de France contest I didn't know I was entered in. It was part of a module I completed on Shimano's "STEC" site which is for mechanics to learn more about Shimano technology.

I hate to admit it, but I am kind of a dud when it comes to technological gizmos. I have a Lezyne Super GPS review to finish that is coming up on a year now! This camera thing has failed to capture my imagination yet as well. I finally got a memory card for it and the battery charged up enough to take a short video of my son and I riding, but I have failed to upload it yet! Ha! Maybe someday......

I wrote a piece about the hullaballo being raised about events and how they are too dangerous, and how we need to "do something about it". I still think it rings true after reading it again for the research I did for this post.

Then the GTDRI happened and it went off without a hitch. I had a great ride, and the route was spectacular. In fact, it was so good I thnk the 2018 GTDRI will be the same exact route, barring any road closings that may happen between now and then.

That left Gravel Worlds. I had actually finished the beast in 2016, but it wasn't to be this time. The heat and humidity kicked in later into the event, but my issues weren't related to that. Mine were gastrointestinal related, and basically I did as much of the route as humanly possible for me under such circumstances. I was bummed but it is what it is.

September 5th came and the announcement of another Trans Iowa. The 14th running of the event will happen next April and although I had pretty quickly sketched out a route to checkpoint #1, I was finding motivation to do anything beyond that rather difficult. The registration process wouldn't happen for another month, so I moved on to other things in the month of September. Like getting sick....

That pretty much knocked me off my training for the Spotted Horse, which I wanted to do, and the only rides I was getting in were a few shorter single track rides. It was a rough ending to the month healthwise and I ended up calling off going to the Spotted Horse altogether by the first part of October. But that's coming in the last "Rear View" post for 2017 next time.....

Rear View '17: Part 3

The look back on the year for 2017- dubbed "Rear View", is a traditional year ending series on the blog each year here. This is Part 3.

Looking on into June of this year things seemed to dry up. No more Wednesdays full of rain! This was good, but since it got more and more dry over the Summer, into Fall, and now Winter, it is looking not so great for next year unless we see a big turn around in the weather patterns here.

But back to June!

I really didn't have a whole lot going on as far as gravel events at this time. Odin's used to fill the spot in mid to late June but with that event ending its run I no longer have any big plans during June, so I went "just riding" a lot!

Some of that was to search out the course for my "Tour of Dirt Roads" style homage to the Pirate Cycling League who do a ride every year down around Lincoln, Nebraska where the search out all the good dirt roads. With the successful ending of the Geezer Ride at the Broad Street Brewing Company in Reinbeck, I decided we'd start and stop the GTDRI there as well. Road "O" figured heavily into my route plans. A ride long ago prompted me to put that stretch of dirt roads into the route, as well as some choice gems in Tama County, plus some others I knew about but had bypassed all these years for whatever reasons.

July saw many good rides and with the GTDRI the first weekend in August I didn't have anything going on all month to worry about. I got my old Badger custom drop bar bike rebuilt up for the third, and hopefully last, time and the addition of some skin wall Soma Cazaderos were the finishing touch there.

My Badger got up and running again this past Summer

On the gizmo front, I received a new Shimano action sport camera from being selected in a Tour de France contest I didn't know I was entered in. It was part of a module I completed on Shimano's "STEC" site which is for mechanics to learn more about Shimano technology.

I hate to admit it, but I am kind of a dud when it comes to technological gizmos. I have a Lezyne Super GPS review to finish that is coming up on a year now! This camera thing has failed to capture my imagination yet as well. I finally got a memory card for it and the battery charged up enough to take a short video of my son and I riding, but I have failed to upload it yet! Ha! Maybe someday......

I wrote a piece about the hullaballo being raised about events and how they are too dangerous, and how we need to "do something about it". I still think it rings true after reading it again for the research I did for this post.

Then the GTDRI happened and it went off without a hitch. I had a great ride, and the route was spectacular. In fact, it was so good I thnk the 2018 GTDRI will be the same exact route, barring any road closings that may happen between now and then.

