Friday News And Views

Image courtesy of Hope Tech

Hope Introduces New Carbon Crankset For Gravel Bikes:

Hope Technologies from Barnoldswick, UK, announced this past weekend their new crankset made from carbon fiber for gravel bikes. 

This new crankset features construction from "700 fiber" carbon with a foam core to help reduce vibrations induced by crushed rock roads and other irregularities. Featuring a 30mm spindle, the crank has the capability to have the spindle length swapped out to different lengths, the spiders are separate, and so Hope believes this should "future proof" the investment made into these cranksets by riders. 

These crank sets are available now in 165mm, 170mm, and 175mm lengths. Prices are set at  RRP £575.00 / €722.20 / $752.18 (ex tax) This includes no spider. That will be extra.

Comments: Carbon cranks that have adaptability are a nice thing and Hope is a reputable company, so I think these should be nice. However; why not price them with a spider? Seems odd. Then you have the lengths. It would seem that Hope did not get the short crank arm length memo and will not be offering these in anything shorter than 165mm. And it also seems odd not to offer a 172.5mm length, seeing as how that length is quite popular in road riding circles. 

Image courtesy of RTI Sports Group

Aeron/TPU Offers New TPU Tube With Aluminum Valve Stem:

One of the nits I have had with TPU tubes is the plastic/TPU material used for the valve stems. It is flimsy and easily damaged while trying to use a pump.  

RTI Sports Group, which also owns Ergon, says that the new Aeron/TPU brand will offer aluminum stems with removable valve cores in MTB, Road and Gravel sizes soon. 

These stems will only be found on the Superlight range of TPU tubes. These will appear in Spring for sale. A "more competitively priced" TPU stem variant will be available in May. Aeron/TPU says that these new tubes for gravel will weigh in at a paltry 30 grams! The TPU material valve stem range will weigh more.  

Comments: I hope to get a hold of a set to test out, but in the meantime, it is hard to imagine a 30 gram tube. The expense is not known yet, but I am a bit afraid to know seeing that normal TPU tubes are anywhere from $25.00 - $35.00 each. Stay tuned for more on these. 

The Salsa Cycles Tributary C GRX 820 (Image courtesy of Salsa Cycles)

Salsa Cycles Announces New Tributary Range:

Salsa Cycles announced on Tuesday of this week their new carbon fiber frame and fork Tributary eBikepacking bikes. 

The range consists of three spec levels with three different paint schemes.  The GRX 820, (pictured here) is made from a high-modulus carbon fiber and comes with the Bosch Performance Line Speed Mid-Drive electric motor. The motor has 85Nm maximum torque on tap with a 625WH internal battery. A battery extender is also available for extending the electric assist range. The other bikes in the range have suspension forks and otherwise similar electric motor and battery specs. 

The frame also has clearance for a 29" X 2.3" tire. The Tributary C has internal dropper post compatibility and is also UDH compatible. The other two models in the range are the Tributary C Rival AXS Sus, and Tributary C Force Sus, with the SRAM drive trains, obviously. 

Prices are as follows in the USA: Tributary C GRX 820 - $5,499.00. Tributary C Rival AXS Sus - $6,499.00. Finally, the Tributary C Force XO AXS Sus - $7,999.00. 

You can learn more about Salsa Cycles electrified bike range HERE. 

Image courtesy of UCI

UCI Loses Date For Gravel Worlds Championships:

In a somewhat shocking announcement on Tuesday the UCI announced that the date for the Gravel Cycling World Championships was taken off the calendar. 

In a story reported on several cycling websites it was said that the decision to take the date away from Nice, France was a mutually agreed upon decision and that several new venues were being considered. 

The original date for the championship event was to be in mid-October. No suggestions for where the championships will eventually be held was given at the time of this writing.

Comments: Well! I know where the UCI could bring this event (Iowa) and run it on "real gravel"! Ha! I'm sure that since the Nebraska version of Gravel Worlds has trade marked the name, "Gravel Worlds" in the USA, the UCI won't be too quick to visit us with this event. I also do not doubt for one second that if the UCI had its way that Unbound would happen in October and be the Gravel World Championships race. It would be a shortened version of the old DK200, probably somewhere around 120 miles, since the UCI likes their events to be around the 5 hour mark.  

This Gravel Worlds Championship Race would be televised and there would be follow cars, team cars and basically everything as it would be if the course was paved. It is what the UCI knows. A "real" gravel race? Not so much. It is not what I would do, but then again, every Pro rider would throw a fit and not come to an event as I would do it. Therein lies the point. 

Image courtesy of Singular Cycles

Singular Cycles Teases New Kookaburra Rim Brake Bike:

Did you get the Singular newsletter in your inbox yesterday? If you did, you saw the prototype for this new Singular model dubbed the Kookaburra. 

It is  a lugged steel, thin-tubed, one inch steer tube rim brake bike that reportedly will take a 700c X 55mm tire.  

There is no pricing or definitive delivery date on this model, but Sam Alison, of Singular, stated that he believes it will be in later this year. Sign up for the Singular newsletter and get updates on this model if you are interested as there probably will be a limited number of these made. 

