Another Milestone

Jacob and Izabel at the start of the 2018-19 school year.

Today I'm not going to say much of anything about cycling, so pardon me. See, today is a special day to me. My oldest child is finishing her public school career today.

I'm a sentimental old coot, I guess, but this is probably a bigger deal to me than it is to her. In fact, she is a lot like me in many ways, so I bet she's shrugging it off as "just another day", as I did back 40 years ago.

But I tried to get her to see it my way. I told her to take a bunch of pictures of the inside of the school because she will almost assuredly never go back in many of the rooms and places she sees as being mundane and familiar now.

Anyway, graduation is next week, she and Mrs. Guitar Ted go off to Texas to see Grandma and the Aunt and Uncle right afterward. Then a party upon their return, and that will be the end of marking her accomplishment as a public school student. Then it's off to college next fall. (She will be staying here, it is a local college.)

So, a public "Congratulations" from me here on "Guitar Ted Productions" to my daughter, Izabel. You accomplished you goals and more. I love you!

I'll be back again tomorrow with a regular "Friday News And Views" post. Thanks!

Another Milestone

Jacob and Izabel at the start of the 2018-19 school year.

Today I'm not going to say much of anything about cycling, so pardon me. See, today is a special day to me. My oldest child is finishing her public school career today.

I'm a sentimental old coot, I guess, but this is probably a bigger deal to me than it is to her. In fact, she is a lot like me in many ways, so I bet she's shrugging it off as "just another day", as I did back 40 years ago.

But I tried to get her to see it my way. I told her to take a bunch of pictures of the inside of the school because she will almost assuredly never go back in many of the rooms and places she sees as being mundane and familiar now.

Anyway, graduation is next week, she and Mrs. Guitar Ted go off to Texas to see Grandma and the Aunt and Uncle right afterward. Then a party upon their return, and that will be the end of marking her accomplishment as a public school student. Then it's off to college next fall. (She will be staying here, it is a local college.)

So, a public "Congratulations" from me here on "Guitar Ted Productions" to my daughter, Izabel. You accomplished you goals and more. I love you!

I'll be back again tomorrow with a regular "Friday News And Views" post. Thanks!

C.O.G. 100 Announcements

Never mind that date, by the way.

Today I guess we are announcing that we are intending on doing the C.O.G. 100 again. Yep! So, I was bantering about with N.Y. Roll the other day and he asked me to go fishing for ideas from you, dear readers. N.Y. Roll wants me to float some ideas for the next C.O.G. 100, so, by definition, that means we are doing it again, and by definition that means this is an announcement. 

So, there is that at least.

Anyway, for now there are a few things that will not be negotiable concerning the next C.O.G. 100. They are the following:

• Single Speed bicycles only.
• Self-supported 
• Self-navigated by cue sheet. 
• Same time of year.
• New Course out of Grinnell

We are playing with a couple ideas that are negotiable, or could be eliminated from consideration altogether if there is enough outcry. I will list these after giving the reasons we are considering the idea. So, the following are ideas under consideration! They are not necessarily going to be implemented!

First, N.Y. Roll is a veteran of the Military. So, he is thinking about allowing any veteran of the armed services free entry into the event.

• Veterans may get to enter the C.O.G. 100 for no fee. 

It would be cool if the past Champions of the event would come back to defend their titles.

• Past Champions (Male & Female) from the previous year's C.O.G. 100 get free entry

We enjoyed having the pre-event sign-in and post event festivities at the Peace Tree Tap Room.

• Have pre and post event gatherings at Peace Tree Tap Room again. 

Having a distance of 100-ish miles is good for determining a State Single Speed Champion, but maybe others would attend if there were a different distance, shorter, and NOT FOR RACING.  You'd still have to be single speed, but this would just be for fun.

• Have a 30-50 mile course for single speeders that just want to have a fun ride. There would be a fee to enter and you would have to have a single speed bike. It is a single speed event, after all. 

Okay, there are some things to chew on. If we don't get any comments or suggestions, we're going to just do whatever we want and you'll either come and enjoy that or be left to your own devices the day we run this event.

NOTE: This event isn't for everyone, and that's okay. We aren't out to make everyone happy, and even those that choose to come may not end up being happy. That's the way things go in Life. So, if you are thinking of ideas that veer off the path we are setting, or are contradictory to the spirit of this event, then you may as well move on. This event is not for you. If you, on the other hand, kind of dig where this is headed, and have some good tweaks or other ideas you think would fit the mold we have cast, rave on. We want to hear from you.

