End Of Year Plans For Guitar Ted Productions

 The end of another year is upon us and soon it will be 2026. Regular readers of this blog know I usually do a multi-faceted end -of-year series of posts here. This year will be no exception. However; there will be changes due to a few circumstances which occurred this year. This will make the end-of-year posts unique for 2025. 

First, and most obvious of all, the unexpected and unexplained death of my 22 year old son, Jacob has altered many things for me. This year I am going to do a special look back on our times together on bicycles. 

Secondly, the rise of artificial intelligence programs has severely affected my post views during a few segments of this past year. I usually would do a "Top Ten" list of most read posts for the year, but this will be impossible to do now with so many of my post numbers being so unrealistic as to be comical in terms of what the analytics are telling me. 

Instead, I am going to post my own "Top Ten" most important posts based upon impact to myself, from responses in the comments, or from outside of the blog feedback I received. This will be a different way of gauging what posts were important to you, the readers, but perhaps it will also be less analytical and more personal based. 

I may also gather up all the gravel cycling related posts and put together a list with links. This would serve as a "State of the Gravel Scene" overview from my perspective.  I am not going to post any more of those "SotGS" posts going forward, so this might be a good substitute for that. 

I will continue to do the "Bikes of 2025", the "Rear View", and "Top Images" posts for the year. 

With all the Virtual Turkey Burn Ride reports I had last year, and what I suspect will turn out to be as many, or perhaps even more coming in this year, I am going to kick in the end-of-year posts starting this coming week with a look at some bikes and a Rear View post.  Then Thanksgiving will see another bike post or two, and then the following week will, most likely, be all Virtual Turkey Burn related posts.  

I probably won't get back to end-of-year stuff again until December 8th at the earliest, so this will be a busy stretch here on the blog. Due to the amount of content I want to create, please be advised I will likely double-post on several days until the first of the year. 

Thanks again for reading Guitar Ted Productions! 

Guitar Ted Productions "Rear View Decade" - Part 3

The "Rear View Decade" posts are my take on the soon to be closed out decade from 2010-2019. These posts will be a look back at some of the most impactful, notable, and odd events I posted about here on the blog with some new commentary. This will be from a perspective having the benefit of time to consider things, so I reserve the right to have a bit different opinion on some topics than I did "back then". This is the third and final post in this mini-series. Enjoy!

If you missed Part 1 and Part 2, click on those links and check them out. 

2015: After a tumultuous 2014, I wasn't looking for a whole lot more craziness to start out the new year. Unfortunately, I had another death in the family when my maternal grandmother dies in the Spring. Then things were relatively quiet until I was asked to attend the 10th running of the Dirty Kanza 200 in May of 2015. That turned out to be quite the adventure!

Of course, if you are up on your DK200 history you know 2015 was forever etched into the history books as "The Mud Year". I was honored to be riding with my Trans Iowa friend and head of the Slender Fungus Cycling Association, Ari Andonopoulous. That three mile march in the worst Level B Road mud won't soon be forgotten. It also ended up being the day I rode over 150 miles and missed the last checkpoint cut-off by 2 minutes. Yeah..... That kinda bit, especially when I had to wait for 20 minutes at the "optional oasis" for the event to resupply that station with water for the riders. But, a fantastic adventure there I won't ever forget.

Not far from the last checkpoint during the 2015 DK200

2016: Another death in the family to start out the year as my Dad died in February. Then a sudden opportunity in May arose where Riding Gravel got the call to support the Almanzo 100 at the Cherry Grove Checkpoint. I took along my son, Jacob, and although it was windy as all get-out, we had a pretty fantastic day seeing the riders and handing out goodies. N.Y. Roll went along as well and was handing up whiskey shots to people. It was pure fun.

My heart was broken when Odin's Revenge announced it was no longer. I had done the event three times, and never finished it, but it was an epic ride every time I tried it. While I did not ever finish that event, I did finally finish another one I was trying to get under my wheels for several years. That was Gravel Worlds. That one will be a memorable ride for years to come. Since then I've tried every year and failed, for one reason or another, but in 2016, it all came together for me.

The year finished up with my getting a Big Dummy finally, and with another fantastic time at "The Fargo Reunion Ride". 

Jason Boucher took this image of me at The Fargo Reuninon Ride in 2016.