Comments: Oh no....... This is right up my alley and would be a bike I would ride a lot. Especially if it were single speed compatible, which is usually a staple of Singular design, so I would suspect this model would conform to that pattern. 

At any rate, I was smitten by a Rivendell Atlantis at one point many years ago when I had to test ride a customers bike in for repair. The Atlantis was a unicorn bike for me and being a Riv, very expensive to boot. Needless to say I never ended up with one. However; that experience has haunted me and this Kookaburra could be the antidote to my missing out on an Atlantis. 

IF I were to bite on this I would immediately retire TWO bikes I have. This is a big "IF" though, as I have no idea what the Kookaburra will cost, and this will determine my decision. Needless to say, I am very interested.

Thank you for reading Guitar Ted Productions. Have a great weekend and ride those bicycles!

Recalled - Replaced!

The carbon Whisky No. 9 was originally on the BMC MCD

Last week a recall was put out by Quality Bicycle Products concerning certain Whisky and Salsa Cycles carbon drop bars. (See my post on that HERE) This recall affects me in that I happen to have a Whisky No 9 24° bar.

So, that's that for the carbon drop bar which now is on the Standard Rando v2. Well, it was on that bike. That's kind of part of this post.

The Whisky carbon drop bar was on my pink BMC MCD bike when I originally built that bike up in the Summer of 2018. These handle bars are very closely related to Cowchippers. If there are any differences between the two, they are very subtle, and I have Cowchipper Bars and I really have enjoyed riding them. So, these whisky No9 bars were right up my alley.

The carbon saves about 70 grams over a set of alloy Cowchippers, but it isn't about weight so much here. Actually the compliance and vibration reduction is why I would run those bars, and it is why I kept them on the pink BMC for so long. They stayed there until a test of the Redshift Sports Kitchen Sink Bar displaced them. 

That's when those Whisky bars found their way over to the Standard Rando v2. I had them off there for a bit while I ran the Winston Bar, the carbon mustache bar I tested, but they came back afterward. I've had zero issues with these bars, but apparently some have failed at the point where the brake lever clamp sits on the handle bar.

Apparently this Whisky N0 9 carbon drop bar could break at the point where the brake clamp sits.

I was thinking about drop bar levers and the clamp we have utilized for decades that affixes the lever to a handle bar. It is a decent enough way to do things on alloy bars, but I've always thought that the clamp was never really meant for an application where it has to work with a carbon handle bar. The shape of the clamp doesn't match the shape of the carbon tubing. The high leverage forces focused on one small area. The fact that carbon always fails under compression. All that seems to me to be a tough engineering puzzle and, perhaps, a different solution needs to happen with carbon drop bars. But then again- other companies seem to have it figured out. 

So, it must be doable.  Even Whisky has other carbon drops, as do Salsa, which don't seem to have this issue. Anyway, I'm not saying anyone did anything wrong here, but this is where my mind went when I considered this recall.

The replacement I used was a Cowchipper Bar in alloy.

So, anyway, the entire point here is that I had to get the handlebars off and swapped out. No big deal for me. I've changed out handle bars tons of times and it doesn't take all that long. Especially now with stems that have end caps. But before that happened with stems? This was a really tough job! This job, in comparison, was a piece of cake. 

The Cowchippers, being essentially just an alloy version of what I had on there, made everything even easier. I used a new roll of Wolf Tooth Supple Bar Tape which I had purchased earlier in the year. It's that extra thick stuff which is also extra wide. It is supposed to be black but it looks like a charcoal color to me. Ehhhhh.....It's alright. I'll admit that this is not my favorite handlebar tape, but it is what I had. 

 So, anyway, there ya go! Handle bars swapped and ready to roll once again. You may wonder about my thoughts on carbon bits here, so I'll close out this post with some of my thinking about that.

I see where people bag on carbon parts here and there. They say that they will never ride the stuff and that you are a stupid person if you do ride carbon parts. 

Well, I hope that many of you don't ride carbon fiber anything if you think that way. Oh, and toss all your aluminum stuff while you are at it, because it can fail as well. Then you are left with steel. Good ol' steel! Just don't think about how that can fail as well. (It does) But you're safe with titanium, right? 

Bontrager on the subject of warranty claims

Nope!

Bicycle parts fail. Get used to hearing about that. Especially lightweight, high performance bicycle parts. Sometimes designs aren't done well. Sometimes a manufacturing glitch happens. Sometimes it is just a few boneheads that didn't read instructions and then the whole component run gets recalled. (Yes- that has happened)  You will also hear more about recalls because companies are more proactive than ever when it comes to failures and possibilities for legal action. Sometimes it's just a few odd circumstances, but the entire run of parts gets recalled. (Again - That's happened as well before)

The result of all this recall stuff is that people get simple-minded and blanket-think a whole category/brand with a trite saying. You know- things like "Carbon sucks!". That's just goofy. I don't think that at all.

So, in this case, I figure a very small number of these failed for some reason, (we'll likely never know), and QBP is very conservative when it comes to stuff like this, so they just yanked all those bars off the market and recalled all that were ever sold, essentially. Were mine dangerous to ride? Not likely, but in this case, I have no reason to gamble on it. The bars were a gift to me and I got four years worth of riding out of them. I have other really good drop bars. No big deal to me. 

