For training during the winter I like ski mountaineering. There's so much to explore out there on a pair of skis. Hell if you really wanted to you could ski lots of the CT! I snowshoed for years, switched to skiing and had way more fun!

And since you live here, iPod should take advantage of just riding the CT for training when you can. It's a fantastic  trail with lots of variety.

For me there wasn't really a way to prepare for the mental challenges of the race. It was just something that I had to live through. For planning purposes I had some general ideas of how long it was going to take, but once the race started I was just living from hour to hour.

Interesting thought.  If I had to choose between a front or rear rotor, I would choose front because of the greater braking force. So, if the front rotor got mangled, I guess I could always remove the required fork adapter for the 178mm rotor and run the 160mm up front.  I'm not sure I would of ever throughout about that if you didn't bring it up Area54, thanks!

I built a bike specifically for the CTR last year. I looked at so many frames that I bored my wife, and she rides. For a variety reasons (good geometry for me, an amazing amount of space for a frame bag for a FS, and I LOVE the maestro dual pivot rear) I went with a giant anthem 26'er. Even after demo'ing an anthem 29'er I decided that the 26 platform was better for me, for this year, for this race. I built it up with:

• Hayes carbon Strokers
• Mavic Crosstrails
• Specialized The Captain 2.2s
• Crank Brothers stem/bars/seatpost/seatpost clamp
• ODI Rogue
• Fizik Nisene Saddle
• SRAM X0 rear derailleur
• SRAM X9 rear shifter
• Extralite 30T chainring
• Paul Components chain guide
• Cane Creek Headset
• Manitou R7 MRD 100mm
• SRAM 12Tx36T Cassette
• Shimano Deore XT cranks
• SRAM 1091 Chain

I liked most of the build and it did the job. But I think the important thing was the process, not the end result bike.  I had to make decisions about every individual part of the bike.  That made me very intimate with my machine from a nuts and bolts perspective and made riding it an enjoyable and satisfying part of the race.  

If you are looking to do the CTR as fast as you can you have to make some really hard decisions about everything from hygiene to tires.  If I were you dgjessee I would decide on a 26/29 HT/FS combo based on your anticipated fitness. No one who finishes this race is weak, mentally or physically. It's more a degree of how strong you are. I was honest and fair with myself and decided on a 26 FS. On the opposite side of the scale is the fully rigid 29'er. I dream of being that strong and I set my yearly goals marching in that direction. A fully rigid won't be comfortable, and it will be slower on the downhill, but for this race I think the pure uphill aspect makes me want the LIGHTEST pony I can figure out.

My bike weight was 25lbs naked. A fully rigid 29'er can drop 5 lbs from the start.  That's a BFD! But I'm not ready for it yet. My body would reject the harsh ride and I would most likely drop out. The right guy/gal can rock that bike though! dgjessee you've got to decide where your fitness is and start the mind games... Where do you think you're fitness is going to be? What are you leaning towards and why? Can't wait to see what you end up with!

I have the Shangri-La 1. It's a fine tent but does suffer from breathability issues like most/all silnylon tents. It's light, compact, and easy to set up. The Fly Creek and the Moment are great tents and will breath nicely, but weigh more then twice the shangri-la 1. It's basically comes down to how comfortable you want to be sleeping versus how comfortable you want to be riding.  As for pads, I use foam, but might switch to a blow up for some extra comfort. A tyvek ground clothe and good camp site selection should keep the pad in good shape.

No doubt, it's either bring another belt or you are screwed! I doubt you could buy one at a bike shop along the trail.  And clearly, they aren't bomb proof either: http://twentynineinches.com/2011/01/30/the-gates-carbon-belt-drive-report-a-true-alternative-to-the-chained-life-part-iii/

But I've broken something like 6 chains over the last 5 years and am not in love with metal chains.  I've become a maintenance freak on my chain because of these experiences and have learned to become a smarter shifter too. All that being said, if I was going SS the belt drive would be on my bike for all my early season training until that point that it proved to be something I no longer wanted for a race. And I know lots of folks have differing opinions, but for me, if I was going hardtail I would just assume the position and ride a fully rigid ss too. But all of this is totally hypothetical because at this point in time I'm not sure my body would like me much on anything other then a FS for a multi day effort. But man, that ninner sure looks sweet for single day epics!

I'm not sure the ninner will work with a belt drive though, can you get the belt on?

