Brown Season: Bumpy Ride

Escape Route: Burton Avenue.

Well, the weekend was bracketed by bad weather here. Friday was just weirdly moist. It never really rained outright, but it was misting off and on and it looked like it could go full-on rain at any minute. Not a very good day to ride.

Sunday was Easter, but it also rained, so Saturday, which was actually rather pleasant, was the day to ride, so I did. I had to wear some warmer duds since it was only in the 50's and the breeze was out of the North. I decided to ride the pink BMC MCD and head North out of town up Burton Avenue.

I had to wait until after lunch since I work Saturday mornings. I managed to also get off any family duties after asking Mrs. Guitar Ted about making a short ride plan. I would only have about two to three hours to get something in, but that is enough. So, I headed out at about 2:00pm.

The ditches are turning greener. Brown Season is coming to a close.

The ag traffic is high now and the roads reflected this.

Right away I noted there were a lot more bumps, lunging feelings, and roughness to the road. I figured out this was all caused by agricultural equipment. It seems these beasties are so heavy they push, compress, rut out, and deposit field dirt which all contributed to the weird feeling road experience.

An image from the highest point on my ride, just North of C-57 on Burton Avenue.

This cool barn and outbuilding complex is just South of the St. Pauls Church and on the opposite side of the road.

I don't know what it was, but I was not feeling it on this ride. Maybe it was the Northwest wind, which was stronger than indicated by the weather people, but then again, it almost always is out here. It could be I wasn't rested. It could be I just haven't gotten in the miles due to all the stupid wind we've had so far this year. Probably all of that, actually.

Stopped for a quick breather here.

This controlled burn is so fresh it was still smoldering when I passed by.

Things got a little better when I turned East on Gresham Road. I had something of a tailwind and I felt a bit easier than I had been feeling. The road was pretty much all fresh gravel, but with the all-day moisture event we experienced the day before this gravel was not shifty and like marbles under the tires. So, it was a lot less difficult than it could have been.

Moline Road was smooooth sailing!

Farming activities are starting to ramp up out here.

Turning South on Moline Road was the best part of the ride. The wind was a quartering tailwind, the road was way smoother, and the rollers made for fast, fun riding on the way back. I ended up doing just over two hours with one minor stop. It was all I wanted to do, to be honest, with the way I felt. I need to get out there more consistently to start getting myself into some semblance of "gravel shape". 

Hopefully this weather straightens up so I can do this. 

On The Bunny Trail

 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! 

 We are in the final stretch of celebrating the 20th year of blogging here at Guitar Ted Productions. In about a month the day will arrive which will mark when this blog started. Expect there to be a bit more 20th Year posts as the day approaches.

A Level B road in Tama County during Trans Iowa v7, Image by Steve Fuller

When David Pals and I started thinking about running a seventh Trans Iowa the date of the event was sort of a given. By this time I had determined I would set Trans Iowa's date whenever the last full weekend of April was. This had been the default anyway, with the exception of Trans Iowa v5, which I pushed back to being the first weekend in May due to my involvement covering the Sea Otter Festival in mid-April. Having a week of separation between those events was not ideal for putting on Trans Iowa

But by 2011, when Trans Iowa v7 was run, I was no longer doing a trip out to Sea Otter, so we were solidly back to the last weekend of April for Trans Iowa. It wasn't until registration for T.I.v7 was about to open that I was made aware by a potential entrant that the weekend we had chosen was Easter weekend.

I had a small bit of anxiety over this. I understand the importance of this event to many, including myself, and was afraid we'd get a lot of push-back over the date if we stuck to it. I was in favor of changing the date, but David allayed my fears and sent me some information about how Paris-Roubaix had been held during an Easter weekend once upon a time in heavily Catholic (at that time) France and there was no real issues with this happening.

So, I capitulated and put my fears behind me and we forged on ahead with it. Trans Iowa v7 was one for the record books. We had eighteen finishers that year out of 76 with 40 of those riders being "rookie" first-timers. We had our very first female finisher of a Tans Iowa in Janna Vavra. It would turn out to be the last Trans Iowa I put on with David Pals as co-director.

John Gorilla finishes T.I. v7 on a prototype Warbird with his wife Adele looking on. Note the bunny ears.

 We had a crazy, epic flip-flop during the last hours of this event where leader John Gorilla, riding a prototype titanium Salsa Cycles Warbird, had five flats and relinquished his lead to eventual surprise winner Dennis Grelk. John ended up coming in fifth place.

We had one of the legendary stories of the early gravel days happen at this event. Earlier in the event, on Saturday morning, Corey "Cornbread" Godfrey blew his derailleur off his bike and damaged his frame to the point which he was looking like a sure DNF. However; he hitched a ride back to the start in Grinnell, had the local bike shop fix his bike up as a single speed, returned to the course, and caught up with some buddies. He ended up riding the entire rest of the event. Although he had to be DQ'ed for outside assistance, his determination to ride and complete the course was without peer, and stands as one of the outstanding accomplishments of Cornbread's Hall of Fame career in gravel.

