Barn Ride

Interbike planning, thinking, geeking, and trips in planes. It all adds up to one stressed out Guitar Ted. I needed a ride. Well, Mrs. Guitar Ted found a remedy. She said our friends wanted us to come out to the country and visit again. I said, "Sure, if I can ride out and meet you!" She agreed that would be good, so I took the Snow Dog on a gravel ride.

4th Street, Waterloo, Iowa

I bugged out of town pretty late. Well after 7pm, and that meant I'd need lights and would finish up in the dark. I worked my way around a rail road track with some trains building up cars on them. This forced me to go under an overpass, and the ground was saturated underneath. Good thing I was on the Mukluk! I didn't even get out of town and I found adventure.

Lots of people were gawking at my rig, and more than a few said some positive comments about it. Do not get a fat bike if you don't like attention!

Just north of the city

I got out of town finally and was a bit disappointed. It looked as though I missed the sunset. That was one of the reasons I went for this ride. Oh well! At least I was out on my bicycle.

Not fog. Gravel dust!

I saw a car go up the road ahead of me, and the rooster tail of dust just hung there like fog. It was really weird. When I rode through it, it was dry in my nostrils and I could feel the dust on me. Fortunately, I only ran into a couple cars on the ride. It could have been a much tougher ride with moire car traffic. At least the wind wasn't blowing!

Red barn, Pale Moon

I decided I'd better get an image or two of barns, since I know Gnat likes to see them here. I tried getting this shot, but from the several I took, this was as good as it got. There was so much gravel dust in the air here it made all my shots look pixelated!

Fiery Sky

Then I noticed that the sunset began to intensify again. I thought I missed the best stuff, but boy! Was I ever wrong! This sunset was spectacular, and it was just crankin' up. You can still see gravel dust hanging in the air in the distance. This was looking down Big Rock Road, by the way.

Old Land Yacht

This isn't really your typical barn, but I couldn't pass up a shot of a busted up old boat of a car next to a shed.

More fiery sky

And the sun just kept lighting things up as I ground along. By this time, I had the lights on and was so busy gee gawing at the sky I hardly noticed the rollers which were mostly up hill.

The last light of Day

Finally it all petered out, but it was amazingly great. And here I thought I missed it all! When I pulled into our friends quarter mile long drive, I could see their barn. It was all lit up like a party was going on. You see, they re-purposed their barn for gatherings and hanging out, since it really no longer serves any other useful purpose these days on the modernized farm.

Interior of the barn from the front.

This barn was raised in 1898. They even have an old black and white of all the folks that came over to work on the barn, and feed the men that were there. It looked like a 100 folks or more! Lots of hand labor in those days! Back then, there were no machines that could harvest hundreds of acres a day, but there were machines. Threshing machines were big, expensive, and usually owned by few farmers. Typically the thresher owner would travel around to neighboring farms to help harvest along with a crew of men. These might be neighbors, relatives, or a crew hired by the owner of the thresher.

At any rate, they all sat down to eat at a table like the one in the picture. Actually, this is an actual table used during the feeding of threshing crews back in the day!

Mortise and Tenon

The timbers were all hewn by hand in these old barns, and the construction was of high craftsmanship. Mortise and tenon joinery was everywhere, and all were pinned with wooden dowels, as you can see above. Amazing! Just think of all the hard work. And these were tight fitting joints as well.

I give you.......The Moon!

The other end had a wide, tall door that could be slid out of the way for open star, or as in this case, moon gazing. What a perfect night, and a great stress reliever.

Friday News And Views

Not A Fat Bike! (GASP!)

Squeezing In A Few Before The Show: I happened to get out and ride a few times this week on something other than a fat-bike. This one pictured here is a new test rig for Twenty Nine Inches.

I've needed every ride I could get in too. This week is almost as stressful as a Trans Iowa week. There are Eurobike posts to edit and publish along with making all my connections to get things in order for Interbike next week.

I'll squeeze out the other side of this, and it'll be late September already. Crazy! Seems like I just got done riding the GTDRI the other day. Now the leaves will be falling as I get things dialed back to "normal" around here. If that could ever happen!

At any rate, the rides have been good, the weather....perfect.....and the bikes, pretty awesome too. The newest one is this full suspension Diamondback Sortie 29. I also got in a nice little errand run on the old Karate Monkey.

If I have as much fun riding bikes this year at the Outdoor Demo as I've had already this week, it would be an awesome, successful Interbike. I sure hope it goes that way. 

Special VIP parking

So, Which Do You Prefer?

I got asked in the comments from yesterday's post what I preferred: Fat-bikes or carbon wonder bikes?

Hey, as long as it has two wheels, fits me reasonably well, and there is somewhere to go, I'm good!

Sure, there are things I prefer to ride, and I have been fortunately blessed to have a few sitting around to grab when the fancy hits me. But really, there is a freedom in having one bike  which I think is pretty cool. Either way, the bottom line is that I just like to ride a bicycle anytime I can.

So, yeah......I'm pretty dang excited about these fat-bikes. No doubt about that. The possibilities are boundless, and of course, winter time is now not a barrier that it once was. In fact, I'm excited for it to come this year! (Ducking for cover now!)

But that said, there are so many cool bikes, why limit yourself to one type or kind? (If you can afford to have them, that is.) I mean, I really like my cargo bike, for instance. It has opened up a whole new avenue of bicycling use for me. Now you could claim all the "green" and "health" bennies ya want to, but really.....c'mon now!  You ride these things as an excuse to ride more. Riding bicycles is fun! (Remember when you started as a kid?) Fun I say. The rest is gravy.

I prefer......bicycles!

So....About that show thing: I think we'll find an eclectic mix of stuff at Interbike this year. The U.S. 29"er market is much different than the European deal. We saw last week how there were waves upon waves of new 29"ers from brands that you've never heard of till now. It is the year of intros for the Europeans, and they likely won't see anything like this again.

The U.S. 29"er market grew much more slowly. Now it has matured, and besides the fact that carbon fiber hard tails will be seen all over, there isn't a whole lot of "wow" to be had. Yeti and Ibis not withstanding, I don't expect to get my socks knocked off by anything, but.......ya never know!