C.O.G. 100 Announcements

Never mind that date, by the way.

Today I guess we are announcing that we are intending on doing the C.O.G. 100 again. Yep! So, I was bantering about with N.Y. Roll the other day and he asked me to go fishing for ideas from you, dear readers. N.Y. Roll wants me to float some ideas for the next C.O.G. 100, so, by definition, that means we are doing it again, and by definition that means this is an announcement. 

So, there is that at least.

Anyway, for now there are a few things that will not be negotiable concerning the next C.O.G. 100. They are the following:

• Single Speed bicycles only.
• Self-supported 
• Self-navigated by cue sheet. 
• Same time of year.
• New Course out of Grinnell

We are playing with a couple ideas that are negotiable, or could be eliminated from consideration altogether if there is enough outcry. I will list these after giving the reasons we are considering the idea. So, the following are ideas under consideration! They are not necessarily going to be implemented!

First, N.Y. Roll is a veteran of the Military. So, he is thinking about allowing any veteran of the armed services free entry into the event.

• Veterans may get to enter the C.O.G. 100 for no fee. 

It would be cool if the past Champions of the event would come back to defend their titles.

• Past Champions (Male & Female) from the previous year's C.O.G. 100 get free entry

We enjoyed having the pre-event sign-in and post event festivities at the Peace Tree Tap Room.

• Have pre and post event gatherings at Peace Tree Tap Room again. 

Having a distance of 100-ish miles is good for determining a State Single Speed Champion, but maybe others would attend if there were a different distance, shorter, and NOT FOR RACING.  You'd still have to be single speed, but this would just be for fun.

• Have a 30-50 mile course for single speeders that just want to have a fun ride. There would be a fee to enter and you would have to have a single speed bike. It is a single speed event, after all. 

Okay, there are some things to chew on. If we don't get any comments or suggestions, we're going to just do whatever we want and you'll either come and enjoy that or be left to your own devices the day we run this event.

NOTE: This event isn't for everyone, and that's okay. We aren't out to make everyone happy, and even those that choose to come may not end up being happy. That's the way things go in Life. So, if you are thinking of ideas that veer off the path we are setting, or are contradictory to the spirit of this event, then you may as well move on. This event is not for you. If you, on the other hand, kind of dig where this is headed, and have some good tweaks or other ideas you think would fit the mold we have cast, rave on. We want to hear from you.

Ti Muk II Ride Report

A little "Dirt Home From Work" action to test out the Ti Muk II ride.

Well, with yesterday's announcement out of the way, I figured y'all might want to know what I think about this new rig's ride. I didn't waste any time gettin' to it.

Saturday when we got back with the new-to-me Ti Muk, I couldn't ride as it was pouring rain and lightning outside. So, I waited until Sunday to get a bit better acquainted with this bike, its shifting, and its generator light. That went okay, but getting used to how the Rohloff shifter is indexed will take a little getting used to. It is kind of vague, especially going into a faster/higher gear. I shift one position and I cannot always feel the indexing. But going the other way- to a lower gear- is easier to feel. Plus, it won't shift at all if you have any kind of pressure on the pedals in that direction anyway.

The generator hub is turned on by a big button on the back of the light. I didn't realize this until after I looked up the information on the light on the excellent Peter White Cycles site. I accidentally got it on Sunday and then I noted that the light strobes and didn't have a solid beam. I figured I would have to look the model information up, and when I did, I found out that the light has a sensor and automatically switches to a solid beam when it is dark. Hmm..... technology. Okay, cool. I haven't double checked this yet, but I will get around to that soon. I did find out that the tail light has a standby function. I figured it would. Most high end generator lighting systems have this now. So, what it does, when you are moving, is that the hub charges up a capacitor which is part of the generator system. When you stop, the generator stops, but the capacitor, which stores voltage, starts to slowly drain and this voltage keeps the head light and tail light on when you are stopped for a period of time. And that "period of time" seems to be several minutes. Longer than any stop light sequence for sure.

I was stoked to learn that my purple Bike Bag Dude bags fit the new Ti Muk.

I went home Sunday and planned on riding the bike to work on Monday. I decided then to dub it the "Ti Muk II", since it is my second Titanium Mukluk and Salsa Cycles' second, and final, version of this model. So, this will hereafter be known as "Ti Muk II" on this blog. FYI- The history of the Ti Muk model is 2012-13 was the Lynskey made version with bead blasted graphics. The 2014 Mukluk was the first year of Taiwanese made titanium models and had a green painted front section. The last year, 2015, was this bike with the white painted front end. USA made Ti Muks have straight 1 1/8th steer tubes and the Taiwanese Muks have 44mm head tubes compatible with tapered steer tubes. The geometry was changed slightly on the later Taiwanese models also to accommodate front suspension. Thus, the front triangle is slightly different than the earlier Ti Muks.