It turned out to be quite the Easter Sunday that year, and is one I won't soon forget, especially since this was the event which was documented by Jeff Frings and won an Emmy award for regional best documentary. That documentary is called "300 Miles Of Gravel", in case you are interested in seeing it.

Where Were We?

 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! 

Again with the Trans Iowa stuff. I know, but April was essentially "Trans Iowa Month" here, and I suppose you could add in the first week of May with my reporting on the just completed event for the year. This time I wanted to shine a light on cue sheet navigation. It was something I took great pains to explain in detail here on the blog, so many of you long-time readers will probably recall this being a big deal.

A typical Trans Iowa cue sheet

I was chatting with Cedar Valley Bicycle Collective board member Nick Arendt at our most recent board meeting and he brought up cue sheet navigation while we were discussing Iowa Wind And Rock, (happening today and tomorrow, actually!). 

Nick said something which I've heard before, but is something I do not consider often, and is probably something most folks who have never used a cue sheet in an event would think about. Now, this probably is somewhat unique in terms of how I implemented cue sheet navigation, so others may have a different viewpoint, but if you had ridden in Trans Iowa, or as Nick, in the only C.O.G.100 event, you know first hand what Nick meant when he told me he didn't really ever know exactly where he was during the event.

I suppose it may seem very odd as to why I would have made the cues so precise, yet so vague at the same time so that riders knew exactly where to turn, but had no idea in a macro sense where the points were on a map. No sense of space beyond the immediate was portrayed on the cues. I went as far as not identifying towns and villages on the cues. Unless a rider saw a water tower emblazoned with the village's name, or a Post Office, business, or official government office of some sort, they would never know where they were in relation to ....well, anything!

Finishers of Trans Iowa knew where the start and end points were. But where did they go? Image by A. Andonopoulous

It was not uncommon for Trans Iowa finishers to ask me at the end of the event, "Where did we go this year?" Some of them would understand in a general sense given some knowledge of highways in the state and where they had crossed them, but most had no idea where they had been, especially in the earlier versions before GPS was widely available to cyclists. Of course, later into TI's run cyclists could have used a track of where they had been on their GPS enabled computer afterward to gauge where the route had gone, but many riders did not have this available to them during those days.

So, it was imperative not only for the riders to pay attention to every detail on the cues, but for me and those who reviewed my cue sheets to get every detail critical to navigation right. It was also a difficult task to edit this information down to a clear and concise reading with no confusion induced by the information I did give riders. This was facilitated by those I had volunteer to check my cues out. People like Jeremy Fry, Wally Kilburg, George Keslin, Tony McGrane, and others who would either look over my cues or use them to navigate the route in the field.

Every year these people suggested edits and helped me make Trans Iowa cues the best possible. It was a hard task with a new course every year all 14 years I put this event on. While processes were refined and things were eased by the end of the run, it was by no means an "easy task". Giving explanations every year on the blog was also a bit tedious, however, I felt it could never be pointed out enough how the cues worked.

And I am glad I took the space here to do that. It made for an experience you cannot get anywhere else in cycling. Well......there is Iowa Wind and Rock! And the Ragnarok 105 uses cues yet, I think... So you still can get this experience as long as they keep those events going.

Weekly Top Five

Welcome to the weekly Top Five" showing links to five of the week's most read articles on the blog.
Sometimes those will be current posts, but sometimes not. I will also post commentary with perspective on some of the older posts, and try to give some context as to why I wrote what I wrote then, which may not reflect what I'd say in 2025. With all of the above said, here is this week's

 Sea Otter Left-Overs: April 13th, 2025 - The most recent Sea Otter's post. This was about things I found interesting from the festival.

How Wide Should Your Drop Bars Be?: November 20th, 2023 -  This one crops up a lot in the Top Ten posts read every week, so you will probably see this one again sometime. It is about my experiences, opinions, and what I'd recently learned about sizing drop bars.  

Rene Herse TPU Tubes: Review Part : March 11th, 2025 - A review still in progress of Rene Herse TPU tubes. An update on this review is scheduled for this coming week. Stay tuned...

Tree In The Road Ride: April 15th, 2025 -  An announcement for an upcoming ride in June.

WW4M: HandUp Gloves: April 17th, 2025 -  The "WW4M" series strikes again. This stands for "What Works For Me" and is a series where I detail why I use what I use for cycling. Kind of a review, mostly a recommendation. Past WW4M posts can be found by searching the term "WW4M" in the blog search box located in the upper left of the page on PC's and Macs and on a smart phone? Yeah.....I'm not sure how that works. (At least I don't see how to do it on my iPhone!)

Thanks for reading Guitar Ted Productions!

Friday News And Views

Image courtesy of KOM

 A "Thinking Outside Of The Box" FN&V

 KOM Xeno Hubs Redefine Rear Hub Technology:

A U.K. based company called KOM is attempting to redefine how rear hubs will look and work in the future with its Xeno hubset. 

Boasting a revolutionary design which places the ratcheting pawls, which allow for coasting, on the non-drive side of the hub, the Xeno hubs are a very different take on bicycle hubs. The hub uses a kind of torque tube, which transfers the power of pedaling to the other side of the hub from the cassette carrier. It is nothing like a traditional hub design.