I'll be posting sporadically from now till next weekend, so please bear with me as I travel to and from the bright lighted city of Los Wages, Nevada! Until my return, ya'all have a great time riding your bicycles and checking in on all the show madness. (But really, just try to ride more!)

Friday News And Views

Not A Fat Bike! (GASP!)

Squeezing In A Few Before The Show: I happened to get out and ride a few times this week on something other than a fat-bike. This one pictured here is a new test rig for Twenty Nine Inches.

I've needed every ride I could get in too. This week is almost as stressful as a Trans Iowa week. There are Eurobike posts to edit and publish along with making all my connections to get things in order for Interbike next week.

I'll squeeze out the other side of this, and it'll be late September already. Crazy! Seems like I just got done riding the GTDRI the other day. Now the leaves will be falling as I get things dialed back to "normal" around here. If that could ever happen!

At any rate, the rides have been good, the weather....perfect.....and the bikes, pretty awesome too. The newest one is this full suspension Diamondback Sortie 29. I also got in a nice little errand run on the old Karate Monkey.

If I have as much fun riding bikes this year at the Outdoor Demo as I've had already this week, it would be an awesome, successful Interbike. I sure hope it goes that way. 

Special VIP parking

So, Which Do You Prefer?

I got asked in the comments from yesterday's post what I preferred: Fat-bikes or carbon wonder bikes?

Hey, as long as it has two wheels, fits me reasonably well, and there is somewhere to go, I'm good!

Sure, there are things I prefer to ride, and I have been fortunately blessed to have a few sitting around to grab when the fancy hits me. But really, there is a freedom in having one bike  which I think is pretty cool. Either way, the bottom line is that I just like to ride a bicycle anytime I can.

So, yeah......I'm pretty dang excited about these fat-bikes. No doubt about that. The possibilities are boundless, and of course, winter time is now not a barrier that it once was. In fact, I'm excited for it to come this year! (Ducking for cover now!)

But that said, there are so many cool bikes, why limit yourself to one type or kind? (If you can afford to have them, that is.) I mean, I really like my cargo bike, for instance. It has opened up a whole new avenue of bicycling use for me. Now you could claim all the "green" and "health" bennies ya want to, but really.....c'mon now!  You ride these things as an excuse to ride more. Riding bicycles is fun! (Remember when you started as a kid?) Fun I say. The rest is gravy.

I prefer......bicycles!

So....About that show thing: I think we'll find an eclectic mix of stuff at Interbike this year. The U.S. 29"er market is much different than the European deal. We saw last week how there were waves upon waves of new 29"ers from brands that you've never heard of till now. It is the year of intros for the Europeans, and they likely won't see anything like this again.

The U.S. 29"er market grew much more slowly. Now it has matured, and besides the fact that carbon fiber hard tails will be seen all over, there isn't a whole lot of "wow" to be had. Yeti and Ibis not withstanding, I don't expect to get my socks knocked off by anything, but.......ya never know!

I'll be posting sporadically from now till next weekend, so please bear with me as I travel to and from the bright lighted city of Los Wages, Nevada! Until my return, ya'all have a great time riding your bicycles and checking in on all the show madness. (But really, just try to ride more!)

Fat Biking Fun-Times: Part III (Tour Of Northfield)

Okay.....yesterday I left off with our Tour Of Northfield at the point where we had dropped off of St. Olaf's campus and we had gone back into the streets of Northfield. We weren't really going anywhere in particular that I could tell, but I'm sure Ben and Curtis knew what the plan was. So, I didn't worry and just went along for the ride.

Sessioning some railroad rails

Eventually we ended up coming down the hill towards Northfield's downtown area. As we did, Ben spied something, started talking to himself, and walked away.

At first, Curtis and I were content to wait and see what he was up to while we chatted a bit. Eventually, Ben was getting far enough away that I became curious, so Curtis and I remounted and gave chase.

Ben found a bunch of rails for the railroad lying alongside the tracks. He was eyeing them up, as if he had a plan to ride them. At first, I thought he would try them as a skinny, but he had other ides, and not so dangerous and difficult.

Instead, he wanted to have me try and capture the tire deflection as he rode over the rails. The big fatties would also show how they could bridge gaps just fine without any real efforts, which smaller volume tires would have troubles with.

I didn't get a "perfect shot" of this, but if you click on the image to enlarge it, and pay special attention to the back tire, it might give you some idea of what Ben was after here.

We hit the down town area for a quick pint of beer and then headed back out again. 

Big Hill, Big Tires, Big Blue Sky!

We somehow made our way to the southeastern side of town, and left via a bike trail to Dundas. This was a little town that is just outside of Northfield a few miles or so. Here we decided to go back to the North and hit up the big hill on Cannon Valley Road.

I like gravel, and big, winding climbs on gravel are fun. I was sure wishing I had my Black Mountain Cycles "Monster Cross" rig right about then though! The weight of the fat bike could seriously be felt here, but with a set-it-and-forget-it attitude on the cadence, I was able to suffer through to the top, winded, but satisfied that I could push the Snow Dog up such a steep, long climb.

After we topped out on this climb we noticed an area where it looked like there was an ATV trail coming right off the gravel into an open area behind a new development. Here we took a hard left and dove in.

Bushwhacking!

The ATV trail sort of dead ended at the development, so I went right and along the back end of the properties, heading towards a large pile of sand, dirt, and gravel that was about three stories high and quite long. Unfortunately, I couldn't see any way up on to it.

We continued on a wide, graded out pathway through a corn field to a "T" intersection. We took the left way, towards town, which dead ended into a cul-de-sac. Obviously, we had found a very rudimentary street layout. Curtis and Ben remembered that there was an aborted attempt at putting a development in somewhere in the vicinity, and we all guessed we had found it. Seeing as how we could go no further towards town, we were obliged to head back to the gravel road, and then we turned back to the north.

By this time we were getting really hungry! So we made a plan to head to Mike's Bikes and see if we could roust somebody up, either Mike hisself or Stuart, his son, for some grub. When we got down there, I was really beginning to bonk pretty hard. I could have rolled up onto the sidewalk, curled up in a ball, and slept for hours! However; that wasn't what happened.

