Trans Iowa Stories: A Tool For Marketing

Part of a trade show booth put together by Salsa Cycles in 2014.

 "Trans Iowa Stories" is an every Sunday post which helps tell the stories behind the event. You can check out other posts about this subject by going back to earlier Sunday posts on this blog. Thanks and enjoy!

By 2012 or so, the gravel riding scene had generated enough interest from participants that bicycling related companies started to take notice. Salsa Cycles being perhaps the first to do so by introducing a purpose built gravel bike in the Warbird. Although it could be argued that the Titanium La Cruz was really the first effort they made to get into the gravel scene.

Of course, when you make a new category of bicycle you are going to need tires to work with it. There were basically none up until Salsa Cycles convinced Donn Kellogg, then running a tire brand called Clement, to produce some. The MSO became that tire, and then with the introduction of the Raleigh Tamland series, it was on from that point. Then, when that happened, well the marketing was sure to follow, and it did big time.

As it related to Trans Iowa, that all could have happened a lot sooner than it did. Jeff Kerkove, who was a big name in solo 24hr racing at the time we started Trans Iowa, had many connections stemming from the endurance mountain bike racing community. One of those relationships was with Red Bull, who sponsored mountain biking events and several athletes in mountain biking. Red Bull agreed to sponsor the first Trans Iowa. It wasn't some token effort either.

This 40ft tent was only one facet of the Red Bull sponsorship of T.I.v1 (Image by D. Kerkove)

Red Bull made a plan to activate their sponsorship across the entire route of the point-to-point event. Remember- that's over 300 miles of Iowa! Their plan was to send out 40 foot tents to the mid-point mandated time cut point and to the finish. We kind of dissuaded them a bit on the tent deal, but they ended up doing the Algona checkpoint nonetheless. Another facet of the sponsorship was to provide event participants with Red Bull energy drink.

That plan was not well thought out, and with all Jeff and I had going on, Red Bull's efforts got lost in the haze. Not many people know this, but two young employees of Red Bull actually traipsed across Iowa handing out Red Bull product to confused Iowans along what these two young people thought was the route. They didn't quite understand we were out on gravel roads, and yet it didn't seem to matter to these two folks. I heard vague reports of them standing along the main drags of Forest City and Cresco handing people cans of Red Bull and yakking about some crazy race called "Trans Iowa" and would it be coming through here?

People must have thought they were aliens.

But the Red Bull thing could have been huge had we pursued that angle. I know they didn't understand what they had gotten themselves into, and if we knew what we had gotten ourselves into, we could have sold that to Red Bull easily. How do I know this? Well, Red Bull was a long time sponsor of the DK200, that's how I know. But it wasn't to be, and maybe that's a good thing.

Of course, the Salsa Cycles thing kind of snuck in there when they started offering prizing to Trans Iowa event participants and then started testing product at the event. By Trans Iowa v9, they had the Warbird officially released. To market the bike, they concocted a plan to get riders on Warbirds into Trans Iowa and the DK200. At that time, these were considered to be the two plumbs of the gravel cycling world's pie.  If the Warbird could be shown to be able to compliment a rider's efforts through these long endurance grinders, then it would be good enough for anybody.

Raw camera imagery from Jason Boucher from T.I.v9

So, I knew that Salsa wanted to get certain riders in for Trans Iowa v9, and a soft request was made to see if I might be amenable to ushering through a few guys in the registration, but you know where that went, I'm sure! Regardless, they pretty much ended up with the guys they wanted, mainly Tim Ek, then a sponsored Salsa Cycles athlete, and a guy by the name of Paul Errington, of the U.K.

Prizing and arrangements to have Jason Boucher, former head of Salsa Cycles but still with the parent company, QBP, along to take imagery, were set. But at the last minute, (two weeks or so out), a request was made to allow another QBP photographer access to the event. His name was Scott Haraldson. This was not what I had envisioned, but after a few tersely stated emails from me wanting specifics, it pretty much came out that Scott was there from a QBP/Salsa marketing standpoint only.

That headache was eventually navigated and to be honest, I don't think I even saw Scott at anytime out on the course. Come to find out he basically shadowed Ek and Errington only. This rubbed me a bit the wrong way, as it could have been "outside support" from the standpoint of cheer leading/outside encouragement. I don't know that this actually happened, but I wasn't about to have that situation potentially happen again in a Trans Iowa. Fortunately, Trans Iowa fell way down on the lists of marketing folks to target for their products and requests like that of QBP were not endured after T.I.v9. Only WTB really used Trans Iowa as a marketing tool after this, and they did it in a very organic, sincere way.

When WTB came a-knockin', it was by way of sponsoring the event with tires. When I say tires, I mean cases of tires. They sent Nano 40's one year, which many folks got their hands on. For T.I.v11, they sent about ten cases of Nano 40 TCS tires that, due to the situation of T.I.v11, I had to hand out in a bar in Grinnell, and the left overs were used for sponsor prizing the following year. Then there was the way WTB used Trans Iowa in marketing.

Will Ritchie, then of WTB, in T.I.v12. Image by Wally Kilburg

WTB had a gravel cycling, and more specifically, a Trans Iowa advocate, in Will Ritchie. Will, believed in what Trans Iowa was all about so much that he pretty much went full immersion and not only asked for, and got, tires made for gravel racing/riding, but attended and rode in Trans Iowa. He basically lavished Trans Iowa with sponsorship unheard of before or since.

Trans Iowa got rare pre-production tires for the winners of V-12. Trans Iowa got a piece of a shipment of tires meant for OEM's to test ahead of them being for sale. Trans Iowa got tires from the first batch of tubeless gravel tires ever made for sale and which were so much in demand that I was receiving calls from bike shops begging me to sell them tires from the prizing stash.

Will and WTB got valuable exposure, testing time, and came up with at least two designs directly coming out of their Trans Iowa experiences. Those tires being the Riddler and the Resolute. The Riddler, a variant on a theme first released as a mountain bike tire, is a perennial spec on many gravel bikes while the Resolute, a purely Trans Iowa derived design, has gone on to become my favorite tire for gravel. It is criminally underrated in my opinion.

But getting back to the marketing- WTB never really overtly called out T.I. in their marketing, nor did they overtly use Trans Iowa in their imagery. Not a big deal to me. I suspect that was mostly done out of respect stemming from Will Ritchie's deep feelings toward the event itself. Will penned a couple of heartfelt blog posts once on the WTB blog. You can see those here and here. I don't know how many folks actually read blog posts on brand websites, so those may have been mostly under the radar for many cyclists, but they are well worth reading. Will has a way with words, and they are good reads. But the point is, you can see the deep respect that Will had for Trans Iowa, and it seeped into the way WTB went about doing gravel specific tires and in their marketing.