The one-piece, tubular axle is supported by bearings which can be placed more outboard than can be with a traditional design, making for a claimed stiffer axle. This all results in a design which can take advantage of lighter materials and larger diameters for the axles and ratchet ring.

What is really wild about these Xeno hubs are the pawls, which are made from aluminum. KOM claims this is okay because the larger diameter of the system lends more leverage and thus a lighter material can be utilized without sacrificing strength necessary for transmitting pedaling forces. KOM claims the aluminum pawls have less inertia allowing for faster engagement of the 120 points of contact.

Of course, there is a compromise. This design necessitates a different disc rotor due to the non-standard diameter of the hub axle.  KOM sells a rotor with each hub which compensates for this. These are claimed to be lighter than usual rotors, again due to the diameter of the hub, and stiffer because the rotor mounting point is closer to the brake calipers. A unique four bolt mounting pattern is used as well.

Cost for a standard color (silver or black) hub set (front and rear Xeno design)  is approximately $1.100.00USD. Custom colored sets are available as well for an upcharge. 

 Comments: The Xeno hubs are MTB specific for now, but if something like this idea shows merit, it could be applied to other types of bicycles as well. Yes, the disc mount is odd, but this idea makes sense on the surface. If this idea proves to be worthwhile in the long haul there are several benefits to riders which standard hubs cannot provide. Obviously the prices would have to come down a lot for anything like this to become mainstream. Something to watch and see if it takes root here, I think. 

Image courtesy of KAV Helmets

KAV Helmets Redefines Helmet Fit, Tech With 3D Printing:

The helmet technology we ride with today is based upon materials and construction techniques developed decades ago. KAV Helmets looks to break this mold with their range of 3D printed helmets which boast several advantages, the most impressive being a customized fit for each purchaser of their helmets.

KAV Helmets offer a rider the chance to get a helmet which is claimed to be as aerodynamic as anything available, better at cooling your head, and made to fit your head. They do this by leveraging 3D printing.

Utilizing "crumple zone" design, KAV claims their helmets are nearly 3 times better at absorbing impacts. Using a hexagonal design, their helmets shear as well as crumple, which does basically the same thing as MIPS tries to achieve.

Their custom fit allows each helmet to be tailor made for its rider. KAV achieves this by sending you a link to an app after purchase which the customer uses to take an image of their head. The app maps the head and allows KAV to create a custom "Fit Cap" which is sent out to the customer for trial fitting. Once any changes are suggested and the cap is approved then KAV 3D prints your helmet and sends it to you. 

All this sounds incredibly expensive, but looking at the prices, the KAV range falls in line with most helmet company's top-range offerings with KAV helmets starting at $225.00USD and going up to $300.00USD. All manufacturing is based in the USA as well.

Comments: I've got an odd-shaped, BIG noggin, and this technology and manufacturing technique sounds pretty interesting. I'm considering it for myself.  

Image courtesy of Morelle 

Fast Charging In 15 Minutes?

Another outside of the box cycling product which soon might revolutionize things is from Morelle. An ebike that claims a fast charge of 15 minutes.

Using a silicon based battery instead of a graphite one, along with some other electronic wizardry, Morelle promises a bike you will be able to ride and recharge the battery in without much down time, which will allow riders to push the limits of range more than perhaps they do now with slower recharging rates.

Morelle hopes to move into more micro-mobility areas and energy storage systems but this product is a kind of proof-of-concept exercise to show their ideas work. You may have seen Gary Fisher touting the benefits of Morelle recently and he is a part of the company. The first concept bike was shown recently at Sea Otter.

The Morelle bike will go for 3K but if you are interested in having one you have to reserve one now for 2026 delivery. You can check the bike out HERE. 

Image courtesy of Lezyne.

Lezyne To Release Clik Valve Compatible Inflation Range:

Readers of the blog might be familiar with my ongoing review of Clik Valves and inflation accessories.  One of the negatives for switching over to these valves and valve cores is the dearth of choices in inflation tools which will interface with Clik Valves.

This will be relieved a bit now that Lezyne has committed to partnering with Clik Valve to introduce a range of inflation tools which will interface with the Clik Valve standard. These devices will include mini-pumps, floor pumps, and CO2 adapters for quick repairs in the field.

Details on the partnership can be read on Lezyne's site HERE.

Comments: You love to see it and this should give Clik Valve a big boost in acceptance. Personally, I feel Clik Valve is head and shoulders better than any other valve type and should replace what we are using now. Especially for newer cyclists who may find Presta valves off-putting, and many do in my experience. Clik Valve solves all the negativity around Presta and is easier to use than it and Schrader valves. 

I am looking for a tubeless valve stem offerings from other companies to be developed at this point and if this happens I think I'll start switching over to Clik Valve. I'll have more on my review coming later in the season. 

Iowa Wind And Rock Event This Weekend:

The successor to Trans Iowa, Iowa Wind And Rock, happens starting tomorrow at 4:00am in the morning and will continue on through Saturday, Saturday evening, and into Sunday ending at 2:00pm in the afternoon. 