I get that some folks might be more inconvenienced than I, and I know frustration at having hit the wrong lottery can be a real thing. But in the end, we are all playing with some pretty fantastic, high-end machinery and we are definitely privileged to do so.

Recalled - Replaced!

The carbon Whisky No. 9 was originally on the BMC MCD

Last week a recall was put out by Quality Bicycle Products concerning certain Whisky and Salsa Cycles carbon drop bars. (See my post on that HERE) This recall affects me in that I happen to have a Whisky No 9 24° bar.

So, that's that for the carbon drop bar which now is on the Standard Rando v2. Well, it was on that bike. That's kind of part of this post.

The Whisky carbon drop bar was on my pink BMC MCD bike when I originally built that bike up in the Summer of 2018. These handle bars are very closely related to Cowchippers. If there are any differences between the two, they are very subtle, and I have Cowchipper Bars and I really have enjoyed riding them. So, these whisky No9 bars were right up my alley.

The carbon saves about 70 grams over a set of alloy Cowchippers, but it isn't about weight so much here. Actually the compliance and vibration reduction is why I would run those bars, and it is why I kept them on the pink BMC for so long. They stayed there until a test of the Redshift Sports Kitchen Sink Bar displaced them. 

That's when those Whisky bars found their way over to the Standard Rando v2. I had them off there for a bit while I ran the Winston Bar, the carbon mustache bar I tested, but they came back afterward. I've had zero issues with these bars, but apparently some have failed at the point where the brake lever clamp sits on the handle bar.

Apparently this Whisky N0 9 carbon drop bar could break at the point where the brake clamp sits.

I was thinking about drop bar levers and the clamp we have utilized for decades that affixes the lever to a handle bar. It is a decent enough way to do things on alloy bars, but I've always thought that the clamp was never really meant for an application where it has to work with a carbon handle bar. The shape of the clamp doesn't match the shape of the carbon tubing. The high leverage forces focused on one small area. The fact that carbon always fails under compression. All that seems to me to be a tough engineering puzzle and, perhaps, a different solution needs to happen with carbon drop bars. But then again- other companies seem to have it figured out. 

So, it must be doable.  Even Whisky has other carbon drops, as do Salsa, which don't seem to have this issue. Anyway, I'm not saying anyone did anything wrong here, but this is where my mind went when I considered this recall.

The replacement I used was a Cowchipper Bar in alloy.

So, anyway, the entire point here is that I had to get the handlebars off and swapped out. No big deal for me. I've changed out handle bars tons of times and it doesn't take all that long. Especially now with stems that have end caps. But before that happened with stems? This was a really tough job! This job, in comparison, was a piece of cake. 

The Cowchippers, being essentially just an alloy version of what I had on there, made everything even easier. I used a new roll of Wolf Tooth Supple Bar Tape which I had purchased earlier in the year. It's that extra thick stuff which is also extra wide. It is supposed to be black but it looks like a charcoal color to me. Ehhhhh.....It's alright. I'll admit that this is not my favorite handlebar tape, but it is what I had. 

 So, anyway, there ya go! Handle bars swapped and ready to roll once again. You may wonder about my thoughts on carbon bits here, so I'll close out this post with some of my thinking about that.

I see where people bag on carbon parts here and there. They say that they will never ride the stuff and that you are a stupid person if you do ride carbon parts. 

Well, I hope that many of you don't ride carbon fiber anything if you think that way. Oh, and toss all your aluminum stuff while you are at it, because it can fail as well. Then you are left with steel. Good ol' steel! Just don't think about how that can fail as well. (It does) But you're safe with titanium, right? 

Bontrager on the subject of warranty claims

Nope!

Bicycle parts fail. Get used to hearing about that. Especially lightweight, high performance bicycle parts. Sometimes designs aren't done well. Sometimes a manufacturing glitch happens. Sometimes it is just a few boneheads that didn't read instructions and then the whole component run gets recalled. (Yes- that has happened)  You will also hear more about recalls because companies are more proactive than ever when it comes to failures and possibilities for legal action. Sometimes it's just a few odd circumstances, but the entire run of parts gets recalled. (Again - That's happened as well before)

The result of all this recall stuff is that people get simple-minded and blanket-think a whole category/brand with a trite saying. You know- things like "Carbon sucks!". That's just goofy. I don't think that at all.

So, in this case, I figure a very small number of these failed for some reason, (we'll likely never know), and QBP is very conservative when it comes to stuff like this, so they just yanked all those bars off the market and recalled all that were ever sold, essentially. Were mine dangerous to ride? Not likely, but in this case, I have no reason to gamble on it. The bars were a gift to me and I got four years worth of riding out of them. I have other really good drop bars. No big deal to me. 

I get that some folks might be more inconvenienced than I, and I know frustration at having hit the wrong lottery can be a real thing. But in the end, we are all playing with some pretty fantastic, high-end machinery and we are definitely privileged to do so.

