Beyond the Ride

   Since my last post I have been off on vacation.  The Guitar Ted HoF ride occurred, and was a success.  I define success as one other person showing up.  I am not in to huge numbers and huge social media following.  I am not one to make something bigger than it is, of the best of the best.  I just  want simplicity, put a date, time, location out and see what occurs.  Mark did a great recap of the ride, and I am sure if you are reading this blog.  You probably read Mark's and you read his re-cap.       Since then, Mark and I have launched another podcast, I believe episode #96, by end of the month I hope we have #99 recorded, but that is if we have viable stuff to chat about.  That should cover Riding Gravel Radio Ranch podcast .  So far, I need to be more crisp on my responses and thoughts.  You are getting my hot takes on what Guitar Ted (Mark) brings up.  I do not see his sheets or notes p...

Cliff Notes: - June 19th:  - River Side Park, Vinton, Iowa  - Time 9am start  - Mile 24 C-Stop Center Point - Expect a group ride time of 6.5hrs total. - Post Ride Social: Tootsie Ice cream/Hamburger stand on the NW side of Vinton. - Group Size Unknown: At Least 3 of us.  But I have heard rumblings, so car pool if possible.  I am speculating about 30 -50 people. - No facebook post or event to follow about this.  If there is, it is someone else celebrating Mark and that is cool too and I recommend doing both rides. Today's Post: After talking with Mark (Guitar Ted) it is apparent to me I am re-configuring the route to be more like the original route.  With that said I took some liberties to keep it a large group capable route.  Two areas of awareness is the roll out out of Vinton north, and the roll into Center Point to a Caseys at Mile 24.  Mile 24 will be the last C-stop on the route, so top off.  Plan on a 45 minute pause for people to...

  Cliff Notes: - June 19th:  - River Side Park, Vinton, Iowa  - Time 9am start  - Mile 42 C-Stop Center Point - Expect a group ride time of 6.5hrs total. - Route to be publish via Strava in June. - Post Ride Social: Tootsie Ice cream/Hamburger stand on the NW side of Vinton.     I keep re-positing the same information because someone will ask for it, it also keeps it simple and reinforces the major points.  As I previously said in the first post, this day was picked based upon Mark's availability.  Yes it is on a Sunday and Yes it is fathers day.         A bit more about the ride, it is a social ride with a spirited pace.  In short it will not be a race of any sort.  If you are into that, then this ride is not for you.  This ride is also not a party pace ride, nor is it a drop rode. If you had to ask me for a pace for this ride to target for I would say 12.3456789MPH.  I have a few stops planned a long ...

Guitar Ted, I think 2021 July Saturday ride.         So if you are reading from outside of the glorious Cedar Valley you may not understand how close I live to Guitar Ted.  I am less than a 5 minute bike ride away from his front porch.  So it is fairly easy for me to coordinate a ride from time to time with him.  Oddly enough I think I am the only person outside of Tony in the area that askes Mark to ride.  I think a lot of people have a built up image of the "Gravel God" and his opinions on their rides.  In reality, I think he is just happy to share some gravel ribbon with others.  Often I have found he is more interested in the same things I am.  I think we both enjoy, bridges, old churches, and cemeteries.  And yes, we both have a thing for barns.  I wont dive in to barns, but occasionally you see some Iowa State developed round barns that are gorgeous, and occasionally I see a Western New York style barn that gets...