A view of the Trans Iowa inspired panel in the Salsa Cycles' booth from Frostbike.

Salsa, on the other hand, actually put images and words about Trans Iowa into one of their catalogs and into their trade show booth appearance for a couple of seasons. I got to experience the trade show booth at Frostbike and it was impressive. I cannot say that ether Salsa's or WTB's way of marketing T.I. was right or wrong. It was good. It was good for gravel grinding in general. It didn't do anything for Trans Iowa because I was not doing the event in such a manner that capitalizing on the attention would make sense.

 So, it was flattering, for sure, and I was grateful for the momentary spotlight, but in terms of bringing more prestige, glory, and probably most importantly and obviously, monetary benefits? Nah.... not so much. I wasn't geared toward making coin off Trans Iowa, and that wasn't what it was about. So all the marketing and whatnot was a tool for the brands that participated in Trans Iowa with me. And that is okay. In the end, what they did with Trans Iowa benefited gravel riding overall, and to me, that was the most important thing. Bringing this style of cycling to more rider's attention. In that, the marketing done out of Trans Iowa was somewhat successful, I hope. 

Next: Let's get on with the show.......

Trans Iowa Stories: A Tool For Marketing

Part of a trade show booth put together by Salsa Cycles in 2014.

 "Trans Iowa Stories" is an every Sunday post which helps tell the stories behind the event. You can check out other posts about this subject by going back to earlier Sunday posts on this blog. Thanks and enjoy!

By 2012 or so, the gravel riding scene had generated enough interest from participants that bicycling related companies started to take notice. Salsa Cycles being perhaps the first to do so by introducing a purpose built gravel bike in the Warbird. Although it could be argued that the Titanium La Cruz was really the first effort they made to get into the gravel scene.

Of course, when you make a new category of bicycle you are going to need tires to work with it. There were basically none up until Salsa Cycles convinced Donn Kellogg, then running a tire brand called Clement, to produce some. The MSO became that tire, and then with the introduction of the Raleigh Tamland series, it was on from that point. Then, when that happened, well the marketing was sure to follow, and it did big time.

As it related to Trans Iowa, that all could have happened a lot sooner than it did. Jeff Kerkove, who was a big name in solo 24hr racing at the time we started Trans Iowa, had many connections stemming from the endurance mountain bike racing community. One of those relationships was with Red Bull, who sponsored mountain biking events and several athletes in mountain biking. Red Bull agreed to sponsor the first Trans Iowa. It wasn't some token effort either.

This 40ft tent was only one facet of the Red Bull sponsorship of T.I.v1 (Image by D. Kerkove)

Red Bull made a plan to activate their sponsorship across the entire route of the point-to-point event. Remember- that's over 300 miles of Iowa! Their plan was to send out 40 foot tents to the mid-point mandated time cut point and to the finish. We kind of dissuaded them a bit on the tent deal, but they ended up doing the Algona checkpoint nonetheless. Another facet of the sponsorship was to provide event participants with Red Bull energy drink.

That plan was not well thought out, and with all Jeff and I had going on, Red Bull's efforts got lost in the haze. Not many people know this, but two young employees of Red Bull actually traipsed across Iowa handing out Red Bull product to confused Iowans along what these two young people thought was the route. They didn't quite understand we were out on gravel roads, and yet it didn't seem to matter to these two folks. I heard vague reports of them standing along the main drags of Forest City and Cresco handing people cans of Red Bull and yakking about some crazy race called "Trans Iowa" and would it be coming through here?

People must have thought they were aliens.

But the Red Bull thing could have been huge had we pursued that angle. I know they didn't understand what they had gotten themselves into, and if we knew what we had gotten ourselves into, we could have sold that to Red Bull easily. How do I know this? Well, Red Bull was a long time sponsor of the DK200, that's how I know. But it wasn't to be, and maybe that's a good thing.

Of course, the Salsa Cycles thing kind of snuck in there when they started offering prizing to Trans Iowa event participants and then started testing product at the event. By Trans Iowa v9, they had the Warbird officially released. To market the bike, they concocted a plan to get riders on Warbirds into Trans Iowa and the DK200. At that time, these were considered to be the two plumbs of the gravel cycling world's pie.  If the Warbird could be shown to be able to compliment a rider's efforts through these long endurance grinders, then it would be good enough for anybody.

Raw camera imagery from Jason Boucher from T.I.v9

So, I knew that Salsa wanted to get certain riders in for Trans Iowa v9, and a soft request was made to see if I might be amenable to ushering through a few guys in the registration, but you know where that went, I'm sure! Regardless, they pretty much ended up with the guys they wanted, mainly Tim Ek, then a sponsored Salsa Cycles athlete, and a guy by the name of Paul Errington, of the U.K.

Prizing and arrangements to have Jason Boucher, former head of Salsa Cycles but still with the parent company, QBP, along to take imagery, were set. But at the last minute, (two weeks or so out), a request was made to allow another QBP photographer access to the event. His name was Scott Haraldson. This was not what I had envisioned, but after a few tersely stated emails from me wanting specifics, it pretty much came out that Scott was there from a QBP/Salsa marketing standpoint only.

That headache was eventually navigated and to be honest, I don't think I even saw Scott at anytime out on the course. Come to find out he basically shadowed Ek and Errington only. This rubbed me a bit the wrong way, as it could have been "outside support" from the standpoint of cheer leading/outside encouragement. I don't know that this actually happened, but I wasn't about to have that situation potentially happen again in a Trans Iowa. Fortunately, Trans Iowa fell way down on the lists of marketing folks to target for their products and requests like that of QBP were not endured after T.I.v9. Only WTB really used Trans Iowa as a marketing tool after this, and they did it in a very organic, sincere way.

When WTB came a-knockin', it was by way of sponsoring the event with tires. When I say tires, I mean cases of tires. They sent Nano 40's one year, which many folks got their hands on. For T.I.v11, they sent about ten cases of Nano 40 TCS tires that, due to the situation of T.I.v11, I had to hand out in a bar in Grinnell, and the left overs were used for sponsor prizing the following year. Then there was the way WTB used Trans Iowa in marketing.

Will Ritchie, then of WTB, in T.I.v12. Image by Wally Kilburg

WTB had a gravel cycling, and more specifically, a Trans Iowa advocate, in Will Ritchie. Will, believed in what Trans Iowa was all about so much that he pretty much went full immersion and not only asked for, and got, tires made for gravel racing/riding, but attended and rode in Trans Iowa. He basically lavished Trans Iowa with sponsorship unheard of before or since.