An event navigated by cue sheet, this oddball of a gravel race is definitely "outside the box" in terms of the gravel racing/riding scene. There are imitators, (Long Voyage, Unbound XL, Mega Mid-South) but none of those can match the original formula which IWAR utilizes to this day.

Sending much love and hoping for tailwinds to all who toe that line tomorrow in the dark. 

Look for my Trans Iowa 20th anniversary post coming up on the 23rd, next week. 

That's a wrap for this week. Get out there and ride those bikes!

WW4M: HandUp Gloves

 This is another "WW4M" post. That means "What Works For Me" and it may not work for you. So, take that with the following words into consideration....

Over the years I have tried a LOT of cycling gloves. Many just do not jive with me or my oddball circulatory system which makes a lot of cycling gloves turn my hands numb within minutes of putting the gloves on. This is especially an issue with fingerless styles of cycling gloves, which I have found just do not work at all for my hands. 

So, I gravitate to wearing full-fingered gloves, if I wear gloves at all.  Over the years my favorite brand to use has been HandUp Gloves . These are the gloves you may have seen which have cute little slogans on the palms and can be read when you put your hands together.

While that can be seen as a "fun" feature of this brand's gloves, it doesn't move the needle for me. A glove has to be comfortable to wear first and foremost. Then it has to actually be useful. Thirdly it has to be a pair of gloves I can wear most of the year. Finally, price and durability are definitely concerns.

HandUp gloves come in several styles and in different designs designated as "Standard Most Days", Cold Weather", and "Short Finger", etc. I have used gloves from their "Cold Weather" range and "Standard Most Days" range. The images here are from the latter range. These are the gloves I use as three-season gloves and what I wear most of the time, if I wear gloves at all, for riding.

By the way, I purchased all the HandUp gloves I've used. HandUp does not sponsor me, nor do they know about this review.

Anyway, HandUp "SMD" gloves have the following features:

• - 50+ UPF Sun Protection
• - FullTouch Touch Screen Technology
• - Silicone Palm Graphics
• - Towel Thumb Sweat Cloth

These gloves go for $29.00USD

My Take: These are long-wearing, durable gloves with a couple of key features which I appreciate. I wear these from early "shoulder-season" riding time, say from 50 degrees, on up to Summer weather. By the time it gets above 80 degrees I'm back to bare hands again. But there are days all Summer when I would wear these.

They do stay relatively cool on the hands and they keep the wind off when it is Spring or Fall well enough I can stay warm. I do appreciate the "nose-wipe" section and gloves without this feature are a no-go with me. The touch-screen capabilities are top notch. The best in any glove I have tried. 

The goofy slogans are printed on in a thicker, silicone material which provides copious amounts of grippage for grip tape or mtb grips. It wears fairly well also. I had a pair before these latest pairs I bought came in which lasted a few years or so for me and they still look really good and the grippy bits are all intact.

By the way, if you do not care for the graphic designs HandUp has plain colors as well. So, in the end, I think HandUp has gloves which would work for most riders styles and riding needs. They are fairly priced, and the quality is really good. I recommend them to anyone. 

Two Things

I'm free! Finally I am free!

 Freedom For Cooks Crank:

Back in 2003 when I first put together my Campstove Green Karate Monkey, I used a Cooks Brothers crank set in the build. I set it up with a Big Cheese chain ring and ran the bike single speed for years afterward with this set up.

I actually wore out one Big Cheese ring and put on another, only to find that when it wore out as well, that hidden chain ring bolt was frozen together. I suppose several Winter's of use might do something like that. Hmm...

I freely admit I am not a BMX parts hound so I was at a bit of a loss as to whether or not the spider could come off this drive arm. It had an M8 bolt holding the spider to the crank arm, so I removed this, (and promptly lost it), then I found out the spider was peened on at the spindle and well.....

So now I had a real pickle. I couldn't get the ring off and I lost a "special bolt". Okay, so I bailed on this crank at the time and went with a 180mm White Industries single speed crank I had purchased with a square taper interface. This is the crank set on the bike currently.

Every once in awhile over the ensuing years I would fiddle with the Cooks crank and see if I could find a suitable M8 bolt or if I could remove the chain ring bolt. I guess last week was finally the time for release of trapped chain rings because I was able to finally get the dang nut apart!

Well, at least now I could clean up the arms and start searching again for a suitable M8 bolt amongst my massive stash of fasteners I have saved up over the years. The cleaning part went well. The arms are in decent shape and the spider still looks really nice. At least for a part that is likely 35+ years old and went through several Iowa Winters and gravel miles.

But finding a bolt? This was not as successful. I could find a ton of metric thread fasteners which would turn in three times and bind, indicating they had the wrong thread pitch. This took a while to get through all my fasteners so I ended up wasting a lot of time on this, but I know now I don't have a bolt for this crank arm.

I got to wondering, perhaps Cook Brothers used a SAE thread pitch on this bit, since it was produced in the U.S.A. This would make sense, but I just am not knowledgeable on these enough to say if this is the case or not. I also do not have SAE fasteners. I am a bicycle mechanic, after all!

