The Story Of Guitar Ted: Back To Shop Rat Status

 

A Guitar Ted Productions series

Welcome to this series on G-Ted Productions! This series will jump off from the time where the "Race Against Death Tour" ended and will take you up to the beginnings of Trans Iowa in late 2004. This is an eight year period where my life was transformed. You could say it was metamorphosed from the old to something quite new.

This won't have a lot of bicycle stuff in it at times, but it is all essential to the story of "Guitar Ted". This isn't about where the name came from. That's all here.  No, this is about the person. 

As with previous historical series on the blog, images will be a rarity. Cell phones, social media, and digital images were not available to take advantage of in those last days of analog living.  

In this post we get up to speed to what I was up to just before Trans Iowa started.

Back To Shop Rat Status: Once I walked in to Europa Cycle & Ski in mid-September, 2002, I was walking back into a world that hadn't slowed down for me. There were a LOT of new developments and technologies which didn't exist six years before then when I walked out of Advantage Cyclery the last time. Disc brakes were coming on, pipe spindle bottom brackets, and the beginnings of tubeless tires for mountain biking. There was also this curiosity called a 29"er. Now that I was up to speed on, and that was because of a relatively new thing called a "PC" and the Internet.

Now, you don't have to tell me that PC's and the internet actually go way back. I knew that too. But what had become different was that consumers were buying home PC's by the droves due to the easy access to the internet via phone lines. "Dial up" internet access opened the doors wide for regular folks to begin to cruise the internet and all the free information which was flowing then.

I had first begun to "surf the net" when I met Mrs. Guitar Ted in 1998. The whole internet thing forced me to choose a "screen name". I had been using "Ted Head" as a moniker off and on since high school, but that name was always unavailable. There was a short time I used another alternative screen name here and there, but that faded away.  So, I landed on "Guitar Ted" for everything. With that out of the way, I went on exploring the small world of 29"ers.

By the year 2000 I had heard about and read more concerning 29 inch wheeled mountain bikes. The publication, "Dirt Rag", ran a really early and informational piece on 29"ers in 2000. Keep in mind, there were no 29"ers until 1999, so this all happened rather quickly for me. I ran across a site called "MTBR.com" and they had a 29"er forum. That was that. By the time I had become a "shop rat" again, I knew my next bike was going to be a 29"er.

And that happened rather quickly as well. I started out riding to work on my pimped out Bontrager Race, but by February 2003 I had sold it and ordered a 2003 Campstove Green Karate Monkey frame and fork. The parts were accumulated over the next several weeks, and by April that year I was riding around on the first 29"er anyone had seen around here. So, it didn't take me long to get back into "bicycle acquisition mode"!

It also didn't take me very long to make friends with the other mechanic at the shop. His name was Jeff Kerkove, a fairly successful solo 24hr racer. He was finishing up his studies at the University of Northern Iowa and working at the shop when he wasn't piling on an insane amount of gravel miles on a beat up old 1999 Surly 1 X 1. (Yes, the very same one I have now) What I didn't know then was that Jeff had been known as a pretty quiet guy at the shop. He didn't chat much with his previous co-workers. He spent most of his time keeping to himself. But something happened when I came to work there. I did not realize Jeff was anything other than a funny, "regular guy" that liked heavy metal and rode a ton. One day, our boss came out and confronted me when Jeff was gone.

"Hey", he asked, "What did you do to Jeff?" I was not following. My boss explained further. "Well, usually Jeff is pretty quiet until you came in. Now I hear him laughing. I have never heard him laugh before. What did you do?"

Well, I didn't know I had "done" anything but be myself. So my only explanation was that we had hit it off. There was just something there. That "something" turned into a friendship and then a brief partnership. By the Fall of 2004, we were good buddies, and then something happened that changed my life- again. It has resulted in one of the biggest changes I've experienced in life. That was becoming co-founder of this goofy idea called Trans Iowa.

This draws to a close the series "The Story Of Guitar Ted". I hope that you all enjoyed my journey from touring guy/shop rat guy to auto mechanic, getting married again, having children, and then getting back to being a shop rat again.

