Almanzo 2013

I drove down to southern Minnesota early Saturday morning to take photos of the Almanzo 100 gravel race.  It was a great event... I had tons of fun hanging out and cheering on the riders.  Now that I know the area a little better, I'm looking forward to going back next year.

Below are my favorite shots from the race.  I particularly like the first one, click on it to see a larger version:

As always, full-sized photos can be seen on my Flickr site.  There are also 151 race photos posted over there.  If you raced on Saturday and think I took your photo, go check the "Almanzo photo dump" set.


Go ride a bike.

Custom Cargo Bike: First Parts

The first few components and frame parts for this summer's framebuilding project have been trickling in:

I'm going with a little nicer dropout this time (Paragon Low Mounts), instead of the Surly Instigator dropouts I used on the fat bike.  I hope I can do them justice.  I also picked up a 100mm BB shell, along with a bottom bracket to run in it.  I should have most of my tubes later this week.  Next steps will be ordering the steel for the seatstay and chainstay yokes, and creating a full-size drawing of the frame.

The vast majority of the components for this bike will either come from my parts bin or be taken off my Errand Bike.  The "signature" component of this build will be the wheelset.  One of the main motivations behind this project is to put my old Large Marge wheelest to use.  There are a few things though, like the bottom bracket, that need to be purchased.

On a side note, I finally got in a decent amount of riding this weekend.  Unfortunately no dirt (all the local trails just opened up), but I'm planning to hit some singletrack on the 29+ Fargo later this week.  Here are a couple photos of the city from my ride on Friday.  I was an absolutely gorgeous day for a ride.

Go ride a bike...

Road Fargo

There have been a few changes made to the set-up of the Fargo "all-rounder" over the winter, and I finally got it out for a short test ride yesterday.  Since last fall I lowered the handlebars with a new stem, switched to 47mm Conti tires front and rear, and added some low-profile panniers.

The Linus panniers are the size and shape I was looking for, but are designed for a more casual, urban rider.  Unfortunately, there is a lack of low-profile panniers on the market.  I'm curious to see how they perform when riding wet or dusty trails.  The flap is held down by two snaps and a magnet, but I'm considering modifying them to add a more secure closure.  I want to be confident the contents will stay in place, and I'm not 100% sold on the snap/magnet for bumpy trails.  They also aren't waterproof, but if water is going to be a concern I'll just use dry bags inside the panniers.

The saddle is an Ergon demo saddle that I'm testing out for a few days.  I've put about 30 miles on it so far and the verdict is still out.  I like the shape, but I think I'd be better off with a bit more padding.  I've been wanting a new saddle for this bike for a while now.  The purpose of the road Fargo is longer rides and more often than not, saddle discomfort becomes a major motivator to shorten a longer ride.  I've been trying to avoiding buying a Brooks, but that might just be my next option.

I'm planning on a little longer ride today; hopefully long enough to make a decision on the saddle.


Go ride a bike...