One good thing came out of all of this though. In searching for the M8 fastener I found my lost Wahoo Elemnt ROAM. It was underneath a bunch of computer mounts in a bowl on the bench. Why? Uh.....I probably figured all the computer stuff should go in this bowl here while I was cleaning up one day and then I likely promptly forgot about it. This would totally track with me. Anyway, I found the Wahoo, so wahoo!   

SILCA SAGA

You may remember my ordering a gauge for my SILCA pump recently? Well, I did receive a package from SILCA. It was curiously light, and my red flags started to wave as I walked back from the mailbox. Hmm.... Something seems wrong here.

Well, as I opened up the bubble pack envelope, I saw the box inside and I knew immediately something was for certain way off. I opened up the box to find.......a spanner wrench?!

What?!

How...... I..... This was really weird! I mean, I could see sending out the wrong gauge, but a spanner wrench? This was super odd.

That's not a gauge!

 

Now that is a gauge!

I sent a quick email to SILCA and their answer was that someone must have been in a hurry in the shipping department and got their wires crossed. An actual gauge would be on the way pronto. 

Finally I have the gauge! And my Pista Plus pump is back in service again. I must say SILCA was very prompt and responsive during this entire process. I always received communication within an hour of sending an email and shipments were made ASAP. I have to say SILCA wins the customer service award from Guitar Ted Productions. I've not ever had such great, prompt, and courteous service from any company I've dealt with over the years. 

Yes, they made a mistake, but they rectified it and all is well. Now, back to pumping up tires....

Tree In The Road Ride

Announcing the "Tree In The Road Ride" for June 28th, 2025 in Atlantic, Iowa.

I know some may bemoan this date choice, (Sorry Rob!), but after consulting with N.Y. Roll this is the best choice for him, and he is my ride there, since I do not have a car or truck anymore. (I will also be working up a back-up plan for transpo, just in case)

I have a route, and I will release it via Ride With GPS soon, after I do some research, and more fine details will be released then as to a time and place to meet. Right now I don't have any specifics, but I would plan on a fairly early start. The ride will happen on a Saturday, and if the weather looks iffy it will be cancelled. No charge or registration necessary. This is a fun, group ride vibe with no rider left behind.

Plan on being self-sufficient with a tube, tools, an air delivery system, water to drink for at least 30 miles, and also be sure to bring something to eat along the way. We are planning on stopping several times. Some possible stops include:

• Approximately Mile 18 - Tree In The Road
• Approximately Mile 27 - Casey's General Store, Exira, Iowa. 
• Approximately Mile 39 - Albert The Bull, Waspy's Truck Stop, Audubon, Iowa. 
• Approximately Mile 43 - Hamlin, Iowa
• Approximately Mile 49 - Plow In The Oak
• Approximately Mile 52 - Brayton, Iowa 
• Approximately Mile 65 - Ride end - 

I would assume this will take around 7 hours. Maybe less if the group is fast and the day is really nice. Maybe more if we have mechanicals and a few stragglers. Riders who show up should be ready for loose, shifty gravel, steeper rollers on gravel, wind, Sun, and probably hot weather. Speeds will be in the 12mph - 16mph range. We will gather stragglers when necessary. Riders are requested to alert ride leaders, (Guitar Ted, N.Y. Roll) if you are bailing out, or if you want to ride faster and not be encumbered. (But if you want to ride fast, you probably should not come, just so you are aware.)

"Ride Right" rules will be enforced and anyone deemed unsafe, (riding up left side of hills, erratic behavior around others) will be asked to leave the ride. I don't believe this will be necessary, but it has to be said, so I did. I don't particularly care if that offends anyone and causes you not to come to this ride, by the way.

Anyway, there are a few things to chew on. This will happen whether or not it is just N.Y. Roll and I or if there are ten, twenty, or however many show up.  As long as the weather holds, we are healthy, and no other unforeseen occurrences happen, we'll be there. Again, an exact time and meeting spot will be shared soon.

Questions? Email me or hit the comments.

Stay tuned.....

Brown Season: The Freshies

Escape Route: Sergeant Road bike path.

The Continental Terra Adventure tires I have in for review needed to be ridden, and with Friday being a nearly windless day, (what?!), I decided to ask myself, "What better time to go than now?" The answer: There is no better time than now.

So, out came the 3/4's Twin Six bibs, my longsleeved Bontrager wool jersey I've had for years, and my Twin Six wind vest. I put half a plastic shopping bag around each foot and wore my old Giant MTB shoes.

It was around 50°F, so it wasn't 'warm', and with a mostly cloudy sky, I had little help from the Sun. As it turned out, I was dressed perfectly. The Conti tires were aired up to 30psi, the water bottles were filled, and I was off to find Petrie Road's Level B section to test these knobby little tires.

Spring-time gravel road maintenance has begun. Great!

The farmers are readying their toys for Spring play-time.

Well, I found out I hit the "gravel jack-pot" on the first stretch of gravel of the day. The County has hit Aker Road hard with the freshies. Deep, loose, fresh ground and crushed rock. Mmmmm.... The Noble GX5 was darting and slipping around on the white rock. Dust was being kicked up by passing cars and made the dust look like thunderheads, but I was fortunate in that every car and truck slowed to make sure I wasn't too blinded.