All bikes break, even rigids. I forget who it was, but someone broke a titanium frame on the TD and had to have it welded in Steamboat. I've ridden the CT with car support on a trek Fuel EX9 and loved it. I've also done the CTR on a Giant Anthem and loved that as well.  It really is about preference and I love FS bikes. If I thought I could handle the beating (and I probably can't) I'd be looking at the ninner air 9 carbon SS with a belt drive.

my wife made my frame bag and I had her put the zipper on the left side because, like you JerryW, I get off my bike on the left side most times.  It works out perfectly and I love it.  For whatever reason, I never really get into my frame bag while the bike is laying on the ground. In fact, I don't think I ever get into it while it's on the ground.  I also use stuff sacks to keep stuff organized in the frame bag so it's easy to get to everything.

I use mechanicals on my commuter and they do just fine. But for big DH (i.e. 3000+ foot descents) I'm just too used to the additional power from hydro's. I guess my riding style from racing DH is kinda set in my head for now. I'm not certain because I 've never tried, but wouldn't heavy/hard braking also affect mechanicals? It's interesting from a physics perspective if nothing else. I wonder if you have to increase the amount of pressure applied to the brake lever as the rotor/pads heat up on the mechanicals, and if so, how much? From what I've read, temps of 300F are common on rotors after a DH run.  I would suspect that our fully loaded bikepacking rigs would require similar braking forces.  -- side note: I once hit my calf on a rotor during a DH crash got a burn welt from it - OUCH   

And here's some more intel - like a dumy I didn't check my brake pads during the CTR because I wasn't experiencing anything too drastic, just the symptoms mentioned above that appeared more psychological then anything else.  If I would of checked them I would of noticed that I was nearly through all of the braking pad material on one of the front pads. Hayes recommends changing them with 4mm of material left.  That means I should of changed them probably on something like day 5 of the race. That was a big mistake that could of cost me.  Luckily I didn't have any issues and have learned from it.

Thanks for the idea wellmanron.  I do like the idea of mechanicals, but at this point I'm not seeing any problems with the hydros that would make me want to jump ship. I'm just searching for the perfect day of riding my bike in the mountains and the ultra smooth modulation combined with light brake lever forces are what I'm seeking. 

I'll upgrade the rotor over the winter in preparation for the AZT 300 and let folks now how things turn out.

Waterproof bivy's do tend to have a high weight to usable space ratio, and in comparison to a tarp pack down rather large. That's why I'm headed down the tarp path. While bivy's do offer better protection in wind, I'll never choose to camp above treeline while bikepacking. If I was winter camping a waterproof bivy might find it's way into kit, but for the other three seasons, the goal is to get the weight/space down as much as possible, and tarps excel here for sure. They are loud in the rain, but I'm a sound sleeper. It does take a little skill to set one up properly and it does practice to be efficient, but these are small things for the bikepacking crowd.

The weight of the new UST Captain is beefy, 100g+ over the Armadillo Captain and 150g + over the control model. Nice.

Yeah, the weight penalty is stiff for these tires.  830g for the 26x2.2. I gotta laugh when I think about something like the MaxxLite 285 at 285g. Clearly they are two totally different tires, but just think about it this way.  2 UST Captains come in at 1660g versus 570g for the MaxxLites. That's almost a 1090g difference (2.4lbs)!  A more realistic comparison might be the MaxxLite UST at 550g, which would still save over 1lbs.

I'm going to dig into tires and do a more analytical comparison.  Should be fun.

Thanks dream4est for the insight into the dust. I was wondering about the dust because on occasion we'll get a layer of dust on top of the snow in the spring and folks tell me it's from a dust storm in Arizona. It's never fun waiting out a storm, but patience pays off sometimes! Thanks for the captain intel too! Funny how gear that works in one environment simply fails in another. The 2.2 captain was "confidence inspiring" for me this summer.  I could point them over anything and they seemed to hold. Nice rolling resistance over everything except trail that was moist enough for the knobbies to just barely dig in, at which point I did notice drag. Probably not a good gravel growler set of rubbers, but for colorado single track, it's once of my fav's.  I'm a bit sad to find that they won't work for the AZT 300.  Oh well, I've been interested in Geax for the last year, this will give me an excuse to try them.

AZTtripper, I know a whole friggin' tire!!! These are the kind of fears that run through my head in the absence of experience. I road a commuter bike in tempe for a handful of months while working on a contract at wells fargo and flatted MANY times until I learned about the  super thick tubes DH style tubes for commuters. And that wasn't even in the desert, just hitting some goat heads, cactus, other sharp prickly desert fauna around the suburbs!

As for training, I'll be racing the grand traverse at the end of March so much of my focus will be on skiing from now until then. I did pick up an indoor trainer so that I can add more biking into the mix.  Riding single track is a season by season thing here.  Last year I was riding my local trails until the end of Feb.! I hear you on the HAB training though.  I added more core training and upper body strength training for this year's CTR and it paid off big time.  I've got 3 years of DH racing (CAT 2 now) under my belt and LOVE it! I actually have more fun with DH then XC but somehow spend way more time on the xc bike  .  I didn't race DH this summer to focus on the CTR instead.  Next summer I plan on heading back to the DH arena for sure!  Time to get on the big sled and pump those trails for everything they are worth!