       So here are the routes.  I did move the routes around the B-roads to avoid them and even trimmed off a few miles to make the 63 mile route less gnarly.     For those of you who have reached out to confirm you are coming, thank you.  I hope you characters have Strava, because here is the 63 mile route , and here is the 31 mile route . Please note there is no town stop on the 31 mile route.  If you need a C-Store it is is Traer off route on HWY 63.  You have two choices, but I would suggest the BP Gas Station near Down town intersection.       Today's Post was about the routes, nothing more.  If you are following along, you know the time an start location.  I may even ride the 31 mile route as things are shaping up. Cheers & Godspeed Dave

G  ood Day All,     I have created the routes.  I want to ride them first prior to posting them.  I need to clarify this is not a race, it is in no way a race, it is a guy who is providing a time window and two course suggestions.  This 100% uninsured as I am not even gonna ride this thing the day of but be checking in on people to SAG them if needed.  If you want to ride with others on a single speed gravel machine then here is a viable option.  You are Responsible for you.  You could show up and unload your bike, decide not too ride and go home.  That is still a win in my book.  You at least got out of the house.   Post #1 as follows.    As  of now plan on a March 26th, 9am start time in Reinbeck, Iowa.  I will have to come up with a new route and will post it to the blog in a separate post.  I am going to remove a lot of B-roads, so this route will be more bland than tubular.   Expecta...

          As  of now plan on a March 26th, 9am start time in Reinbeck, Iowa.  I will have to come up with a new route and will post it to the blog in a separate post.  I am going to remove a lot of B-roads, so this route will be more bland than tubular.   Expectations: Single Speed Only bikes Do not care how you do it since it is a ride, but if you want to show up with gears, go for it. Bring a beer for yourself and one to share If you rode gears, you bring a 6er of the good stuff. Find some random person you do not know and share a beer The ride is on your own and is not a race I will post a 30ish and 65ish mile routes. You are responsible for you since this is a group ride atmosphere. Be prepared for inclement weather. Mud Rain Wind Ice is possible Large Ag equipment Naughty Dogs Rad Cats And possible cow sightings No Tigers No bears unless TJ Fort shows up and goes shirtless No groomed gravel (aka it may be big chunk)   ...

     I was reading Guitar Teds Blog about Risk Assessments.  It got me thinking about how people ride their bikes.  I am sure many ways exist on how to ride your bike improperly.  One that stands out in my mind is riding against traffic.  Outside of that, I can not think of many universally agreed upon ways to ride your bike wrong.       What got my noodle going is the helmet issue we still have.  Full disclosure I have done fat bike races without a helmet.  I am a fan of make your own decisions and be willing to pay the consequences when payment comes due.  That is life, look and understand what you are taking on.  Understand the consequences if things get weird.  And when things get weird, have a plan to address the weirdness.     I lived in Alaska for 3 years while in the Army.  I spent my summers in the outback hiking and camping.  Often I would carry a .45 handgun in the o...

     It seems everyone has an opinion about everything.  And everyone knows or wants to be associated with the best.  It is just not bikes, it is every aspect in our lives.  In the grand scheme that speaks volumes about ourselves as a culture and a world.  An example is food.  We have to have the best street taco and if you are not having the best street taco, you are wrong.  We are evolving into a culture of snobs, or maybe we are already there.  And as I write this, maybe I am reliving my past.  Glory days no, but at least the past.     Full disclosure, I use to drink the Salsa Cycles Kool-Aid early on.  It was not because they were the best, it was because I thought they had well thought out bikes that no one else had.  The niche they created in 2013 - 2016 was ideal for how I was riding.  Today, they are just another bike company, and their designs and my wants/needs have diverged....

    It has been a quite winter and instead of telling my opinions, how about we try talking about things I am doing.  I bought a geared All City Nature Ace (Boy).  For those of you who have history with All City line up, it is the progressively renamed Macho Man platform.  My intent was was to take a Macho Man frame and make it a Nature Boy.  This is the gist of the build concept.  I wanted the rear-derailleur hanger option for future use.     I handed over the ownership of my 54cm Santa Cruz to my girl friend.  Then, I got the green light to acquire another gravel bike for myself.  I debated on frames an availability.  Then one day I placed a All-City Nature Ace SS frameset on order.  The Local Bike Shop called me up in December and updated me on delivery and even said to cut my losses now as delivery pushed back to a unknown delivery date.   With the unknown delivery I cut my losses and began searching for a frame....

