The 2023 GTDR: Gear Review, Barns For Jason, Comments

 This should wrap up my comments and images on my ride this past weekend. The images will all be of barns, and of course, these are all barns I had not seen before. Almost all of them being on that section of the ride between Vinton and LaPorte City, since I'd never been out that way before. 

I call those pictures "Barns For Jason" in reference to an old friend and his love of barns. Longtime blog readers are, no doubt, familiar with this. If you are new here and if you like barns, just put "Barns For Jason" in the search box in the header here and hit enter. I'll see you much, much later......

In terms of gear for this ride, I took the Twin Six Standard Rando v2 as my bicycle. There were a few good reasons to do this. First is that I like this bike. But beyond that, it also has a bit lower gearing than my other gravel bikes and I figured that on such a long ride that I may require that lower gearing at times. I was correct on that part! 

The Twin Six Standard Rando v2 (mostly) as I had it set up for the GTDR for 2023.

I did rotate the levers up about 5mm from where they were on the drop bars' hooks which suited me better. I had six bottles of water onboard, which was more than plenty, but at least I never wanted for water. 

The bike has 42mm Pirelli Cinturato Gravel M tires on it which are on WTB carbon wheels. The aforementioned drivetrain is the 2X version of GRX Limited Edition Silver. I did not use the GPS as seen above but instead had a plastic cue sheet holder zip tied to the BarYak Expedition extensions and those were set up as aero bars. The handle bars are Salsa Cowchippers and the stem was a garden variety Easton. The seat post is a carbon Whisky No 7 and the saddle is one of those new WTB Graveliers with carbon rails. Bags are Bike Bag Dude Garage Top Tube Bag and Revelate Designs Tangle Bag. 

I used a Light and Motion VisPro Trail as my headlight and a Raveman rear LED flasher. I think that about covers the bike and accessories. 

 How'd It Do? The bike worked perfectly. There was one point early on in the Old Creamery Trail where I heard odd noises coming out of the chain and rear cassette. I stopped to investigate but found no faults. It may have been an errant bit of foliage or a stick. I do not know. Otherwise I had an excellent performing machine for the day. The amount of water mounting points was more than enough and the bags were perfect. The cue sheet holder did well, but I never used the aero extensions. The gravel was just too deep and sketchy for me to feel comfortable using that accessory. 

What Would I Change? I'd ditch the BarYak system. It wasn't useful and it weighs a lot. The piece itself is well made and works great, but for this purpose it was mostly dead weight, especially on the roads I was traveling. I'd add a Redshift Sports ShockStop Stem. The front fork Twin Six sourced for this bike is just too stiff and my shoulders were aching badly 3/4's of the way into this ride because of that. My headlight was barely able to run two hours, which was just right for what I needed, but it was rated at 3 hours on medium, which is what I thought I had it set to. (I'll have to check on that later) But the quality of the light left a lot to be desired as this light was too washy and destroyed my ability to read the road. The Raveman headlights I have are better at this, by the way. The Raveman tail light was stellar. 

I wore a combination of inner liner, baggie shorts from Showers Pass, and a Voler jersey with an Endura base layer. I used a bandana over my head to keep the sweat off my eyes and to protect my head from getting Sunburned. I also used a Bontrager Circuit helmet and the Rudy Project Cutline glasses. 

My shoes were the new Shimano RX6's and I used Shimano pedals. Socks were some special edition Sock Guy socks made to memorialize Scott Spoo, a Twin Cities area cyclist killed in a motor vehicle crash while riding his bike. 

How'd It Do? Great! I'll dispense with "What Would I Change" because I wouldn't have changed a thing here. By the way, I cleared off the gunk from those glasses before getting to Vinton and then everything was fine there. 

Comments On This Ride Overall: 

So, overall I was pretty happy with the way things went. Yes.....it would have been nice to do the route as intended. That said, that route isn't going anywhere and this ride ended up creating a new route which I thought was worthwhile. 

My fitness and strength was tested, which was kind of the point, and I got to ride for ten hours, which, again, is the point of the GTDR. I bounced back from an early bout with muscle issues, bonking, and from having my original plan nixed by road construction. So, overall I think I succeeded. 