Outdoor eatery or bike shop?

We actually got ahold of Mike, who came down to join us. He had recently broken his arm in a fall right there in front of the shop one day. So, he was banged up, and had a sling which held his right arm. The break was up near his shoulder joint, so a cast was not practical.

After Mike showed up, Cody came around on his bicycle too. He's a youngin' that is amazingly good on a bicycle and was riding around for fun on his cyclo-cross bike. He was a bit bunged up too, nursing a knee injury along, but you'd have never known it by his riding!

Cody was essentially doing BMX street tricks on his cyclo-cross bike, fooling around on Ben's Mukluk, and generally impressing me with his awesome bike handling skills.

Then the pizza came! We had chairs and a large wheel box for a table set right in front of Mike's shop. Okay, I was really hungry, so I got down to business. Then, we sat back and soaked in the awesome weather and scenery. Chatting with Mike, Cody, Ben, and Curtis was a great break in the action. We even witnessed a Bald Eagle flying over the shop. Cool!

I didn't know if we would be going out again on the bikes, but Ben and Curtis were soon talking about more "points of interest" that I needed to see yet, and Cody thought of a couple more himself. It wasn't long before we were putting chairs away and preparing to head out one last time to finish off the "Tour Of Northfield".

Ouch!

We went through to some play ground areas where we were looking to find more structure to bounce around on when we came upon a little open area. This area had a bicycle path around it, and was approximately the area of one city block in size. Well, Cody and Curtis were feeling a bit "spicy", so they sprinted off on a lap of this area at a high rate of speed.

Amazingly, Curtis was keeping pace with the cyclo-cross bike, and was even in the lead coming through "Turn Two" when he got a little loose. This caused him to bobble coming out of the corner, and with Cody right on top of him, Curtis lost control, wiped out, and his bike clattered to the ground.

Ben and I cut across to see what had happened, since Curtis popped up looking as if he was in a bit of pain. Fortunately it was just a bit of road rash, but the blood made for a spectacular display! The bike? It was fine!

We rode onward then, only to find our destination overrun with little children. So we passed on that, and rode through a newer, expensive neighborhood. Then on to a water tower hill, and then towards some cemeterys.

The sun sets, but we weren't quite done yet!

We sped around the cemetery roads which were twisty-turny and up and down. The light was failing fast by now, and it was getting really hard to see. We exited the cemetery and headed into some fast single track above Carleton College again, which was getting pretty sketch for myself in this low light!

Then we headed back into downtown where Cody took his leave of us, and we hit the "Contented Cow" for some post ride refreshments. It was a long, long, super fun day. I got to see almost all of Northfield from just about every angle you can imagine and it was great fun.

It all reminded us of when we were kids, bombing around on our bicycles, looking for adventure. We sure found it that Sunday.

Finally, after a lot of scheming, dreaming, and regular conversation, we were going to go back to Ben's place where it all started back around noon that day. Going back in the dark without lights was, well.......interesting to say the least! That said, I made it in one piece.

The next day I got up early with Mrs. Guitar Ted in tow and we bugged out for home. It was a fantastic weekend with more that went on than I told here, and we cherished every minute of it.

I really needed that tour! Thanks Ben, Curtis, Cody, Mike, and all the rest of ya in Northfield Minnesota. It was good. Now, I have to ready myself for the big Lost Wages trip......

Fat Biking Fun-Times: Part III (Tour Of Northfield)

Okay.....yesterday I left off with our Tour Of Northfield at the point where we had dropped off of St. Olaf's campus and we had gone back into the streets of Northfield. We weren't really going anywhere in particular that I could tell, but I'm sure Ben and Curtis knew what the plan was. So, I didn't worry and just went along for the ride.

Sessioning some railroad rails

Eventually we ended up coming down the hill towards Northfield's downtown area. As we did, Ben spied something, started talking to himself, and walked away.

At first, Curtis and I were content to wait and see what he was up to while we chatted a bit. Eventually, Ben was getting far enough away that I became curious, so Curtis and I remounted and gave chase.

Ben found a bunch of rails for the railroad lying alongside the tracks. He was eyeing them up, as if he had a plan to ride them. At first, I thought he would try them as a skinny, but he had other ides, and not so dangerous and difficult.

Instead, he wanted to have me try and capture the tire deflection as he rode over the rails. The big fatties would also show how they could bridge gaps just fine without any real efforts, which smaller volume tires would have troubles with.

I didn't get a "perfect shot" of this, but if you click on the image to enlarge it, and pay special attention to the back tire, it might give you some idea of what Ben was after here.

We hit the down town area for a quick pint of beer and then headed back out again. 

Big Hill, Big Tires, Big Blue Sky!

We somehow made our way to the southeastern side of town, and left via a bike trail to Dundas. This was a little town that is just outside of Northfield a few miles or so. Here we decided to go back to the North and hit up the big hill on Cannon Valley Road.

I like gravel, and big, winding climbs on gravel are fun. I was sure wishing I had my Black Mountain Cycles "Monster Cross" rig right about then though! The weight of the fat bike could seriously be felt here, but with a set-it-and-forget-it attitude on the cadence, I was able to suffer through to the top, winded, but satisfied that I could push the Snow Dog up such a steep, long climb.

After we topped out on this climb we noticed an area where it looked like there was an ATV trail coming right off the gravel into an open area behind a new development. Here we took a hard left and dove in.

Bushwhacking!

The ATV trail sort of dead ended at the development, so I went right and along the back end of the properties, heading towards a large pile of sand, dirt, and gravel that was about three stories high and quite long. Unfortunately, I couldn't see any way up on to it.

We continued on a wide, graded out pathway through a corn field to a "T" intersection. We took the left way, towards town, which dead ended into a cul-de-sac. Obviously, we had found a very rudimentary street layout. Curtis and Ben remembered that there was an aborted attempt at putting a development in somewhere in the vicinity, and we all guessed we had found it. Seeing as how we could go no further towards town, we were obliged to head back to the gravel road, and then we turned back to the north.