Tour de Fungus- Check out the blaze orange mushrooms.

This slight difference had me worried that my newest Bike Bag Dude purple frame bag wouldn't fit, but it does, so that was a relief! I should note that Sam gave me a Surly branded Revelate made frame bag for this which fits it perfectly, but I will likely use the BBD bag most of the time. (Although it clashes with the crank set! Hmm.....) Sam also passed on to me a set of Jones H-Bar compatible Revelate pogies. Supposedly the very last set ever made by Revelate. They are nice, ginormous, and will be put to use in colder weather. Not anytime soon! (Thanks Sam!)

The rest of the BBD bags look and fit perfectly on here as well. It should make adventuring a bit easier. The Ti Muk II also has a rack mount, and I am contemplating getting a rack for this. The Alternator model this bike is supposed to have should work well. But I haven't decided whether or not to pull the trigger on that idea. I guess I have plenty of time to figure that out.

Monday I rode to work the regular route and then did the "Dirt Home From Work" route I have done a lot before. I was getting the hang of shifting by the time I was into the middle of my ride home. There is a bit of a trick to it, and sometime soon that will become second nature. The gearing is biased to the low side, as I would expect for a bike like this. That said, I can cruise along at what seems like 12-14mph all day long and that seems to be about 10th gear or so. The jumps between gears are bigger with a Rohloff, so I have tended to fall back on being more like a single speed guy, sticking with a gear a bit too long. The nice thing is that if I found myself stuck in a too-high gear, I simply could stop, shift it way down to a low gear, and start again, all while in the saddle. Or, if momentum could carry me, stop pedaling and swipe down to a much lower gear and then gas it back up, shifting to higher gears as necessary. It's definitely a different experience.

Interestingly, although the geometry is slightly different on the Ti Muk II, it still is really stable. Sam had a lot of spacers set up under the stem and the Carbon H-Bar is "up there", and I wondered if I might not like that. This would be pretty close to how Jeff Jones would probably recommend setting it up though, based upon what Jeff has told me personally. So, I figured I'd give it a solid try.

As it turns out, I think it is pretty close to, if not spot on. I'm at the very least going to run this set up longer term until I can figure it out in a more permanent way. The saddle, however, I think is going to be a different story.

I may like this saddle with a chamois, but I ride a bike like this so much in "civilian clothes", that it has to have a saddle that agrees with me in all situations. I feel like this saddle is a tiny bit too narrow though. Maybe. We will see after some more riding, but Monday's ride was pointing to the "too narrow" verdict by the time I got home. I may only have to tilt it back a bit too. This is set up dead flat and I never run my WTB saddles that way. Always a bit nose up for me. So, that will be the next thing to try. Oddly enough, the saddle height is dead on. Apparently Sam and I have very similar saddle height requirements. (As do Ben Witt and I. Weird!)

I did also notice something I was a bit surprised by. Both on Sunday's and Monday's rides it was quite noticeable that this bike has a pretty springy rear end, but only when seated. It isn't as stiff feeling when pedaling in the saddle as the old Ti Muk was, and that was far better than an aluminum Mukluk. That with a larger diameter seat post than a US made Ti Muk like my older one. So, that is pretty remarkable. The combination of the smooth riding rear and the Carbon H-Bar and Advocate fork make for a pretty nice riding bike, really.

More on this bike in the future. I have to get some details on the wiring harness tucked away and tidied up, then this will be fully operational.

Ti Muk II Ride Report

A little "Dirt Home From Work" action to test out the Ti Muk II ride.

Well, with yesterday's announcement out of the way, I figured y'all might want to know what I think about this new rig's ride. I didn't waste any time gettin' to it.

Saturday when we got back with the new-to-me Ti Muk, I couldn't ride as it was pouring rain and lightning outside. So, I waited until Sunday to get a bit better acquainted with this bike, its shifting, and its generator light. That went okay, but getting used to how the Rohloff shifter is indexed will take a little getting used to. It is kind of vague, especially going into a faster/higher gear. I shift one position and I cannot always feel the indexing. But going the other way- to a lower gear- is easier to feel. Plus, it won't shift at all if you have any kind of pressure on the pedals in that direction anyway.