 Going forward I want to build upon this going toward my next chance at a big ride on October 1st which is a 100 mile course with a lot of dirt roads. If I can muster a few nice, long rides from here throughout September I have a good chance of being successful. We'll see. Anything can happen. 

I'm probably going to shift more over to using the Singular Cycles Gryphon, sans racks and all, for that October outing, but the Black Mountain Cycles MCD is also up for bigger tires which I would like to be on for this dirt road course. 

Speaking of the Gryphon, there is a new configuration for bikepacking that will be introduced soon and hopefully used very soon also. Stay tuned on that.

Thank you for reading Guitar Ted Productions.

The 2023 GTDR: Gear Review, Barns For Jason, Comments

 This should wrap up my comments and images on my ride this past weekend. The images will all be of barns, and of course, these are all barns I had not seen before. Almost all of them being on that section of the ride between Vinton and LaPorte City, since I'd never been out that way before. 

I call those pictures "Barns For Jason" in reference to an old friend and his love of barns. Longtime blog readers are, no doubt, familiar with this. If you are new here and if you like barns, just put "Barns For Jason" in the search box in the header here and hit enter. I'll see you much, much later......

In terms of gear for this ride, I took the Twin Six Standard Rando v2 as my bicycle. There were a few good reasons to do this. First is that I like this bike. But beyond that, it also has a bit lower gearing than my other gravel bikes and I figured that on such a long ride that I may require that lower gearing at times. I was correct on that part! 

The Twin Six Standard Rando v2 (mostly) as I had it set up for the GTDR for 2023.

I did rotate the levers up about 5mm from where they were on the drop bars' hooks which suited me better. I had six bottles of water onboard, which was more than plenty, but at least I never wanted for water. 

The bike has 42mm Pirelli Cinturato Gravel M tires on it which are on WTB carbon wheels. The aforementioned drivetrain is the 2X version of GRX Limited Edition Silver. I did not use the GPS as seen above but instead had a plastic cue sheet holder zip tied to the BarYak Expedition extensions and those were set up as aero bars. The handle bars are Salsa Cowchippers and the stem was a garden variety Easton. The seat post is a carbon Whisky No 7 and the saddle is one of those new WTB Graveliers with carbon rails. Bags are Bike Bag Dude Garage Top Tube Bag and Revelate Designs Tangle Bag. 

I used a Light and Motion VisPro Trail as my headlight and a Raveman rear LED flasher. I think that about covers the bike and accessories. 

 How'd It Do? The bike worked perfectly. There was one point early on in the Old Creamery Trail where I heard odd noises coming out of the chain and rear cassette. I stopped to investigate but found no faults. It may have been an errant bit of foliage or a stick. I do not know. Otherwise I had an excellent performing machine for the day. The amount of water mounting points was more than enough and the bags were perfect. The cue sheet holder did well, but I never used the aero extensions. The gravel was just too deep and sketchy for me to feel comfortable using that accessory. 

What Would I Change? I'd ditch the BarYak system. It wasn't useful and it weighs a lot. The piece itself is well made and works great, but for this purpose it was mostly dead weight, especially on the roads I was traveling. I'd add a Redshift Sports ShockStop Stem. The front fork Twin Six sourced for this bike is just too stiff and my shoulders were aching badly 3/4's of the way into this ride because of that. My headlight was barely able to run two hours, which was just right for what I needed, but it was rated at 3 hours on medium, which is what I thought I had it set to. (I'll have to check on that later) But the quality of the light left a lot to be desired as this light was too washy and destroyed my ability to read the road. The Raveman headlights I have are better at this, by the way. The Raveman tail light was stellar. 

I wore a combination of inner liner, baggie shorts from Showers Pass, and a Voler jersey with an Endura base layer. I used a bandana over my head to keep the sweat off my eyes and to protect my head from getting Sunburned. I also used a Bontrager Circuit helmet and the Rudy Project Cutline glasses. 