Friday News And Views

A bare Zipp 101 XPLR rim: Image courtesy of SRAM

 On Wednesday I gave my rundown of opinions on the new SRAM XPLR group. (Read that here if you missed it) Today I want to comment specifically on the rim design for the XPLR 101 wheel from Zipp.

This struck me as odd, but the design has merits which I understand as valid in gravel design. That said, the results- spec-wise and pricing-wise- are puzzling. Let's take a look...

The design for the rim is, basically, a carbon fat bike rim design shrunk down to fit a gravel bike. It has single wall construction which does a couple of things here that make a bit of sense for a gravel road rider. 

First, that single wall construction, theoretically speaking, should be able to flex a bit more freely in a vertical plane than a box section rim, or a triangulated, shallow section rim. There is a reinforced ridge for the spoke beds, and other than that, one might expect a bit less impact resistance, but here we are speaking of gravel riding- not MTB. So Zipp maybe saw this as a way to introduce some rider comfort.  

The second thing a single wall rim does is that it presents - most likely- the least amount of side drag from cross winds that is possible without doing super-aero stuff with the rim design. But if there are any cross-wind benefits, this is probably secondary to this design. 

A possible third benefit might be light weight, but curiously this complete wheel set weighs in at 1665 grams for the pair. That's kinda heavy, and many aluminum wheel sets weigh similarly, cost less, and have similar comfort claims. Add in the asking price of $1800.00 USD and that value prospect seems to go up in a puff of smoked credit card plastic. 

I like that they dared to go to a 27mm wide inner width here, but I'll have a lot more to say to this feature once I get my Project Wide Gravel Wheels going after Gravel Worlds is over. Stay tuned for that...

Remember this? Well- that didn't work out so well!

Finish Line Introduces FiberLink Sealant:

Back in 2018 I noted on another "FN&V" that Finish Line had introduced a sealant which they said would "..last the usable lifetime of the tire". While I did not say exactly what I thought was going on there in that 2018 post, I had serious misgivings about this new 'wonder sealant', and as it turned out, my instincts about it were largely correct. 

Finish Line sealant quickly became a byword amongst mechanics who tried it out as it became known that by using it the tires would not seal up correctly and it made servicing new tubeless set-ups a total nightmare. Riders found that it sealed punctures poorly as well. So, the sealant was quickly dismissed by the consumer and the industry. It wasn't long before Finish Line started looking into its replacement. By 2019 they were already working on that.

Well, after two years, Finish Line have come out with what they are calling "FiberLink" sealant. As you might suspect, it is now a latex based sealant but it is infused with Kevlar® fibers which, as Finish Line claims, should seal punctures more quickly and with a longer lasting effect. My 'instincts' tell me that -this time- this stuff should work pretty well. 

There is only one real question I have, and that is how well will this work with valve stems, (will it clog them more easily because of the fibers?) and how long will it last before it coagulates and becomes ineffective? Typically, any coagulant enhancing substance in a latex based sealant tends to clog valve stems and/or does not last a long time at all in a tire before it needs to be serviced. If Finish Line dodges those pitfalls with its new FiberLink sealant, then this could be a big deal in sealants. We'll see......

My Adidas!- Got No Stones In 'Em! 

Adidas Shoes just announced a new gravel cycling shoe which is brilliantly named. You won't believe what the name they chose for it is! Check it out:

Introducing, the new "Gravel Cycling Shoe"! 

The name just blows me away it is sooo good! Ahem......right then, so really Adidas? Wow... Okay, let's move on.... 

Yeah, so it is a $170.00 shoe with a 'sock' dealio around the ankle to keep dust and small stones out. Hmm.....okay...I can see that. I mean, I do get stones of the smaller size inside my shoes at times. So, that cuff may not be as goofy as it seems at first glance. However; I would say that as of right now, in this air we have had that is so thick and juicy that you feel like you are being enveloped in a warm blanket, in 90°F weather, that a neoprene cuff is not exactly what I would want sealing off my Earth pads from air flow. 

I could be 100% wrong here though. Maybe there is great air-flow around the feet with these... what is the name again? It's so unique and different that you'd think I'd remember....oh yes! The Gravel Cycling Shoe! Yes! That's it.... 

Anyway, there is supposedly a variant on the black theme with some outlandish, 80's inspired brightness. Now those would get you noticed at the local small village convenience store! Thankfully the basic black is much more fitting in rural conservative America. Hey! I own a pink bicycle, I should know! 

The bottoms look like they took scraps of Schwalbe G-One tires and used them for the walkable soles. I would be slipping like a farm animal on ice if I wore those on a soft or wet Level B Road around here. But for dry gravel travel? That's probably okay. Gotta wonder how long those little nubbins would last though. But you know what? If these made your toes happy, who am I to say? Shoes are highly personal fit items and these look okay to me. Price is fair if they perform and last a decent amount of time.  (All images courtesy of Adidas)

Update: New Riding Gravel radio ranch Podcast Out!

The latest gab-fest between myself and Andy of Andy's Bike shop is live now. Check out the Riding Gravel Radio Ranch here or look for it n your favorite podcast feed. 