Trans Iowa got rare pre-production tires for the winners of V-12. Trans Iowa got a piece of a shipment of tires meant for OEM's to test ahead of them being for sale. Trans Iowa got tires from the first batch of tubeless gravel tires ever made for sale and which were so much in demand that I was receiving calls from bike shops begging me to sell them tires from the prizing stash.

Will and WTB got valuable exposure, testing time, and came up with at least two designs directly coming out of their Trans Iowa experiences. Those tires being the Riddler and the Resolute. The Riddler, a variant on a theme first released as a mountain bike tire, is a perennial spec on many gravel bikes while the Resolute, a purely Trans Iowa derived design, has gone on to become my favorite tire for gravel. It is criminally underrated in my opinion.

But getting back to the marketing- WTB never really overtly called out T.I. in their marketing, nor did they overtly use Trans Iowa in their imagery. Not a big deal to me. I suspect that was mostly done out of respect stemming from Will Ritchie's deep feelings toward the event itself. Will penned a couple of heartfelt blog posts once on the WTB blog. You can see those here and here. I don't know how many folks actually read blog posts on brand websites, so those may have been mostly under the radar for many cyclists, but they are well worth reading. Will has a way with words, and they are good reads. But the point is, you can see the deep respect that Will had for Trans Iowa, and it seeped into the way WTB went about doing gravel specific tires and in their marketing.

A view of the Trans Iowa inspired panel in the Salsa Cycles' booth from Frostbike.

Salsa, on the other hand, actually put images and words about Trans Iowa into one of their catalogs and into their trade show booth appearance for a couple of seasons. I got to experience the trade show booth at Frostbike and it was impressive. I cannot say that ether Salsa's or WTB's way of marketing T.I. was right or wrong. It was good. It was good for gravel grinding in general. It didn't do anything for Trans Iowa because I was not doing the event in such a manner that capitalizing on the attention would make sense.

 So, it was flattering, for sure, and I was grateful for the momentary spotlight, but in terms of bringing more prestige, glory, and probably most importantly and obviously, monetary benefits? Nah.... not so much. I wasn't geared toward making coin off Trans Iowa, and that wasn't what it was about. So all the marketing and whatnot was a tool for the brands that participated in Trans Iowa with me. And that is okay. In the end, what they did with Trans Iowa benefited gravel riding overall, and to me, that was the most important thing. Bringing this style of cycling to more rider's attention. In that, the marketing done out of Trans Iowa was somewhat successful, I hope. 

Next: Let's get on with the show.......

Gravel Grinder News: The Stormchaser Lands, New Zipp Tire

Single speed, but don't worry- you can gear it up too. (Image courtesy of Salsa Cycles)

Salsa Cycles Introduces A Surprising Bike: 

In this business I am engaged in, I get embargoed press releases from time to time. The deal is that I get to see the info a week to two weeks ahead of "official release". Of course, I don't have to withhold the info, but if I don't, well...... You know what happens next?

You quit getting these embargoed press releases, that's what.

So, I was flabbergasted about two weeks ago when I saw this. A single speed gravel bike? I mean, look..... I'm all about single speed bicycles, as anyone would know if they read this blog. So, from where I sit, this is cool, but in terms of the market place, it's weird. 

The whole undercurrent of single speed action was a big deal in the 90's. Super-rad, cool, awesome mountain bike companies back then did limited releases of single speed mountain bikes. Riders were converting geared rigs to single speed and there started to be a counter-culture movement which maybe never was more cool or subversive as it got in the Minneapolis area, of all places. This spawned the beginnings of Surly.

The whole fixie thing happened in the 00's and alongside that, somewhere it was deemed that every 29"er hardtail had to be a single speed. After 2010, that all died away, and the whole single speed thing seemed, well......dead. And now that this was all out of our systems, we could, you know, move on.

There were still single speed bikes, of course. There would always be single speeds. But the whole "movement" was long since dead. It was, well.....something the oddballs rode. No one in their right mind does single speed as their everyday choice. It wasn't "the cool thing" anymore. And why on earth would anyone make a high end single speed bike? I mean, really. 

New sliders from Salsa fit for flat mount brakes and through axles. (Image courtesy of Salsa Cycles)

 But here this press release comes. Wow! I cannot remember the last press release I got all about a high end single speed. Maybe it was Spot Brand. Maybe it was somewhere else, but it probably has been close to ten years since I've seen anything in this price bracket come down the pipe for single speeders.

And yeah, the asking price seems a bit dear for an aluminum framed bike, but it is Class 5 VRS. That doesn't come cheap or easily. Those tubes are all special drawn and formed. It's about as custom as it gets for a production frame since nothing on it is "off the shelf" tubing. So, we aren't talking apples to apples here if you are thinking aluminum frames are "inexpensive". They are if they are gas pipe thickness and straight gauge, box-stock tubing from the aluminum factory. But that's the perception, isn't it? The bicycle industry raced to the bottom price-wise and used aluminum frames to do it with. Look at any "box store" bike shaped object and see what the frames are made from. Aluminum. So, the perception is all aluminum is cheap. 

So, it seems hard to see how this frame and the complete are priced what they are priced at, but I think a big problem here is perception. The perception that aluminum is the least of the frame materials. This is probably going to work against this frame somewhat, but the Class 5 VRS thing is real, and if you were going into an event with the knowledge of mud and grit being there, you're better off with a metal frame over carbon, and titanium is very expensive and steel is probably not going to work as a Class 5 VRS design without being a boat anchor.

So, we'll have to see how it goes for Salsa with the Stormchaser. I'm sure it will engender a lot of conversation.

The new Zipp Tangente 40mm gravel tire.

 Zipp Introduces A Gravel Tire:

Another surprise hit my inbox on Friday. The new tire from Zipp is somewhat out of left field here since Zipp is more well known in triathlon and road. But you know, if it is gravel, then it's gonna sell! So it looks like everyone is all in on gravel anything they can make now days.

Zipp has done tires before, but they were ostensibly part of a system of aerodynamic wheel design. Not a stand alone tire so much. This new Tangente tire doesn't seem to be getting marketed as a companion part of an aero system, although Zipp does recommend the 303 wheel model as being an ideal fit for this tire. Just a suggestion though.

But beyond that, what about this tire? Well, a 40mm width is par for the course, so Zipp hit that right on. Tan wall, check! So, they got the fashionista part right. (Although I like skin wall tires, I don't think everyone should.) Now about that tread pattern.......

Immediately after seeing this tire I clicked over to the Donnelly site to check out an MSO. Hmm...... There is a pretty strong resemblance there! So, give Zipp credit for picking a tread pattern that is nigh unto a classic one from Donnelly. If the same company doesn't make both tires, I'd be surprised. If I am right, then this Zipp tire would be a really good gravel/adventure tire. So, okay........why buy the Zipp one? 