 P ost 36:     Iowa cycling will be getting a new  race.  Reading the early information teases, I can tell you three things.  The race is named Core 4 , it will be on the 27th of August, 2022, and it will be inspired by the  Rule of Three race.         I am excited by being able to go to a race that has a distance of 100miles, and riding tarmac, gravel and single track from Sugar Bottom to Coralville.  I am not sure where the start and finish line, but I know the general area it will be in.       For now race fans, I would say plan on a 40mm or wider tire.  I am guessing it will be a 100 mile-ish course with some of the charting I have seen.  For now as information comes out, I would encourage following they Instagram account Core4.bike or follow the Hashtags #core4gravel and #bikeiowacity.  Cheers and Godspeed Dave

Post #34:  I registered for CIRREM. Usually I do not bother with this race due to the registration timing and my Thanksgiving plans. This year was a bit different. CIRREM is one of the first gravel races I have ever done, and I think this year is either year 14 or 15. It has a history of gnarly weather, it can be a blizzard to 70 degrees and sunny. One year the roads were iced over and slick, and only handful of people finished. After my NY trip home, I found out registration was still open. So, I signed up. I am in the open class with 110 other fellows. Not a big deal, I will just be happy to finish in under 4.5hrs. I am way out of shape, and I need to drop a few pounds. Also, I have other training goals in the works. This race is just and excuse to visit Des Moines and see some old friends more than anything.       CIRREM course has remained mostly unchanged over the years. It has had some small modifications over time. But I will say this about CIRREM. CIRREM...

Post 29: I sit on the local bike collective board. And last week I took on the chair position for the board of "The Bridges Ride". It will be a family focus bike path ride that has a 60ish, 40ish and 30ish mile options. Being on the re-birth of the ride post CoVid social distancing is interesting. Some people still have reservations about meeting in person. And that is okay. I know where my level of risk is and I am able to respect those peoples wishes and meet virtually to accomindate their concerns and still have them particpate in a meaningful matter. Back to the ride, right now the plan is the Bike Collective leads the ride and we will take on other board memebers for the ride as it gains momentum and speed. I know we picked up two more board memebers this week from Cedar Valley Trail Partnership. They will provide the insurance and other things for a sucessful ride. There is talk of an actual band playing at the final formal stop (Not the finish) of the r...

 Post #26: Tammy and I are going for a late (for us) morning ride of gravel from Waverly to Charles City.  The route is mostly gravel and with a Charles City  beer  stop.       This leads to me talk about my route creations.  Well it is no secret that I am on the board of directors for the Sterile Iowan .  I watched Dangerous Dan create his route based on a river valley.  Since then I have done the same for a few of my rides.  It is pretty genius concept to follow the river.  A few reasons as to why it is genius.  The first reason is that almost guarantees you passing through a town that has a C-Store.  Secondly, it will give you hills to ride as you go up and down the river valley walls.  Lastly, it creates a course with a lot of turns and twists, and that in of it self breaks up the grid square riding Iowa gravel is known for.           So Saturday we ride, and we ride back.  Simp...

  Post #25: At 5:25am I picked up Guitar Ted.  He was on his porch waiting for the Subie to pull up.  Tammy was already driving down to Vinton.  We loaded Guitar Ted's bike, and we left for Vinton, about a 30 minute drive south of Waterloo on HWY 218.       We arrived in Vinton and parked, we assembled the group, and rolled out about 6:20am.  As we headed north from Vinton, the river and wet lands were emitting a cold fog in the air.  As the sun rose in the morning sky, it dissipated.  We motored out on 5 miles of pavement till we finely hit the gravel.       We went north just above Urbana then worked our way to Center Point.  We passed Cox Cemetery and followed the river on top of a ridge till we descended and we transitioned Missouri  crossing.       I did get a lot of my Veloveiwer squares poked on this ride.  I did a few intentional pokes, while GT and Tammy waited for...

