Virtual Turkey Burn Ride Report: Pedro's Ride

  This is the fourth installment of Virtual Turkey Burn reports I received this year. NOTE: I VERY lightly edited the submissions where I found a mistake. Images are credited to the authors. Thanks for reading these and for submitting a report if you did so. Remember that some of these reports fall on double-post days, so be sure to scroll down the page to make sure you don't miss any content! 

 

Gravel near Pedro in Spain.

Let's start by talking a little bit about me. I own two marvelous bikes. My personal thoughts move around to getting the “perfect” bike. One bike to rule them all (yes, I am also a Tolkien geek). The first one is an older (2004) hybrid bike: flat bars, aluminum frame, V-Brakes, 3x7 Alivio. It used to be one of my uncle's bikes. It was my present for him with my first real money, and when he died, I decided to keep it. A bit big for me (it is a Large), I included a Jones H-bar for comfort and a front rack to help carry things. It is not a nice bike, so it is perfect to commute around the town for groceries, or whatever.  I also can leave it outside without anxiety or having a heart attack.

I tried to add some km's taking my daughter to school.

Two years ago I was thinking about changing some parts and making this bike a little better. In order to keep only 2 bikes. But Rivendell piqued my interest, and the real reason I do not have one is I am not tall enough to go for 29”-700 wheels. So, I haven’t pulled the trigger for an Appalossa yet. I like the loooong wheelbase, full mechanical bits, old standards (except probably for the threaded headset that I presume too tricky to maintain. A post about old vs new system)

Mr. Guitar – Ted? Are V-Brakes still valid? And what about threaded headset? Or even 3X9? Friction shifting?  Editor's Note: I will likely post about this in January after all the end-of-year madness has passed.

My other bike is a marvelous Jones steel (S) Space Frame with truss fork. Fully mechanical, 1 x11. Aluminum rims and Hope 4 hubs. Nothing much to say more than that. In my case, I fully agree with Mr. Jeff Jones philosophy and I feel that his intentions about a bike that it is valid for most rides is correct.

With this bike I have ridden “Spain Tour’s” mountain ports, of course gravel paths, and in my level (no big jumps or something too difficult), single tracks. It is really comfortable.

Today’s ride: 

Unfortunately I choose incorrectly for this ride. Due to a high intensity week, including business travel, not only could I not ride, but I also felt really tired. But I want to take some nice photos of a different place, really near from where I live.

I am from the south of Spain, El Puerto de Santa María, Cádiz. Near Gibraltar actually.  From my front door I can find a huge amount of gravel paths connecting farmland (wine). We also have a small set of hills, really technical for practicing mtb, and some paths to connect, mixed with road, all the nearest areas.

This latest part was my objective today. The full route implies 125 km from my front door. And the day started good. Not cold, not hot. Some clouds - that said… be careful, a bit of rain can be found. My Jones was ready, the GoPro was ready for taking photos and videos, I had enough water, and a Garmin 530.

Ready to Go!

 

Let's Move… From the very beginning I didn’t find comfort, not with my position on the bike, (Ergon seat
is marvelous), but internally.  The first part of the route crosses large salt flats, from where we produce salt for all over the world. It is almost perfectly flat.

I love these views early in the mornings.

  Then, the route starts to change. The landscape becomes typical pine forests, and a constant 1% to 3% slope will accompany us to the end. This gradient will only change halfway along the route, close to the town where we would stop, with 4 slopes alternating between 7% and 10%.

 

 At this point is when I started to realize that reaching my goal was going to be really difficult. With a huge effort my colleague and I (he was fine, he is really fit), arrived in a typical bar where we had breakfast: coffee, toast with different accompaniments typical from here (all of them made from different parts of the pig), and a orange juice.

 After this short rest, I felt much better. So we start to return. What goes up, must come down.

 

But we spent a lot of time on the way there, and also, on every small ramp I needed to climb, I suffered too much. It was impossible for me to finish ☹ So, 25 km from the finish, I need to stop and we called home. Our wives came with the van to bring us home.

 

End of the story. Very sad for not achieving my goals and need to be disqualified from the Virtual Turkey Burn Ride Challenge of 2024, but happy because if God wants, I will be here next year for trying again.

I hope you enjoy the photos and the story. Stay safe, enjoy, just ride.