Well, let's face facts. If you are a roadie/tri rider, and checking out this new fangled gravel thing, (which is neither "new" or "fangled") you probably have never heard of Donnelly. But you probably have heard about Zipp, and there is a good chance you have Zipp wheels, or know someone that does. So, "Oh! Zipp has this gravel tire, so why not get that? They make good wheels, so...." And there ya go. Marketing 101.

Gravel Grinder News: The Stormchaser Lands, New Zipp Tire

Single speed, but don't worry- you can gear it up too. (Image courtesy of Salsa Cycles)

Salsa Cycles Introduces A Surprising Bike: 

In this business I am engaged in, I get embargoed press releases from time to time. The deal is that I get to see the info a week to two weeks ahead of "official release". Of course, I don't have to withhold the info, but if I don't, well...... You know what happens next?

You quit getting these embargoed press releases, that's what.

So, I was flabbergasted about two weeks ago when I saw this. A single speed gravel bike? I mean, look..... I'm all about single speed bicycles, as anyone would know if they read this blog. So, from where I sit, this is cool, but in terms of the market place, it's weird. 

The whole undercurrent of single speed action was a big deal in the 90's. Super-rad, cool, awesome mountain bike companies back then did limited releases of single speed mountain bikes. Riders were converting geared rigs to single speed and there started to be a counter-culture movement which maybe never was more cool or subversive as it got in the Minneapolis area, of all places. This spawned the beginnings of Surly.

The whole fixie thing happened in the 00's and alongside that, somewhere it was deemed that every 29"er hardtail had to be a single speed. After 2010, that all died away, and the whole single speed thing seemed, well......dead. And now that this was all out of our systems, we could, you know, move on.

There were still single speed bikes, of course. There would always be single speeds. But the whole "movement" was long since dead. It was, well.....something the oddballs rode. No one in their right mind does single speed as their everyday choice. It wasn't "the cool thing" anymore. And why on earth would anyone make a high end single speed bike? I mean, really. 

New sliders from Salsa fit for flat mount brakes and through axles. (Image courtesy of Salsa Cycles)

 But here this press release comes. Wow! I cannot remember the last press release I got all about a high end single speed. Maybe it was Spot Brand. Maybe it was somewhere else, but it probably has been close to ten years since I've seen anything in this price bracket come down the pipe for single speeders.

And yeah, the asking price seems a bit dear for an aluminum framed bike, but it is Class 5 VRS. That doesn't come cheap or easily. Those tubes are all special drawn and formed. It's about as custom as it gets for a production frame since nothing on it is "off the shelf" tubing. So, we aren't talking apples to apples here if you are thinking aluminum frames are "inexpensive". They are if they are gas pipe thickness and straight gauge, box-stock tubing from the aluminum factory. But that's the perception, isn't it? The bicycle industry raced to the bottom price-wise and used aluminum frames to do it with. Look at any "box store" bike shaped object and see what the frames are made from. Aluminum. So, the perception is all aluminum is cheap. 

So, it seems hard to see how this frame and the complete are priced what they are priced at, but I think a big problem here is perception. The perception that aluminum is the least of the frame materials. This is probably going to work against this frame somewhat, but the Class 5 VRS thing is real, and if you were going into an event with the knowledge of mud and grit being there, you're better off with a metal frame over carbon, and titanium is very expensive and steel is probably not going to work as a Class 5 VRS design without being a boat anchor.

So, we'll have to see how it goes for Salsa with the Stormchaser. I'm sure it will engender a lot of conversation.

The new Zipp Tangente 40mm gravel tire.

 Zipp Introduces A Gravel Tire:

Another surprise hit my inbox on Friday. The new tire from Zipp is somewhat out of left field here since Zipp is more well known in triathlon and road. But you know, if it is gravel, then it's gonna sell! So it looks like everyone is all in on gravel anything they can make now days.

Zipp has done tires before, but they were ostensibly part of a system of aerodynamic wheel design. Not a stand alone tire so much. This new Tangente tire doesn't seem to be getting marketed as a companion part of an aero system, although Zipp does recommend the 303 wheel model as being an ideal fit for this tire. Just a suggestion though.

But beyond that, what about this tire? Well, a 40mm width is par for the course, so Zipp hit that right on. Tan wall, check! So, they got the fashionista part right. (Although I like skin wall tires, I don't think everyone should.) Now about that tread pattern.......

Immediately after seeing this tire I clicked over to the Donnelly site to check out an MSO. Hmm...... There is a pretty strong resemblance there! So, give Zipp credit for picking a tread pattern that is nigh unto a classic one from Donnelly. If the same company doesn't make both tires, I'd be surprised. If I am right, then this Zipp tire would be a really good gravel/adventure tire. So, okay........why buy the Zipp one? 

Well, let's face facts. If you are a roadie/tri rider, and checking out this new fangled gravel thing, (which is neither "new" or "fangled") you probably have never heard of Donnelly. But you probably have heard about Zipp, and there is a good chance you have Zipp wheels, or know someone that does. So, "Oh! Zipp has this gravel tire, so why not get that? They make good wheels, so...." And there ya go. Marketing 101.

Special Edition News And Views

Imagine that this actually says "Donnelly" and not Clement.

Donnelly MSO 50mm Tire:

When it has been possible, I have been riding this MSO tire. You might say, "big deal!", and I wouldn't blame you if it was a 40mm or smaller MSO. But it isn't a 40mm. This is a 50mm tire. It is a lot like the Terrene Honali, only with more tread. The MSO weighs a touch more, and is actually about the same size overall. The puncture protection belt is there as well. Not surprisingly then, they both ride quite similarly.

Now I cannot imagine many racers wanting to use this beast of a tire, (the term "beast" used in relative terms here), because for one thing, not many gravel bikes will actually have the clearance for this tire. But I can imagine this being a Tour Divide tire. I can imagine this as a Fagro-ish tire for those wanting to finish Dirty Kanza, or a like event. I can imagine it as the tire one puts on a 29"er for dry single track and as a gravel bike tire too.

I have this set mounted to my Pofahl single speed which I have been having fun riding of late. It is nice that I was able to integrate reviewing a set of tires with riding this old friend again. The fit is really good. I'd forgotten how it felt to ride. The weather is turning against me though, and the time I have to spend on it in 2017 is drawing to a close. Hopefully I'll get a few more rides in before the snows and cold come to stay so I can get this review wrapped up.

Vittoria Terreno Mix and Terreno Dry tires

Vittoria Gravel Treads:

These gravel/all-road/adventure tires keep coming. It is quite amazing to me yet that all these specific purpose tires are coming out. I still remember when people were using Schwalbe Marathon Extremes for everything gravel because that was one of the only reliable, bigger volume tires available for gravel travel.