 2017: Pretty quiet year marked by the passing of my Father-in-law on Easter Sunday and Lincoln cyclist, artist, and over-all awesome dude, Christopher Van Oyen, or "CVO" for short. While I did not know either of these men as well as I would have liked, I respect and miss both of them dearly.

Another year supporting the Almanzo, this time in torrential rain and cold. Despite the lowered numbers of riders and difficult situation, my son and I had another fantastic adventure. 

In the realm of bicycles I was very excited to learn that Black Mountain Cycles was going to finally make a disc brake version of the Monster Cross model. I anxiously awaited for pre-orders, to open up, because I was absolutely not going to miss getting in on that.

I added another Black Mountain Cycles bike to the stable in 2018

2018: Of course, the end of Trans Iowa was the biggest deal in my life during 2018. This was something that had been thought about, planned for, and avoided for years. Again- let's save it for Trans Iowa Stories. I'll divulge all the nitty-gritty details in those posts. I wasn't done with putting on gravel events though. No, no! N.Y.Roll and I announced the C.O.G. 100 Single Speed Gravel Championships event that Fall.

Besides ending Trans Iowa, I also had the next biggest thing happen to me in quite some time that year when Jim Cummings feted me at the start of the inaugural DKXL event. It was an honor I don't take lightly, and I will never forget Jim's gracious and kind remarks about my influences on gravel events and concerning Trans Iowa. Thanks again, Jim!

The third, and what turned out to be final, support of Almanzo was a day of decent weather, lots of fun, and lots of good memories of people. I will miss seeing the event go through Cherry Grove, but I am glad my son and I got to do that three times. 

Okay, I have been going over 2019 separately, so I won't be mentioning anything here about this (almost) past year. Look for the "Rear View 2019" posts before this one and coming along after this. Thanks for reading!

Guitar Ted Productions "Rear View Decade" - Part 3

The "Rear View Decade" posts are my take on the soon to be closed out decade from 2010-2019. These posts will be a look back at some of the most impactful, notable, and odd events I posted about here on the blog with some new commentary. This will be from a perspective having the benefit of time to consider things, so I reserve the right to have a bit different opinion on some topics than I did "back then". This is the third and final post in this mini-series. Enjoy!

If you missed Part 1 and Part 2, click on those links and check them out. 

2015: After a tumultuous 2014, I wasn't looking for a whole lot more craziness to start out the new year. Unfortunately, I had another death in the family when my maternal grandmother dies in the Spring. Then things were relatively quiet until I was asked to attend the 10th running of the Dirty Kanza 200 in May of 2015. That turned out to be quite the adventure!

Of course, if you are up on your DK200 history you know 2015 was forever etched into the history books as "The Mud Year". I was honored to be riding with my Trans Iowa friend and head of the Slender Fungus Cycling Association, Ari Andonopoulous. That three mile march in the worst Level B Road mud won't soon be forgotten. It also ended up being the day I rode over 150 miles and missed the last checkpoint cut-off by 2 minutes. Yeah..... That kinda bit, especially when I had to wait for 20 minutes at the "optional oasis" for the event to resupply that station with water for the riders. But, a fantastic adventure there I won't ever forget.

Not far from the last checkpoint during the 2015 DK200

2016: Another death in the family to start out the year as my Dad died in February. Then a sudden opportunity in May arose where Riding Gravel got the call to support the Almanzo 100 at the Cherry Grove Checkpoint. I took along my son, Jacob, and although it was windy as all get-out, we had a pretty fantastic day seeing the riders and handing out goodies. N.Y. Roll went along as well and was handing up whiskey shots to people. It was pure fun.

My heart was broken when Odin's Revenge announced it was no longer. I had done the event three times, and never finished it, but it was an epic ride every time I tried it. While I did not ever finish that event, I did finally finish another one I was trying to get under my wheels for several years. That was Gravel Worlds. That one will be a memorable ride for years to come. Since then I've tried every year and failed, for one reason or another, but in 2016, it all came together for me.

The year finished up with my getting a Big Dummy finally, and with another fantastic time at "The Fargo Reunion Ride". 

Jason Boucher took this image of me at The Fargo Reuninon Ride in 2016.