Taking a break at "The Usual Spot".

Once I passed by Hudson, Iowa, to my right, Aker Road cleared up. A little bit!

That fresh gravel was jarring. I expected sooner or later we would be seeing this happen. It is about the time when farmer's are getting ready to plant and the County likes to get its 530 miles of gravel squared away before their heavy equipment hits the gravels. 

Where the dirt begins on the East side of Petrie Road's Level B section.

There is usually water here all year long, but with the drought it has been hit or miss.

Level B roads, the good ones, change periodically. Petrie Road's Level B section is no different. Right now it is rough and rutted out. We haven't had a ton of moisture around here, and you would think things couldn't get too tore up, but they are right now.

I was remarking to myself how it was back when we ran Trans Iowa v12 through this road and it was super-smooth. I think it was in the best condition I'd ever seen this section of road be in. Now, it should be said that a certain landowner adjacent to this section of dirt road would like nothing more than to have the County declassify it to a C Level road and have it gated off. So, this landowner has let their end of this road "go to hell" and they even took down the street sign on their corner along with the Levl B warning sign so it looks more like a farmer's lane. Maybe someday this farmer will get their wish, but it is still open to traffic in 2025.....

The first hill on the East end.NOTE: This shot is from a similar vantage point as the header (as of 4/14/25)

Headed down to the last bit which is flat, riddled with ruts, and in Summer, overgrown with weeds.

I was picking my way through trying to avoid the ruts, the decomposed clay, which sucks yoiur wheel in, and the mud where it was prevalent. On the West end, near where "that farmer lives", it gets real gnarly with really deep ruts, mud, and water. I was 50 yards from the West entrance when I finally made a wrong move and dumped myself unceremoniously on my left side.

I was laughing. I almost made it and, well.....darn it!  I got back up still chuckling to myself, remounted, and got to the end with no further issues. A quick look at the Terra Adventure, to see how much mud stuck to it, and I was off on my way back North on Holmes Road.

I don't notice this erratic too often, but it appears this farmer is stacking more rock on it.

Freshies on Aker Road. The right side by the ditch was way smoother!

I was out almost two and a half hours. It was a good ride and I learned a lot about the new tires. (I'll post again on those soon.) I was happy it wasn't windy and at least I felt pretty good once I got back home. Now I just need to get out more consistently and keep stacking those pennies.

Sea Otter: Left-Overs

Vittoria's T50 gravel tire (Image courtesy of Vittoria)

Vittoria Simplifies Tire Names, Introduces New T50 Tire:

Vittoria is going to move away from its current naming conventions for its gravel tire line up. Apparently the Mezcal will also be switching to this new way of naming Vittoria's gravel range.

In effect, the new naming convention will help riders determine what tire is best for their riding intentions. So, a smoother, faster tire, like the Terreno Zero, will be a T10. Something more aggressive will have a much higher "T" score going all the way to 100. Vittoria will support this with a "tire-finder" on their site which will ask riders questions to help funnel them to tires which fit their riding needs best.

To illustrate this range we have the new Terreno T50, so, a tire right smack-dab in the middle of the new range and as one would expect, is being marketed as an all-arounder.  This tire is punture-protected, has a sidewall protection, and will come in a new "tan" sidewall along with the standard black. Gone are the grey sidewalls of the past. This tire currently is only offered in 700 x 40mm.

Comments: Okay...... I don't know if this new tire-finder way of naming these tires will make all that much difference. Initially, as Vittoria works through changing the range this Summer, my thought would be if someone is looking for a Mezcal and doesn't see any, (because now it is a "T" something tire), they won't buy Vittoria. But maybe the "Mezcal" part lives alongside the "T" bit for awhile, easing the transition. Otherwise, I don't see this "T" thing as a big benefit to the consumer. Most riders are going to listen to their group-think advisors online anyway, since bike shops are fading, and media cannot possibly cover every tire.

Moots Routt in the California Dreamin' ano scheme. (Image courtesy of Moots)

Moots Calfornia Dreamin' Limited Edition Routt:

Look at it. It is anodized titanium, high-end parts, and costs an eye-watering amount of money. Twenty-five will be made available by Moots. It's called "California Dreamin'". Got it....

Moving on.... 

Image courtesy of Maxxis Tires

Maxxis Debuts New Compound Across Gravel Tire Range:

Maxxis Tires announced a new compound for their rubber used across their four tire gravel range. Called "HYPR-X", this new compound is going to be integrated throughout the range during 2025.

The new compound borrows from Maxxis' HYPR road tire compound which is known for low rolling resistance. This is mixed with Maxxis' XC racing tire compound called "MaxxisSpeed". The result will be a tough, low rolling resistance compound for gravel.

Maxxis claims the new gravel oriented HYPR-X will lend riders 19% better cornering traction over the previous compound used and 25% less rolling resistance.  A new, even stronger Nylon will be used for the casings in the 120TPI tires which Maxxis says will "vastly increase tread durability". The EXO sidewall protection will also be applied to the range. All sizes in the gravel range will now be tubeless ready. Note the new tire hot patches, which will replace current branding. All tires will ship in new, recyclable paper packaging as well.