Wow! What a fantastic adventure! Thank you Pedro. I think the readers will agree with me and say you have more than accomplished a successful Turkey Burn Ride! 

Check in tomorrow as we will have another international report. This time from the United Kingdom! 

I'm not sure, but I may be posting one more Turkey Burn Ride Challenge Report, and if it comes in, or if one comes in unannounced, I will post those this weekend. Friday will be the traditional FN&V. 

Until then, thanks for checking these ride reports out!

Gravel Grinder News: Wahoo Announces Elemnt Ace GPS

Note: Information and images used in this post were provided by Wahoo Fitness.

Wahoo Fitness' new Elemnt ACE GPS.

 In perhaps one of the most recent "worst kept secrets" in cycling, today Wahoo Fitness officially announces their newest GPS device for cycling called Elemnt ACE. 

This new GPS device features several new features never before seen on any Wahoo GPS device. It also features the largest screen size in cycling GPS devices currently available. Added to this is a new cloud-based connectivity and we have a lot to go over here with this new device. 

Features:

 Let's dive right in here with a bullet point list of the Elemnt ACE features. 

• A super-sized, Best-In-Class Screen: that will be largest in category, with best-in-class TFT screen to enable better visibility for navigation and data visualization

• Up to 30+ hour Battery Life: this will keep riders connected and informed from start to finish.

•  CATEGORY FIRST - Integrated Wind Sensor: introducing Wahoo Wind Dynamics™ (WWD) to measure the effects of air resistance in real time and post ride, to quantify how wind and drafting are impacting your ride and measure one of cycling’s most critical forces

• Improved User Experience: new touchscreen to complement buttons for ease of use, plus brand new modern operating system to make it easier than ever to control your ride, and a premium aluminum mount included 

• Enhanced Navigation: improved mapping features and turn by turn audio navigation to allow riders to navigate with confidence and ease.

•  Easier, More intuitive Setup and Sync via the Wahoo App: new cloud-based sync, for a seamless, simple and intuitive user experience where all of a user’s data is stored in Wahoo’s cloud as a single, always backed up source

 

Navigating with the new Elemnt ACE will be enhanced by a high-contrast color palette screen with swiping capabilities to get to a different screen more quickly. This could enhance safety and should allow users to keep their eyes on the road/trail more. Interestingly, Wahoo takes a page from automobile navigation with the new Elemnt ACE and will now have voice commands for navigation cues. The press release did not indicate whether this can be disabled if it is not wanted, or if different voices could be selected. It might be a bit comical in events if several Wahoo Elemnt Ace users came upon a turn at about the same time. "Turn Left!", heard multiple times simultaneously might be quite the cacophonous mess!

The screen is made from a transflective thin-film transmitter (TFT) and measures an impressive 3.8"/3:2 aspect ratio. Wahoo claims the high DPI screen has anti-reflective, anti-glare properties making it easier to see in many outdoor conditions. 

Wahoo claims "up to 30 hours battery life" but this will have to be verified in real-world use. For a comparison, a Wahoo Elemnt ROAM has a claimed 17 hour battery life, so that 30 hours is almost double that! 

The Wahoo Elemnt ACE has these front-facing ports for the wind sensor - a first in a cycling GPS device.

Wahoo has incorporated a wind sensor into the Element ACE which is a category first. Wahoo leverages this data by giving the rider real-time information on what Wahoo calls "AeroBoost" and "AeroDrag" giving the rider insight into how tail winds and headwinds affect performance. You can also measure the effects of drafting with this feature. After the ride, data showing the rider how wind affected performance can be accessed. Wahoo calls this "Wahoo Wind Dynamics". 

Understanding how winds affect performance could lead riders to being more efficient with regard to power output which would result in better performance, theoretically. 

The touch-screen is being leveraged to make rider user experience easier and less complicated. Buttons are still here for those who wish to use them as well. Wahoo says that their touch screen will work with or without touch-screen compatible gloves, so that is a nice feature.  Wahoo claims the touch-screen will even work with moisture present as well. 

The Wahoo Elemnt ACE comes with a premium quality aluminum mount, a tether, and will retail for US$599.99, CA$849.99, EU€599.99, UK£549.99, AU$999.95 and JP¥9,900.