In the past, just having a design specific to gravel travel seemed like a dream to me. Then tubeless designs came and I was floored. Now actual high end technologies are being employed which are simply just astounding. Take these Graphene infused samples from Vittoria that I have here. The claim is that these are going to have a stiffer tread in straight lines and softer in corners, in braking situations, and for climbing. Whoa! That's just weird.

So, I guess I'll put these on some wheels and give them a go. Who knows? Maybe all this science stuff will actually work. Then again, maybe it won't be such a big deal. However that works out in the end, the fact that the cycling industry is putting this kind of effort into tires for adventure/all-road/gravel bikes shows that this deal has come a long way and seems to be the focus in the industry now.

A frosty morning commute not long ago.

Brown Season:

Fall is over. Yeah........I know. The calendar still says it is Fall. Weather-wise it isn't Fall anymore. It is the Brown Season. That time when everything is dead and the snow isn't here to whiten things up yet.

The winds from the Northwest bite and they are strong. Like up to 40mph strong yesterday. My luck, the route to work is dead Northwest. Right into the teeth of it.

And while it may sound cliche', my commute to work is mostly uphill. Really. So with that wind, the cold, and everything brown and dead, my commutes have been rather cheerless of late. Well, true......going home has been fine. Fast even. That part is good at least.

We've had a brief coating of frost a few mornings, and even some fog to make things interesting, but this brown thing doesn't set well with me. That and the shorter days. It can get on me and make me feel grey. I know that a lot of folks feel that way this time of year. Getting outside helps. Riding a bicycle seems to do the trick for me.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I'll be taking the day off here. I hope that you all have a wonderful day doing whatever it is that you have going on. I'll have a regular post going on Friday here.

Special Edition News And Views

Imagine that this actually says "Donnelly" and not Clement.

Donnelly MSO 50mm Tire:

When it has been possible, I have been riding this MSO tire. You might say, "big deal!", and I wouldn't blame you if it was a 40mm or smaller MSO. But it isn't a 40mm. This is a 50mm tire. It is a lot like the Terrene Honali, only with more tread. The MSO weighs a touch more, and is actually about the same size overall. The puncture protection belt is there as well. Not surprisingly then, they both ride quite similarly.

Now I cannot imagine many racers wanting to use this beast of a tire, (the term "beast" used in relative terms here), because for one thing, not many gravel bikes will actually have the clearance for this tire. But I can imagine this being a Tour Divide tire. I can imagine this as a Fagro-ish tire for those wanting to finish Dirty Kanza, or a like event. I can imagine it as the tire one puts on a 29"er for dry single track and as a gravel bike tire too.

I have this set mounted to my Pofahl single speed which I have been having fun riding of late. It is nice that I was able to integrate reviewing a set of tires with riding this old friend again. The fit is really good. I'd forgotten how it felt to ride. The weather is turning against me though, and the time I have to spend on it in 2017 is drawing to a close. Hopefully I'll get a few more rides in before the snows and cold come to stay so I can get this review wrapped up.

Vittoria Terreno Mix and Terreno Dry tires

Vittoria Gravel Treads:

These gravel/all-road/adventure tires keep coming. It is quite amazing to me yet that all these specific purpose tires are coming out. I still remember when people were using Schwalbe Marathon Extremes for everything gravel because that was one of the only reliable, bigger volume tires available for gravel travel.

In the past, just having a design specific to gravel travel seemed like a dream to me. Then tubeless designs came and I was floored. Now actual high end technologies are being employed which are simply just astounding. Take these Graphene infused samples from Vittoria that I have here. The claim is that these are going to have a stiffer tread in straight lines and softer in corners, in braking situations, and for climbing. Whoa! That's just weird.

So, I guess I'll put these on some wheels and give them a go. Who knows? Maybe all this science stuff will actually work. Then again, maybe it won't be such a big deal. However that works out in the end, the fact that the cycling industry is putting this kind of effort into tires for adventure/all-road/gravel bikes shows that this deal has come a long way and seems to be the focus in the industry now.

A frosty morning commute not long ago.

Brown Season:

Fall is over. Yeah........I know. The calendar still says it is Fall. Weather-wise it isn't Fall anymore. It is the Brown Season. That time when everything is dead and the snow isn't here to whiten things up yet.

The winds from the Northwest bite and they are strong. Like up to 40mph strong yesterday. My luck, the route to work is dead Northwest. Right into the teeth of it.

And while it may sound cliche', my commute to work is mostly uphill. Really. So with that wind, the cold, and everything brown and dead, my commutes have been rather cheerless of late. Well, true......going home has been fine. Fast even. That part is good at least.

We've had a brief coating of frost a few mornings, and even some fog to make things interesting, but this brown thing doesn't set well with me. That and the shorter days. It can get on me and make me feel grey. I know that a lot of folks feel that way this time of year. Getting outside helps. Riding a bicycle seems to do the trick for me.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I'll be taking the day off here. I hope that you all have a wonderful day doing whatever it is that you have going on. I'll have a regular post going on Friday here.

Surly & Tired Part 2

Taking the long way home....

I have had a chance to ride the Surly Knard 41's some and it's been interesting so far. The first ride was anyway! I generally will take a newer tire in this size range and use a 40psi baseline as a starting point. Some tires do better at slightly higher pressures, some do better at slightly lower pressures, but 40psi is where I start out riding at.

Okay, no problem, right? I get up one morning last week, set the pressures while I am in a bit of a hurry to get out the door to work, and then I am on my way. The day is clear and cool, and the winds are out of the Northwest. Precisely the main direction of travel I take going to work. Besides this, it is mostly uphill as well.

Okay, so intially I have some rougher grass and dirt to traverse, then I get down to some bike path for a bit, then onto a really badly busted up road which gets better as you go along until it is "normal" pavement. I am thinking as I go along that these tires are stiff or something. I felt like I was dragging an anchor. But, I cautioned myself by reminding myself that I was riding uphill into a headwind. It's best not to get too judgmental in these conditions, I thought, and so I pushed onward, but it just felt bad. Sluggish and slow, but the rear tire didn't look overly squatty, as if I'd missed on the air pressures. Hmmm...maybe these need more than 40psi then?

Camouflaged single track.

Well.........they certainly needed more than 20psi! Somehow I blew it and misread my gauge at home and missed the pressure by 20psi. No wonder they felt draggy! Okay, so for the ride home, I double checked that I had 40psi in there, and then I set off for the long way home.