 2017: Pretty quiet year marked by the passing of my Father-in-law on Easter Sunday and Lincoln cyclist, artist, and over-all awesome dude, Christopher Van Oyen, or "CVO" for short. While I did not know either of these men as well as I would have liked, I respect and miss both of them dearly.

Another year supporting the Almanzo, this time in torrential rain and cold. Despite the lowered numbers of riders and difficult situation, my son and I had another fantastic adventure. 

In the realm of bicycles I was very excited to learn that Black Mountain Cycles was going to finally make a disc brake version of the Monster Cross model. I anxiously awaited for pre-orders, to open up, because I was absolutely not going to miss getting in on that.

I added another Black Mountain Cycles bike to the stable in 2018

2018: Of course, the end of Trans Iowa was the biggest deal in my life during 2018. This was something that had been thought about, planned for, and avoided for years. Again- let's save it for Trans Iowa Stories. I'll divulge all the nitty-gritty details in those posts. I wasn't done with putting on gravel events though. No, no! N.Y.Roll and I announced the C.O.G. 100 Single Speed Gravel Championships event that Fall.

Besides ending Trans Iowa, I also had the next biggest thing happen to me in quite some time that year when Jim Cummings feted me at the start of the inaugural DKXL event. It was an honor I don't take lightly, and I will never forget Jim's gracious and kind remarks about my influences on gravel events and concerning Trans Iowa. Thanks again, Jim!

The third, and what turned out to be final, support of Almanzo was a day of decent weather, lots of fun, and lots of good memories of people. I will miss seeing the event go through Cherry Grove, but I am glad my son and I got to do that three times. 

Okay, I have been going over 2019 separately, so I won't be mentioning anything here about this (almost) past year. Look for the "Rear View 2019" posts before this one and coming along after this. Thanks for reading!

Guitar Ted Productions "Rear View Decade" Part 2

The "Rear View Decade" posts are my take on the soon to be closed out decade from 2010-2019. These posts will be a look back at some of the most impactful, notable, and odd events I posted about here on the blog with some new commentary. This will be from a perspective having the benefit of time to consider things, so I reserve the right to have a bit different opinion on some topics than I did "back then". Enjoy!

If you missed the first post involving my look back at the decade, you can see that here. In that post I explained how it was that I discovered that 2014 was a seminal year in my history from this past decade. The year was mostly packed with things on the back-end, but you'll get it as I go along. Let's dive in!

The year pretty much kicked off with a bang as I finished my third Triple D fat bike race in a row. This was a lot of fun to do, but after experiencing it three times, I felt I had milked as much fun out of the event as I could. This was my last attempt at that event. On a sad note, a very good friend of mine died who I had been playing music with in the band from my church. Still miss you, Larry!

Moving on, a really devastating event happened in July at the annual Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitational when Dan Buettner and I were struck by a drunk driver along the route. The situation was, without a doubt, bizarre. Not only were we struck as we were walking our bikes alongside the road, but we had a heck of a time getting emergency vehicles there as we were in a remote area and RAGBRAI was also going through at that time. Thankfully, Dan was okay, I was treated and released at an area hospital, but I still have the effects of this event impacting my daily life to this day. By the way, the driver of the vehicle was apprehended and convicted of a DUI. This despite his leaving the scene of the crash.

These were some of the volunteer firemen who responded to the 911 call after my getting hit.

On a bit happier note, the "Trans Iowa Master's Program" went off without a hitch the Summer of '14 with a few making it, and several failed attempts as well. Only Greg Gleason made the adventure as a solo- individual time trial style finisher. This was a challenge I set up as a way to celebrate ten years of Trans Iowa and to feature the old, point-to-point beginnings of Trans Iowa.

Speaking of Trans Iowa, I tried to make it so T.I.v10 would be the last Trans Iowa, but afterward I was prevailed upon to continue it. Again- these tales will be shared in future "Trans Iowa Stories" posts. 

I also started sharing experiences with my son, Jacob, at Iowa Speedway. The first one was an very memorable camping event where my then 11 year old son and I were stuck in a two-man backpacking tent in an epic thunderstorm as we camped overnight at Rock Creek State Park. That's an experience I don't think either one of us will be forgetting!

In the Fall of '14 I held the first "Geezer Ride". This was an idea I had to encourage first timer gravel rides, and have these rides be super-chill, slow events where no one would be intimidated, or left behind. There have been several Geezer Rides since, but none more successful, perhaps, in the original mission, than the first.