The generator hub is turned on by a big button on the back of the light. I didn't realize this until after I looked up the information on the light on the excellent Peter White Cycles site. I accidentally got it on Sunday and then I noted that the light strobes and didn't have a solid beam. I figured I would have to look the model information up, and when I did, I found out that the light has a sensor and automatically switches to a solid beam when it is dark. Hmm..... technology. Okay, cool. I haven't double checked this yet, but I will get around to that soon. I did find out that the tail light has a standby function. I figured it would. Most high end generator lighting systems have this now. So, what it does, when you are moving, is that the hub charges up a capacitor which is part of the generator system. When you stop, the generator stops, but the capacitor, which stores voltage, starts to slowly drain and this voltage keeps the head light and tail light on when you are stopped for a period of time. And that "period of time" seems to be several minutes. Longer than any stop light sequence for sure.

I was stoked to learn that my purple Bike Bag Dude bags fit the new Ti Muk.

I went home Sunday and planned on riding the bike to work on Monday. I decided then to dub it the "Ti Muk II", since it is my second Titanium Mukluk and Salsa Cycles' second, and final, version of this model. So, this will hereafter be known as "Ti Muk II" on this blog. FYI- The history of the Ti Muk model is 2012-13 was the Lynskey made version with bead blasted graphics. The 2014 Mukluk was the first year of Taiwanese made titanium models and had a green painted front section. The last year, 2015, was this bike with the white painted front end. USA made Ti Muks have straight 1 1/8th steer tubes and the Taiwanese Muks have 44mm head tubes compatible with tapered steer tubes. The geometry was changed slightly on the later Taiwanese models also to accommodate front suspension. Thus, the front triangle is slightly different than the earlier Ti Muks.

Tour de Fungus- Check out the blaze orange mushrooms.

This slight difference had me worried that my newest Bike Bag Dude purple frame bag wouldn't fit, but it does, so that was a relief! I should note that Sam gave me a Surly branded Revelate made frame bag for this which fits it perfectly, but I will likely use the BBD bag most of the time. (Although it clashes with the crank set! Hmm.....) Sam also passed on to me a set of Jones H-Bar compatible Revelate pogies. Supposedly the very last set ever made by Revelate. They are nice, ginormous, and will be put to use in colder weather. Not anytime soon! (Thanks Sam!)

The rest of the BBD bags look and fit perfectly on here as well. It should make adventuring a bit easier. The Ti Muk II also has a rack mount, and I am contemplating getting a rack for this. The Alternator model this bike is supposed to have should work well. But I haven't decided whether or not to pull the trigger on that idea. I guess I have plenty of time to figure that out.

Monday I rode to work the regular route and then did the "Dirt Home From Work" route I have done a lot before. I was getting the hang of shifting by the time I was into the middle of my ride home. There is a bit of a trick to it, and sometime soon that will become second nature. The gearing is biased to the low side, as I would expect for a bike like this. That said, I can cruise along at what seems like 12-14mph all day long and that seems to be about 10th gear or so. The jumps between gears are bigger with a Rohloff, so I have tended to fall back on being more like a single speed guy, sticking with a gear a bit too long. The nice thing is that if I found myself stuck in a too-high gear, I simply could stop, shift it way down to a low gear, and start again, all while in the saddle. Or, if momentum could carry me, stop pedaling and swipe down to a much lower gear and then gas it back up, shifting to higher gears as necessary. It's definitely a different experience.

Interestingly, although the geometry is slightly different on the Ti Muk II, it still is really stable. Sam had a lot of spacers set up under the stem and the Carbon H-Bar is "up there", and I wondered if I might not like that. This would be pretty close to how Jeff Jones would probably recommend setting it up though, based upon what Jeff has told me personally. So, I figured I'd give it a solid try.

As it turns out, I think it is pretty close to, if not spot on. I'm at the very least going to run this set up longer term until I can figure it out in a more permanent way. The saddle, however, I think is going to be a different story.

I may like this saddle with a chamois, but I ride a bike like this so much in "civilian clothes", that it has to have a saddle that agrees with me in all situations. I feel like this saddle is a tiny bit too narrow though. Maybe. We will see after some more riding, but Monday's ride was pointing to the "too narrow" verdict by the time I got home. I may only have to tilt it back a bit too. This is set up dead flat and I never run my WTB saddles that way. Always a bit nose up for me. So, that will be the next thing to try. Oddly enough, the saddle height is dead on. Apparently Sam and I have very similar saddle height requirements. (As do Ben Witt and I. Weird!)

