Well, I'm in Minnesota for Almanzo and I am woefully underprepared. Now, I have a history of being underprepared, but this time I've unfortunately taken it to a whole new level. In the past two months, I've done just 2 rides, 25 and 40 miles respectively. They were both last week, and then an old back injury sidelined me. 

With some massage and stretching, it's now so-so, but obviously this is not the way to prepare for a 100 mile gravel ride (not to mention the originally considered 160 mile version). But I wanted to do this ride at any cost, both because I agreed to do it with Andy Ording and because this is where it all started for the U.P., in my rides and chats with Steve Hed.

And finally, because this is where this month's Bike Of The Month belongs. It is after all the Steve Hed Special Edition U.P.

(touched down at MSP, drove to my Spring Valley, MN hotel, sneaking a peek at the BOTM still hidden in the bag)

This is the whole story:

In 2013 and 2014, I rode the Almanzo gravel ride with Steve Hed. Before and after the event (not during, neither had the energy), we talked for hours about all sorts of things, some even related to bikes. And of course thanks to the Almanzo, gravel bikes were top of mind. 

Steve had built a few Triple Crown steel bikes (one of which he rode at the 2014 Almanzo), I was sketching out ideas for a carbon gravel frame, and one of the recurring topics was tire width. I wanted the frame to work with a wide range of tires, but I didn’t want the bigger wheel diameter of wider tires to throw off the geometry of the bike. Steve had thought about that already, and his Triple Crown fit 700c road & cross tires as well as 650b mountain bike tires. He suggested I use the same, which of course is exactly what we did. 

We combined that with the dropped chainstay so that we could get a much more compact rear end, and thus the building blocks for the U.P. came together. But it’s safe to say, without my talks with Steve, the U.P. would not be what it is today.  

It’s also safe to say I wouldn’t be who I am today without my chats with Steve, not in the least I wouldn’t be the kind of father I am today. Because as much as I enjoyed our talks about bikes, some other talks had a much more profound influence. And thus, although I still miss him a lot, I also know that the best way to honor him is to try and keep that spirit alive. 

A big part of that was his generosity, and so I am really happy to announce we’re going to be raising some funds for Steve’s favorite charity. Right now, we have 22 Steve Hed Special Edition U.P. frames and HED Ardennes LT Disc wheels rolling into stock. One is mine, one is for Anne Hed, the other 20 are for you. 

The frames are brown, just like the Triple Crown bike Steve rode at his last Almanzo. The decals are blue, just because that looks nice, there is a Special Edition logo on the inside of the chainstay and there is a special, very faint 3D decal next to it. The text comes from the last email Steve sent me when he had just finished the Filthy Fifty ride, and his trademark writing style neatly sums up why cycling is so great: “it was fantastic, and so pretty out. brought tears.” Every ride has the power to be that way. 

The HED Ardennes LT Disc wheels have matching logos and are available in 700c, 650b (while supplies last, this one is very limited), standard cassette body or xD. Because there are so many wheel options, the way it works is that you place your order for the Special Edition frame + wheels, and then HED hand-builds the wheels to your specification and ships them. So it will take a little bit of time to get it exactly as you want, likely a few weeks for the USA and a bit longer outside of the USA. 

The price for the frame + wheels combo is USD 3800 / EUR 3800 (2900 for the frame, 900 for the wheels). For each combo sold, we will donate USD 500 to Steve’s favorite charity, the Trout Lakes children's camp.