My intentions are to now start crafting the "Trans Iowa Stories" drafts here online. There will be a post about this idea later this week. Stay tuned.....

The Story Of Guitar Ted: Back To Shop Rat Status

 

A Guitar Ted Productions series

Welcome to this series on G-Ted Productions! This series will jump off from the time where the "Race Against Death Tour" ended and will take you up to the beginnings of Trans Iowa in late 2004. This is an eight year period where my life was transformed. You could say it was metamorphosed from the old to something quite new.

This won't have a lot of bicycle stuff in it at times, but it is all essential to the story of "Guitar Ted". This isn't about where the name came from. That's all here.  No, this is about the person. 

As with previous historical series on the blog, images will be a rarity. Cell phones, social media, and digital images were not available to take advantage of in those last days of analog living.  

In this post we get up to speed to what I was up to just before Trans Iowa started.

Back To Shop Rat Status: Once I walked in to Europa Cycle & Ski in mid-September, 2002, I was walking back into a world that hadn't slowed down for me. There were a LOT of new developments and technologies which didn't exist six years before then when I walked out of Advantage Cyclery the last time. Disc brakes were coming on, pipe spindle bottom brackets, and the beginnings of tubeless tires for mountain biking. There was also this curiosity called a 29"er. Now that I was up to speed on, and that was because of a relatively new thing called a "PC" and the Internet.

Now, you don't have to tell me that PC's and the internet actually go way back. I knew that too. But what had become different was that consumers were buying home PC's by the droves due to the easy access to the internet via phone lines. "Dial up" internet access opened the doors wide for regular folks to begin to cruise the internet and all the free information which was flowing then.

I had first begun to "surf the net" when I met Mrs. Guitar Ted in 1998. The whole internet thing forced me to choose a "screen name". I had been using "Ted Head" as a moniker off and on since high school, but that name was always unavailable. There was a short time I used another alternative screen name here and there, but that faded away.  So, I landed on "Guitar Ted" for everything. With that out of the way, I went on exploring the small world of 29"ers.

By the year 2000 I had heard about and read more concerning 29 inch wheeled mountain bikes. The publication, "Dirt Rag", ran a really early and informational piece on 29"ers in 2000. Keep in mind, there were no 29"ers until 1999, so this all happened rather quickly for me. I ran across a site called "MTBR.com" and they had a 29"er forum. That was that. By the time I had become a "shop rat" again, I knew my next bike was going to be a 29"er.

And that happened rather quickly as well. I started out riding to work on my pimped out Bontrager Race, but by February 2003 I had sold it and ordered a 2003 Campstove Green Karate Monkey frame and fork. The parts were accumulated over the next several weeks, and by April that year I was riding around on the first 29"er anyone had seen around here. So, it didn't take me long to get back into "bicycle acquisition mode"!

It also didn't take me very long to make friends with the other mechanic at the shop. His name was Jeff Kerkove, a fairly successful solo 24hr racer. He was finishing up his studies at the University of Northern Iowa and working at the shop when he wasn't piling on an insane amount of gravel miles on a beat up old 1999 Surly 1 X 1. (Yes, the very same one I have now) What I didn't know then was that Jeff had been known as a pretty quiet guy at the shop. He didn't chat much with his previous co-workers. He spent most of his time keeping to himself. But something happened when I came to work there. I did not realize Jeff was anything other than a funny, "regular guy" that liked heavy metal and rode a ton. One day, our boss came out and confronted me when Jeff was gone.

"Hey", he asked, "What did you do to Jeff?" I was not following. My boss explained further. "Well, usually Jeff is pretty quiet until you came in. Now I hear him laughing. I have never heard him laugh before. What did you do?"

Well, I didn't know I had "done" anything but be myself. So my only explanation was that we had hit it off. There was just something there. That "something" turned into a friendship and then a brief partnership. By the Fall of 2004, we were good buddies, and then something happened that changed my life- again. It has resulted in one of the biggest changes I've experienced in life. That was becoming co-founder of this goofy idea called Trans Iowa.

This draws to a close the series "The Story Of Guitar Ted". I hope that you all enjoyed my journey from touring guy/shop rat guy to auto mechanic, getting married again, having children, and then getting back to being a shop rat again.