I did also notice something I was a bit surprised by. Both on Sunday's and Monday's rides it was quite noticeable that this bike has a pretty springy rear end, but only when seated. It isn't as stiff feeling when pedaling in the saddle as the old Ti Muk was, and that was far better than an aluminum Mukluk. That with a larger diameter seat post than a US made Ti Muk like my older one. So, that is pretty remarkable. The combination of the smooth riding rear and the Carbon H-Bar and Advocate fork make for a pretty nice riding bike, really.

More on this bike in the future. I have to get some details on the wiring harness tucked away and tidied up, then this will be fully operational.

A Big, Fat, Titanium Thank You

GT (L) and Sam Auen with the Ti Mukluk

Okay..... I'm not sure where to start with this, so I'll just go to the beginning of this story and hopefully it will all make sense. I'm still processing through what happened and I may never fully get my head around this, but here goes......

Several years ago, when I had my original Ti Muk, Ben Witt and I were gabbing about how "the perfect fat bike set up" would be a titanium frame and a Rohloff based drive train. Well, I already had my bike and a Rohloff is, while awesome, very expensive. That didn't stop Ben from trying though. He got a 2015 Titanium Mukluk frame and had built a rear wheel using a Whiskey carbon rim with a then new 170mm rear spaced Rohloff 14 speed internal geared hub. I remember seeing this in his basement when I stayed with him during the 2016 Fargo Reunion Ride.

Okay, fast forwrad a bit to when Sam Auen bought the partial rolling chassis from Ben and obtained another Whiskey carbon rim, (via from myself - long story), and built the bike up into rideable shape. Sam then added the bike to his fleet and did a few rides here and there on it. Then came the time when my good friend Sam realized he needed to "thin the herd". The Ti Muk was on the short list of candidates for him to shed off the fleet to someone who would use it more than he was.

Sam then posted the idea of selling the bike on social media where I jumped in and commented something to the effect that this was the "perfect fat bike set up" and that someone should own this dream bike. My intentions were to help bring some notice to Sam's trying to sell the bike because I wanted to help a friend. Then I forgot about it because it was a temptation I could ill afford anyway, even though I would have purchased it on the spot had I had the money. I figured some other lucky person would get it, and that would be that.

14 internal hub gears of doom.

Then this is where MG got involved. He texted me that very day asking about some things. One of the things mentioned was what I thought about Sam selling that bike. Did I really think that was a "dream build" for a fat bike? I responded to MG that I felt it was "the perfect fat bike set up" for me. That was that. We moved on to other things, and I went about my life, unsuspecting. MG, on the other hand, had a plan.

He contacted a list of people and got them, somehow or another, to contribute to an effort to make the bike mine. Their motivation for doing so was not, and is not, totally understood by me. MG wrote me and explained it this way

" It's funny how your influence stretches much farther than you might think. All of the people who donated have been touched by you and/or your work in one way or another....."

I still find this hard to believe.......

Anyway, it happened. I have the bike and a big list of people I need to thank, so this post is a public thank you to those folks. MG has said that these folks are okay with my publishing their names on the blog, (If you do have issue with that, let me know and I'll strike your name from the list, but I felt you all deserved recognition for this uncommon gesture). So this, in no particular order, are the folks who made it possible for me to get this awesome Ti Mukluk Saturday.

• Bobby & Crystal Wintle
• The Gibson family – Christy, Russ and Sofia
• Joe Billsbach
• Jason Boucher
• Bruce Currin
• Steve Fuller
• Corey Godfrey
• Ben Shockey
• John Wilmeth 
• Venny Alub
• Rob Evans
• Ed and Janelle Gerlach
• Gary Little
• Kristi and Tim Mohn
• Errin Vasquez
• Walter Zitz
• Timothy Stephen
• Todd Masters
• Jim Phillips
• Joe Reed
• Joe Pahr
• Warren Weibe
• Ben Welnak
• Matt Gersib
• Sam Auen

And here it is. Thanks doesn't say enough, but THANK YOU!

 So, this past weekend my family and I visited my good brother Sam, collected the bike, and brought it home finally. This arrangement by my other good brother, MG is mind blowing. Wow...... Anyway, still wrapping my brain around what happened.

So, I cannot express my feelings. I just don't have the words to show my gratitude here. So, I'll talk about the bike, since it is unusual and I''m sure some of you are curious.

