Elec-tric-al Banana Is Gonna Be A Sudden Craze

Last Saturday was the redo date for the 17th annual Wear Yellow Nebraska ride, pushed back from May. I managed to borrowed a titanium Bearclaw Bicycle Co,. Frank, fat bike for the ride, this bike is really a fat bike in name and  tire size only. This beast might weigh pretty close to what the Giant Revolt weighs, it would give it a good run for it's money anyway. I still had to push those massive 27.5 x 4" tires for 56 miles but it was almost like cheating.


With the mass start being pulled for this year, we sort of milled around the vehicles in the parking lot waiting for the rest of our group to make an appearance.


Of course no Wear Yellow would be complete without a banana incident and 2020 was no exception. I'm not entirely sure how it all started but it dates back to 2017 and has continued every year since, we were short one Carlos so we had a stand in banana hand.





A tiny bit of pavement and we were out on the gravel and a few MMRs in no time, weather was almost perfect for August with low temps, low humidity and gentle breezes.


If there was one hit on the course, it would be the lack of towns or places to get water and food, there were no actual stops on the route at all and only two towns that we rolled through. I know that gravel is often touted as self supported and for the most part it is, we require little to no SAG support but 56 miles without a town is long haul. We veered off course in Elmwood and took advantage of the Co-Op for a little sustenance and happened upon this cool old Chevy to boot.




Closed bridges can only mean one thing, bridge beers, Busch Lattes to be exact, sipped from a silicone drinking receptacle, because COVID has made us classy AF.


Fear not, there were much better adult beverages consumed also, we aren't animals after all but the Co-Op in Elmwood was heavy on Busch and a little light on craft.



A few more miles down the road and the 2020 edition of WYR was in the books. Pics might make it look like we meandered along but I can tell you, that pace was plenty brisk. Ended up with about a 14.9 mph average for the ride which I was pretty surprised by considering that the Frank is a fat bike. For comparison, I finished the Solstice Quarantine race on the Revolt a few weeks back with a 15.1 mph average, so about 2/10 ths of a mph difference between 42mm and 4" tires. I'll take it! Frank was a great riding buddy, speedy, stable, rolled over anything and comfy to boot, not sure I have Ti money but if I did...