We typically get 2-3 episodes out a month and sometimes 4! I'm pretty pumped that this has been a steady flow of content now for about two years straight. You can thank, (or blame- however you feel about this), Andy. He was pretty adamant that we get the ball rolling more often with the podcast and for us to make sure we have a constant flow of content there. 

Andy does provide much of the equipment and the space for recording is his office, so he is a big reason why the streak of content has been fairly steady since early 2020. Thank you Andy for that! Of course, it was a goal of mine, as well, to reinvigorate the podcast and get it coming more consistently as it had kind of petered out there in 2019. Or was that 2018? I can't remember... Time flies! 

There is another podcast in the can which should be published really soon and then we have a special guest coming up which I am excited about. Check out tomorrow's post for more on who that is and why I am stoked. Until then.....
 

That's a wrap for this week! Thank you for reading Guitar Ted Productions!

Friday News And Views

A bare Zipp 101 XPLR rim: Image courtesy of SRAM

 On Wednesday I gave my rundown of opinions on the new SRAM XPLR group. (Read that here if you missed it) Today I want to comment specifically on the rim design for the XPLR 101 wheel from Zipp.

This struck me as odd, but the design has merits which I understand as valid in gravel design. That said, the results- spec-wise and pricing-wise- are puzzling. Let's take a look...

The design for the rim is, basically, a carbon fat bike rim design shrunk down to fit a gravel bike. It has single wall construction which does a couple of things here that make a bit of sense for a gravel road rider. 

First, that single wall construction, theoretically speaking, should be able to flex a bit more freely in a vertical plane than a box section rim, or a triangulated, shallow section rim. There is a reinforced ridge for the spoke beds, and other than that, one might expect a bit less impact resistance, but here we are speaking of gravel riding- not MTB. So Zipp maybe saw this as a way to introduce some rider comfort.  

The second thing a single wall rim does is that it presents - most likely- the least amount of side drag from cross winds that is possible without doing super-aero stuff with the rim design. But if there are any cross-wind benefits, this is probably secondary to this design. 

A possible third benefit might be light weight, but curiously this complete wheel set weighs in at 1665 grams for the pair. That's kinda heavy, and many aluminum wheel sets weigh similarly, cost less, and have similar comfort claims. Add in the asking price of $1800.00 USD and that value prospect seems to go up in a puff of smoked credit card plastic. 

I like that they dared to go to a 27mm wide inner width here, but I'll have a lot more to say to this feature once I get my Project Wide Gravel Wheels going after Gravel Worlds is over. Stay tuned for that...

Remember this? Well- that didn't work out so well!

Finish Line Introduces FiberLink Sealant:

Back in 2018 I noted on another "FN&V" that Finish Line had introduced a sealant which they said would "..last the usable lifetime of the tire". While I did not say exactly what I thought was going on there in that 2018 post, I had serious misgivings about this new 'wonder sealant', and as it turned out, my instincts about it were largely correct. 

Finish Line sealant quickly became a byword amongst mechanics who tried it out as it became known that by using it the tires would not seal up correctly and it made servicing new tubeless set-ups a total nightmare. Riders found that it sealed punctures poorly as well. So, the sealant was quickly dismissed by the consumer and the industry. It wasn't long before Finish Line started looking into its replacement. By 2019 they were already working on that.

Well, after two years, Finish Line have come out with what they are calling "FiberLink" sealant. As you might suspect, it is now a latex based sealant but it is infused with Kevlar® fibers which, as Finish Line claims, should seal punctures more quickly and with a longer lasting effect. My 'instincts' tell me that -this time- this stuff should work pretty well. 

There is only one real question I have, and that is how well will this work with valve stems, (will it clog them more easily because of the fibers?) and how long will it last before it coagulates and becomes ineffective? Typically, any coagulant enhancing substance in a latex based sealant tends to clog valve stems and/or does not last a long time at all in a tire before it needs to be serviced. If Finish Line dodges those pitfalls with its new FiberLink sealant, then this could be a big deal in sealants. We'll see......

My Adidas!- Got No Stones In 'Em! 

Adidas Shoes just announced a new gravel cycling shoe which is brilliantly named. You won't believe what the name they chose for it is! Check it out:

Introducing, the new "Gravel Cycling Shoe"! 

The name just blows me away it is sooo good! Ahem......right then, so really Adidas? Wow... Okay, let's move on.... 

Yeah, so it is a $170.00 shoe with a 'sock' dealio around the ankle to keep dust and small stones out. Hmm.....okay...I can see that. I mean, I do get stones of the smaller size inside my shoes at times. So, that cuff may not be as goofy as it seems at first glance. However; I would say that as of right now, in this air we have had that is so thick and juicy that you feel like you are being enveloped in a warm blanket, in 90°F weather, that a neoprene cuff is not exactly what I would want sealing off my Earth pads from air flow. 

I could be 100% wrong here though. Maybe there is great air-flow around the feet with these... what is the name again? It's so unique and different that you'd think I'd remember....oh yes! The Gravel Cycling Shoe! Yes! That's it.... 