The fork is from an Advocate Watchman fat bike. It was the only 150mm spaced fork Sam could get his hands on at the time he built the bike up. He wanted that spacing for the SON dynamo hub he had someone lace the Whiskey carbon rim to.The handle bar is a Jones Carbon H-Bar with the ESI made Jones grips and the requisite Rohloff shifter. The seat post is another Salsa Regulator, which I love. The saddle is a Salsa branded WTB Silverado, (I think it is a Silverado), and that may go if it is too narrow. (Looks like it) The rims are the aforementioned Whiskey carbon ones in a 70mm width. The tires are the 45NRTH Dunder/Flowbeist models. I'll probably just run those till they are done. Brakes are simple Avid BB-5's with Avid levers.

Can-o-gears

The crank is a Race Face Turbine with a Race Face ring. Obviously, pretty basic outboard drive train stuff because the business end is all inside the 14 speed Rohloff hub.

The Rohloff is the 170mm OD model which came out a few years ago. Basically the internal gear hub is pretty bomb proof. As long as I keep changing the oil when it needs it and keep up on the maintenance of the external cog/chain/chain ring, the drive train shouldn't ever let me down either. That was why I was dreaming one day of owning a Rohloff. That and there are no "dangly bits"to get whacked off during explorations and in nasty conditions. 

I have ridden the bike for a bit. I haven't owned a Rohloff equipped bike before, but I have worked on a lot of internal geared hub bikes and they all have one thing in common- They do not like being shifted under power. Unlike a derailleur drive train, you cannot just shift while mashing the pedals. There is a bit of a special "hiccup" you have to learn to shift a IGH. (Internally Geared Hub) This is especially true with a down shift to get up a hill. I will need a lot of practice before I get this down smoothly with the Rohloff.

I also need to tidy up the wiring on the awesome Busch and Mueller IQ-X lighting system. It works fine, but there is a lot of extra wire and it needs to be routed a bit more permanently. This is also my first dynamo hub experience and so far, I totally see the appeal. I have worked on dynamo hubs before and I have a basic understanding of them, but owning/living with one is going to be a new learning experience.

Basically the entire set up will require some familiarization on my part. Just getting wheels on and off will be a bit more involved than your typical bike due to the complexities with wires, cables, and whatnot. But that said, this bike........wow! Sam insisted several times when I got it from him Saturday that I have "adventures" on it, and get some good use out of it. That is the plan for sure. So stay tuned for a lot of that to happen in the coming weeks and months.

Once again...... Thank You! I am overwhelmed by this act of kindness.

A Big, Fat, Titanium Thank You

GT (L) and Sam Auen with the Ti Mukluk

Okay..... I'm not sure where to start with this, so I'll just go to the beginning of this story and hopefully it will all make sense. I'm still processing through what happened and I may never fully get my head around this, but here goes......

Several years ago, when I had my original Ti Muk, Ben Witt and I were gabbing about how "the perfect fat bike set up" would be a titanium frame and a Rohloff based drive train. Well, I already had my bike and a Rohloff is, while awesome, very expensive. That didn't stop Ben from trying though. He got a 2015 Titanium Mukluk frame and had built a rear wheel using a Whiskey carbon rim with a then new 170mm rear spaced Rohloff 14 speed internal geared hub. I remember seeing this in his basement when I stayed with him during the 2016 Fargo Reunion Ride.

Okay, fast forwrad a bit to when Sam Auen bought the partial rolling chassis from Ben and obtained another Whiskey carbon rim, (via from myself - long story), and built the bike up into rideable shape. Sam then added the bike to his fleet and did a few rides here and there on it. Then came the time when my good friend Sam realized he needed to "thin the herd". The Ti Muk was on the short list of candidates for him to shed off the fleet to someone who would use it more than he was.

Sam then posted the idea of selling the bike on social media where I jumped in and commented something to the effect that this was the "perfect fat bike set up" and that someone should own this dream bike. My intentions were to help bring some notice to Sam's trying to sell the bike because I wanted to help a friend. Then I forgot about it because it was a temptation I could ill afford anyway, even though I would have purchased it on the spot had I had the money. I figured some other lucky person would get it, and that would be that.

14 internal hub gears of doom.

Then this is where MG got involved. He texted me that very day asking about some things. One of the things mentioned was what I thought about Sam selling that bike. Did I really think that was a "dream build" for a fat bike? I responded to MG that I felt it was "the perfect fat bike set up" for me. That was that. We moved on to other things, and I went about my life, unsuspecting. MG, on the other hand, had a plan.

He contacted a list of people and got them, somehow or another, to contribute to an effort to make the bike mine. Their motivation for doing so was not, and is not, totally understood by me. MG wrote me and explained it this way

" It's funny how your influence stretches much farther than you might think. All of the people who donated have been touched by you and/or your work in one way or another....."