I had a woman show up, in her late 40's, and she had just begun to ride. As in just a few months before this event, for the first time in her life! She showed up on a Specialized mountain bike, and she was telling me to "just go on ahead, don't wait for me!". Well, of course, we did wait for her. It was a slow 40-ish miles around the Amana Colonies, but afterward, when she had completed the event, she was elated. She told us it was the best day she had ever had. While I doubt that was the best day she had ever had, the sentiment was there, and I felt proud that this ride had produced such a result right out of the gate. I hope this woman is still riding, but even if she isn't, this was a high point for me in 2014 and for the decade.

On the bicycle front I got my Blackborow DS, a fat bike I still own, and certainly one of my favorite bikes. I also got the Tamland 2 gravel bike, a bicycle I helped to direct the design of. This was such an odd and very proud thing I was involved with. The Raleigh design team called me on a conference call in 2012. They asked me what I would do if I had free reign to design a marketable gravel bike. The Tamland was the result. I probably will never have such an opportunity to do that again. And by the way- I bought my Tamlannd 2 from the shop where I worked at. I never was given one by Raleigh. But I'm completely okay with that.

Joel Dyke was honored with this special brew in 2016. I miss him. #biggrin

Then things weren't so fun for a while. November brought bad news when I learned of Steve Hed's sudden death. I met him the year before and really liked the guy. I was hoping to get to know him better, but obviously that won't happen. Then, in December, I learned of the accidental death of Joel Dyke.

This one hit me hard. While I could never have said that Joel was my close friend, he was super influential on me and my views concerning Trans Iowa and gravel events in particular. Many of you don't know this, but Joel was "johnny-on-the-spot" to be the first to encourage me if he detected a sense of me being down about Trans Iowa. He obviously was reading this blog, and his perceptive encouragements were valued greatly by me. Trans Iowa wouldn't have been the same without him.

At the close of 2014, a couple of major shifts in my semi-professional life as a writer/reviewer/website owner happened. First off, I got out of ownership and contributing to "Twenty Nine Inches". While I know that many people benefited from my efforts there, I was wanting out from underneath that burden for years. In fact, I never should have ever agreed to Tim Grahl's offers in the first place. That was a bad decision on my part, minus the great, lasting relationships I gained from having agreed to those ill-conceived notions of his. Anyway- I am still torn about that. I get that I have things I would not have had otherwise, but I also know there was a ton of stress, worry, and loss due to those days of working on TNI. The release I felt at the end of it all was liberating.

The second big deal was merging "Gravel Grinder News" with Ben Welnak's RidingGravel.com . This has worked out a heck of a lot better for me than my previous gig and I really still enjoy it.

Finally, I was gifted a Surly 1X1 by a departing co-worker at the shop where I was wrenching. This was a bike that had been passed on from mechanic to mechanic and I was the sixth "possessor" of this rig. This is the sort of gesture which I really am touched by. While the 1X1 is a size too small for me in reality, I am super-stoked to be able to use it. Thanks to the previous mechanics: Vance, Jeff, Carl, Adam, and Brian.

Guitar Ted Productions "Rear View Decade" Part 2

The "Rear View Decade" posts are my take on the soon to be closed out decade from 2010-2019. These posts will be a look back at some of the most impactful, notable, and odd events I posted about here on the blog with some new commentary. This will be from a perspective having the benefit of time to consider things, so I reserve the right to have a bit different opinion on some topics than I did "back then". Enjoy!

If you missed the first post involving my look back at the decade, you can see that here. In that post I explained how it was that I discovered that 2014 was a seminal year in my history from this past decade. The year was mostly packed with things on the back-end, but you'll get it as I go along. Let's dive in!

The year pretty much kicked off with a bang as I finished my third Triple D fat bike race in a row. This was a lot of fun to do, but after experiencing it three times, I felt I had milked as much fun out of the event as I could. This was my last attempt at that event. On a sad note, a very good friend of mine died who I had been playing music with in the band from my church. Still miss you, Larry!