My shoes were the new Shimano RX6's and I used Shimano pedals. Socks were some special edition Sock Guy socks made to memorialize Scott Spoo, a Twin Cities area cyclist killed in a motor vehicle crash while riding his bike. 

How'd It Do? Great! I'll dispense with "What Would I Change" because I wouldn't have changed a thing here. By the way, I cleared off the gunk from those glasses before getting to Vinton and then everything was fine there. 

Comments On This Ride Overall: 

So, overall I was pretty happy with the way things went. Yes.....it would have been nice to do the route as intended. That said, that route isn't going anywhere and this ride ended up creating a new route which I thought was worthwhile. 

My fitness and strength was tested, which was kind of the point, and I got to ride for ten hours, which, again, is the point of the GTDR. I bounced back from an early bout with muscle issues, bonking, and from having my original plan nixed by road construction. So, overall I think I succeeded. 

 Going forward I want to build upon this going toward my next chance at a big ride on October 1st which is a 100 mile course with a lot of dirt roads. If I can muster a few nice, long rides from here throughout September I have a good chance of being successful. We'll see. Anything can happen. 

I'm probably going to shift more over to using the Singular Cycles Gryphon, sans racks and all, for that October outing, but the Black Mountain Cycles MCD is also up for bigger tires which I would like to be on for this dirt road course. 

Speaking of the Gryphon, there is a new configuration for bikepacking that will be introduced soon and hopefully used very soon also. Stay tuned on that.

Thank you for reading Guitar Ted Productions.

The 2023 Guitar Ted Death Ride: "W-V-W" - Part 1

 Escape Route: West 2nd @ slightly after 4:00am.

 I mentioned earlier last week that I had a day off work and that I had planned a "big ride" for that day. Well, it was going to be my version of the Guitar Ted Death Ride for 2023. I used to invite people to come along with me on this, but since the pandemic and since I "retired" from event promoting I don't do that anymore. I just go solo on this deal now. 

My route was planned to be the same that I failed at in 2020. A route that went South to just East of Dysart, through Garrison, on to Vinton, then just West of Independence and then to Jesup and back to Waterloo. The route, as planned, was right at 100 miles from my house and back again. You can read the 2020 report on the failed attempt HERE. 

This was a "redemption" ride, to finally get that one done. This report will let you know how it all went. I did change up a couple of things this time outside of the route but that did affect the ride. One- I started far earlier and two- I planned better for nutrition. The first attempt failed mostly because I was so amped up about not getting COVID that I forgot to buy food to eat at Vinton. Of course, I bonked. 

This time I took more "on the road food" and I was adamant that I would buy food at Vinton. I also did plan on not eating before I left. I always seem to ride better on an empty stomach, at least for a while, to start out. I planned on stopping about 12 miles in to eat on the road at the corner of Quarry Road and Aker Road. 

Funny, but there isn't a lot to see in the country at night!

The sky was juuuust starting to blush in the East as I took this on Quarry Road.

I also did not take any sort of a computer. I had the route all ready to upload into the Wahoo, and it said it went in, but I could not recall it on the device once I did have it, and what is more, I couldn't find a few other rides that should have been on the device, one or two that were there before. This was discovered mid-week when I did a dry run of my set up. So, I hand wrote my cues, mounted a cue sheet holder, and boom! No worries. (As for Wahoo, and any other GPS, I think I am done with them. More on that in another post)

The other big thing I did was to get up really early and take off. My original plan was to get up at 3:00am. I set an alarm on my phone, but while the app said it was alerting me to wake up, it wasn't. Good thing I woke up on my own at 3:30am. I made it out and was riding by about 4:10am.

Riding at night brings a different sensory vibe. You hear things more keenly, and I noted how there were fewer crickets than usual this year. Probably due to the drought we're in. This drought condition would be a big factor in several ways on this ride. 

"First Breakfast" at the corner was good, and I was moving along at a steady, and a bit slower, pace. Their were no clear "lines" in the gravel, and the Light and Motion light I was using was not a good match for gravel riding as it tended to wash out details and contrasts. I had to keep a firm grasp on the bars to keep the ship pointed in the right direction. 

Headed South, it was getting close to Sunrise.