I still find this hard to believe.......

Anyway, it happened. I have the bike and a big list of people I need to thank, so this post is a public thank you to those folks. MG has said that these folks are okay with my publishing their names on the blog, (If you do have issue with that, let me know and I'll strike your name from the list, but I felt you all deserved recognition for this uncommon gesture). So this, in no particular order, are the folks who made it possible for me to get this awesome Ti Mukluk Saturday.

• Bobby & Crystal Wintle
• The Gibson family – Christy, Russ and Sofia
• Joe Billsbach
• Jason Boucher
• Bruce Currin
• Steve Fuller
• Corey Godfrey
• Ben Shockey
• John Wilmeth 
• Venny Alub
• Rob Evans
• Ed and Janelle Gerlach
• Gary Little
• Kristi and Tim Mohn
• Errin Vasquez
• Walter Zitz
• Timothy Stephen
• Todd Masters
• Jim Phillips
• Joe Reed
• Joe Pahr
• Warren Weibe
• Ben Welnak
• Matt Gersib
• Sam Auen

And here it is. Thanks doesn't say enough, but THANK YOU!

 So, this past weekend my family and I visited my good brother Sam, collected the bike, and brought it home finally. This arrangement by my other good brother, MG is mind blowing. Wow...... Anyway, still wrapping my brain around what happened.

So, I cannot express my feelings. I just don't have the words to show my gratitude here. So, I'll talk about the bike, since it is unusual and I''m sure some of you are curious.

The fork is from an Advocate Watchman fat bike. It was the only 150mm spaced fork Sam could get his hands on at the time he built the bike up. He wanted that spacing for the SON dynamo hub he had someone lace the Whiskey carbon rim to.The handle bar is a Jones Carbon H-Bar with the ESI made Jones grips and the requisite Rohloff shifter. The seat post is another Salsa Regulator, which I love. The saddle is a Salsa branded WTB Silverado, (I think it is a Silverado), and that may go if it is too narrow. (Looks like it) The rims are the aforementioned Whiskey carbon ones in a 70mm width. The tires are the 45NRTH Dunder/Flowbeist models. I'll probably just run those till they are done. Brakes are simple Avid BB-5's with Avid levers.

Can-o-gears

The crank is a Race Face Turbine with a Race Face ring. Obviously, pretty basic outboard drive train stuff because the business end is all inside the 14 speed Rohloff hub.

The Rohloff is the 170mm OD model which came out a few years ago. Basically the internal gear hub is pretty bomb proof. As long as I keep changing the oil when it needs it and keep up on the maintenance of the external cog/chain/chain ring, the drive train shouldn't ever let me down either. That was why I was dreaming one day of owning a Rohloff. That and there are no "dangly bits"to get whacked off during explorations and in nasty conditions. 

I have ridden the bike for a bit. I haven't owned a Rohloff equipped bike before, but I have worked on a lot of internal geared hub bikes and they all have one thing in common- They do not like being shifted under power. Unlike a derailleur drive train, you cannot just shift while mashing the pedals. There is a bit of a special "hiccup" you have to learn to shift a IGH. (Internally Geared Hub) This is especially true with a down shift to get up a hill. I will need a lot of practice before I get this down smoothly with the Rohloff.

I also need to tidy up the wiring on the awesome Busch and Mueller IQ-X lighting system. It works fine, but there is a lot of extra wire and it needs to be routed a bit more permanently. This is also my first dynamo hub experience and so far, I totally see the appeal. I have worked on dynamo hubs before and I have a basic understanding of them, but owning/living with one is going to be a new learning experience.

Basically the entire set up will require some familiarization on my part. Just getting wheels on and off will be a bit more involved than your typical bike due to the complexities with wires, cables, and whatnot. But that said, this bike........wow! Sam insisted several times when I got it from him Saturday that I have "adventures" on it, and get some good use out of it. That is the plan for sure. So stay tuned for a lot of that to happen in the coming weeks and months.

Once again...... Thank You! I am overwhelmed by this act of kindness.

The Story Of Guitar Ted: The Road Mechanic

A Guitar Ted Productions series.

 Welcome to the third series on G-Ted Productions! This series jumps off from the time where the "Race Against Death Tour" ended and will take you up to the beginnings of Trans Iowa in late 2004. This is an eight year period where my life was transformed. You could say it was metamorphosed from the old to something quite new.