Moving on, a really devastating event happened in July at the annual Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitational when Dan Buettner and I were struck by a drunk driver along the route. The situation was, without a doubt, bizarre. Not only were we struck as we were walking our bikes alongside the road, but we had a heck of a time getting emergency vehicles there as we were in a remote area and RAGBRAI was also going through at that time. Thankfully, Dan was okay, I was treated and released at an area hospital, but I still have the effects of this event impacting my daily life to this day. By the way, the driver of the vehicle was apprehended and convicted of a DUI. This despite his leaving the scene of the crash.

These were some of the volunteer firemen who responded to the 911 call after my getting hit.

On a bit happier note, the "Trans Iowa Master's Program" went off without a hitch the Summer of '14 with a few making it, and several failed attempts as well. Only Greg Gleason made the adventure as a solo- individual time trial style finisher. This was a challenge I set up as a way to celebrate ten years of Trans Iowa and to feature the old, point-to-point beginnings of Trans Iowa.

Speaking of Trans Iowa, I tried to make it so T.I.v10 would be the last Trans Iowa, but afterward I was prevailed upon to continue it. Again- these tales will be shared in future "Trans Iowa Stories" posts. 

I also started sharing experiences with my son, Jacob, at Iowa Speedway. The first one was an very memorable camping event where my then 11 year old son and I were stuck in a two-man backpacking tent in an epic thunderstorm as we camped overnight at Rock Creek State Park. That's an experience I don't think either one of us will be forgetting!

In the Fall of '14 I held the first "Geezer Ride". This was an idea I had to encourage first timer gravel rides, and have these rides be super-chill, slow events where no one would be intimidated, or left behind. There have been several Geezer Rides since, but none more successful, perhaps, in the original mission, than the first.

I had a woman show up, in her late 40's, and she had just begun to ride. As in just a few months before this event, for the first time in her life! She showed up on a Specialized mountain bike, and she was telling me to "just go on ahead, don't wait for me!". Well, of course, we did wait for her. It was a slow 40-ish miles around the Amana Colonies, but afterward, when she had completed the event, she was elated. She told us it was the best day she had ever had. While I doubt that was the best day she had ever had, the sentiment was there, and I felt proud that this ride had produced such a result right out of the gate. I hope this woman is still riding, but even if she isn't, this was a high point for me in 2014 and for the decade.

On the bicycle front I got my Blackborow DS, a fat bike I still own, and certainly one of my favorite bikes. I also got the Tamland 2 gravel bike, a bicycle I helped to direct the design of. This was such an odd and very proud thing I was involved with. The Raleigh design team called me on a conference call in 2012. They asked me what I would do if I had free reign to design a marketable gravel bike. The Tamland was the result. I probably will never have such an opportunity to do that again. And by the way- I bought my Tamlannd 2 from the shop where I worked at. I never was given one by Raleigh. But I'm completely okay with that.

Joel Dyke was honored with this special brew in 2016. I miss him. #biggrin

Then things weren't so fun for a while. November brought bad news when I learned of Steve Hed's sudden death. I met him the year before and really liked the guy. I was hoping to get to know him better, but obviously that won't happen. Then, in December, I learned of the accidental death of Joel Dyke.

This one hit me hard. While I could never have said that Joel was my close friend, he was super influential on me and my views concerning Trans Iowa and gravel events in particular. Many of you don't know this, but Joel was "johnny-on-the-spot" to be the first to encourage me if he detected a sense of me being down about Trans Iowa. He obviously was reading this blog, and his perceptive encouragements were valued greatly by me. Trans Iowa wouldn't have been the same without him.

At the close of 2014, a couple of major shifts in my semi-professional life as a writer/reviewer/website owner happened. First off, I got out of ownership and contributing to "Twenty Nine Inches". While I know that many people benefited from my efforts there, I was wanting out from underneath that burden for years. In fact, I never should have ever agreed to Tim Grahl's offers in the first place. That was a bad decision on my part, minus the great, lasting relationships I gained from having agreed to those ill-conceived notions of his. Anyway- I am still torn about that. I get that I have things I would not have had otherwise, but I also know there was a ton of stress, worry, and loss due to those days of working on TNI. The release I felt at the end of it all was liberating.

The second big deal was merging "Gravel Grinder News" with Ben Welnak's RidingGravel.com . This has worked out a heck of a lot better for me than my previous gig and I really still enjoy it.