Now.......that's waaaaay better! More like what I was expecting now. The Knard 41's felt very "Clement-ish", if that makes any sense to folks out there. They even make a sing-songy noise on pavement like the MSO's do. Maybe a bit different, but similar.

I decide to hit some single track and see what the Knards might do. Well, on the leafy, dry single track they flew along just as fast as if I had put 2.1"ers on the Orange Crush. With the higher pressure, I could distinctly see a "center ridge" of knobs that was a tiny bit higher than the low "U" shaped profile which made for a faster feel and good grip in corners. Hey.....they are still skinny tires, so don't expect a Velcro-like grip, but for what they are, they rip along in the dirt well enough.

No gravel yet. No "real" gravel, anyway, but that's coming soon.

Surly & Tired Part 2

Taking the long way home....

I have had a chance to ride the Surly Knard 41's some and it's been interesting so far. The first ride was anyway! I generally will take a newer tire in this size range and use a 40psi baseline as a starting point. Some tires do better at slightly higher pressures, some do better at slightly lower pressures, but 40psi is where I start out riding at.

Okay, no problem, right? I get up one morning last week, set the pressures while I am in a bit of a hurry to get out the door to work, and then I am on my way. The day is clear and cool, and the winds are out of the Northwest. Precisely the main direction of travel I take going to work. Besides this, it is mostly uphill as well.

Okay, so intially I have some rougher grass and dirt to traverse, then I get down to some bike path for a bit, then onto a really badly busted up road which gets better as you go along until it is "normal" pavement. I am thinking as I go along that these tires are stiff or something. I felt like I was dragging an anchor. But, I cautioned myself by reminding myself that I was riding uphill into a headwind. It's best not to get too judgmental in these conditions, I thought, and so I pushed onward, but it just felt bad. Sluggish and slow, but the rear tire didn't look overly squatty, as if I'd missed on the air pressures. Hmmm...maybe these need more than 40psi then?

Camouflaged single track.

Well.........they certainly needed more than 20psi! Somehow I blew it and misread my gauge at home and missed the pressure by 20psi. No wonder they felt draggy! Okay, so for the ride home, I double checked that I had 40psi in there, and then I set off for the long way home.

Now.......that's waaaaay better! More like what I was expecting now. The Knard 41's felt very "Clement-ish", if that makes any sense to folks out there. They even make a sing-songy noise on pavement like the MSO's do. Maybe a bit different, but similar.

I decide to hit some single track and see what the Knards might do. Well, on the leafy, dry single track they flew along just as fast as if I had put 2.1"ers on the Orange Crush. With the higher pressure, I could distinctly see a "center ridge" of knobs that was a tiny bit higher than the low "U" shaped profile which made for a faster feel and good grip in corners. Hey.....they are still skinny tires, so don't expect a Velcro-like grip, but for what they are, they rip along in the dirt well enough.

No gravel yet. No "real" gravel, anyway, but that's coming soon.

News Season: Part 7- Gravel Bikes

The Raleigh Tamland- (Image courtesy of Cyclo Cross Magazine)

With the advent of gravel racing and the increasing participation in this niche, many manufacturers have been taking a hard look at putting out product to attract the dollars of dirt road riders everywhere. Take Salsa Cycles Warbird, or Clement Pneumatics gravel tires as an example here.

I've already detailed a bit of info on Surly Bikes "Straggler", which has a very gravel bike oriented look to it. (See here) Now I can speak openly about a project Raleigh has been cooking up for about a year now. The Tamland gravel specific racer.

Cyclo Cross Magazine busted open this story yesterday on their Facebook page and scooped some details from Raleigh on this new rig. Made from Reynolds 631 steel tubes, sporting TRP Spyre mechanical disc brakes, and a brand spanking new Ultegra 11 speed group, this bike is not a half-hearted attempt at trying to jump on a bandwagon and pry some dollars from a niche group of cyclists. It looks like Raleigh may have done this one up very well, in my opinion.

For one thing, Cyclo Cross Mag says this bike has Clement MSO's on it with "plenty of clearance". Their words, not mine. If so, this bodes very well in that department. Obviously, you can also see that the chainstays are a bit longer, for stability and tire clearances, and it sure looks as though that bottom bracket is sitting low, which if true would be a really good thing as well.

This was the bike I was hoping Raleigh would put out there, if it is what I think it is, and if so, it will be a fine handling rig. That's about all I can say now. There is a lot I like about it so far.

To be completely honest, Raleigh actually called me up and picked my brain one day. I spoke on a conference call with their team that worked on this, so if they took my advisement and made it reality, I guess I'll be proven wrong or right on what I think a gravel bike should be. But I do not know how much of what I told them they took to heart, so we'll have to see there.

At any rate, the name: "Tamland". I'm not a movie buff, so I Googled it. Wow! Maybe us gravel grinders are a bunch of freaked out, mentally challenged weirdos.  Either that or we're crazy like a fox!

UPDATE: For more specific information on the Tamland, see Cyclo Cross Magazine's article on the bike here. 

News Season: Part 7- Gravel Bikes

The Raleigh Tamland- (Image courtesy of Cyclo Cross Magazine)

With the advent of gravel racing and the increasing participation in this niche, many manufacturers have been taking a hard look at putting out product to attract the dollars of dirt road riders everywhere. Take Salsa Cycles Warbird, or Clement Pneumatics gravel tires as an example here.

I've already detailed a bit of info on Surly Bikes "Straggler", which has a very gravel bike oriented look to it. (See here) Now I can speak openly about a project Raleigh has been cooking up for about a year now. The Tamland gravel specific racer.

Cyclo Cross Magazine busted open this story yesterday on their Facebook page and scooped some details from Raleigh on this new rig. Made from Reynolds 631 steel tubes, sporting TRP Spyre mechanical disc brakes, and a brand spanking new Ultegra 11 speed group, this bike is not a half-hearted attempt at trying to jump on a bandwagon and pry some dollars from a niche group of cyclists. It looks like Raleigh may have done this one up very well, in my opinion.

For one thing, Cyclo Cross Mag says this bike has Clement MSO's on it with "plenty of clearance". Their words, not mine. If so, this bodes very well in that department. Obviously, you can also see that the chainstays are a bit longer, for stability and tire clearances, and it sure looks as though that bottom bracket is sitting low, which if true would be a really good thing as well.

This was the bike I was hoping Raleigh would put out there, if it is what I think it is, and if so, it will be a fine handling rig. That's about all I can say now. There is a lot I like about it so far.

To be completely honest, Raleigh actually called me up and picked my brain one day. I spoke on a conference call with their team that worked on this, so if they took my advisement and made it reality, I guess I'll be proven wrong or right on what I think a gravel bike should be. But I do not know how much of what I told them they took to heart, so we'll have to see there.