The Reaver and Rambler in 700 x 45mm will be the first to get the new compound  and casing with the other tires and sizes in the range to follow. See more on Maxxis' site. 

Image courtesy of Salsa Cycles

Salsa Revamps Full Sus Range:

Salsa Cycles announced last Thursday they had revamped the entire full suspension range of bikes, including e-bike FS. I'm not going to go into detail on the entire range, but I will speak to the one bike in the whole range which I found interesting: The 'entry level' Spearfish C Eagle Transmission.

 This bike has 120mm front/rear travel via Rock Shox SID range dampers. Decent wheels and tires, a good geometry, and that 'Dusty Rose' hue looks pretty cool.

Comments: I am amused this bike costs 5G. The range-topping Spearfish C DLX XO is over twice as expensive. So....I could buy two C Eagle Transmission models and have money left over compared to the XO model?

Ridiculous. How did we get here?  

Courtesy of Sage Titanium's Instagram

Sage Titanium "Dropinator" Points To MTB Trend In Gravel:

Sage Titanium showed off a new bike at Sea Otter which grafted gravel bike geometry with a 100mm suspension fork. The bike dubbed "The Dropinator" also has  a dropper seat post, 1X SRAM drive train, and Rock Shox Attendant Control electronics for the fork and dropper post. 

Comments: As I have often stated here on these digital pages, 40mm - 50mm of "gravel suspension fork t5ravel" is functionally useless. You can see here 100mm is where the action is going to be, that is if this takes off as a "thing".  

I've also said the Fargo/Cutthroat class of drop bar MTB was already doing this sort of job, but what I see here is a trend toward taking the concept to a racier, lighter chassis than a bikepacking bike has.

But in the end, this all points to what is happening in the upper echelons of Pro XC MTB, just with a drop bar variant thrown in. Keeping in mind this bicycle debuted at an event which had been a XC MTB event up until this year. Does this have any bearing on the reason the bike exists? Possibly, but I think more so this points, once again, to "gravel" being the hot ticket. If we can disguise a hard tail XC rocket ship as a drop bar gravel bike with a suspension fork and call it "monster gravel", or whatever they end up calling this concept, then you have something to get folks excited about.

In the end, I think this concept is fine. I did something similar with a Gen 2 Fargo and an 80mm travel Reba fork once. But it was not a "gravel bike".  It just wasn't the same on actual unpaved roads, which is where a gravel bike really shines. Drop bar MTB is really cool, and I do like it, but again - this Sage model and bikes like this are a drop bar MTB bikes. Let's not kid ourselves here.

Radio-Radio

 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!

Of course, this is another Trans Iowa related post. It is April, after all, and for 14 years, the month of April was dominated by Trans Iowa talk, so go figure, right? Anyway, I figured I would write about the evolution of what became to be known as "Trans Iowa Radio". Here's a bit I posted on the eve of Trans Iowa v8 in 2012.

 Special Notice: To the regular readers of this blog: You will notice that for about the next week's worth of posts that the subject matter will be entirely about Trans Iowa. This event happens over the course of the weekend. You will notice several "Trans Iowa Radio" posts with an mp3-type audio track button which you can click on and listen in to reports filed live from the event. Then there will be a post race recapping of the event which typically takes five to seven posts for me to wade through. 

Those "mp3-type audio posts" were done on a service called "Hip-Cast". It wasn't the first audio-posting service I had used though. I cannot recall what it was I used in 2005 and 2006, but it was pretty rudimentary. I know there were some T.I. Radio posts done on a service called "Audioblogger" for a couple years, at least. Then in the closing years of Trans Iowa, audio call-ins were posted on the RidingGravel.com site.

 Interestingly, the audio updates I posted for Trans Iowa v7 on Hip-Cast played a big part in the Emmy winning documentary, "300 Miles Of Gravel" by Jeff Frings. It captured the essence of those updates excellently, and is a great time-capsule for this important part of Trans Iowa. 

Guitar Ted, (R) posting a Trans Iowa Radio update for T.I.v6

Whatever service I was using, the "updates" were of varying quality. In the earliest years of Trans Iowa, when I assumed no one would ever listen, I was doing fake commercials and fake sponsors reads because, why not? The entire point was just a way for me to pass the time, stay engaged, and keep myself from wandering off into some farmer's pasture drunk with sleep deprivation at 3:00am in the morning.

The thing was, people were listening! I had a lot of negative feedback over the course of the first several Trans Iowa events because I wasn't either being serious, or thorough enough, (usually both) for the listeners. I knew things had taken a turn when after Trans Iowa v3 I learned I had listeners in Poland because we had two Polish immigrant brothers in the event that year! People wanted facts and that at a constant rate so they could "keep tabs" on their kid, relative, husband, girlfriend, wife, or they were just a fan of someone.