Finally, I was gifted a Surly 1X1 by a departing co-worker at the shop where I was wrenching. This was a bike that had been passed on from mechanic to mechanic and I was the sixth "possessor" of this rig. This is the sort of gesture which I really am touched by. While the 1X1 is a size too small for me in reality, I am super-stoked to be able to use it. Thanks to the previous mechanics: Vance, Jeff, Carl, Adam, and Brian.

Guitar Ted Productions "Rear View Decade"- Part 1

The "Rear View Decade" posts are my take on the soon to be closed out decade from 2010-2019. These posts will be a look back at some of the most impactful, notable, and odd events I posted about here on the blog with some new commentary. This will be from a perspective having the benefit of time to consider things, so I reserve the right to have a bit different opinion on some topics than I did "back then". Enjoy!

As I researched material for these posts, I was immediately struck by a couple of things, but first, I should give you my criteria for choosing what I did.

I used previous "Rear View" posts to select my topics, since those posts already were a filter, as it were, for the bulk of posts I had put up for any given year. When you have 300+ posts to choose topics from each year, a filter is a must! With that filter already in place, I filtered out even more, trying to use only what I deemed to be the most important stories from each year. That said, there will not be a "top ten", or anything even close to that! My hope was to end up with three posts, no more, and then move on. I may actually have that, but there is one oddity that sticks out like a sore thumb here.

The year 2014.

I used a note pad to jot down topics for reference for these posts, and I ended up with three pages. The year 2014 took up an entire page! The other years filled up the other two pages. So, it is quite obvious to me now looking back that for this past decade, 2014 was by far the most impactful year I experienced. We'll find out why in the next "Rear View Decade" post. Okay, onward.........

2010: The fact that I ended up being a character in a book, albeit only one chapter of the book, was a surreal experience. This isn't something you think about becoming a reality when you are grown up. Maybe as a kid I thought I'd be a movie star, or in a book, for a hot minute, but I never thought this would be my reality. (In fact, both things happened to me, as we shall see.)

As I read those pages for the first time, I remember being very conscious of  what other folks think of me. It was scary, and very much as if I had been under a microscope. In the end though, I have come to accept the characterization of myself, and perhaps I have even embraced it somewhat.

Then there was the "official" dot-com "Gravel Grinder News" site which I launched that year. This had existed as a sub-text and before that, a subject, on my blog since 2008. This led to new reviewing opportunities and new connections. All from a desire to just see a calendar of events created. In the same area of website ownership, I fully became the recognized owner of "Twenty Nine Inches" in 2010.

In 2011, I was in a film! This was a documentary of Trans Iowa v7 by Jeff Frings. I won't get into this too much here, because it is really a story for "Trans Iowa Stories". All I'll say here is, it almost never happened. Stay tuned for that story.....

Furthermore, related to Trans Iowa, was the production of Trans Iowa v8, a singularly important Trans Iowa to me personally for many reasons. Again- these stories will be saved for the "Trans Iowa Stories" series, but this was monumental for me personally. You'll hopefully understand why later.

Late in 2011 I got the original Ti Mukluk. A great bike that I put a lot of time into riding, tweaking, and writing about. I just sold it this year, but I loved that bike and it was important to me for a lot of reasons. Moving on to 2012, I started up a gravel group ride dubbed "3GR". I probably was too far ahead of the times with this, as I struggled to drum up much interest in doing this activity. Also in '12 I wrote the page detailing the history of 29"ers, which you can find at the top of this blog under the header.

I met Steve Hed during my last trip to Interbike in 2013.

2013 marked my last trip to Interbike. I had a love-hate relationship with the show. I hated the venue, I disliked the format, and I loved seeing the people. One of the highlights of all my Interbike trips happened the last time I went, and it involved meeting someone I never dreamed I'd ever meet, that I was super stoked to have met, and count myself blessed that I had the chance.

Briefly- I was cruising the aisles at the Mandalay, when I ran across someone that said Steve Hed was wanting to meet me. What?!! The triathlon guy? The aero wheel roadie guy? What on Earth do I have in common with him? 

Well, as it turned out, we had a LOT in common! We both loved riding gravel roads, peacefulness, and rural settings. We had a great little chat, and he turned out to be nothing I thought he was. I can say with confidence I would have loved to have spent a lot more time with him, but it wasn't to be.

