My Meriwether Ti Do It All
My Meriwether Ti do it all bike on the Church Steps - Atlantic, IA
While my year got off to a poor start from a riding perspective, it is starting to come back and I am feeling much better on my bike. I also have finally gotten my Meriwether Ti do it all bike put back together. I’ll also add that I finally built it the way I intended when Whit and I initially discussed the details of this build.
Before I talk through the what I changed on the bike, let me say that when I built it, I got distracted. Sometimes what is right in front of me blurs my vision a bit. I built this bike weeks before the 2024 Mid South and all I had on my brain was doing that event as fast as I could. I wanted to beat my time from the previous year. So I built it with carbon wheels and narrower tires than I ever intended to be used on this bike. And you know what, light & fast wheels are addictive. They feel great. Rather than rebuild a freshly built rig that feels great, I just left the bike set up the way I initially built it.
With my slow start to the year I am much slower and behind where I was last year. I also had more time to clean, update and rebuild pretty much all my bikes this past spring. When it came time to clean and rebuild my Meriwether Ti, I installed the wheels and tires I always intended to use on the bike. That’s it. The rest is identical.
I finally installed the handbuilt wheel set built by Ben Witt of Heath Creek Cycles. They are the smooth and fast White Industry hubs laced with Sapim spokes to HED Belgium Plus Gravel rims. I also moved from the 45mm tires to the fat and comfy 50mm Vittoria Terreno Dry tires (my personal favorite). Now the bike simply just looks and feels right. It’s what I have always wanted all along.
And with that out of the way, I took this bike down to Iowa for Guitar Ted’s Tree in the Road ride. On my way down, I stopped and did a few miles to check out the tree in the road and snap some photos. What an absolutely stunning night followed by damn good food in Atlantic, IA.
Here are few pics from the trip down. I’ll be back later this week with ride thoughts and photos.