Comments: That's a lot there and it is an interesting update from Wahoo on their range of GPS devices. I have a Wahoo Elemnt ROAM and I have enjoyed using it. So, this is an opportunity for me to answer a question: Would you get this new Elemnt ACE or stick with your Elemnt ROAM?  

From the standpoint of user experience, I would like a touch-screen, if it was easy to use in reality. I would like the extended battery range, especially for peace of mind in doing longer rides. Just having that "headroom" in battery life might be a good thing in those cases. The screen being larger is also a good thing for me because having to look multiple times and keep an eye on the gravel road is a bit of a pain. Maybe the larger screen would make this less of an issue? 

Navigation has been enhanced, they say? This would be of interest to me, although I would like to know if I could turn off the voice and just have a beep and a visual cue on the screen. If the voice nav feature is always on during navigation I would find that annoying. Especially if I don't like the voice tone. But I don't have detailed enough info to know what the deal is there yet. 

The wind stuff may not be of interest if it is not of much use unless you pair that data with a power meter. 

So, I'm interested, but the Elemnt ROAM is no slouch, so I think my answer now is that I'd wait and see before jumping. What about you? let me know in the comments. Is this new GPS device worth the six hundred bucks or is it just gimmicky nonsense?

Virtual Turkey Burn Ride Reports: Tom & Mike's Rides

 This is the second installment of Virtual Turkey Burn reports I received this year. ( Two-in-one today) I VERY lightly edited the submissions where I found a mistake. Images are credited to the authors. Thanks for reading these and for submitting a report if you did so. Remember that some of these reports fall on double-post days, so be sure to scroll down the page to make sure you don't miss any content! 

Tom's Turkey Burn Ride Challenge Report:

Just want to share my submission for this year’s 2024 Turkey Burn. This year was nothing fancy, just a quick 35 mile gravel loop south of town. I suppose I completed this loop several times this week, so I guess you could say I achieved the century mark in terms of mileage over the challenge period. 

Tom's bike at the intersection of Quarry Road and Aker Road.

It was a cold one; I want to say it was hovering around 10F when I left my house this morning. Nothing real interesting to report, though I did find an empty can of Yuengling Lager on the intersection of Quarry (and Aker Road), which I found pretty interesting considering you can only find that on the east coast and select states. 

Way to go, Tom! You are made of much tougher stuff than I! Those winds were no joke and there is NOTHING to hide you from the elements out there, as you well know. 

Next up we have a report from Tennessee sent to me by Mike.

Mike's Virtual Turkey Burn Challenge Ride Report:

Greetings from Columbia (Muletown), TN! It has been a chilly weekend but I was able to eek out a metric. 

 

Went out to my local mountain bike trails at Chickasaw Trace. Columbia Cycling Club puts a ton of work into the trails and they are a blast. It is my favorite time of year to ride single track. The thin layer of frost in the ground grips like Velcro. It was 19 degrees when I left the house. That’s pretty cold by Tennessee standards.

 One morning, I took the fat bike out for a random spin around town. Took a few pics of our adopted home town of Columbia. It’s a really fun place.

I have a feeling this |"TED" guy and I just might get along! (Guitar Ted)

 

 

Was hoping to get out for some miles on Natchez Trace Parkway but my blood has thinned out quite a bit since I left Illinois. Since the weather has not been cooperating, I did have to get in some “cheater” miles on the spin bike to finish my metric. 

Happy Thanksgiving to y’all!

Thanks Mike! Tennessee looks pretty frosty and HILLY! Good to see that you got out and made it work!

Stay tuned for reports from across the ocean tomorrow and Thursday!

Virtual Turkey Burn Ride Report: Guitar Ted

 This is the first of several Virtual Turkey Burn reports I received this year. (It's mine!) I VERY lightly edited the submissions where I found a mistake. Images are credited to the authors. Thanks for reading these and for submitting a report if you did so. Remember that some of these reports fall on double-post days, so be sure to scroll down the page to make sure you don't miss any content! 

The Pre-Burn:

A few things changed with my plans when I found out a few days ahead of Thanksgiving that we would be getting a big Arctic blast on Thanksgiving day. So, I bailed on riding gravel because the wind chills were supposed to be in the single digits and winds were to gust to 25mph. That's not fun, and I wouldn't get far anyway in those conditions. Especially since this would be my first cold weather ride in a long time. 