My intentions are to now start crafting the "Trans Iowa Stories" drafts here online. There will be a post about this idea later this week. Stay tuned.....

End Of The Year Questions: The Feedback Report

Friday I asked for feedback on a few ideas I had concerning "The Future" of the blog and a few ideas I had. Today I wanted to address that feedback in a post. I could have answered in the comments, but as you all know, I don't like doing that when the answers are more general, or about the blog, because then not many people will see those answers.

Okay, so with that let me dive into some thoughts I have after reading all of your comments. And before I get to that.......

Thank You!

I read every comment here and I appreciate all of you taking the time to make those comments. The readers here are why I have kept going for all these years now. It is very encouraging to hear from each of you when you take time and effort to comment.

• Miscellaneous Topics; I got a few comments I wanted to address here that were singular in nature and comments, quite frankly, I wasn't expecting. I wish I had the experiences, resources, and contacts to cover some of these important concepts that some of you brought up. The thing is, I don't want to cover anything as a topic unless I feel I can do it justice. Secondly, I also want to keep a focus on this blog. Getting broader in theme isn't conducive to my keeping that focus. However; when I get people involved, particularly with my other site, RidingGravel.com, I can use their expertise and contributions there. So, it isn't out of the realm of possibilities that some of these subjects that were proposed would be covered. They would probably not be covered by myself, and probably not here on this blog. A good example is John Ingham, who has contributed some fine work on the aging cyclist, health, and nutrition. (Plug his name in the search field on Riding Gravel and you'll find his articles.) I will keep those subjects in mind and if the opportunity arises to get a contribution to RidingGravel.com that covers those ideas, I will link those articles back here. 
• T-Shirts: I received some positive comments and at least one negative one concerning the t-shirt idea. I did not see any mandate to go ahead with that idea though. I may do something, but I may not since the idea wasn't enthusiastically received, in my view. But that said, don't be surprised someday if you see something here for sale. I've got some resources to do some art projects and t-shirts could be a part of that, but not necessarily t-shirts either. Stay tuned.......
• Trans Iowa Series: It was pretty clear that readers want to see this happen. I also want to do it. So, you can expect that to happen. Here's my thoughts. A rough sketch idea of what you can expect to see coming.......

First off, I don't think many of you quite understand that the "Touring Series" and this forthcoming Trans Iowa based series are inextricably linked. So, when the "Touring Series" ends, there will be a transitional post, maybe two or three, that bring you from August, 1995 to November, 2004 when Trans Iowa was born.

Expect these posts on Sundays. It was clear that this day seems to work for most of you.

The theme and tone of this series was indicated by your requests that I leave out the "technical" stuff which many of you said was not of interest to you at all. The "back story" was of interest. One of you said, quite rightly, that I have already covered a LOT of ground on Trans Iowa. (Just search "Ten Years Of Tales" on this blog, and you'll see what I mean.) So, not only did you want to read this series, you pretty much had a good idea of what you wanted too.

The "technical stuff" comments were curious to me. First of all, I am not sure what that means to you readers, exactly, and second of all, I don't think this would be interesting for me to dive into either. I don't want to pick on anyone here in particular, but I think one of you pretty much nailed what I feel this should be when you said to tell it," .......... how you would tell it if you were 95 years old and your great grandson came to visit and asked ole Gramps what it was like." 

Essentially, how I am writing "The Touring Series" is what you can expect here. I envision stuff that draws from stories I brought up in the "Ten Years of Tales" posts, of which there are 46 posts! Those will be embellished with my thoughts and feelings on those stories with additional information never before shared.

The only question I have yet to decide is how I want to approach the telling. Chronologically would make sense, but in some ways the themes within this story span years, and that would make for a somewhat disjointed tale. I'm thinking along the lines of characters like Ira Ryan, or how the media became a part of Trans Iowa, and other tales.

It might be more fun to attack this as tales about certain aspects of Trans Iowa, and really, if I was a 95 year old guy, that's how you'd get this story. It would be memories about recon, riders, Level B Roads, etc. You know, like "I remember these guys called Team Polska that came to a few Trans Iowas....."