Anyway, there is supposedly a variant on the black theme with some outlandish, 80's inspired brightness. Now those would get you noticed at the local small village convenience store! Thankfully the basic black is much more fitting in rural conservative America. Hey! I own a pink bicycle, I should know! 

The bottoms look like they took scraps of Schwalbe G-One tires and used them for the walkable soles. I would be slipping like a farm animal on ice if I wore those on a soft or wet Level B Road around here. But for dry gravel travel? That's probably okay. Gotta wonder how long those little nubbins would last though. But you know what? If these made your toes happy, who am I to say? Shoes are highly personal fit items and these look okay to me. Price is fair if they perform and last a decent amount of time.  (All images courtesy of Adidas)

Update: New Riding Gravel radio ranch Podcast Out!

The latest gab-fest between myself and Andy of Andy's Bike shop is live now. Check out the Riding Gravel Radio Ranch here or look for it n your favorite podcast feed. 

We typically get 2-3 episodes out a month and sometimes 4! I'm pretty pumped that this has been a steady flow of content now for about two years straight. You can thank, (or blame- however you feel about this), Andy. He was pretty adamant that we get the ball rolling more often with the podcast and for us to make sure we have a constant flow of content there. 

Andy does provide much of the equipment and the space for recording is his office, so he is a big reason why the streak of content has been fairly steady since early 2020. Thank you Andy for that! Of course, it was a goal of mine, as well, to reinvigorate the podcast and get it coming more consistently as it had kind of petered out there in 2019. Or was that 2018? I can't remember... Time flies! 

There is another podcast in the can which should be published really soon and then we have a special guest coming up which I am excited about. Check out tomorrow's post for more on who that is and why I am stoked. Until then.....
 

That's a wrap for this week! Thank you for reading Guitar Ted Productions!

Brown Season: Downhill and a Tailwind to the End

Croxton Road

 Well........it's over! I've completed "The Quest", and just in time! Winter returned over the weekend and the Spring-like temperatures of Thursday are now a distant memory. I'm glad I have that wrapped up for many reasons, but not the least of which is that it would be infinitely more difficult to ride longer section of gravel out in the open now. I'm very glad I don't have that to worry about!

So, a lesson learned which I will now share. Last Summer I was out in Eastern Black Hawk County on one of these quest rides and I looped through Jesup Iowa and headed out of town South and West to catch the end of Young Road and eventually find my way back to Waterloo. Well, as fate would have it, I rode right past Croxton Road. I knew it had to be an 'out-and-back' section of road as it went South straight towards Highway 20, which is a limited access highway. I figured I'd get back to that, besides, I hadn't studied the maps to even realize that Croxton Road was there or how I might make it work into another route. It wasn't on my radar that day anyway. So I rode straight on by. 

Big mistake!

But not only that, I had a second chance to bag it last month and I passed on that opportunity. Now Croxton Road was a pox on my brain. A short crumb of gravel left out there dangling that now I was going to have to make a special effort to go ride. What a pain! I should have just knocked it out when I first saw it, and you wanna know why? The kicker is that it is all of a quarter mile long! 

Gah! Oh well. I had to take my medicine and drive all the way out there, hop on my bike, and within about ten minutes I was done with that one. Then it was on to the last loop. The last bit of 'The Quest' that was left out there. It was a loop which would have about eight miles of road that I had to bag yet, plus another 3/4's of a mile I needed to get nearby. These were close enough together that I could combine it all into one bigger ride. 

The end of Croxton Road was right on Highway 20 near Jesup.

The stub end of Miller Creek Road that is East of HWY 218

After dealing with the mistake of ignoring Croxton Road I went to an access off the Cedar Valley Nature Trail just North of Ripple Road which I could ride to and take Ripple Road over Highway 218, go West to Cotter Road, North then to Miller Creek Road, and then east to bag the road as an out-and-back. Then I would retrace my steps to Cotter Road and find Quarry Road Eastward to Kline Road, which began my 'new-to-me' section. 

Now when I reached Miller Creek Road, I'll be danged if that Eastward section wasn't chip sealed! Arrgh! Once again, the State DOT map was wrong. I went to Highway 218 anyway because the last tiny bit East of the highway was gravel and I bagged it and went on my way. 

Miller Creek Road's terminus East of Highway 218.

Barns For Jason #1 - This on Kober Road

The wind was up out of the South, and unlike the previous day, this time the wind was significant. The flags were standing straight out and rippling fiercely, so whatever that wind speed is, that is what it was. All I know is that the wind was tough to ride against. But this route direction was chosen so I would dispense with the rough part first. I just needed to be patient and 'eat my broccoli'. Dessert would be served later. 

Kober Road looking into Benton County in the distance.

Barns For Jason #'s 2 & 3: This is at the corner of 14th Ave & 50th St. Dr in Benton County.

I jig-a-jogged over to Kober Road and then south through to Benton County where I could take the next Westbound road and return North, eventually coming out on Kline Road in Black Hawk County. 

Barns For Jason #'s 4 & 5: This round barn on 50th St. Dr. One of three made of ceramic tiles thought to have been sold by James McQuilkin of the Johnson Brothers Clay Works. 