I went with my Ti Muk 2 because I have some nice 45NRTH pogies that go with that bike and my plan to ride in the Green Belt, out of the wind, would make the drive train on that bike ideal. Lots of twigs and branches make for ripped off derailleurs and the internally geared Rohloff hub keeps the single speed type drive train intact for wood-munching, in case that needed to happen. 

I also planned on breaking up the mileage into multiple days, but I needed to get my tail wagging on Thanksgiving Day to make it work and my goal was to get in 20 miles before noon and the Thanksgiving meal.

Beaver damage. I saw lots of evidence of beaver activity in the Green Belt.

The Green Belt lake under sullen skies.

To get 20-plus miles I would need to ride a lot of alternative trails. Going straight through and back wasn't going to add up to 20 miles. So, I added in a loop around the Green Belt lake first. Then I noted that there was a new mown trail through a prairie meadow that is sandwiched between the lake and the Green Belt trails along Black Hawk Creek and bordered on the South by Martin Road. That added a half mile. 

The new nature trail "lollipop" section

View from Marky-Mark trail.

I went left on the section after Ridgeway Avenue, up and around on the East side of the Green Belt, near the old dog track area, and then back to go under HWY 20 and then back on forgotten old trails to the East there and in the Robinson Bird Sanctuary. I also added in the bit of trail South of Shaulis Road that many people ignore as well. 

This is the end of the line for the Green Belt Trail. This is about two miles from Hudson, Iowa.

My ride track from Ride With GPS. I got in 22.2 miles on Day One

At the Southernmost end of the trail I was at 11 miles. That was promising for a 20 mile goal. So I reset the goal to 22 miles, tried following the way I went out as best I could, and ended up with 22.2 miles on Day One. 

Turkey Burn Day Two:Blue Skies And Brutal Winds

Friday dawned Sunny and clear, but the Northwest wind was 20mph and was gusting to 30mph. The wind chill was in the single digits below zero, so yeah.... I waited until afternoon when the ambient temperatures was around 21°F and the wind chill was up above zero degrees. Barely, but it was above zero. 

I dressed appropriately and headed Northwest into the wind along city streets, alleys, bike trails, and sidewalks until I got out to Big Woods Lake. I figured on riding the bike path around that lake and then coming back I'd ride the opposite side of the Cedar River on bike trails and see if I couldn't get at least 20 miles in. I wanted to leave myself with only twenty miles left to reach a metric century which I figured I could pull off in the last two days of the challenge. 

Old Shirey Way. IYKYK

Bridge across narrows at Big Woods Lake

I tell ya, that wind was nuts. I stayed warm enough, but it was a big time workout getting out there to the turnaround point and into a tailwind at times. I ended up stopping once at the turnaround to take a 'nature break' and once again midway back. 

Taking a break for a minute in George Wyth State Park

I had to stop at the old cement elephant. One of the last remnants of old Robinson Caruso Park.

The route for Friday. 21.2 miles.

I made it back home in a bit over two hours and with 21.2 miles on the GPS device. That added to my previous day total brought me up to 43.4 miles. I would only need to score 20 more miles in two days to reach my goal. It seemed like a piece of cake, especially since Friday was to be the worst day out of the four days I had to get this done. 

I figured on biting off some of this on Saturday depending upon how I felt after two brutal days in the wind and cold. Plus I had to work Saturday morning and play in the church band Sunday morning. 

On to the next day......

Day 3: Goin' Round In Circles:

Saturday, day three of the challenge, I awoke to single digit temperatures and light winds. I had to commute to work so I decided to take a slightly longer route to work and an even longer one back from work. Anything I could add with my short commute would be money in the bank. I did not GPS this bit but I got in 2.5 miles round trip. 

Day 3 Route: I rode around the cemetery 12 times!

Then after lunch the temperatures jumped up to a balmy 24°F but more importantly, the wind backed off quite a bit, so I decided to hit up the cemetery for some laps. 

I went around the outer loop 12 times and then went in and rode every other "road" in the cemetery before exiting and adding a loop of mostly alleys. That gave me 10.4 miles right there.

Adding things up then, I had 22.2 + 21.2+ 2.5 + 10.4 for a total of 56.3 miles so far. That left almost 7 miles to get the metric. Would I get there Sunday? On to the next day.....