I got to see a Pro level cyclo-cross race when I attended Cross Vegas. That was neat. I introduced the Trans Iowa Clinic, held in Des Moines, to spread the word on ultra-gravel event prep. I also started up the framework for the "Trans Iowa Master's Program". Finally, in terms of events, I attended Odin's Revenge for the first time in 2013, meeting a lot of great folks, and getting bitten by the bug for that event which haunts me to this day.

To close out this first "Rear View Decade" post, I wanted to mention that my childhood hero, and one of my mentors as a kid growing up, a man I learned so much from- my Grandpa Kenny, died in August of 2013. I was a pall bearer, as he outlived all of his contemporaries at 102 years of age. I still recall all those leggy, yellow prairie sunflowers waving in the wind in the ditches along Highway 63 on my way home from that event. To this day, I call them "Grandpa Flowers".

Next: "Rear View Decade Part 2. This one covering only the year 2014. Stay tuned.....

Guitar Ted Productions "Rear View Decade"- Part 1

The "Rear View Decade" posts are my take on the soon to be closed out decade from 2010-2019. These posts will be a look back at some of the most impactful, notable, and odd events I posted about here on the blog with some new commentary. This will be from a perspective having the benefit of time to consider things, so I reserve the right to have a bit different opinion on some topics than I did "back then". Enjoy!

As I researched material for these posts, I was immediately struck by a couple of things, but first, I should give you my criteria for choosing what I did.

I used previous "Rear View" posts to select my topics, since those posts already were a filter, as it were, for the bulk of posts I had put up for any given year. When you have 300+ posts to choose topics from each year, a filter is a must! With that filter already in place, I filtered out even more, trying to use only what I deemed to be the most important stories from each year. That said, there will not be a "top ten", or anything even close to that! My hope was to end up with three posts, no more, and then move on. I may actually have that, but there is one oddity that sticks out like a sore thumb here.

The year 2014.

I used a note pad to jot down topics for reference for these posts, and I ended up with three pages. The year 2014 took up an entire page! The other years filled up the other two pages. So, it is quite obvious to me now looking back that for this past decade, 2014 was by far the most impactful year I experienced. We'll find out why in the next "Rear View Decade" post. Okay, onward.........

2010: The fact that I ended up being a character in a book, albeit only one chapter of the book, was a surreal experience. This isn't something you think about becoming a reality when you are grown up. Maybe as a kid I thought I'd be a movie star, or in a book, for a hot minute, but I never thought this would be my reality. (In fact, both things happened to me, as we shall see.)

As I read those pages for the first time, I remember being very conscious of  what other folks think of me. It was scary, and very much as if I had been under a microscope. In the end though, I have come to accept the characterization of myself, and perhaps I have even embraced it somewhat.

Then there was the "official" dot-com "Gravel Grinder News" site which I launched that year. This had existed as a sub-text and before that, a subject, on my blog since 2008. This led to new reviewing opportunities and new connections. All from a desire to just see a calendar of events created. In the same area of website ownership, I fully became the recognized owner of "Twenty Nine Inches" in 2010.

In 2011, I was in a film! This was a documentary of Trans Iowa v7 by Jeff Frings. I won't get into this too much here, because it is really a story for "Trans Iowa Stories". All I'll say here is, it almost never happened. Stay tuned for that story.....

Furthermore, related to Trans Iowa, was the production of Trans Iowa v8, a singularly important Trans Iowa to me personally for many reasons. Again- these stories will be saved for the "Trans Iowa Stories" series, but this was monumental for me personally. You'll hopefully understand why later.

Late in 2011 I got the original Ti Mukluk. A great bike that I put a lot of time into riding, tweaking, and writing about. I just sold it this year, but I loved that bike and it was important to me for a lot of reasons. Moving on to 2012, I started up a gravel group ride dubbed "3GR". I probably was too far ahead of the times with this, as I struggled to drum up much interest in doing this activity. Also in '12 I wrote the page detailing the history of 29"ers, which you can find at the top of this blog under the header.

I met Steve Hed during my last trip to Interbike in 2013.

2013 marked my last trip to Interbike. I had a love-hate relationship with the show. I hated the venue, I disliked the format, and I loved seeing the people. One of the highlights of all my Interbike trips happened the last time I went, and it involved meeting someone I never dreamed I'd ever meet, that I was super stoked to have met, and count myself blessed that I had the chance.