In the middle of that "S" curve is where Black Hawk County ends and Benton County starts.

The weather was warm, it was still in the low 70's when I got going, and it was very humid. So humid that the moisture condensed on my Rudy Project glasses and my camera lens which then attracted the dust from the roads. This fouled my glasses to the point that they were useless and screwed up a few camera shots until I swiped the lens off. 

There was little wind, which was nice, but what wind there would be was forecast to be out of the North and pretty significant. I was not looking forward to a head wind! 

A super-rare James Greer McQuilken Round Barn on the corner of 52nd St and 11th Ave in Benton County.

A lone silo stands sentinel as the Sunrise is in progress.

It was so humid that I was soaked with a combination of sweat and humidity. I wasn't looking forward to the Sun making things even more uncomfortable. However; as the Sun began to rise it got cooler. The air must have trended drier as well during this time since I started feeling almost too chilly at times, especially in my feet. 

There She is!

There is a very intriguing C Road I wish I could ride down there!

As the Sun came up I saw the roads better and I was able to turn off the light. There were decent lines, but a lot of loose, chunky gravel too. I was starting to battle some issues already before I was 30 miles in. My right trapezius was aching like a son-of-a-gun and I was afraid it might cause me to cut the ride short, but a self-massage while riding seemed to alleviate that to a degree that I forgot about it. 

A fun dirt road and then.....

....A second breakfast at the place I entered the Old Creamery Trail.

I planned a stop at the Old Creamery Tail where I intersected it and that trail is a pea gravel trail which I was to ride all the way East over to Vinton. Here I ate more, took some ibuprofen for the sore muscle, and some electrolyte tabs. Then I was off again on what may have been the most difficult part of the ride for me. 

The Sun made things difficult, but that wasn't the worst of it.

Again, the trail was hard to navigate due to the angle of the Sun when I rode it all the way to Vinton.

While I was able to work the shoulder thing out, I got the "sleepies". I was having a super-hard time staying alert. I ran across a couple joggers that kind of snapped me to for a short while, but I ended up slapping myself, trying to stay awake. Eventually I just had to stop when I found a trailside bench halfway to Vinton out of Garrison. Here I took a brief "cat nap'.

That helped, and I was able to roll into Vinton a little after 8:00am in the morning. I went straight away to Casey's Convenience Store to resupply, and to eat, because I figured that my on-the-road food wasn't cutting it for whatever reason. A slice of breakfast pizza did the trick.

A Monster and a slice-o-pie fixed me right up!

I was pleased at this point and I was about to head out on what I figured would be the hardest part of the route. There would be a headwind and some tough navigation. Plus the Sun would be up and at full steam. Would it get hot and humid? I did not know, but the weather was supposed to be fine. 

Next: "W-V-W" Part 2

The 2023 Guitar Ted Death Ride: "W-V-W" - Part 1

 Escape Route: West 2nd @ slightly after 4:00am.

 I mentioned earlier last week that I had a day off work and that I had planned a "big ride" for that day. Well, it was going to be my version of the Guitar Ted Death Ride for 2023. I used to invite people to come along with me on this, but since the pandemic and since I "retired" from event promoting I don't do that anymore. I just go solo on this deal now. 

My route was planned to be the same that I failed at in 2020. A route that went South to just East of Dysart, through Garrison, on to Vinton, then just West of Independence and then to Jesup and back to Waterloo. The route, as planned, was right at 100 miles from my house and back again. You can read the 2020 report on the failed attempt HERE. 

This was a "redemption" ride, to finally get that one done. This report will let you know how it all went. I did change up a couple of things this time outside of the route but that did affect the ride. One- I started far earlier and two- I planned better for nutrition. The first attempt failed mostly because I was so amped up about not getting COVID that I forgot to buy food to eat at Vinton. Of course, I bonked. 

This time I took more "on the road food" and I was adamant that I would buy food at Vinton. I also did plan on not eating before I left. I always seem to ride better on an empty stomach, at least for a while, to start out. I planned on stopping about 12 miles in to eat on the road at the corner of Quarry Road and Aker Road. 