Day 4: Remember The Commute!

With only seven miles left to cover I tried to think of an out-and-back that was short and which would cover the necessary distance. I really had not decided on a route until just before I left the house. My old commute to work was about 4 miles. Out and back would definitely get me the mileage needed and should only take an hour at a casual pace. Once again, the winds were out of the Northwest and it was in the low 20's for temperatures. 

Man! This cold weather riding sure sucks the life out of ya!

Trolley Car Trail at 3:00 in the afternoon. Look at that low angle Sunlight!

The Day 4 route covered 9.4 miles.

So, that was it! I made the challenge work! I have to admit that this was a big time motivation to ride. I know I wouldn't have ridden otherwise! Not in these brutal temperatures. But.......I did ride. And I am grateful that I did. 65.7 miles total. I'll take it.

Maybe I am a little bit down about not doing one big ride out in the gravel, but on the other hand, I consistently got on the bike for four days in a row in some pretty challenging weather. So, I think I actually benefited more from having to do things the way I did do them as opposed to a one-shot deal and then not riding at all the rest of the days. I'll have more to say when I wrap up this VTBC series, probably this weekend. 

Next: I have two shorter reports I am combining in one for Tuesday. I have two longer reports which will run on Wednesday and Thursday. Stay tuned for more Turkey Burn reports soon!

Bikes Of 2024: King Fabrications "Honeman Flyer"

 It's another December here on the blog. You know what that means? Yep! Another round of my bikes I used in 2024. This round-up will not include some of the bikes I did not use this year much, or at all. I focus only on the bikes that played a big role in my riding during this year.  As always, any changes or future plans for any bike I feature will also be detailed. I hope that you enjoy this year's round-up. 

The King Fabrications "Honeman Flyer" in March of 2024 in Oklahoma. Image by Erik Mathy

The story of this bike is well told, but if you are pretty new here and don't know about the backstory, a brief synopsis to bring you up to speed here will suffice. 

The idea was spawned when I saw an old advertisement posted on Face Book by frame builder Steve Garro of Coconino Bikes. He mentioned that a spec drawing recreated in the ad showing a 1930's era track bike ridden to National Championships in the late 30's by Willie Honeman might actually make a great gravel bike. I said as much on the blog here and then one thing led to another, (See "People Of 2024: Erik Mathy") and I ended up with an exact copy of the geometry of the Pop Warner designed and built bike which Willie Honeman used in the 30's. Extrapolated to fit me, of course. Willie was of smaller stature than I. 

The Honeman Flyer in its most recent incarnation.

I won't get into all nitty gritty of the bike and how it rides. That can be read HERE. What I will say is that I was very surprised by how much I liked this bike and how often I wanted to ride it. I would even throw some shoes on just to ride it around the neighborhood for ten minutes some days. That's an example to show you that there is something to this bike, for me at least, and I am very happy with it. 

I also will say that I did not expect that I would love riding this bike. In the beginning of the project I thought it could be a failed experiment that might end up sitting around the shop for years until I decided to scrap it. But that will not be happening! Thankfully... By the way, yes, a custom bike I had made in 2007 did end up like that minus the scrapped part. I gave it to a friend who loves it now.

Maybe at some point I can get away for a really long ride on this bike. I have some ideas for that..... 

As far as changes go, I went through several seat posts before landing on one of my four Salsa Cycles Regulator Ti posts. I could see going back to a no-offset post again though. So, if one pops up on my radar in titanium I may have to bite on that. Otherwise there is nothing I am seeing here that will change anytime soon.

People Of 2024: Bobby Wintle

 In my travels and life during the year, I have been blessed to be supported, befriended, and on occasion visited by some pretty awesome folks. Sometimes I visited them. (Hopefully they were equally blessed!) I wanted to take some extra space to recognize and celebrate these people at the end of the year. I hope you gain some insight and appreciation for what these people mean to me this year and beyond. 

Bobby Wintle (back to camera) and Rhett Shull playing guitar the night after Mid-South was done.

Mid-South was a highlight of 2024 for me for many reasons, but maybe the "cherry on top" was seeing Bobby Wintle and being able to hang out with him for a bit the day after Mid-South was over. 

