A Look Forward To 2015

So, it's the end of another year, and as I look forward to the next, I am pretty stoked on the possibilities. The coming year will be busy, like any other, but I hope to have a bit more streamlined and fun time ahead than I have had in the past.

I will be partaking in several events next year- some I have no idea about, yet..... These are the ones I am sure I am going to get to. First up is Frostbike in Minneapolis. I have a very fond place in my heart for this event and what it means to me. Mostly because of the people, of course, but Frostbike is also something that is interesting in its own right. Some years more so than others, but usually there is something- or many things- I was glad to have seen and learned about. This February I hope to carry that tradition onward.....

• Then I do know that there will be another Geezer Ride in either late March or mid-April at the latest. It will happen from Grinnell, Iowa, and it will be the 40-ish mile, no drop format with a visit to a pub afterward. I'll nail down a date soon, and then ya'all that want to come can plan on it. 
• The Renegade Gents Race in the first week of April. I wouldn't miss this for the world. My team will hopefully return intact and we will do battle with gravel roads, Budweiser, and Four Loko. 
• Then there will be Trans Iowa Recon and the event itself- T.I.V11. It should be a scene!
• Odin's Revenge will be visited once more, assuming I get in......
• Another Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitational? Yes. I have a score to settle in Clayton County.

That's what I know for sure now. There may be changes- additions, subtractions, or modifications to that plan. I try to stay flexible! Then there is one more thing I have to reveal.....

Since 2005 I have been a contributor to Twenty Nine Inches.com. I was not looking to ever run a website about 29"ers, and in the beginning, I didn't even want to become anything more than an occasional contributor. I let myself be convinced that there was something advantageous to becoming a major contributor in the Fall of '06 at a meeting at Interbike. Then as things progressed, I was made promises that were not fulfilled. By '08, even though I had no reason to stay any longer, I was neck deep in commitments to the site that, at least in a personal sense, I was unwilling to leave unfulfilled. That said, being a total "noob" to anything web related, I suddenly found myself having to pull strings and push buttons I had no idea about. The previous web designer/owner just dumped it all in my lap with almost zero support. Contacts that were previously made by the previous owner were lost, sensitive info I desperately needed, and tech support were non-existent. I was in dire straits with regard to TNI.

Well, I was super blessed to have had Grannygear, and then c_g from Germany pick me up by my bootstraps and make TNI what it is today. Seeing as how the thing is on its feet, and that my contributions are a pittance in comparison to their massive efforts, and seeing as how I am being stretched in other directions, it came time for me to let something go. TNI was the obvious choice. I am a liability to that site, if you want to know the truth of it, and those guys will be far better off without me holding them back. There are a lot of behind the scenes reasons for that which I cannot talk about openly, but that's the gist of it.

So anyway, long story short- I am ceasing day to day involvement with Twenty Nine Inches.com as of today. I have one more "assignment" to fulfill for that site, but then when I file that report with Grannygear I'll be done. It was fun, it was tedious, it was rewarding, and a big learning experience. I come away from that time a better guy for the experience, but it cost me a lot in time and money lost. I hope that by cutting that loose from my life I will gain more time for family and friends. Hopefully that will be the case.

Now onward to 2015.......

A Look Forward To 2015

So, it's the end of another year, and as I look forward to the next, I am pretty stoked on the possibilities. The coming year will be busy, like any other, but I hope to have a bit more streamlined and fun time ahead than I have had in the past.

I will be partaking in several events next year- some I have no idea about, yet..... These are the ones I am sure I am going to get to. First up is Frostbike in Minneapolis. I have a very fond place in my heart for this event and what it means to me. Mostly because of the people, of course, but Frostbike is also something that is interesting in its own right. Some years more so than others, but usually there is something- or many things- I was glad to have seen and learned about. This February I hope to carry that tradition onward.....

• Then I do know that there will be another Geezer Ride in either late March or mid-April at the latest. It will happen from Grinnell, Iowa, and it will be the 40-ish mile, no drop format with a visit to a pub afterward. I'll nail down a date soon, and then ya'all that want to come can plan on it. 
• The Renegade Gents Race in the first week of April. I wouldn't miss this for the world. My team will hopefully return intact and we will do battle with gravel roads, Budweiser, and Four Loko. 
• Then there will be Trans Iowa Recon and the event itself- T.I.V11. It should be a scene!
• Odin's Revenge will be visited once more, assuming I get in......
• Another Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitational? Yes. I have a score to settle in Clayton County.

That's what I know for sure now. There may be changes- additions, subtractions, or modifications to that plan. I try to stay flexible! Then there is one more thing I have to reveal.....

Since 2005 I have been a contributor to Twenty Nine Inches.com. I was not looking to ever run a website about 29"ers, and in the beginning, I didn't even want to become anything more than an occasional contributor. I let myself be convinced that there was something advantageous to becoming a major contributor in the Fall of '06 at a meeting at Interbike. Then as things progressed, I was made promises that were not fulfilled. By '08, even though I had no reason to stay any longer, I was neck deep in commitments to the site that, at least in a personal sense, I was unwilling to leave unfulfilled. That said, being a total "noob" to anything web related, I suddenly found myself having to pull strings and push buttons I had no idea about. The previous web designer/owner just dumped it all in my lap with almost zero support. Contacts that were previously made by the previous owner were lost, sensitive info I desperately needed, and tech support were non-existent. I was in dire straits with regard to TNI.