By this time we were getting really hungry! So we made a plan to head to Mike's Bikes and see if we could roust somebody up, either Mike hisself or Stuart, his son, for some grub. When we got down there, I was really beginning to bonk pretty hard. I could have rolled up onto the sidewalk, curled up in a ball, and slept for hours! However; that wasn't what happened.

Outdoor eatery or bike shop?

We actually got ahold of Mike, who came down to join us. He had recently broken his arm in a fall right there in front of the shop one day. So, he was banged up, and had a sling which held his right arm. The break was up near his shoulder joint, so a cast was not practical.

After Mike showed up, Cody came around on his bicycle too. He's a youngin' that is amazingly good on a bicycle and was riding around for fun on his cyclo-cross bike. He was a bit bunged up too, nursing a knee injury along, but you'd have never known it by his riding!

Cody was essentially doing BMX street tricks on his cyclo-cross bike, fooling around on Ben's Mukluk, and generally impressing me with his awesome bike handling skills.

Then the pizza came! We had chairs and a large wheel box for a table set right in front of Mike's shop. Okay, I was really hungry, so I got down to business. Then, we sat back and soaked in the awesome weather and scenery. Chatting with Mike, Cody, Ben, and Curtis was a great break in the action. We even witnessed a Bald Eagle flying over the shop. Cool!

I didn't know if we would be going out again on the bikes, but Ben and Curtis were soon talking about more "points of interest" that I needed to see yet, and Cody thought of a couple more himself. It wasn't long before we were putting chairs away and preparing to head out one last time to finish off the "Tour Of Northfield".

Ouch!

We went through to some play ground areas where we were looking to find more structure to bounce around on when we came upon a little open area. This area had a bicycle path around it, and was approximately the area of one city block in size. Well, Cody and Curtis were feeling a bit "spicy", so they sprinted off on a lap of this area at a high rate of speed.

Amazingly, Curtis was keeping pace with the cyclo-cross bike, and was even in the lead coming through "Turn Two" when he got a little loose. This caused him to bobble coming out of the corner, and with Cody right on top of him, Curtis lost control, wiped out, and his bike clattered to the ground.

Ben and I cut across to see what had happened, since Curtis popped up looking as if he was in a bit of pain. Fortunately it was just a bit of road rash, but the blood made for a spectacular display! The bike? It was fine!

We rode onward then, only to find our destination overrun with little children. So we passed on that, and rode through a newer, expensive neighborhood. Then on to a water tower hill, and then towards some cemeterys.

The sun sets, but we weren't quite done yet!

We sped around the cemetery roads which were twisty-turny and up and down. The light was failing fast by now, and it was getting really hard to see. We exited the cemetery and headed into some fast single track above Carleton College again, which was getting pretty sketch for myself in this low light!

Then we headed back into downtown where Cody took his leave of us, and we hit the "Contented Cow" for some post ride refreshments. It was a long, long, super fun day. I got to see almost all of Northfield from just about every angle you can imagine and it was great fun.

It all reminded us of when we were kids, bombing around on our bicycles, looking for adventure. We sure found it that Sunday.

Finally, after a lot of scheming, dreaming, and regular conversation, we were going to go back to Ben's place where it all started back around noon that day. Going back in the dark without lights was, well.......interesting to say the least! That said, I made it in one piece.

The next day I got up early with Mrs. Guitar Ted in tow and we bugged out for home. It was a fantastic weekend with more that went on than I told here, and we cherished every minute of it.

I really needed that tour! Thanks Ben, Curtis, Cody, Mike, and all the rest of ya in Northfield Minnesota. It was good. Now, I have to ready myself for the big Lost Wages trip......

Fat Biking Fun-Times: Part II (Tour Of Northfield)

Continuing on now from yesterday's post, as I said, we started out to just "goof off" for awhile on the fat bikes. Curtis, who is Ben's mechanic at Milltown Cycles, joined us as well. Ben used one of the shop's Mukluk demos which was outfitted with the Big Fat Larrys on Graceful Fat Sheba rims, an Origin 8 SubCompact crank, and a seven speed cassette. All cleared each other with no issues. The Big Fat Larrys needed the clearance for the drive train, and the Mukluk frame was plenty accommodating.

Trying some trails-like moves

Curtis had the Pugs, Large Marges, and the Black Floyd tires. Even though the Floyds seemed like pavement specific treads, you'd never have guessed it by the way Curtis rode those things.

I had the Snow Dog, of course, and Rolling Darryls mounted with the 3.8 Larry tires.

Our first major stop was the campus of Carleton College where we found all sorts of things to ride on, around, up and down. On the way over to the college, we discovered that the big fat tires made mincemeat of the large limestone landscaping rocks along the Cannon River bike path. These rocks were jagged and twice as big as your head, for reference. Big Fat Larrys, Larrys, and Black Floyds were all effective at making rocks seem like pretty tame objects.

This encouraged Ben and Curtis to start pushing the limits more, and soon we were all looking for things to ride on, or hills to bomb down, or steeps to climb up on. Ben and I tried one steep climb that was so ridiculous that it was almost physically impossible to stay upright on it. We both didn't quite make it, but going up as far as we did proved to me that fat bikes can go right up something as long as you have the legs to get it moving along.

Then we hit a ball diamond where Curtis and Ben decided to try "sliding into home". Well, it was pretty crazy!

I got right down on the ground with my camera for some low angle shots while those two skidded into "home" over and over again. Let me tell you, that camera I have has a sloooooow shutter! I had to pre-plan the release so it would catch the bikes at the most opportune time, and well.......it didn't always work out the way I wanted it to!

Oh well! It was fun to try, and Curtis and Ben were having a ball, so what the heck.

I'm not so sure the Carleton College groundskeeper would have approved of our massive groove that we wore into the field of play though!

Turns out Carleton also has some bike paths and wide dirt walking paths through the woods. We rode on some of this, then picked a place to bomb down through the vege to an open area. This proved to me that the traction a fat bike gets makes descending a piece of cake. But I wanted a dropper post! 