This might seem silly to some of you out there, but I often feel like the outsider in groups and when it comes to other people's events I often feel like I really am more of a bother than a "guest". Never mind that maybe some see me as a "big deal" in the gravel community. I just often feel like a third wheel and that I don't fit in. So, when I was drug along with the Northfield Crew to this rented house in Stillwater to witness those Northfield guys cook up a special supper for Bobby, his close crew members, and special guests, I was left sitting and wondering what the heck was I even doing there. 

Now I will add that Bobby had made it plain that he was "so glad I was there", and he said so several times. But being me, that did not register at the time. Anyway, when Bobby had shown up at this special gathering, he took a bit of time to drag me away. We walked a few blocks over to his house, and Bobby showed me around. We chatted a bit, mostly small talk, and then we returned to the party. 

Well, that finally registered with me. I don't know exactly why Bobby did that for me, but I knew that meant a lot to him, and he wasn't kidding around when he said he was stoked to have me there. 

And that really made the trip super special for me. Not that it wouldn't have been so without this experience, but yeah.... It was one of those small things I'll remember for a long time that made me feel really good. Definitely a highlight of 2024 for me. 

Shout out to Rhett Shull here as well. I had a chance to speak with him, he of the guitar You Tube community, and seeing a guy I've watched online for a long time that is a stellar guitar player was fun. Definitely another highlight of 2024.

On Being A Mover & Changing Times

 In celebration of the twentieth year of this blog, I have a few tales to tell. This post is one of them. This series will occur off and on throughout this anniversary year, I hope to illuminate some behind-the-scenes stories and highlights from the blog during this time. Enjoy!

The last post in this series touched upon a time that was a bit of a tough stretch for me personally. This post will also have a bit of that as well, but this time I am going to cover a few things that have really stretched me and have totally affected my riding and writing here on the blog as well.

Image of Guitar Ted on Quarry Road by Ben Morris

The biggest change to my cycling life which happened recently was when Andy's Bike Shop went out of business at the end on 2021. I got a call from Andy letting me know what was happening in December that year. 

Of course, I had no idea what would come next for me as far as work would go. The bike shop opportunities in Waterloo/Cedar Falls are few and far between due to the paucity of shops here. Add in the fact that I had strong feelings against working in two of those shops and a third needed no one, and you can see that I was looking at opportunities outside of cycling for work.

I knew that whatever happened it would likely mean an end to the nearly twenty years of my being able to take a day and 'just ride' wherever and whenever I wanted to. 

Adding into this was the fact my son was using my truck as his vehicle to get back and forth to a job he had, and to go to college, and I was not only looking at big change in vocation, but in my riding time and schedule. 

"Felix The Cat", decided that I was 'his person', further complicating things.

When we decided to add another rescue cat from the local shelter in December of 2021 we ended up with a male black cat I named "Felix The Cat". (The older amongst you readers may understand why I chose that name) 

Well, Felix decided I was to be 'his person', which, if you are a pet owner and have experienced a pet 'attaching' to you, I think you'll understand how this was yet another big change for me. It affected my riding time. If you haven't experienced this effect, it may be harder for you to understand,but one just does not leave for extended periods of time if a pet seems to hang on to your existence for its "reason to be". 

Felix The Cat in 2024. The big goof weighs 14+ lbs now!

Another thing I did not talk much about at the time was my experience filling in at a moving company which started right before Christmas of 2021 and lasted until mid-January of 2022. 

This was a professional company that used big box van trucks and has government contracts to move military families and the whole nine yards. So this was quite the experience! 

I'd never experienced 20ft high wooden moving crates, packing a moving truck for travel, or the various ways that one can contort their bodies while trying to hold on to a sectional couch while navigating a steep stairwell all the while trying not to scratch the paint off the walls! 

Mover folk are a whole sub-culture of society which I had no knowledge of prior to this experience. Let me tell ya- It was eye-opening. They all smoked, a LOT, they were young men, and I was almost 60 years old at the time, and there is a music genre that is hard-core rap country music melded together with nasty lyrics. Yeah...... Wow! 

I did this gig for just shy of a month and this time was all it took for me to understand my body was not going to hold up doing moving at the level we were doing it. With all the heavy lifting, awkward body positioning, and what that does to knees and joints, I was degrading my fitness and cycling capabilities in a hurry. I made it through the month and more than held up my end of things (no pun intended), but was I ever glad that something else came through to get me out of doing moving for some pocket change. 

