Tour Divide

The more I read about that bike the more interested I am in it.

I love the concept of that over a traditional mtb.

@edscoble You seen this bike?

I have, to be quite frank, your road background is why you're liking it.

If I were you, get a cheap decent 29ers and thrash it, then decided if drop bar is on the card or not.

It's a whole different skill set, you sit on road bike the majority of time whether on MTB it's the opposite.

Yeah you're right!

I can't even be bothered to read that Rice family QA thing. Too much ego going on with him, and the mum was at the start giving out "Billy and Lina" wrist bands. FFS. She was super offended when a few of us refused to wear them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6B9YXhZPrM

ed where can I learn about 29er and what geo, wheels, tyres are good etc. ?

I can tell you about tyres.

Loads of racers used Maxxis Icons, I used Continental X-King 2.4 ProTection, front and rear. They are 45 notes each, but they lasted the entire race with tread still to spare on the rear. People using Maxxis Icons had to swap front and rear somewhere in Colorado to make them last.

Wheels, if you can afford it, rohloff. I borked my rear mech on day one in the special mud around Josephine Falls. Or ride Singlespeed, which I will do next time. Just to save on mech stresses. Get a dynamo front wheel too. Sod trying to buy lithium batteries at every town after 50 other racers have been through in the past 24 hours.

I would also fit aero bars next time, if only to give the hands a rest. Not in a low aero position, but pretty high up, just to rest. I was almost asleep most of the time anyway, so might as well be comfy!

thanks gabes!

Maybe I'll employ you as my advisor and hippy can employ me.

Yeah I've a 15mm thru son disc dynamo already. Will keep my hands on that!

Hey, if you want work cleaning my bikes, I'll start writing the cheques.

Got to do mine first. It's in about 50 pieces and looking sorry for itself in my living room.

I just hang mine up and forget about them.

Also, Lael Wilcox finished her second TD this year in 15 days 11 hours. New womens record. She is beast!

And, get brake pads with cooling fins. You'll be thankful.

some of the downhills are 16 miles long, and steep with huge exposure. I nearly went over the edge coming into Salida because I was hallucinating/falling asleep.

@skinny if you wanna get some rides in, come down to devon, I'll show you a hard time.

come down to devon, I'll show you a hard time.

shudder

Wowzers

Dad?

When I've a mtb I may take you up on that!
Not sure what mtb is like around South London!

South downs way is good training. I did the double in Sept last year. Took 27 hours, but Josh Ibbet did it in 16 hours I think. There are 95 gates in each direction. Get good at mounting/dismounting the bike!

http://www.newsletter.co.uk/sport/motorcycling-news/guy-martin-drops-biggest-hint-yet-of-tt-absence-in-2016-1-7020041

Guy Martin doing Tour Divide. If he films it, it'll be so popular in future years, it'll be awful.

It's ~3000mi and this year's race had the same number of entrants as an C/D double at the ~1km long Glenvale Crescent. I'm pretty sure that's enough space to handle the influx.

I meant more about people who simply aren't prepared for something so big. I guess nothing really prepares you for it etc etc. Also, it's barely organised, and might suffer a bit for a huge influx. But hey, people riding bikes is a good thing, and it's a lovely route to be riding.

Yeah, when you've had your third person airlifted to safety or something it might put a dampener on the race or halt it if the authorities get pissed off. You'd still have to have some kind of competency to even line up though - I can't imagine that many noobs going "sure bro, I'd smash it" with no fucking clue. I mean, even my ego isn't that big.

There was an airlift and ambulance carry out in the first 7 hours of TD this year. One of which I saw. Guy on cross bike, his front wheel came out on a 30+mph rocky descent. Face torn open. We pressed his SOS button on his SPOT. He was out cold for a couple minute. Pretty nasty. Most gutted for him, race over in 7 hours. Worst that happened to me on day one was bear shit on my fingers.

Nasty. :(

You mean it washed out or you mean it just left his bike, like 'oops I've ground off my lawyer lugs but forgot to tighten the QRs'?