Briefly- I was cruising the aisles at the Mandalay, when I ran across someone that said Steve Hed was wanting to meet me. What?!! The triathlon guy? The aero wheel roadie guy? What on Earth do I have in common with him? 

Well, as it turned out, we had a LOT in common! We both loved riding gravel roads, peacefulness, and rural settings. We had a great little chat, and he turned out to be nothing I thought he was. I can say with confidence I would have loved to have spent a lot more time with him, but it wasn't to be.

I got to see a Pro level cyclo-cross race when I attended Cross Vegas. That was neat. I introduced the Trans Iowa Clinic, held in Des Moines, to spread the word on ultra-gravel event prep. I also started up the framework for the "Trans Iowa Master's Program". Finally, in terms of events, I attended Odin's Revenge for the first time in 2013, meeting a lot of great folks, and getting bitten by the bug for that event which haunts me to this day.

To close out this first "Rear View Decade" post, I wanted to mention that my childhood hero, and one of my mentors as a kid growing up, a man I learned so much from- my Grandpa Kenny, died in August of 2013. I was a pall bearer, as he outlived all of his contemporaries at 102 years of age. I still recall all those leggy, yellow prairie sunflowers waving in the wind in the ditches along Highway 63 on my way home from that event. To this day, I call them "Grandpa Flowers".

Next: "Rear View Decade Part 2. This one covering only the year 2014. Stay tuned.....

Minus Ten Review- 48

Remember those goofy triangular knobs?

Ten years ago this week I was scrambling just like I am this week to get in some last minute testing for review purposes. Some things never change.

Anyway, 29"er tires were the topic of the week, for the most part. We had Schwalbe Racing Ralph 2.4's come in and I was hinting that Continental would finally have some real 29"er tires as they were set to introduce the 2.4" Mountain King. It was an odd tire with triangular knobs and at first, it was really undersized. Funny thing was that if you dared to set them up tubeless, (and I did), they stretched out to be just a hair over 2.4" wide. Weird! They were knid of squirmy in corners and off cambers, and Conti didn't stick with this design very long before they pulled it and introduced an updated design with more traditional squarish knobs.

The Racing Ralph, on the other hand, was awesome. It was big, voluminous, and the knobs worked decently well. We really liked it on our single speed bikes here. Too bad they weren't tubeless. They were great on packed snow though. I'll have more on that in a future "Minus Ten Review".

The "Rear View 2007" kicked into gear, (as it will for 2017 soon), and I was reminiscing about the major bicycle related events of the year. Sea Otter backed up by Trans Iowa v3 was.......stupid. I did that one other time and then I pushed Trans Iowa out to the first week of May once, a never again done time for Trans Iowa, all because doing Sea Otter the weekend before Trans Iowa was so draining. After 2009, I never went back to the Otter mostly due to being involved in Trans Iowa.

Minus Ten Review- 48

Remember those goofy triangular knobs?

Ten years ago this week I was scrambling just like I am this week to get in some last minute testing for review purposes. Some things never change.

Anyway, 29"er tires were the topic of the week, for the most part. We had Schwalbe Racing Ralph 2.4's come in and I was hinting that Continental would finally have some real 29"er tires as they were set to introduce the 2.4" Mountain King. It was an odd tire with triangular knobs and at first, it was really undersized. Funny thing was that if you dared to set them up tubeless, (and I did), they stretched out to be just a hair over 2.4" wide. Weird! They were knid of squirmy in corners and off cambers, and Conti didn't stick with this design very long before they pulled it and introduced an updated design with more traditional squarish knobs.

The Racing Ralph, on the other hand, was awesome. It was big, voluminous, and the knobs worked decently well. We really liked it on our single speed bikes here. Too bad they weren't tubeless. They were great on packed snow though. I'll have more on that in a future "Minus Ten Review".

The "Rear View 2007" kicked into gear, (as it will for 2017 soon), and I was reminiscing about the major bicycle related events of the year. Sea Otter backed up by Trans Iowa v3 was.......stupid. I did that one other time and then I pushed Trans Iowa out to the first week of May once, a never again done time for Trans Iowa, all because doing Sea Otter the weekend before Trans Iowa was so draining. After 2009, I never went back to the Otter mostly due to being involved in Trans Iowa.