John Deere volunteers working a tear-down day at the Collective.

That something was the Cedar Valley Bicycle Collective. While it was only a three-day a week commitment, the times I had to be there radically changed my cycling life. Monday and Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings were when I was expected to work at first. Both Saturday mornings and Wednesdays were my prime riding times and now I would be relegated to only getting in rides on an early part of Wednesday due to the job and "cat duties". 

So, as a new job and new stewardship responsibilities kicked in, my riding times changed and my opportunities to go to other places were restricted. In turn, this also affected what I was writing about here. Most of all, I was limited in being able to do one of my favorite things: Long distance, all-day gravel rides. Anything like a long all-day ride just is really, really hard to find the time for these days. So, if you've noted a lack of bigger rides here, now you might understand why. 

I'm still struggling with the shorter ride times and at the time of this posting, I still do not have a vehicle. This is probably how things are going to be until another 'big" change hits. When that will be, who knows?

Friday News And Views

Will Holidays Prop Up Bicycle Industry's Season?

Sluggish sales in many categories have plagued the cycling industry all of 2024. So-called "Black Friday" sales offers and discounts have been piling up in this writer's inbox the entire month of November. I've even seen discounts on already discounted bikes! Deep discounts are tempting, but many seem to be reticent to let go of those funds in their accounts. 

Further muddying the waters are the results of the recent national election which many fear will increase costs to consumers of cycling goods by way of proposed tariffs. Seeing as how most of the stuff cyclists want and consume come from foreign manufacturers, this seems to be a reasonable fear for the cycling consumer. 

Since many consumers are already saying prices are too high, it would seem that any actions taken by the government which would end up increasing the costs of foreign made goods would only further erode consumer's motivations to buy in 2025. Of course, nothing has happened yet, and it may not happen, in regard to the proposed government actions on tariffs. So, we will just have to wait until 2025 and see what really happens. 

In the meantime, are you considering buying now instead of later due to this fear of tariff action? Respond in the comments if you care to sound off.

Trek Lime ...Or Is It Lemon?:

In the late 2000's Shimano introduced a three speed internal geared hub which was shifted by a control box electronically. The power to make this work was from a generator hub in the front wheel. The rider only had to pedal and when certain speeds were met the shifter control box would make a gearing change by way of a servo motor than pulled a short length of cable to work the hub gears. 

The system had one of Shimano's roller brakes for stopping power. The design also incorporated several visual cues, the most obvious being big, shiny spherical covers over the axles. Shimano marketed it as a group for everyday cycling and for fun. They called it "Coasting". While several companies may have bought into this idea, I only ever saw Treks and Raleighs that were outfitted with the group. 

Recently a Trek Lime with this Coasting set up was donated to the Collective. I noted that it was not shifting. So, as a guitar player I am thinking, "Check all the electronic connections first!", because it is something which can easily be addressed and usually is the issue. Okay, the front generator connector was simple to check. But not so for the shifting mechanism. The shifter box has a cover which has two small Phillips type fasteners, one on each side. Trek put the shifter box under the bike and slightly behind the bottom bracket. They also designed a chain case for this model. The chain case is held on by the flange of the bottom bracket cartridge, and guess what I had to do to access that inner screw on the control box.....

My finger is pointing to where the screw is under the chain case. Had Trek designers just given a bit of access to allow for removal of the shifter box cover, "all I would have had to do" was remove the outer part of the chain case and the crank arm, but noooooo! You have to take the bottom bracket and left crank arm off as well. 

Dumb! 

By the way, the connection was fine. It turns out that the shift point adjustment screw can be adjusted so the bike will not shift. 

Also dumb.

I won't mention the absolutely fantastic rear wheel retention system which utilizes eight fasteners you must remove to get the wheel out to fix a flat tire. Yeah..... This isn't a Lime, it is a lemon! But it works now, so.....