We moved on from there and plunked around Carleton for a bit more before we hit upon some rail road tracks which we rode right on. Between the rails we were able to ride over the ties and did just fine. It was rough, but do-able without too much fuss.

Once Curtis had a bobble though, we were more wary, since toppling over while in the middle of the rails would really hurt! This turned out to be kind of an out and back, since we all decided that we didn't want to end up in the next town down the line! So, we bounced back to the road we came in on and back into town again.

Bike repair station

Then we headed up the hill towards St. Olaf College. Yes- Northfield has two major private schools of higher learning.

Here Ben wanted to check out some new installations for the college students that were to help promote cycling on campus. The first thing we saw was this really nice bike maintenance station replete with tethered tools, and a pump, all attached to a "repair stand' of sorts. The stand held the bike by the saddle and seat post, getting the tires off the ground so a person could fix their rig should the need arise. Ben aired up his BFL's here with the air hose. The sidewalls were wrinkling at the super low pressures he had been riding them at. I asked him what he aired them up to, and he said, "I don't know. It's so low the gauge won't read it!"

Pretty cool stuff, but that wasn't all. There was also a bicycle share/parking station which will allow students to grab a bicycle when needed. The way the shelter worked was really cool too.

Ben and Curtis check it out.

Overhead trays could be pulled down, bikes unloaded, or loaded on, and secured by a clip over the front wheel, then could be lifted back up on the sliding system and left there under the roof of the shelter above.

Ground level racks also were there for more bike parking as well. St. Olaf has a pretty cool set up for the students for cycling. It remains to be seen if they will take advantage of it, but I hope they do. It is a pretty nice set up which should help those students maintain mobility at a low cost to them.

St. Olaf also had some nice structure to bounce around on, jump up on to, or launch off of. I knew I should have worn my new knee pads! Ben was dropping about a foot and a half, maybe two feet to flat. The BFL's would sound like planks hitting flat on the pavement. It was pretty cool.

Then we went down this amazing, twisty, turny single track on St. Olaf's campus through a wooded area. It was all down hill too. The thing I took away from this section was that I forgot I was on a fat bike at all! Sure, the steering was different, but otherwise, I wouldn't have thought these bikes could rip single track like that.

There's more. Lots more, and too much for this one post. More "Tour Of Northfield" tomorrow!

Fat Biking Fun-Times: Part II (Tour Of Northfield)

Continuing on now from yesterday's post, as I said, we started out to just "goof off" for awhile on the fat bikes. Curtis, who is Ben's mechanic at Milltown Cycles, joined us as well. Ben used one of the shop's Mukluk demos which was outfitted with the Big Fat Larrys on Graceful Fat Sheba rims, an Origin 8 SubCompact crank, and a seven speed cassette. All cleared each other with no issues. The Big Fat Larrys needed the clearance for the drive train, and the Mukluk frame was plenty accommodating.

Trying some trails-like moves

Curtis had the Pugs, Large Marges, and the Black Floyd tires. Even though the Floyds seemed like pavement specific treads, you'd never have guessed it by the way Curtis rode those things.

I had the Snow Dog, of course, and Rolling Darryls mounted with the 3.8 Larry tires.

Our first major stop was the campus of Carleton College where we found all sorts of things to ride on, around, up and down. On the way over to the college, we discovered that the big fat tires made mincemeat of the large limestone landscaping rocks along the Cannon River bike path. These rocks were jagged and twice as big as your head, for reference. Big Fat Larrys, Larrys, and Black Floyds were all effective at making rocks seem like pretty tame objects.

This encouraged Ben and Curtis to start pushing the limits more, and soon we were all looking for things to ride on, or hills to bomb down, or steeps to climb up on. Ben and I tried one steep climb that was so ridiculous that it was almost physically impossible to stay upright on it. We both didn't quite make it, but going up as far as we did proved to me that fat bikes can go right up something as long as you have the legs to get it moving along.

Then we hit a ball diamond where Curtis and Ben decided to try "sliding into home". Well, it was pretty crazy!

I got right down on the ground with my camera for some low angle shots while those two skidded into "home" over and over again. Let me tell you, that camera I have has a sloooooow shutter! I had to pre-plan the release so it would catch the bikes at the most opportune time, and well.......it didn't always work out the way I wanted it to!

Oh well! It was fun to try, and Curtis and Ben were having a ball, so what the heck.

I'm not so sure the Carleton College groundskeeper would have approved of our massive groove that we wore into the field of play though!

Turns out Carleton also has some bike paths and wide dirt walking paths through the woods. We rode on some of this, then picked a place to bomb down through the vege to an open area. This proved to me that the traction a fat bike gets makes descending a piece of cake. But I wanted a dropper post! 

We moved on from there and plunked around Carleton for a bit more before we hit upon some rail road tracks which we rode right on. Between the rails we were able to ride over the ties and did just fine. It was rough, but do-able without too much fuss.

Once Curtis had a bobble though, we were more wary, since toppling over while in the middle of the rails would really hurt! This turned out to be kind of an out and back, since we all decided that we didn't want to end up in the next town down the line! So, we bounced back to the road we came in on and back into town again.

Bike repair station

Then we headed up the hill towards St. Olaf College. Yes- Northfield has two major private schools of higher learning.

Here Ben wanted to check out some new installations for the college students that were to help promote cycling on campus. The first thing we saw was this really nice bike maintenance station replete with tethered tools, and a pump, all attached to a "repair stand' of sorts. The stand held the bike by the saddle and seat post, getting the tires off the ground so a person could fix their rig should the need arise. Ben aired up his BFL's here with the air hose. The sidewalls were wrinkling at the super low pressures he had been riding them at. I asked him what he aired them up to, and he said, "I don't know. It's so low the gauge won't read it!"

Pretty cool stuff, but that wasn't all. There was also a bicycle share/parking station which will allow students to grab a bicycle when needed. The way the shelter worked was really cool too.

Ben and Curtis check it out.

Overhead trays could be pulled down, bikes unloaded, or loaded on, and secured by a clip over the front wheel, then could be lifted back up on the sliding system and left there under the roof of the shelter above.

