How To Build Your Own Gravel Grinder On The Cheap

Author: <a id="MainContent_MainColumnContentPlaceHolder_hlAuthorBottom" href="/Profile/BikeIowa">BikeIowa
Posted By: <a id="MainContent_MainColumnContentPlaceHolder_hlPostedBy" href="/Profile/BikeIowa">BikeIowa

Posted Jul 15, 2013
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We love gravel, and you may too...

First of all, if you are not familiar with Gravel Grinder News, get familiar with it! It is an invaluable resource for Iowa Gravel races, racers, rides, bikes, tires, trends, etc.

It was created by Guitar Ted and still maintained by him as well.

G-Ted is also the event dictator err.. director for Trans-Iowa (TI), which is this little unsupported trek across Iowa in April along Iowa's gravel roads. TI brings in adventure spirits from all over the US and beyond. TI-9 took place on April 27-28th and had the best weather and road conditions in all of it's 9 years. Still... Only 24 racer officially finished out of almost 100. 300+ miles is some serious stuff boys and girls.

Back to Gravel Grinders On The Cheap

Guitar Ted Says...
I run an event called Trans Iowa and have been fortunate enough to meet several great people the past ten years because of it.

Through some of those people I have become friends with, I was introduced to the term “gravel mutt”. It was used to describe a bicycle built from parts, spray painted from a can, and dedicated to being sacrificed on the Iowa gravel roads as more of a tool than a “bicycle”, if you know what I mean. Not that this bike wasn’t thought of well- because it was. But it wasn’t anything more than it was: a “gravel mutt“. Unfortunately, that bike met an untimely end on a minimum maintenance road during Trans Iowa, but the memory of how that bike came to be spurred me on to this idea: anybody can get a reliable gravel bike set up cheaply, if they know what to look for and use some imagination.

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