Funny, but there isn't a lot to see in the country at night!

The sky was juuuust starting to blush in the East as I took this on Quarry Road.

I also did not take any sort of a computer. I had the route all ready to upload into the Wahoo, and it said it went in, but I could not recall it on the device once I did have it, and what is more, I couldn't find a few other rides that should have been on the device, one or two that were there before. This was discovered mid-week when I did a dry run of my set up. So, I hand wrote my cues, mounted a cue sheet holder, and boom! No worries. (As for Wahoo, and any other GPS, I think I am done with them. More on that in another post)

The other big thing I did was to get up really early and take off. My original plan was to get up at 3:00am. I set an alarm on my phone, but while the app said it was alerting me to wake up, it wasn't. Good thing I woke up on my own at 3:30am. I made it out and was riding by about 4:10am.

Riding at night brings a different sensory vibe. You hear things more keenly, and I noted how there were fewer crickets than usual this year. Probably due to the drought we're in. This drought condition would be a big factor in several ways on this ride. 

"First Breakfast" at the corner was good, and I was moving along at a steady, and a bit slower, pace. Their were no clear "lines" in the gravel, and the Light and Motion light I was using was not a good match for gravel riding as it tended to wash out details and contrasts. I had to keep a firm grasp on the bars to keep the ship pointed in the right direction. 

Headed South, it was getting close to Sunrise.

In the middle of that "S" curve is where Black Hawk County ends and Benton County starts.

The weather was warm, it was still in the low 70's when I got going, and it was very humid. So humid that the moisture condensed on my Rudy Project glasses and my camera lens which then attracted the dust from the roads. This fouled my glasses to the point that they were useless and screwed up a few camera shots until I swiped the lens off. 

There was little wind, which was nice, but what wind there would be was forecast to be out of the North and pretty significant. I was not looking forward to a head wind! 

A super-rare James Greer McQuilken Round Barn on the corner of 52nd St and 11th Ave in Benton County.

A lone silo stands sentinel as the Sunrise is in progress.

It was so humid that I was soaked with a combination of sweat and humidity. I wasn't looking forward to the Sun making things even more uncomfortable. However; as the Sun began to rise it got cooler. The air must have trended drier as well during this time since I started feeling almost too chilly at times, especially in my feet. 

There She is!

There is a very intriguing C Road I wish I could ride down there!

As the Sun came up I saw the roads better and I was able to turn off the light. There were decent lines, but a lot of loose, chunky gravel too. I was starting to battle some issues already before I was 30 miles in. My right trapezius was aching like a son-of-a-gun and I was afraid it might cause me to cut the ride short, but a self-massage while riding seemed to alleviate that to a degree that I forgot about it. 

A fun dirt road and then.....

....A second breakfast at the place I entered the Old Creamery Trail.

I planned a stop at the Old Creamery Tail where I intersected it and that trail is a pea gravel trail which I was to ride all the way East over to Vinton. Here I ate more, took some ibuprofen for the sore muscle, and some electrolyte tabs. Then I was off again on what may have been the most difficult part of the ride for me. 

The Sun made things difficult, but that wasn't the worst of it.

Again, the trail was hard to navigate due to the angle of the Sun when I rode it all the way to Vinton.

While I was able to work the shoulder thing out, I got the "sleepies". I was having a super-hard time staying alert. I ran across a couple joggers that kind of snapped me to for a short while, but I ended up slapping myself, trying to stay awake. Eventually I just had to stop when I found a trailside bench halfway to Vinton out of Garrison. Here I took a brief "cat nap'.

That helped, and I was able to roll into Vinton a little after 8:00am in the morning. I went straight away to Casey's Convenience Store to resupply, and to eat, because I figured that my on-the-road food wasn't cutting it for whatever reason. A slice of breakfast pizza did the trick.

A Monster and a slice-o-pie fixed me right up!

I was pleased at this point and I was about to head out on what I figured would be the hardest part of the route. There would be a headwind and some tough navigation. Plus the Sun would be up and at full steam. Would it get hot and humid? I did not know, but the weather was supposed to be fine. 

Next: "W-V-W" Part 2