Well, I was super blessed to have had Grannygear, and then c_g from Germany pick me up by my bootstraps and make TNI what it is today. Seeing as how the thing is on its feet, and that my contributions are a pittance in comparison to their massive efforts, and seeing as how I am being stretched in other directions, it came time for me to let something go. TNI was the obvious choice. I am a liability to that site, if you want to know the truth of it, and those guys will be far better off without me holding them back. There are a lot of behind the scenes reasons for that which I cannot talk about openly, but that's the gist of it.

So anyway, long story short- I am ceasing day to day involvement with Twenty Nine Inches.com as of today. I have one more "assignment" to fulfill for that site, but then when I file that report with Grannygear I'll be done. It was fun, it was tedious, it was rewarding, and a big learning experience. I come away from that time a better guy for the experience, but it cost me a lot in time and money lost. I hope that by cutting that loose from my life I will gain more time for family and friends. Hopefully that will be the case.

Now onward to 2015.......

Guitar Ted Productions Rearview 2010: Part II

Last day of 2010 and my last chance to look back at what was. Here is the link to Part I, (if anyone out there actually cares to look!)

And You Thought You Were A Racer: Yeah- 2010 found me signing up for all kinds of stuff and with the winter not being conducive to outdoors riding coupled with my intense dislike of indoors training, well, let's just say I wasn't even close to being ready to do anything until June. Then when I went on a ride/race, it was invariably hot. No.....wait....super hot. No.....stupid hot!

But just before all of that, I snuck up to the Twin Cities and rode Battle Creek which was an amazing trail system and I got to do it with Gnat on a new Salsa Cycles El Mariachi. Pretty sweet!

At the Dirty Kanza 200 it was about 110 with the heat index figured in and it just cooked me. Big fail there. Then the Fargo Adventure Ride came up, which went lots better, but it wasn't crazy, stupid hot either. In fact, it was the only planned ride I would finish in the entire year. Moving on into July, the Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitational lived up to its name big time. I got fried again. August saw me tackle the Gravel World Championships course in another scorcher of a day, going 108 miles before I bailed out. I was on a single speed in that one. Whoa! It was a tough day.

Back To Bidness! Fall then came and much of my time was being spent riding around here on the local trails doing Twenty Nine Inches testing. There was Interbike, of course, which was........meh! Las Vegas.( nuff said.) But I did get to ride and hang out with Grannygear again. Too little of that going on, but at least we get to do some amount of time together. (And discovering a cool little bakery was icing on that cake<====HA!)

The Trans Iowa night time recon rides with my co-director, "d.p.", were happening in the Fall again, and these were some of the best rides I had all year. One particular solo recon ride was also a standout, as well. This was sort of a redemption for all the good, but unfinished rides of the summertime. Early October saw the Rawland Fall Tour happening, which if it wasn't for a flat tire, I would have gotten the whole ride in. Time constraints and the mechanical caused me to cut it short though. Still, it was a fantastic ride with great folks. Then, in late October, I did the Night Nonsense event, which was a gravel grinder held entirely in the dark. It also ended up being held during some of the most horrendous riding conditions you could imagine. Rain, lightning, and wind all figured into a very, very long and tortuous 80 miles for me. Quite the adventure for sure!

Then I had one last hurrah in Minnesota at Lebanon Hills and Murphy Hanrehan with my friends Gnat, Ben Witt, and Captain Bob. It actually was probably the last good shirt sleeve day of 2010 and the trails were perfecto! It was the first and only time I got to ride on those two off road trails all year. Gotta change that for 2011! Then I kept riding the local trails, right into December. It was a long, great Fall season for riding.

And those were my riding highlights for 2010. I will post my New Year's Resolution Ride Post Saturday, so I won't get into next year's plans just yet!

Have a safe, Happy New Year's celebration tonight, if you are so inclined.

Guitar Ted Productions Rearview 2010: Part II

Last day of 2010 and my last chance to look back at what was. Here is the link to Part I, (if anyone out there actually cares to look!)

And You Thought You Were A Racer: Yeah- 2010 found me signing up for all kinds of stuff and with the winter not being conducive to outdoors riding coupled with my intense dislike of indoors training, well, let's just say I wasn't even close to being ready to do anything until June. Then when I went on a ride/race, it was invariably hot. No.....wait....super hot. No.....stupid hot!

But just before all of that, I snuck up to the Twin Cities and rode Battle Creek which was an amazing trail system and I got to do it with Gnat on a new Salsa Cycles El Mariachi. Pretty sweet!