Unbound Announces Qualifying Events :

Last week Unbound sent out a press release showing the qualifying events for a spot in Unbound Gravel events in 2025, 2026, and 2027. Those events that will be a part of the qualifying for Unbound Gravel are as follows:

- April 11, 2025: Life Time Sea Otter Classic Gravel (90 mile) in Monterey, California
- July 12, 2025: Life Time Crusher in the Tushar (70 mile) in Beaver, Utah
- August 10, 2025: Heathland Gravel (100 mile) in Lindburg, Belgium
- September 27, 2025: Life Time Rad Dirt Fest (70 mile and 110 mile) in Trinidad,
Colorado
- October 18, 2025: Life Time Big Sugar Gravel (100 mile) in Bentonville, Arkansas

How it works: Each event will have 50 spots up for grabs. Half of those will go to the top finishers in each category of the event in question. Then the other half of available entries will go to winners of a random draw from a pool of the race's competitors. Winners of entries will be guaranteed a spot on the roster of the Unbound Gravel event that follows the event in question on the calendar. So, as an example, if you won an entry in the 2025 Heathland Gravel event you would be getting a guaranteed entry to the 2026 Unbound Gravel event. 

According to my source at Unbound Gravel this system will carry through at least until the 2026 qualifier events have been held. So the 2027 Unbound Gravel event would be the final event that would carry on with winners of these qualifiers in this format unless things get renewed/changed. 

Comments: This is not "Earth shattering" news by any stretch, but the time stamp for the format is an interesting tidbit. Without saying so, this would indicate to me that Unbound Gravel has no plans currently to become a UCI affiliated gravel event. And from what we already know, it could not carry on as the event is currently formatted if it were a UCI sanctioned event for many reasons, not the least of which is that Unbound's premier distance is about 75 miles too long for the UCI's tastes. 

With the prestige which Unbound holds in gravel cycling's professional ranks, and the allure which it has for the under-classes, the current formatting of Unbound seems prudent to continue. It would appear that will be the case for at least a few years.

Image by Ben Witt

New Teravail MTB Tire Soon?:

Ben Witt of Heath Creek Cycles showed off his new Sklar mountain bike recently on social media. It was noted that the tires are Teravail "Prototype" tires. When a commenter asked Ben about these his reply was that there would be more information coming soon. 

Comments: There are not a lot of "new" 29"er tires coming out anymore because we've had a solid 20 years of development in the size and most "good" tread designs have already been done and copied several times by this point. 

So, it will be interesting to read about what will set this aggressive appearing 29"er tire apart from the crowded MTB tire market. I'm sure there are some interesting details, but from what I can see of the tread design, it doesn't seem that radical or innovative. 

Cropped from an image by Ben Witt

I will say that these Sklar bikes look really cool. Ben is selling them through his Heath Creek Cycles shop and you can check out this bike you see there at Heat Creek Cycles. 

The danger for me would be that I happen to know that Ben sets his bikes up almost to the gnat's eyebrow to how I would, so this bike you see would most definitely fit me as it sits. But don't dismay if you are not a size Large person because Ben has some other Sklars in the shop as well as his being able to order you one if you'd like. 

Interesting note: The 'tall bike' Ben had at Mid-South was built by Sklar but is not a "Sklar Bikes" frame. I know.....weird. But it seemed pretty dialed in and it looked great, so I can only imagine how well these real Sklars are to behold and ride. 

PSA: The Blog Is About To Go Chaotic!

Next week will be double posted almost everyday. This will be due to the addition of the Virtual Turkey Burn Ride Reports, some breaking news on Tuesday, and regular end-of-year stuff I have to squeeze in as well.

This means you probably will need to scroll down the page to make sure that you do not miss anything. You may need two cups of coffee and toast to get through it all. You may roll your eyes and click off to go to another site. 

I don't know, but this message is to let you know one last time that there will be a LOT of content from here on out. So hold on and get comfortable, because things are about to go nuts here!

That's all for this "black Friday" edition of the FN&V. Get out there and burn off a few calories by riding a bicycle this weekend. Thanks for reading Guitar Ted Productions!

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

If you celebrate the day, I hope that you have a wonderful time remembering all the things you have been blessed by in 2024. If you do not celebrate the day where you live, I hope you take some time out today to be thankful for all the things you have been blessed by this year as well. 

On another note, today is the day that the Virtual Turkey Burn Challenge starts. It ends on Sunday, so if you are partaking in this endeavor, I hope that you have a safe and enjoyable ride, or rides.