Ground level racks also were there for more bike parking as well. St. Olaf has a pretty cool set up for the students for cycling. It remains to be seen if they will take advantage of it, but I hope they do. It is a pretty nice set up which should help those students maintain mobility at a low cost to them.

St. Olaf also had some nice structure to bounce around on, jump up on to, or launch off of. I knew I should have worn my new knee pads! Ben was dropping about a foot and a half, maybe two feet to flat. The BFL's would sound like planks hitting flat on the pavement. It was pretty cool.

Then we went down this amazing, twisty, turny single track on St. Olaf's campus through a wooded area. It was all down hill too. The thing I took away from this section was that I forgot I was on a fat bike at all! Sure, the steering was different, but otherwise, I wouldn't have thought these bikes could rip single track like that.

There's more. Lots more, and too much for this one post. More "Tour Of Northfield" tomorrow!

Fat Biking Fun-Times: Part I

As I said in my short little Labor Day blurb yesterday, (By the way, I hope everyone had a great holiday!), I was up north visiting Ben Witt and we rode our legs off on fat bikes with his friend Curtis. It was awesome! But before I get ahead of myself, I have to go back and cover the end of one story before this one can get going.....

Phil Phailure Phixed!: The plague that was the Phil Wood & Co. hub has finally come to an ending!

Spicy!

I purchased a set of the new, matched pair Salsa Cycles Mukluk hubs that came out recently. Ben said to hold off putting them together until I could come up, and on Sunday morning we laced them up into the Rolling Darryls, while removing the offending hubs.

I was thinking I'd miss the shiny silver Phil look, but I'll tell ya what. These Salsa hubs actually work right. I know! It is amazing, isn't it. A hub that is just doing what it should when you ride it. I could hardly believe the Snow Dog was not acting up.

Ben took a look-see into the old hub, and it was pretty obvious that two pawls were engaging and two pawls were not getting into the ring gear at times, causing them to get forced into place with a pop and clang. The ring gear was worn funny and the pawls were worn strangely. It definitely wasn't right.

Ben could even get the hub to pop and snap in his hands. Two Phil wood hubs in a row that were junk. Who da thunk such a thing could ever come to pass? Well, we sure didn't, but one thing is for sure- a Phil Wood hub will never be in my future.

Two Muks on a Thule  T2!

  My little spin around the parking lot was totally unlike anything I'd experienced on the Snow Dog since I rode Ben's wheel last winter. The Salsa hub sounded and felt sublime. I couldn't wait to get out and ride it.

So we loaded up two Mukluks on my Thule T2 rack. We had to ditch the rear wheel strap since it was not long enough to go around the wheel and cam over in the ratchet. So, Ben grabbed an Everything Strap. No problem! (And his bike had the Big Fat Larrys too!)

As I said in my short little Labor Day blurb yesterday, (By the way, I hope everyone had a great holiday!), I was up north visiting Ben Witt and we rode our legs off on fat bikes with his friend Curtis. It was awesome! But before I get ahead of myself, I have to go back and cover the end of one story before this one can get going.....

 A Few Words About The New Tires: Yes- I saw the new Big Fat Larrys mounted to 80mm wide rims. I also saw Black Floyds on Large Marges, and I handled the Nate 3.8 as well. Let me just break down the three quickly befor I carry on.
Big Fat Larry: Want to make your Larry 3.8's look skinny? Put them up next to a bike with Big Fat Larrys on 80mm wide rims and compare. It is quite obvious that the new BFL is much bigger. I think a regular Larry would fit inside a BFL easily. Really! I briefly rode the Muk with the BFL's and they roll no slower than the regular Larrys.

You will need to do a 2X type drive train and lose a  cog or two on the cassette. Ben was running a 2 X 7 set up and it worked really well.

The BFL's will be optimal for maximum float, and I see no real need for myself to put these on 100 mm rims. The 80's will be lighter, and the float on a BFL will be greater then the normal Larry since you should be able to go a few psi lower than you could with an 80mm rim and Larry tire.

The Nate 3.8:  The Nate 3.8 is going to be a great, ultra-traction monster. If it can't be climbed or descended on a fat bike fitted with Nates, it'll be because the rider doesn't have the legs. The tire won't be at fault! I didn't think the Nates were all that heavy either. (Compared to 27TPI Larrys, for example) I can't wait to take a set to El Paso, Texas in the Franklin Mountain State Park and go up those rubble filled climbs. I'm betting the Nate 3.8 will kill it!

Curtis, Black Floyds, Pugs = Powerslide!

Black Floyd: This guy is sooo cool!  It is essentially an overgrown Fat Frank tire, if you are at all familiar with that Schwalbe model. The Fat Franks were mounted on Curtis' Pugs on 65mm Large marge rims. The Floyds were very rounded and peaked almost on these rims.

Curtis is a very good rider, and he went everywhere we did on these tires. Single track, descending steeps, and climbing were all done with no real issues. Curtis had the upper hand on pavement, gravel, and any really hard surface over our Larrys. I think a Floyd on the back and a Larry front just might be a great XC-ish set up for a fat bike.

Finally, the Floyds make the most unreal scream when skidded on pavement. It is ultra-cool! I can't even begin to describe the sound, but you will giggle when you here it. Guaranteed!

Back to the story: Well, anyway, Ben and I trucked the two fat bikes from Faribault to Northfield, met up with Curtis, and hit the town for some "goofing off". I wasn't expecting to be out all that long, so I wore my casual shoes on my Atom Lab flats, cargo shorts, and a t-shirt. Ya know.....just goofing off for awhile, right? 

Right..............More on the "Tour Of Northfield" tomorrow. 

Fat Biking Fun-Times: Part I

As I said in my short little Labor Day blurb yesterday, (By the way, I hope everyone had a great holiday!), I was up north visiting Ben Witt and we rode our legs off on fat bikes with his friend Curtis. It was awesome! But before I get ahead of myself, I have to go back and cover the end of one story before this one can get going.....

Phil Phailure Phixed!: The plague that was the Phil Wood & Co. hub has finally come to an ending!

Spicy!