But back to the tires/tubes questions...  I carried 3 park tire boots over the summer, but never used them. Since I've never used tire liners either, are the tire liners similar in dimensions to the park boots? In other words, are the park boots just some fancy commercial product that barely works and what I should really bring along is the tire liner so that I can cut them to size?

I've never used slime tubes either, just regular tubes, ghetto tubeless, and UST tubeless. At this point, I kind of hate tubes because I inevitably end up treating my xc bike a dh bike and get pinch flats.  I had a good experience with ghetto, but UST is just easier for me, so I've been on UST for the last 2 years and plan on starting with this setup for the AZT.  Slime tubes seem like a no brainer for my spare tubes for the AZT instead of maxxis welter-weights that I used for the CTR. I really like the idea of a second tube of glue too.  Never heard of the "light it on fire" trick, but I do know that glue likes heat.

One other question in reference to the dust. I was planning on using Mavic wheels which get a bad rap for needing more maintenance then other hubs (though mine show nothing different then my DT Swiss or Sun Ringle's).  I wonder if you desert riders run tighter sealing hubs/free-hubs (Chris King or I-Nine or Hope)?

Thanks for all the info guys!

As a result of my experiences on the CTR I'm going to switch to 178mm front rotor in hopes of a bigger braking surface using less pad material. I asked a bunch of questions on another thread http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/index.php/topic,2518.0.html and got some good feedback/insight.  Wonder if your glazing was a result of the ideas shared on that thread?

Also, I keep wanting to bring a spare tire.  At this point in time I'll probably start off with new UST 2.2'' Specialized Captains. I haven't seen anyone's list a spare tire in their kit, but I read about a lot of flats... and the DNF rate is pretty high... I certainly don't want to shlep unneeded gear around but I really do want to finish!

I ran through  my front pads on the CTR this year and would of replaced them if I had looked.  However, I didn't look until a few days after finishing while cleaning the bike.  I was almost, metal to metal. However, I wasn't experiencing anything drastic that would of made me look at the pads. Maybe I should be checking my pads every day or two while racing? I've worn through lots of sets of pads before this in the mud and snow. I guess the mud/snow carries particles and once it's on your rotors it chews away brake pad material faster.  For me, the the weight to risk ratio makes carrying a spare set of front/rear pads acceptable for multi-day stuff, but won't bring it for big single day efforts if I thought it was going to be mostly dry.

Gila MONSTER = spooky fo sho! We have rattle snakes and tarantulas here, but once I start thinking about scorpions... at night... I swear the only thing more freaky is the boogeyman!

Seriously though, water for me is the first topic that I'm gonna start to figure out.

Thanks for the weather insight.  One last mountain bike trip before the real snow turns all my thoughts to skis might do me good!

Thanks everyone for the help.  I'm digging into the threads and sucking out everything I can.  Having never really done any mountain biking in the desert before, this feels like another epic adventure in the making! It's pretty clear that there can be a huge variety of weather. Some reports show snow, while others talk about oppressive heat.  The one thing I couldn't figure out is if these extremes occur on the same race, or are they from different years? Or do they happen within the same day? I'm fine with big mountains, lighting, rockfall, avalanches... but the desert is a spooky place to me because I don't have much experience.  Clearly I'm taking it seriously and am starting the learning process now.  Wonder if it would be worth it to plan a trip soon before winter sets in? It's already snowing where I live.

My pleasure couchmaster!

Sounds like you're gonna have some fun with it!

Gotcha, the hubba hubba is a sweet tent, just heavy. The moment, at 30oz, is MAJOR weight saver and looks to be a damn nice tent. If I thought it would be raining every night of the CTR the moment would be in my kit. I bet you can sell the hubba hubba for the cost of the moment too!

Sounds like an amazing adventure! We're just getting ready for ski season here in colorado and I'm already thinking about my next bikepacking race. Looks like I'll be juggling bike and ski training this winter :-)

Is there an old that you would recommend reading for an AZT rookie? I've read a bunch of trip reports.  Looks like tires and tire repair are something to dial in for sure! But I've got all the typical rookie questions too that I'm sure have been answered, just need to find the thread.

Thanks!

Now you're getting it! It's all about compromises and comfort level. What tent did you use in Virginia? What did you like about it? What didn't you like about it?

oh no, I might have the AZT 300 bug! Is there an official date/course for 2012?

Found it:  Friday, April 13th, 2012 - 9am