 Post #24:  I am stepping into another area of the bloggersphere.  I recently had a product issue with my Wahoo Roam and I purchased a Kuat Sherpa bike rack.       I bought a Wahoo Roam in 2020 I believe on April 1st or 2nd.  It has been well over a year since the purchase when I had an issue.  I went out for a road ride on a hot sunny Sunday.  Mid ride I saw a blind spot develop about the size of two pencil erasers in the bottom right.  It was so low in the bottom right I was not annoyed by it at first.  Two rides later, I was extremely annoyed by it.  I sent an email to Wahoo support.  They answered my complaint ticket, verified date of purchase, verified my mailing address, and I sent pictures of the issue.     Wahoo Support sent my a shipping label a day later.  I boxed up the old unit and shipped it back.  The following morning I was sent a notification of a replacement unit shi...

 Post #23:   Looking for feedback.  I stopped doing Monday No drop Gravel with the introduction of COVID.  With that time I went on to do yoga on Monday's.  Life is changing again, and now I need an easy Monday ride vs Hot Yoga.        With that back ground information, i am revisiting the idea of bringing back gravel rides leaving from Cedar Falls on Monday nights at 6pm.  It will be the same format as in the past, ride to the groups ability and expect a beginner friendly pace.  The ride is intended to be 1 to 1.5 hours in duration.      If we start this up again, it would be after labor day.  I know some people have already requested i started this up again, but I am wondering if there is a reason not too???? Cheers and Godspeed 

  Post #22:  8am sharp we turned the pedals out of Dinosaur Park.  The band of three gravel riders took the start of the inaugural Gravel Promenade.  Believe me when I say this was a Galactic Premier Gravel Event.  If you did not attend, you missed out on being on the ground floor of a fabulous and well organized event.  Seriously, it was just a bike ride, and it was nothing special.            We had a bit of rain the night before, so we avoided Petrie Level B road with the thought that soil retains moisture and it would not be good to get the bikes all muddied up at the beginning of the ride.  With that said, we went east towards LaPorte City.     Before we got into LaPorte City we took a jaunt south of town and explored a B-Road called 13th road.  It looked like it recently had grader work done on it.  As we rode we realized the roads were extremely dusty and were confident that B roads wou...

  Post #21:  Tomorrow July 31st we roll out of Prairie Grove Park at 8am.  The park has a bathroom and a water spicket (I grew up saying spicket, not spout, I also say Crik and not Creek).  We may have showers to contend with in the early morning hours, but they appear to taper off at 5am.  These roads are dry, so I do not expect a mess.   Revisiting the route, there are no Level B-roads except for Petrie.  We can easily re-route around that if need be.       In other news this ride is officially a international known event.  Thanks to a internationally known blog Guitar Ted Productions .  We made his blog a few times, it is not like he lives a few blocks away from me.  But hey if I was not obnoxious about something, people would think I would have a fever.       So come on out.  If it does rain, i only expect that to make the ride go faster.  If it does not, I expect the ride to be...

  Post #20: This Saturday, July 31st @ 8am, we will launch into a 77 mile gravel ride .  We will travel the south and eastern border of Blackhawk County. The official name of the park we are leaving from is Prairie Grove Park, but I will always call it Dinosaur park.     I will be riding to the ride from my house and rolling out at 8am sharp.  We will be racing the sun all day, so we will start with a slightly cooler temp, but by 10am, BOB will be high in the sky and pushing his heat on us.  In short bring water.  Our first stop is Jesup at 40 miles in.  I plan shorter stops towards the end of a ride because of this very reason.  We will have another stop in Dunkerton.  In short, a lot of water opportunities to be had.       I will be riding my Twin Six FSU with Vittoria Terrno 2.1 tires.  I am telling you this, as this shows I am not expecting to set any land record speeds.  Ride what ya got, I would think ...