I purchased a set of the new, matched pair Salsa Cycles Mukluk hubs that came out recently. Ben said to hold off putting them together until I could come up, and on Sunday morning we laced them up into the Rolling Darryls, while removing the offending hubs.

I was thinking I'd miss the shiny silver Phil look, but I'll tell ya what. These Salsa hubs actually work right. I know! It is amazing, isn't it. A hub that is just doing what it should when you ride it. I could hardly believe the Snow Dog was not acting up.

Ben took a look-see into the old hub, and it was pretty obvious that two pawls were engaging and two pawls were not getting into the ring gear at times, causing them to get forced into place with a pop and clang. The ring gear was worn funny and the pawls were worn strangely. It definitely wasn't right.

Ben could even get the hub to pop and snap in his hands. Two Phil wood hubs in a row that were junk. Who da thunk such a thing could ever come to pass? Well, we sure didn't, but one thing is for sure- a Phil Wood hub will never be in my future.

Two Muks on a Thule  T2!

  My little spin around the parking lot was totally unlike anything I'd experienced on the Snow Dog since I rode Ben's wheel last winter. The Salsa hub sounded and felt sublime. I couldn't wait to get out and ride it.

So we loaded up two Mukluks on my Thule T2 rack. We had to ditch the rear wheel strap since it was not long enough to go around the wheel and cam over in the ratchet. So, Ben grabbed an Everything Strap. No problem! (And his bike had the Big Fat Larrys too!)

As I said in my short little Labor Day blurb yesterday, (By the way, I hope everyone had a great holiday!), I was up north visiting Ben Witt and we rode our legs off on fat bikes with his friend Curtis. It was awesome! But before I get ahead of myself, I have to go back and cover the end of one story before this one can get going.....

 A Few Words About The New Tires: Yes- I saw the new Big Fat Larrys mounted to 80mm wide rims. I also saw Black Floyds on Large Marges, and I handled the Nate 3.8 as well. Let me just break down the three quickly befor I carry on.
Big Fat Larry: Want to make your Larry 3.8's look skinny? Put them up next to a bike with Big Fat Larrys on 80mm wide rims and compare. It is quite obvious that the new BFL is much bigger. I think a regular Larry would fit inside a BFL easily. Really! I briefly rode the Muk with the BFL's and they roll no slower than the regular Larrys.

You will need to do a 2X type drive train and lose a  cog or two on the cassette. Ben was running a 2 X 7 set up and it worked really well.

The BFL's will be optimal for maximum float, and I see no real need for myself to put these on 100 mm rims. The 80's will be lighter, and the float on a BFL will be greater then the normal Larry since you should be able to go a few psi lower than you could with an 80mm rim and Larry tire.

The Nate 3.8:  The Nate 3.8 is going to be a great, ultra-traction monster. If it can't be climbed or descended on a fat bike fitted with Nates, it'll be because the rider doesn't have the legs. The tire won't be at fault! I didn't think the Nates were all that heavy either. (Compared to 27TPI Larrys, for example) I can't wait to take a set to El Paso, Texas in the Franklin Mountain State Park and go up those rubble filled climbs. I'm betting the Nate 3.8 will kill it!

Curtis, Black Floyds, Pugs = Powerslide!

Black Floyd: This guy is sooo cool!  It is essentially an overgrown Fat Frank tire, if you are at all familiar with that Schwalbe model. The Fat Franks were mounted on Curtis' Pugs on 65mm Large marge rims. The Floyds were very rounded and peaked almost on these rims.

Curtis is a very good rider, and he went everywhere we did on these tires. Single track, descending steeps, and climbing were all done with no real issues. Curtis had the upper hand on pavement, gravel, and any really hard surface over our Larrys. I think a Floyd on the back and a Larry front just might be a great XC-ish set up for a fat bike.

Finally, the Floyds make the most unreal scream when skidded on pavement. It is ultra-cool! I can't even begin to describe the sound, but you will giggle when you here it. Guaranteed!

Back to the story: Well, anyway, Ben and I trucked the two fat bikes from Faribault to Northfield, met up with Curtis, and hit the town for some "goofing off". I wasn't expecting to be out all that long, so I wore my casual shoes on my Atom Lab flats, cargo shorts, and a t-shirt. Ya know.....just goofing off for awhile, right? 

Right..............More on the "Tour Of Northfield" tomorrow. 

Fat Sunday

Okay, I just rode fat bikes for 6 hours in and around Northfield, Minnesota with Ben Witt and some other fine folks. This day was awesome on so many levels. I had a blast.

Pics and much more to come tomorrow.........


Stay tuned.

Fat Sunday

Okay, I just rode fat bikes for 6 hours in and around Northfield, Minnesota with Ben Witt and some other fine folks. This day was awesome on so many levels. I had a blast.

Pics and much more to come tomorrow.........


Stay tuned.

Trans Iowa V8 News

Temporary Header!

Cease And Desist! If you have gone to the Trans Iowa V8 site recently, you'll have noticed a plain chrome "V8" logo where once there was a funny header based on.....well, that's what landed us in hot water! 

I removed it promptly, and Jeff is going to work up something less  "corporate unfriendly", so to speak. Stay tuned for that.

FAQ Page: I have added a "Frequently Asked Questions" page. It is linked in the right margin of the site. Take a look and if you can think of a question that should be included, shoot me a comment here, or an e-mail.

A few pointers: The FAQ is for basic, general stuff, so don't get real specific if you want to contribute. Otherwise, it is a great way to share some knowledge of the event with new folks, or those that are just curious.

I'll be adding on to it as things come to mind. Stay tuned.........

Trans Iowa V8 News

Temporary Header!

Cease And Desist! If you have gone to the Trans Iowa V8 site recently, you'll have noticed a plain chrome "V8" logo where once there was a funny header based on.....well, that's what landed us in hot water! 

I removed it promptly, and Jeff is going to work up something less  "corporate unfriendly", so to speak. Stay tuned for that.

FAQ Page: I have added a "Frequently Asked Questions" page. It is linked in the right margin of the site. Take a look and if you can think of a question that should be included, shoot me a comment here, or an e-mail.