So, I have to figure that part out yet. But here again- please comment if you have any suggestions. 

And thank you so much for reading here! 

End Of The Year Questions: The Feedback Report

Friday I asked for feedback on a few ideas I had concerning "The Future" of the blog and a few ideas I had. Today I wanted to address that feedback in a post. I could have answered in the comments, but as you all know, I don't like doing that when the answers are more general, or about the blog, because then not many people will see those answers.

Okay, so with that let me dive into some thoughts I have after reading all of your comments. And before I get to that.......

Thank You!

I read every comment here and I appreciate all of you taking the time to make those comments. The readers here are why I have kept going for all these years now. It is very encouraging to hear from each of you when you take time and effort to comment.

• Miscellaneous Topics; I got a few comments I wanted to address here that were singular in nature and comments, quite frankly, I wasn't expecting. I wish I had the experiences, resources, and contacts to cover some of these important concepts that some of you brought up. The thing is, I don't want to cover anything as a topic unless I feel I can do it justice. Secondly, I also want to keep a focus on this blog. Getting broader in theme isn't conducive to my keeping that focus. However; when I get people involved, particularly with my other site, RidingGravel.com, I can use their expertise and contributions there. So, it isn't out of the realm of possibilities that some of these subjects that were proposed would be covered. They would probably not be covered by myself, and probably not here on this blog. A good example is John Ingham, who has contributed some fine work on the aging cyclist, health, and nutrition. (Plug his name in the search field on Riding Gravel and you'll find his articles.) I will keep those subjects in mind and if the opportunity arises to get a contribution to RidingGravel.com that covers those ideas, I will link those articles back here. 
• T-Shirts: I received some positive comments and at least one negative one concerning the t-shirt idea. I did not see any mandate to go ahead with that idea though. I may do something, but I may not since the idea wasn't enthusiastically received, in my view. But that said, don't be surprised someday if you see something here for sale. I've got some resources to do some art projects and t-shirts could be a part of that, but not necessarily t-shirts either. Stay tuned.......
• Trans Iowa Series: It was pretty clear that readers want to see this happen. I also want to do it. So, you can expect that to happen. Here's my thoughts. A rough sketch idea of what you can expect to see coming.......

First off, I don't think many of you quite understand that the "Touring Series" and this forthcoming Trans Iowa based series are inextricably linked. So, when the "Touring Series" ends, there will be a transitional post, maybe two or three, that bring you from August, 1995 to November, 2004 when Trans Iowa was born.

Expect these posts on Sundays. It was clear that this day seems to work for most of you.

The theme and tone of this series was indicated by your requests that I leave out the "technical" stuff which many of you said was not of interest to you at all. The "back story" was of interest. One of you said, quite rightly, that I have already covered a LOT of ground on Trans Iowa. (Just search "Ten Years Of Tales" on this blog, and you'll see what I mean.) So, not only did you want to read this series, you pretty much had a good idea of what you wanted too.

The "technical stuff" comments were curious to me. First of all, I am not sure what that means to you readers, exactly, and second of all, I don't think this would be interesting for me to dive into either. I don't want to pick on anyone here in particular, but I think one of you pretty much nailed what I feel this should be when you said to tell it," .......... how you would tell it if you were 95 years old and your great grandson came to visit and asked ole Gramps what it was like." 

Essentially, how I am writing "The Touring Series" is what you can expect here. I envision stuff that draws from stories I brought up in the "Ten Years of Tales" posts, of which there are 46 posts! Those will be embellished with my thoughts and feelings on those stories with additional information never before shared.

The only question I have yet to decide is how I want to approach the telling. Chronologically would make sense, but in some ways the themes within this story span years, and that would make for a somewhat disjointed tale. I'm thinking along the lines of characters like Ira Ryan, or how the media became a part of Trans Iowa, and other tales.

It might be more fun to attack this as tales about certain aspects of Trans Iowa, and really, if I was a 95 year old guy, that's how you'd get this story. It would be memories about recon, riders, Level B Roads, etc. You know, like "I remember these guys called Team Polska that came to a few Trans Iowas....."

So, I have to figure that part out yet. But here again- please comment if you have any suggestions. 

And thank you so much for reading here!