That left Gravel Worlds. I had actually finished the beast in 2016, but it wasn't to be this time. The heat and humidity kicked in later into the event, but my issues weren't related to that. Mine were gastrointestinal related, and basically I did as much of the route as humanly possible for me under such circumstances. I was bummed but it is what it is.

September 5th came and the announcement of another Trans Iowa. The 14th running of the event will happen next April and although I had pretty quickly sketched out a route to checkpoint #1, I was finding motivation to do anything beyond that rather difficult. The registration process wouldn't happen for another month, so I moved on to other things in the month of September. Like getting sick....

That pretty much knocked me off my training for the Spotted Horse, which I wanted to do, and the only rides I was getting in were a few shorter single track rides. It was a rough ending to the month healthwise and I ended up calling off going to the Spotted Horse altogether by the first part of October. But that's coming in the last "Rear View" post for 2017 next time.....

Rear View '17: Part 2

The look back on the year for 2017- dubbed "Rear View", is a traditional year ending series on the blog each year here. This is Part 2.

March ended with the tragedy of Mike Hall's death and a few days into April and we got the news that Steve Tilford had died. What a bad couple of weeks there. But that was only a precursor to a death which would hit a lot closer to home for me on April 16th. That was Easter, and it was also the day my father in law died, which then threw life into a tizzy with only two weeks to go before Trans Iowa v13.

There was one bright spot in the midst of early April and that was the Gent's Race which had its own story once again. We missed one of our team mates but gained a new one in Steve Fuller's wife Kathy. Sam was struggling mightily, wanting to quit, but "sucking at it"so much he was going to actually finish before a tire came undone on him with three miles to go.

Three freakin' miles!

Then came Trans Iowa v13. Wow! What an epic one too. Six finishers. Rain, wind, and mud. Just a crazy time. I was wrecked again after this one, but much more in the physical sense than emotionally.

After that came a Geezer Ride which went off without a hitch in May, then it was time to get ready to go to Kansas to do the "DK My Way" ride, which turned out to be a success. Unfortunately my friend Tony had a bad day in the DK200, wrecking out and trashing his Fargo in the process so badly he had to replace the frame. At least he was okay!

We got home from that adventure for a bit more relaxing time previous to my running of another Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitational in July. But the Wednesday's off were filled with rain during this time and I missed a lot of opportunities to ride due to that.

Next: Part 3

Rear View '17: Part 2

The look back on the year for 2017- dubbed "Rear View", is a traditional year ending series on the blog each year here. This is Part 2.

March ended with the tragedy of Mike Hall's death and a few days into April and we got the news that Steve Tilford had died. What a bad couple of weeks there. But that was only a precursor to a death which would hit a lot closer to home for me on April 16th. That was Easter, and it was also the day my father in law died, which then threw life into a tizzy with only two weeks to go before Trans Iowa v13.

There was one bright spot in the midst of early April and that was the Gent's Race which had its own story once again. We missed one of our team mates but gained a new one in Steve Fuller's wife Kathy. Sam was struggling mightily, wanting to quit, but "sucking at it"so much he was going to actually finish before a tire came undone on him with three miles to go.

Three freakin' miles!

Then came Trans Iowa v13. Wow! What an epic one too. Six finishers. Rain, wind, and mud. Just a crazy time. I was wrecked again after this one, but much more in the physical sense than emotionally.

After that came a Geezer Ride which went off without a hitch in May, then it was time to get ready to go to Kansas to do the "DK My Way" ride, which turned out to be a success. Unfortunately my friend Tony had a bad day in the DK200, wrecking out and trashing his Fargo in the process so badly he had to replace the frame. At least he was okay!

We got home from that adventure for a bit more relaxing time previous to my running of another Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitational in July. But the Wednesday's off were filled with rain during this time and I missed a lot of opportunities to ride due to that.

Next: Part 3