This came to a head during T.I.v5 when I had a wife of a participant wanting an update and she called me at 4:00am in the morning to get it. She was upset because I hadn't "reported" on him for the last couple of T.I. Radio updates. This is when I felt the need to delineate what "media coverage" meant for Trans Iowa. I wasn't there to give play-by-play. I was running an event, and I did not have time, nor the resources, to pull off any blanket coverage of the event, and furthermore, I did not want this for Trans Iowa.

Trans Iowa Radio updates direct from the racers was first made available during Trans Iowa v9.

 Trans Iowa was, in my opinion, an event where one was disconnected from the modern world. Making it a media circus wasn't in my plans. I did not like cell phones either, but hey! Safety and rider tracking were done via those devices, so I necessarily had to allow for those to be in play. The thing was, people used them to connect to racers, and vice versa. Support, from the outside, in any form, was minimized as much as I could back then, because it was integral to the experience I was cultivating. Cell phones were an evil necessity and more Trans Iowa Radio wasn't in my plans.

But pressure from outside the event did not get less as the years went by. Once I was acquainted with Ben Welnak, who I joined forces with in RidingGravel.com in 2014, it was determined that a Trans Iowa Radio call-in feature could be implemented, so any rider could "check in" at any time to let folks know how it was going. This seemed fine to me, so from Trans Iowa v9 onward this was how Trans Iowa Radio worked.

I still did my updates, but those were sprinkled in with the rider audio-posts, so the feature actually did become an event-long report in a way. Yes, people still complained it wasn't good enough, but I was done listening to that complaint by the point Trans Iowa Radio was facilitated on Riding Gravel.

When Trans Iowa ended in 2018, riders did not know the event had been terminated until 2:00pm the Sunday T.I.v14 ended when my post announcing the end was published. I know Ben told me afterward some people got on after the event and posted some nice words, but I haven't had the heart to listen to those messages. Maybe I should befor the site disappears forever....

Introducing The "Weekly Top Five"

As long as I've had this blog I've had stats I've been able to see on a daily basis which tell me a lot of things readers are doing here. The specifics have changed over the years, and honestly, it is not a s useful as the old analytics once were.

One thing I still find fascinating is the stat I get which shows me which posts during a seven day period are getting the most "hits" here. Sometimes it is a surprise as to what people look at on "Guitar Ted Productions".

I have to assume after all these years of blogging that some of my posts show up in searches and then , perhaps, those might get posted on some forum, on Facebook, or some other social media, and then the link leads folks here and they read an article I wrote ten, or even fifteen years ago. 

Of course, I do a Top Ten Posts of whatever year I am reviewing at the end of each year now.  I thought perhaps my dear readers might like to see what others are finding interesting on the site on a weekely basis. So, I decided to start a "Weekly Top Five" showing links to five of the week's most read articles on the blog.

Sometimes those will be current posts, but as I mentioned, sometimes not. I will also post commentary with perspective on some of the older posts, and try to give some context as to why I wrote what I wrote then, which may not reflect what I'd say in 2025. With all of the above said, here is this week's

Musings On Tires: Tuesday January 29th, 2013: This was pre-gravel yet. Tires specifically for gravel had just been introduced and there were maybe two bikes which were "gravel specific" at the time of this post. The post is mostly about air pressure habits, and a lot of this holds water in 2025, but I feel like most people are on to this tactic by now. In 2013? Not so much.

Double Duty: Saturday April 5th, 2025: Talking about going to Sea Otter and doing Trans Iowa within a week of each other. Not fun....

Reaching "The End": Sunday April 29th, 2018: The announcement for the termination of Trans Iowa came at the stroke of 2:00pm on the date the post went up, which also marked the end of the last Trans Iowa event. Being this month marks the 20th anniversary of Trans Iowa's beginnings might explain the reemergence of this post, or maybe it is just April nostalgia. I've no idea, really.

Two Things: Sunday April 6th, 2025: Whenever I write a "Two Things" post it gets tons of hits. I've no idea why this concept seems to spark the interest it does, but it does. This time in Two Things I wrote about the trend in gravel for MTB sized tires and on bikes being called "gravel" which are really just adventure bikes following the mold of the Salsa Cycles Fargo.

The Curious Case Of The Vaya: Wednesday July 22nd, 2015: Here we have an opinion piece on the Salsa Cycles Vaya, an enigmatic model in Salsa's range at one time. The bike was originally supposed to be a light touring bike for bagged, self-contained touring. However; it just so happened that the Vaya's geometry and ergonomics were nearly perfect for gravel. The Vaya also could handle fairly big tires (big for the day was 43mm), so it was quickly adopted by many in the gravel scene as a race bike or everyday gravel rig. The titanium model was certainly almost exclusively used as a gravel bike.

Salsa Cycles missed the boat in regard to what people were actually using Vayas for, and so it never really was tweaked into the metal framed gravel bike which, from the time of the Vaya's introduction in 2010, was just the sort of gravel bike many people wanted. Just imagine a lighter weight steel tube set and a carbon fork with Three-Pack mounts on a 2011 Vaya. Man! I don't see how this bike would not have been THE gravel bike of the early twenty-teens.

And that's a wrap on this weeks Top Five most read posts! I hope you all enjoyed this and thanks for reading!