This won't have a lot of bicycle stuff in it at times, but it is all essential to the story of "Guitar Ted". This isn't about where the name came from. That's all here.  No, this is about the person. 

As with previous historical series on the blog, images will be a rarity. Cell phones, social media, and digital images were not available to take advantage of in those last days of analog living.  

In this episode of my story we get to see how I ended up getting back into being a bicycle mechanic and the reasons why.......

A typical LLV used by the USPS which I used to work on.

The Road Mechanic: Things were going along pretty well for me. I was married, I had a new daughter in my life, and my job had benefits and paid well. By the time I had gotten married I had become an integral part of Schuerman’s Auto Repair. I knew enough things that I could be unsupervised most every day, and my specialty, I guess, was tires, brakes, and oil changes. Oh, and alternators, radiators, and those USPS LLV’s. Uggh! LLV’s are a nightmare to work on, by the way. Every time I see one, I shudder with the memories.

I guess it would have been around 1999, 2000, I cannot remember now, but a former local cyclist named John suddenly appeared in the shop. He had a pained look on his face, and he told me that my old boss at Advantage Cyclery had died under some rather mysterious circumstances. I had heard a rumor earlier, and it was sad. I recall John saying it was “a waste”. I don’t want to share any details, but I was very sad about the whole deal. Tom had taught me everything I knew about bicycle mechanics. He taught me how to build a wheel. He showed me how to use the cutting tools, how to adjust a cantilever brake, and more. He walked me through Barnett’s Manual, and made me master all the lessons. It was a waste to have him gone as a resource, but hopefully I can pass some of that along……

So, I survived the 2000 expansion of Schuerman’s to a four-bay shop. I survived all the deep Winter weather and blazing hot days of Summer working on cars. 9-11 came and it was a dreadful day I’ll never forget. I was doing an oil change when our receptionist broke the news…. Anyway, it seemed like I would end up working there forever. Then I heard a rumor that Europa Cycles was looking for a mechanic to go on the road to help them with RAGBRAI. Vance, the old head mechanic there, advised the owner to ask me to come onboard for that week. I arranged a vacation and cleared it with Mrs. Guitar Ted. I was going on RAGBRAI as a mechanic! It sounded exciting.

I needed to go through my tools and get them ready, but I had nothing to put them in proper, so I went out and bought a roll-away tool chest branded by Craftsman from the local Sears store. I jammed a weeks’ worth of shorts and t-shirts in a storage tub, a toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, and out the door I went on the last week of July 2002 to go do something I hadn’t done in five years- work on bicycles.

It was awkward as I was an "outsider". No one knew who I was because by this time I had been out of the bike business for so long. Since mechanics come and go in a typical bike shop setting, the guys at the shop had never heard of me, and didn't know if I was a good or a bad mechanic. I was certainly older than any of them. Most of these folks were still in college. Anyway, we got out to Western Iowa for the start, and I met Jeff Kerkove for the first time. There was another mechanic named Chris who also was onboard with the "road crew". Those two did on the route repairs, I was the "overnight stop" mechanic. This allowed me to bring a bike and I rode most of the 2002 route.

The week was a success for me and I impressed the owner of Europa enough so that I was invited to come back and do the same routine the next year. Afterward, the stress of working so much at the car repair shop, the long hours, and all the energy it took, gave me pause. I didn't want to be a Dad that worked all the time and had no energy for his children. Since the owner of Europa had expressed some interest in hiring me on full time, and after discussing it with Mrs. Guitar Ted, I went in late in August of 2002 and spoke with the owner. He and I made a handshake agreement that I would work no nights, no weekends, and that I had autonomy to take care of my children first. It was a BIG hit financially, but it was the right investment to make into my new family.

On Labor Day weekend, I broke the news to "Sherm", who was devastated and told me I would be a hard man to replace as he shook my hand. Two weeks later I was in civilian clothes and walking in to Europa Cycle & Ski. I was back in the bicycle game once again.

Between 2002 and RABGRAI 2003, Mrs. Guitar Ted and I found out we were going to have a baby boy in August. This precipitated my having to capitulate to the times and get a cell phone. That way if something happened while I was on the road for RAGBRAI she could get a hold of me. On Thursday, July 24th, 2003, while I was asleep in a motorhome in Oskaloosa, Iowa, I got a phone call that "it was time". That was the last time I ever was on RAGBRAI as a mechanic. My son was born later that evening. Now I was really glad I made the switch to being a bicycle mechanic again, despite the fact I wasn't making much money at all.

Next: Back To Shop Rat Status