At any rate, the name: "Tamland". I'm not a movie buff, so I Googled it. Wow! Maybe us gravel grinders are a bunch of freaked out, mentally challenged weirdos.  Either that or we're crazy like a fox!

UPDATE: For more specific information on the Tamland, see Cyclo Cross Magazine's article on the bike here. 

Black Mountain Cycles "Monster Cross" Set Up For The Moonshine Metric

I was pretty tickled with the way my Black Mountain Cycles "Monster Cross", (official name, but I call mine "Orange Crush"), worked out for the Saturday running of the Moonshine Metric. I figured it might prove interesting to some of you if I detailed my set up, and why I thought it worked well, along with some details of the course I ran it on for reference.

For the event report- see here.

The bike as it appeared after the event.

The Bike: As regular readers here already know all too well, the bike is a steel frame, steel fork with 2 X 9 gearing. I ran FSA cyclo cross rings and an 11-34T SRAM cassette shifted by a 9 speed Ultegra long cage derailleur. The front derailleur is a mid-90's vintage STX mountain bike derailleur. Both front and rear derailleurs are shifted by the Retroshift lever/mounts with my added Ultegra bar end shifters.

The gearing was perfect for the 18% grades and I never felt I needed more for the down hills, some which were 30+ mph ones as it was.

Wheels are my XTR hubbed, Delgado Cross rimmed, Clement MSO shod ones that performed marvelously on the roads, which I will describe in a moment. As for anything narrower- There were some riders on cyclo cross tires, and they were having control issues in spots. I noticed that they were also being bounced around a bit more than I was as well. As for myself, I was glad the MSO tires were as voluminous as they were. I ran them at 40psi rear/38psi front, and I remember remarking to myself that they felt quite smooth most of the time. I did not have any issues with flat tires throughout the ride either.

Strange dust patterns!

Road Conditions: As I wrote in the event report, the gravel was very dry and dusty, but as to the bike handling aspects, the looseness and depth of the gravel was very difficult. It was hard to find a smooth line, and throughout the event I was riding mostly on loose gravel, which would account for why the bike got so dusty.

When we weren't on gravel, we rode dirt, which was deep, fine, and loose. This was difficult with regard to the bike as it made the front tire want to wash out unless you shifted your weight back and let the front drift up and over the loose dirt, much as you would for a fat bike in loose, unpacked snow. There were very few times, (unless we were on pavement, obviously), where you didn't have to really pay attention to handling on the bike. It was one of the more difficult courses I have ever ridden in that regard. Some courses have had short sections where some of these characteristics were present, but none have had as much, nor for as many miles straight, as this one did.

Hacked Light Set Up

Lighting: Since this was a mostly night time event, I had to have decent lighting. My light set up is maybe a bit unorthodox, but it was very effective for my needs.

The light mounted to my front rack is an interesting hack made up from a camping light sold under the Eveready brand that was meant to be worn on the head. I took the head band off, and the light mount, which has a hinged back plate of flat, black plastic, was cut down to clip into a Cat Eye computer mount. The battery pack, which holds three double "A" sized batteries, is stowed inside the rack bag. The light head, clipped into the Cat Eye computer mount, is then mounted to a home made bar mount made from a section of fork steer tube, a star nut, and a water bottle boss bolt. (Note: The mount is detailed in this blog post here.)

This light has three modes, and is rated to run at high/100 Lumens for 30 hours. The optics are such that the light is diffused in a large, round pattern and covers from ditch to ditch in width on a gravel road. This is good for slower speeds by itself, but needs something else to compliment it with more "punch" for higher speed riding.

Lezyne "Super Drive"

That "punch" comes from this, the Lezyne Super Drive. I ran it in "low" mode, which was quite enough light, but most importantly, it was the setting with the longest run time. I needed it to stay lit for 4-5 hours, and it did just that without a hitch. The combination of the low mounted "flood" light and the higher mounted Lezyne gave me a great read on the road. I could easily pick out the washboard sections, whoop-de-doos, pot holes, and the good lines, (when they were there!)

I complimented this with a helmet mounted Coleman 20 dollar flashlight. I chose it for its spot beam pattern and that it throws light way down the road. It was great for reading signs, and for this ride, great at getting a read on the road way ahead when I was speeding at 30 plus miles per hour down a steep Iowa hill. By the way, I simply strapped it on with a ByeKyle Simple Strap.

Other: I used a Topeak saddle bag with all my tools and a spare tube along with some hand wipes inside it. The front bag, (Note: More on this bag at a later date), held a wind breaker, spare tube, some gels, and the aforementioned battery pack for the rack mounted light.I had an old Blackburn frame pump under the top tube for air inflation duties. Bottle cages are Velocity Bottle Traps.

What I Would Change: While the bike and set up was really great, here are a few things I have thought about- tweaks really- that I would do to make the Orange Crush even better than it is. First- the 72° head tube angle is "okay", but a slightly slacker head tube angle with a bit more of an offset fork, (which would preserve trail), would give a bit more of a comfy ride with  better rough road handling. Then I would drop that bottom bracket to a more road bike-like 75-80mm. The drop out spacing should just go to 135mm. Finally, the seat tube angle probably would work a shade better at 72° for a true gravel racer/rider. 

On my particular bike, I think a hub generator light would eliminate my battery limitations. A weight penalty, for sure, but well worth it for the versatility. 

So that's it. Any questions? Comments? Hit me up in the comment section.

Black Mountain Cycles "Monster Cross" Set Up For The Moonshine Metric

I was pretty tickled with the way my Black Mountain Cycles "Monster Cross", (official name, but I call mine "Orange Crush"), worked out for the Saturday running of the Moonshine Metric. I figured it might prove interesting to some of you if I detailed my set up, and why I thought it worked well, along with some details of the course I ran it on for reference.

For the event report- see here.

The bike as it appeared after the event.

The Bike: As regular readers here already know all too well, the bike is a steel frame, steel fork with 2 X 9 gearing. I ran FSA cyclo cross rings and an 11-34T SRAM cassette shifted by a 9 speed Ultegra long cage derailleur. The front derailleur is a mid-90's vintage STX mountain bike derailleur. Both front and rear derailleurs are shifted by the Retroshift lever/mounts with my added Ultegra bar end shifters.

The gearing was perfect for the 18% grades and I never felt I needed more for the down hills, some which were 30+ mph ones as it was.

Wheels are my XTR hubbed, Delgado Cross rimmed, Clement MSO shod ones that performed marvelously on the roads, which I will describe in a moment. As for anything narrower- There were some riders on cyclo cross tires, and they were having control issues in spots. I noticed that they were also being bounced around a bit more than I was as well. As for myself, I was glad the MSO tires were as voluminous as they were. I ran them at 40psi rear/38psi front, and I remember remarking to myself that they felt quite smooth most of the time. I did not have any issues with flat tires throughout the ride either.