Kline Road looking North

Once I rounded the corner down in Benton County I could get the benefit of the big Southern breeze. But that also meant that it would feel much hotter and the air temperature was soaring. When I started out at Croxton Road it was still nippy. In the upper 30's. But by this time the mercury had soared up into the low 50's and it would scrape 60 before the end of the ride. I had to find a way to ditch my heavy Bontrager windbreaker. I already had removed my gloves by this point. But where to stow this stuff? I had only a Bike Bag Dude Garage Bag and nothing else. 

I dug around in the top tube bag and found an old ByKyle junk strap from Trans Iowa v5, I think! I have a few extras of those, anyway.... I also had several rolled up Velcro straps from Giant bike builds which I had saved, rolled up into tiny balls, and stuffed into that top tube bag. Who knows when you'll need those! Well, that 'when' was right now! 

It was super dusty out there, as you can see by the 'contrail' left by a semi-tractor trailer which had just passed on a crossing road.

Barns For Jason #6 and #7 on Kline Road

I rolled up the Bontrager windbreaker as tightly as I could. I "X" wrapped it tightly with the straps and then with my last one I hung it from the handle bars in front of the head tube. Perfect! With the ear flaps in the 'up' position on my Walz Caps wool cycling hat, I was ready to take on the final miles of this ride, and of "The Quest" overall, which lay before me.

An unmarked cemetery just a bit west of LaPorte City on Kline Road. 

It doesn't look like much, but this is a downhill on Ripple Road, the last gravel of "The Quest".

I had a mahoosive tailwind and so it didn't take long, or much effort, to clear the rollers and get back to Ripple Road, my final descent to the CVNT and then just a short mile back to the truck. Ripple Road ends on a dirt two-track before it reaches the recreation trail, and as I went through a bit of a depression in the road, I heard a "SNAP!" and then my saddle felt all wonky. I thought at first the saddle clamp had rotated and that my saddle was severely 'nose up' now. But when I stopped I saw that I had actually snapped the seat post!

Well, that's the end of the line for that Specialized C-GR post!

Dang! I was sure glad THAT never happened out in the middle of nowhere! I don't know how many gravel miles I've put on that post this Summer, Fall, and now Winter, but it has been a LOT. 

Anyway, this meant the last mile plus was done standing up. At least that was on flat rec trail! Looking back, if you had to break a seat post, this is how you'd want it to go. It didn't snap off, it didn't cut me, it didn't leave me with 30 miles to go, and "The Quest" is over. How about them apples?

Well, I didn't buy the post new, I bought it used and only for $35.00, so I don't have a warranty and I got what I paid for out of it and more. No hard feelings, but it does raise some concerns about carbon fiber seat posts again. This will be the second one I've broken. Some posts are better than others, so I don't know that it is 'carbon' necessarily, but when carbon fails...... Yikes! 

Anyway, this is about finishing up "The Quest", not about a stupid seat post! Yes! I am finished! I cannot say I had any standout feelings about finishing up as I rode in, pre-breaking post. I did laugh out loud at one point when I thought about how ridiculous this whole ruse was. Ride every gravel road in the county? Ha! What a dumb idea! Or was it? 

I'll have a post following where I will look back specifically at my thoughts and feelings concerning this crazy idea. There I will share my thoughts more fully about completing this deal and what I have learned from doing it. So, for now I am free of this burden I created for myself. It kind of took over my 2020, but......what else was I gonna do?!

Stay tuned for the final look at The Quest.   

Brown Season: Downhill and a Tailwind to the End

Croxton Road

 Well........it's over! I've completed "The Quest", and just in time! Winter returned over the weekend and the Spring-like temperatures of Thursday are now a distant memory. I'm glad I have that wrapped up for many reasons, but not the least of which is that it would be infinitely more difficult to ride longer section of gravel out in the open now. I'm very glad I don't have that to worry about!

So, a lesson learned which I will now share. Last Summer I was out in Eastern Black Hawk County on one of these quest rides and I looped through Jesup Iowa and headed out of town South and West to catch the end of Young Road and eventually find my way back to Waterloo. Well, as fate would have it, I rode right past Croxton Road. I knew it had to be an 'out-and-back' section of road as it went South straight towards Highway 20, which is a limited access highway. I figured I'd get back to that, besides, I hadn't studied the maps to even realize that Croxton Road was there or how I might make it work into another route. It wasn't on my radar that day anyway. So I rode straight on by. 

Big mistake!

But not only that, I had a second chance to bag it last month and I passed on that opportunity. Now Croxton Road was a pox on my brain. A short crumb of gravel left out there dangling that now I was going to have to make a special effort to go ride. What a pain! I should have just knocked it out when I first saw it, and you wanna know why? The kicker is that it is all of a quarter mile long! 

Gah! Oh well. I had to take my medicine and drive all the way out there, hop on my bike, and within about ten minutes I was done with that one. Then it was on to the last loop. The last bit of 'The Quest' that was left out there. It was a loop which would have about eight miles of road that I had to bag yet, plus another 3/4's of a mile I needed to get nearby. These were close enough together that I could combine it all into one bigger ride. 

The end of Croxton Road was right on Highway 20 near Jesup.