At the Dirty Kanza 200 it was about 110 with the heat index figured in and it just cooked me. Big fail there. Then the Fargo Adventure Ride came up, which went lots better, but it wasn't crazy, stupid hot either. In fact, it was the only planned ride I would finish in the entire year. Moving on into July, the Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitational lived up to its name big time. I got fried again. August saw me tackle the Gravel World Championships course in another scorcher of a day, going 108 miles before I bailed out. I was on a single speed in that one. Whoa! It was a tough day.

Back To Bidness! Fall then came and much of my time was being spent riding around here on the local trails doing Twenty Nine Inches testing. There was Interbike, of course, which was........meh! Las Vegas.( nuff said.) But I did get to ride and hang out with Grannygear again. Too little of that going on, but at least we get to do some amount of time together. (And discovering a cool little bakery was icing on that cake<====HA!)

The Trans Iowa night time recon rides with my co-director, "d.p.", were happening in the Fall again, and these were some of the best rides I had all year. One particular solo recon ride was also a standout, as well. This was sort of a redemption for all the good, but unfinished rides of the summertime. Early October saw the Rawland Fall Tour happening, which if it wasn't for a flat tire, I would have gotten the whole ride in. Time constraints and the mechanical caused me to cut it short though. Still, it was a fantastic ride with great folks. Then, in late October, I did the Night Nonsense event, which was a gravel grinder held entirely in the dark. It also ended up being held during some of the most horrendous riding conditions you could imagine. Rain, lightning, and wind all figured into a very, very long and tortuous 80 miles for me. Quite the adventure for sure!

Then I had one last hurrah in Minnesota at Lebanon Hills and Murphy Hanrehan with my friends Gnat, Ben Witt, and Captain Bob. It actually was probably the last good shirt sleeve day of 2010 and the trails were perfecto! It was the first and only time I got to ride on those two off road trails all year. Gotta change that for 2011! Then I kept riding the local trails, right into December. It was a long, great Fall season for riding.

And those were my riding highlights for 2010. I will post my New Year's Resolution Ride Post Saturday, so I won't get into next year's plans just yet!

Have a safe, Happy New Year's celebration tonight, if you are so inclined.

Guitar Ted Productions Rearview 2010: Part I

Oh Brother! Not Another Year End Review! Yes folks, it is time to start looking back on the year and looking forward to 2011. I'm going to spare you all the gory details and just talk about what I thought was awesome from the past year, and that doesn't mean all good stuff. There will be plenty of "awesomely bad" stuff mixed in here as well.

The Beginning of 2010: Well, the whole winter was snowy, cold, and it was even more snowy and cold, with outbreaks of really snowy and super-cold weather. Yeah, something like that! It was wearing pretty thin as far as Trans Iowa thoughts were going. I had lots of sponsor news, logistical news, and exciting news about being in a book about events and sports like Trans Iowa.

Then I started messing around with an idea I got late in 2009. I figured someone ought to list all the gravel grinders in one spot with links to the individual event websites/blogs. I figured I'd get about a dozen or so events. I started Gravel Grinder News using an old blog test site I had and the interest was much more than I thought it would be. So much so that I got an actual "dot-com" site up and running for it. So it goes that now I have opened a second page on the site that is a crude calendar of sorts. Anyway, it is what it is and I hope it continues to bring folks happiness in terms of gravely goodness needs.

Other than that, I got a couple cool rigs in to test for Twenty Nine Inches and registered for Gravel Worlds, Dirty Kanza, and a couple more events. It was my biggest, most ambitious race calender in my life. And I am not even a racer! Crazy me.

Next I'll talk some about the Springtime and the highlights from that. Might be a few days before I get to that though. Stay tuned!

Guitar Ted Productions Rearview 2010: Part I

Oh Brother! Not Another Year End Review! Yes folks, it is time to start looking back on the year and looking forward to 2011. I'm going to spare you all the gory details and just talk about what I thought was awesome from the past year, and that doesn't mean all good stuff. There will be plenty of "awesomely bad" stuff mixed in here as well.

The Beginning of 2010: Well, the whole winter was snowy, cold, and it was even more snowy and cold, with outbreaks of really snowy and super-cold weather. Yeah, something like that! It was wearing pretty thin as far as Trans Iowa thoughts were going. I had lots of sponsor news, logistical news, and exciting news about being in a book about events and sports like Trans Iowa.

Then I started messing around with an idea I got late in 2009. I figured someone ought to list all the gravel grinders in one spot with links to the individual event websites/blogs. I figured I'd get about a dozen or so events. I started Gravel Grinder News using an old blog test site I had and the interest was much more than I thought it would be. So much so that I got an actual "dot-com" site up and running for it. So it goes that now I have opened a second page on the site that is a crude calendar of sorts. Anyway, it is what it is and I hope it continues to bring folks happiness in terms of gravely goodness needs.

Other than that, I got a couple cool rigs in to test for Twenty Nine Inches and registered for Gravel Worlds, Dirty Kanza, and a couple more events. It was my biggest, most ambitious race calender in my life. And I am not even a racer! Crazy me.

Next I'll talk some about the Springtime and the highlights from that. Might be a few days before I get to that though. Stay tuned!