Strange dust patterns!

Road Conditions: As I wrote in the event report, the gravel was very dry and dusty, but as to the bike handling aspects, the looseness and depth of the gravel was very difficult. It was hard to find a smooth line, and throughout the event I was riding mostly on loose gravel, which would account for why the bike got so dusty.

When we weren't on gravel, we rode dirt, which was deep, fine, and loose. This was difficult with regard to the bike as it made the front tire want to wash out unless you shifted your weight back and let the front drift up and over the loose dirt, much as you would for a fat bike in loose, unpacked snow. There were very few times, (unless we were on pavement, obviously), where you didn't have to really pay attention to handling on the bike. It was one of the more difficult courses I have ever ridden in that regard. Some courses have had short sections where some of these characteristics were present, but none have had as much, nor for as many miles straight, as this one did.

Hacked Light Set Up

Lighting: Since this was a mostly night time event, I had to have decent lighting. My light set up is maybe a bit unorthodox, but it was very effective for my needs.

The light mounted to my front rack is an interesting hack made up from a camping light sold under the Eveready brand that was meant to be worn on the head. I took the head band off, and the light mount, which has a hinged back plate of flat, black plastic, was cut down to clip into a Cat Eye computer mount. The battery pack, which holds three double "A" sized batteries, is stowed inside the rack bag. The light head, clipped into the Cat Eye computer mount, is then mounted to a home made bar mount made from a section of fork steer tube, a star nut, and a water bottle boss bolt. (Note: The mount is detailed in this blog post here.)

This light has three modes, and is rated to run at high/100 Lumens for 30 hours. The optics are such that the light is diffused in a large, round pattern and covers from ditch to ditch in width on a gravel road. This is good for slower speeds by itself, but needs something else to compliment it with more "punch" for higher speed riding.

Lezyne "Super Drive"

That "punch" comes from this, the Lezyne Super Drive. I ran it in "low" mode, which was quite enough light, but most importantly, it was the setting with the longest run time. I needed it to stay lit for 4-5 hours, and it did just that without a hitch. The combination of the low mounted "flood" light and the higher mounted Lezyne gave me a great read on the road. I could easily pick out the washboard sections, whoop-de-doos, pot holes, and the good lines, (when they were there!)

I complimented this with a helmet mounted Coleman 20 dollar flashlight. I chose it for its spot beam pattern and that it throws light way down the road. It was great for reading signs, and for this ride, great at getting a read on the road way ahead when I was speeding at 30 plus miles per hour down a steep Iowa hill. By the way, I simply strapped it on with a ByeKyle Simple Strap.

Other: I used a Topeak saddle bag with all my tools and a spare tube along with some hand wipes inside it. The front bag, (Note: More on this bag at a later date), held a wind breaker, spare tube, some gels, and the aforementioned battery pack for the rack mounted light.I had an old Blackburn frame pump under the top tube for air inflation duties. Bottle cages are Velocity Bottle Traps.

What I Would Change: While the bike and set up was really great, here are a few things I have thought about- tweaks really- that I would do to make the Orange Crush even better than it is. First- the 72° head tube angle is "okay", but a slightly slacker head tube angle with a bit more of an offset fork, (which would preserve trail), would give a bit more of a comfy ride with  better rough road handling. Then I would drop that bottom bracket to a more road bike-like 75-80mm. The drop out spacing should just go to 135mm. Finally, the seat tube angle probably would work a shade better at 72° for a true gravel racer/rider. 

On my particular bike, I think a hub generator light would eliminate my battery limitations. A weight penalty, for sure, but well worth it for the versatility. 

So that's it. Any questions? Comments? Hit me up in the comment section.

Friday News And Views

The post about gravel grinder events the other day elicited a few responses that I think are worthy of comment out in the open here, basically to give credit where credit is due.

It has been a few years since a certain individual has been associated with Trans Iowa but it doesn't reduce or lighten the tremendous influence this person has had on gravel grinding. Many times, I seem to be the one that gets the "credit" for Trans Iowa, in particular, and for gravel grinders, such as they are, in general. While it is true I may have had something to do with what has happened out there, this person deserves way more credit than I do. His name?

Jeff Kerkove.

Need to know why? Go here and read up on it. Nuff said.....

3GR: A reminder that I won't be there tonight, but Saturday morning. A request for coffee will be granted and we'll start at 8:30am, weather permitting, at Gateway Park.

Uh...I thought Dracula did?

It's Summertime! How can you tell? Because another doping allegation has sprung up and just in time for Le Tour. This never happens in December, January, or February. Odd that. Almost as if it were timed for maximum impact and publicity, don't you think?

Well, they are after "you know who" again, and I have zero interest in this story anymore, other than to watch in amusement as folks get their hackles up and froth away about this nonsense. I'm apparently not alone.

Much of the reaction I've witnessed from casual observers is along the lines of "who cares?", or "can we move on from this finally?". In other words, people I've talked to about this just don't care anymore. But what about those who do?

Here's my solution: If he did not enhance his performance by "doping", fine. But if he did? Put an asterisk by his name in the record books and annotate it as, "tour title won by using illegal substances". Done and done. I mean, it isn't like you can rewind the clock and take the moment away from him, and he's retired now. Oh maybe a fine, whatever. But "stripping away the title"? Really? You can't erase the memories and the moments folks. They are his forever. He won the Tour seven times whether you say he didn't now or in the future. It's like saying the American Revolution never happened because you don't agree it was done correctly. Shots were fired, people died, and things changed because of it, so...you know, it is what it is.

So short of fining him into oblivion, or imprisoning him, this other "stripping of title" stuff is just weird. It doesn't work, and oh by the way.....who gets the titles? The other dopers that placed beneath him? That's rich. I say forget about it, and let's move on from here.

Update On The Clement X'Plor MSO: 


There were a few things about this tire I wasn't sure about when I got them, and communication between myself and the Clement guys was not as good as I would have liked. However; now I have learned that the tire- the X'Plor MSO- is a 60TPI tire with puncture protection. The USH has puncture protection as well. But now for the good news:

The MSO now is available in a 120TPI folding bead tire with bead to bead Kevlar puncture protection at a sub 500 gram weight. That's awesome news! I'm not always very hot on narrower tires, but the MSO is really, really good on gravel roads. Now with the nicer casing, I can only imagine how smooth it would roll, but I aim to get a pair to compare with. I'll update on the longevity of the original pair I got as well, but as of now, they are going strong.

That's it for today. Get out and ride!