The stub end of Miller Creek Road that is East of HWY 218

After dealing with the mistake of ignoring Croxton Road I went to an access off the Cedar Valley Nature Trail just North of Ripple Road which I could ride to and take Ripple Road over Highway 218, go West to Cotter Road, North then to Miller Creek Road, and then east to bag the road as an out-and-back. Then I would retrace my steps to Cotter Road and find Quarry Road Eastward to Kline Road, which began my 'new-to-me' section. 

Now when I reached Miller Creek Road, I'll be danged if that Eastward section wasn't chip sealed! Arrgh! Once again, the State DOT map was wrong. I went to Highway 218 anyway because the last tiny bit East of the highway was gravel and I bagged it and went on my way. 

Miller Creek Road's terminus East of Highway 218.

Barns For Jason #1 - This on Kober Road

The wind was up out of the South, and unlike the previous day, this time the wind was significant. The flags were standing straight out and rippling fiercely, so whatever that wind speed is, that is what it was. All I know is that the wind was tough to ride against. But this route direction was chosen so I would dispense with the rough part first. I just needed to be patient and 'eat my broccoli'. Dessert would be served later. 

Kober Road looking into Benton County in the distance.

Barns For Jason #'s 2 & 3: This is at the corner of 14th Ave & 50th St. Dr in Benton County.

I jig-a-jogged over to Kober Road and then south through to Benton County where I could take the next Westbound road and return North, eventually coming out on Kline Road in Black Hawk County. 

Barns For Jason #'s 4 & 5: This round barn on 50th St. Dr. One of three made of ceramic tiles thought to have been sold by James McQuilkin of the Johnson Brothers Clay Works. 

Kline Road looking North

Once I rounded the corner down in Benton County I could get the benefit of the big Southern breeze. But that also meant that it would feel much hotter and the air temperature was soaring. When I started out at Croxton Road it was still nippy. In the upper 30's. But by this time the mercury had soared up into the low 50's and it would scrape 60 before the end of the ride. I had to find a way to ditch my heavy Bontrager windbreaker. I already had removed my gloves by this point. But where to stow this stuff? I had only a Bike Bag Dude Garage Bag and nothing else. 

I dug around in the top tube bag and found an old ByKyle junk strap from Trans Iowa v5, I think! I have a few extras of those, anyway.... I also had several rolled up Velcro straps from Giant bike builds which I had saved, rolled up into tiny balls, and stuffed into that top tube bag. Who knows when you'll need those! Well, that 'when' was right now! 

It was super dusty out there, as you can see by the 'contrail' left by a semi-tractor trailer which had just passed on a crossing road.

Barns For Jason #6 and #7 on Kline Road

I rolled up the Bontrager windbreaker as tightly as I could. I "X" wrapped it tightly with the straps and then with my last one I hung it from the handle bars in front of the head tube. Perfect! With the ear flaps in the 'up' position on my Walz Caps wool cycling hat, I was ready to take on the final miles of this ride, and of "The Quest" overall, which lay before me.

An unmarked cemetery just a bit west of LaPorte City on Kline Road. 

It doesn't look like much, but this is a downhill on Ripple Road, the last gravel of "The Quest".

I had a mahoosive tailwind and so it didn't take long, or much effort, to clear the rollers and get back to Ripple Road, my final descent to the CVNT and then just a short mile back to the truck. Ripple Road ends on a dirt two-track before it reaches the recreation trail, and as I went through a bit of a depression in the road, I heard a "SNAP!" and then my saddle felt all wonky. I thought at first the saddle clamp had rotated and that my saddle was severely 'nose up' now. But when I stopped I saw that I had actually snapped the seat post!

Well, that's the end of the line for that Specialized C-GR post!

Dang! I was sure glad THAT never happened out in the middle of nowhere! I don't know how many gravel miles I've put on that post this Summer, Fall, and now Winter, but it has been a LOT. 

Anyway, this meant the last mile plus was done standing up. At least that was on flat rec trail! Looking back, if you had to break a seat post, this is how you'd want it to go. It didn't snap off, it didn't cut me, it didn't leave me with 30 miles to go, and "The Quest" is over. How about them apples?

Well, I didn't buy the post new, I bought it used and only for $35.00, so I don't have a warranty and I got what I paid for out of it and more. No hard feelings, but it does raise some concerns about carbon fiber seat posts again. This will be the second one I've broken. Some posts are better than others, so I don't know that it is 'carbon' necessarily, but when carbon fails...... Yikes! 

Anyway, this is about finishing up "The Quest", not about a stupid seat post! Yes! I am finished! I cannot say I had any standout feelings about finishing up as I rode in, pre-breaking post. I did laugh out loud at one point when I thought about how ridiculous this whole ruse was. Ride every gravel road in the county? Ha! What a dumb idea! Or was it? 

I'll have a post following where I will look back specifically at my thoughts and feelings concerning this crazy idea. There I will share my thoughts more fully about completing this deal and what I have learned from doing it. So, for now I am free of this burden I created for myself. It kind of took over my 2020, but......what else was I gonna do?!

Stay tuned for the final look at The Quest.