A few pointers: The FAQ is for basic, general stuff, so don't get real specific if you want to contribute. Otherwise, it is a great way to share some knowledge of the event with new folks, or those that are just curious.

I'll be adding on to it as things come to mind. Stay tuned.........

"Big" News: Part II

As promised yesterday, absolutely no Eurobike-trash today!

I did get a bit of news though, that I have to share anyway. Vee Rubber, a company better known for making tires for Huffy's, Next bikes, and other industries, has recently decided that they would rather be known as a high performance, bicycle enthusiast brand. To that end, they hired former tire designer and tireless promoter, Jim Wannamaker away from Kenda Tires. Many of that brands most famous tread designs were fruits of his labors.

Well, I have it on very good authority from Eurobike that Vee Rubber has shown a 26 X 4.0 fat bike tire!

This is a tire that does not have a connection with QBP. (Every other fat bike tire in existence does.) Why is that important? Because now other brands will be encouraged to make their own fat bikes without having to go to QBP for tires. It will open up possibilities, and that is a good thing.

Last June, I busted up my knee, and that got me to thinking: I need to get some body armor.  Well, I just did.

I came across these from a company called "G-Form" and they were intriguing. Not a protection that is sewn in, or a hard shell type of protection, but something that had the look of a wearable pad that moved with the wearer.

So, this pad comes with a new material that I am hearing a lot about lately. "Poron XRD" is a urethane based material that absorbs impacts and does so over and over again. I saw how the stuff was supposed to work, and the price was great compared to competing products, so I purchased these.

My first impressions are that these pads are really comfortable to wear. It was in the 90's and humid the day I received them, and they didn't feel like garbage sacks on my legs. That was somewhat surprising. Then I rode a bit with them on, and they are totally invisible while riding. In fact, I felt that they actually have some breath-ability. While not spectacular in this regard, I wasn't expecting anything at all. So something was going to be good, and the amount of breath-ability I did feel was a bit surprising.

They are flexible, and don't bunch up in an uncomfortable manner. In fact, I have been wearing them a lot just around the house to see if they would be uncomfortable, and so far, they are not. They pretty much are similar to knee warmers, as far as how they feel. Just not hot and sweaty.

I'll be wearing these at Interbike's outdoor demo and will be meeting the G-Form folks out there. Stay tuned for further updates....

I mentioned getting the carbon fiber fork for Orange Crush yesterday, and here is the result. The Bontrager Satellite fork was on close out for a ridiculous price, so it was pretty much a no-brainer. This is the same fork that came on Trek X-0 cyclo-cross rigs a few years back.

It might be a tad bit longer, and a tad bit lighter, but the thing I wanted was the ride feel. Is it there? Hard to say with my puttering around that I did on it yesterday. I had to stay home with my kids, who were off from school. (Not that I am complaining. I love spending time with my two kids!) So, there were no longer rides on gravel to report to you on.....yet!

That will be rectified this weekend, as I am slated to go visit Ben Witt and ride some.  So, gravel riding will happen, and Mukluk wheel building should also happen. Even some Mukluk test riding may occur. Stay tuned for that!

This is the last, big, warm weather holiday of the year. Stay safe! Have a good time, and ride your bicycles!

"Big" News: Part II

As promised yesterday, absolutely no Eurobike-trash today!

I did get a bit of news though, that I have to share anyway. Vee Rubber, a company better known for making tires for Huffy's, Next bikes, and other industries, has recently decided that they would rather be known as a high performance, bicycle enthusiast brand. To that end, they hired former tire designer and tireless promoter, Jim Wannamaker away from Kenda Tires. Many of that brands most famous tread designs were fruits of his labors.

Well, I have it on very good authority from Eurobike that Vee Rubber has shown a 26 X 4.0 fat bike tire!

This is a tire that does not have a connection with QBP. (Every other fat bike tire in existence does.) Why is that important? Because now other brands will be encouraged to make their own fat bikes without having to go to QBP for tires. It will open up possibilities, and that is a good thing.

Last June, I busted up my knee, and that got me to thinking: I need to get some body armor.  Well, I just did.

I came across these from a company called "G-Form" and they were intriguing. Not a protection that is sewn in, or a hard shell type of protection, but something that had the look of a wearable pad that moved with the wearer.

So, this pad comes with a new material that I am hearing a lot about lately. "Poron XRD" is a urethane based material that absorbs impacts and does so over and over again. I saw how the stuff was supposed to work, and the price was great compared to competing products, so I purchased these.

My first impressions are that these pads are really comfortable to wear. It was in the 90's and humid the day I received them, and they didn't feel like garbage sacks on my legs. That was somewhat surprising. Then I rode a bit with them on, and they are totally invisible while riding. In fact, I felt that they actually have some breath-ability. While not spectacular in this regard, I wasn't expecting anything at all. So something was going to be good, and the amount of breath-ability I did feel was a bit surprising.

They are flexible, and don't bunch up in an uncomfortable manner. In fact, I have been wearing them a lot just around the house to see if they would be uncomfortable, and so far, they are not. They pretty much are similar to knee warmers, as far as how they feel. Just not hot and sweaty.

I'll be wearing these at Interbike's outdoor demo and will be meeting the G-Form folks out there. Stay tuned for further updates....

I mentioned getting the carbon fiber fork for Orange Crush yesterday, and here is the result. The Bontrager Satellite fork was on close out for a ridiculous price, so it was pretty much a no-brainer. This is the same fork that came on Trek X-0 cyclo-cross rigs a few years back.

It might be a tad bit longer, and a tad bit lighter, but the thing I wanted was the ride feel. Is it there? Hard to say with my puttering around that I did on it yesterday. I had to stay home with my kids, who were off from school. (Not that I am complaining. I love spending time with my two kids!) So, there were no longer rides on gravel to report to you on.....yet!

That will be rectified this weekend, as I am slated to go visit Ben Witt and ride some.  So, gravel riding will happen, and Mukluk wheel building should also happen. Even some Mukluk test riding may occur. Stay tuned for that!

This is the last, big, warm weather holiday of the year. Stay safe! Have a good time, and ride your bicycles!