Thanks for bringing this thread back Stephan.

The CTR is the funnest thing I've ever done a bike. Just the thought of riding it inspires me... makes me dream...



Just heard from someone that hike Georgia Pass that there were still plenty of snow fields up there.  Come on sun, melt that snow 

I was up on the CT east of copper heading over towards wheeler pass this weekend.  The CT was fine, but wheeler pass at and around treeline was still snowed in.  After a good 30 minutes of post holing   I decided on an alternative path    From what I could see above treeline all of the shelves were still snow loaded with at least a couple feet of snow.  Fingers crossed, but I think most of it should be gone by August.

Thanks for pics Jeff!  Some great shots.  I love that rock garden, it's soooo long!  Here's a side view of it:

OK, to bring up a completely old topic... I finally found the guy that rides for hours on an indoor trainer.  He's multi-time RAAM winner John Howard.

Here's the quote that just made me chuckle:

 “When I can sit on my trainer staring at a blank white wall for five hours straight, I’m just about ready for RAAM.”

I knew he was out there... it just took some time to find him 

I also saw a great idea like the lock through the chain ring on bikehacks, but instead of the chain ring the lock goes through either the front or rear rotor.  Check out the post here: http://www.bikehacks.com/bikehacks/2011/05/bike-disc-brake-lock-hack.html

I love the air it out technique   Works great even in winter.  That's one beautiful thing about low humidity areas like colorado, and in fact, the main reason why I switched to down.  I've never had a problem while tent camping in colorado with getting my down dry, and only on rare occasion have had issues with keeping it dry in the tent.  Sometimes the hoar frost during winter can dampen things up if you don't manage it well.  But for summer, down is a great option in colorado. Bivying is a different story though. I used a gortex hooped bivy sack for nearly 20 years.  It did an amazing job at keeping the elements out and a reasonable job at letting the elements out.  In other words it was great at keeping the water out and merely ok at letting the moisture evaporate through the material.  On almost all occasions the top of my bag either had frost on it or it was damp.  This never seemed to bother my synthetic bags, and for the most part, in colorado, my down bags held up well enough but sometimes I did get cold.  Hell on one 2 week car camping bike trip in colorado it rained almost every night and to be honest, even with drying the down bags out, the loft was visibly lower by the end of the trip. The bag seemed to have a dampness each night.  I never got cold in my bag, but it did leave an impression on me as to how important it is to really dry out down.

I'm not using a sleeping bag for the CTR just an old synthetic bag liner cut into a quilt, so it's not an issue for me, but if I were I would use an ultralight primaloft quilt (might just sew it myself).  While not as warm or light as 800-900 down it is still amazingly light and warm, and still darned compactable too.  Just one less thing to have to do, think about, stress about...  

That being said, there's a place for everything... this weekend I'll be heading out for an overnight and will definitely be using an 850 fill down bag.  It'll be cold enough where I'll want the sleeping bag and I know I can keep it dry for one night even if it's raining.

To get back on topic though.  Keeping the bag dry is priority numero uno which for me means that I'm dry before I get in it. Drying it out is secondary but is an absolute requirement in my book and not that hard to do if you have the time!

Strip naked.
Dry yourself off with a little camp towel.
Put your base layers on and a warm pair of socks.
Then get in the bag.

I would NOT try to dry out your wet clothes in your down bag, so sutff them in your pack and have a miserable time getting into them in the morning. 

I grew up hiking/climbing in the North East.  It rains there a lot.  I never used a down bag back then, but now that I live in Colorado... down is my friend!  I sleep in a sleeping bag 15-20 weekends a year and typically use a down bag now.  However, if I know it's gonna be raining I leave the down at home and use synthetic.  I've been able to dry out damp clothes inside my synthetic bag on lots of occasions. And even if I can't get it dry by morning, at least it's sorta warm.  I tried drying out clothes in a down bag once and the down just got wet.

Can't wait to see what others do to get dry!

  LOL - 4 hours total is still awesome! My bike commute is a combination of car/bike and the bike portion still ends up being 54 miles. So at this point in the season I'm only biking 1-2 days a week. Each leg takes basically 2 hours for me.  I kept thinking about what it would feel like mentally to combine both legs on an indoor trainer.  I had all these crazy images of you being math phd and doing math in your head while training.  Or maybe just the opposite.  Maybe you were into WWF wrestling and drank beer and yelled at the tv while riding.  Either way Trailrider11, you were a hero! Stories were going to be told! I might just start sleuthing aorund the roadie forums searching for this guy.  You know he's out there. 12 hours a week on an indoor trainer.  Nuttier then a can of Planters Peanuts. And crushing the competition at races!

Dude 4 hours of stationary training 3 days a week would absolutely require me to be committed to a psych ward! I'm gonna start telling stories about you!

Looks like a pretty good list.  I go a bit lighter in some areas and a bit heavier in others...  For instance I go a bit lighter on the clothes/sleeping/food side of things and a bit heavier on the bike repair kit.  I like to have spare brake pads for front/rear, spare shifter cable, and a bunch of zip ties.  My clothing is dialed from competing in the mountains year round, I know exactly what my needs are so I don't bring anything extra.  I don't use a sleeping bag, just an old synthetic bag liner that's been turned into a quilt.  And while I wish I could eat 5000 calories a day... I simply can't... yet.  Believe it or not, part of my training this year is to eat as much as I can, when I can, on the bike.

On a side note, here's a question to everyone.  This winter I was riding and lost air in my rear tire (UST).  No big deal, I pulled out the pump and filled it.  The weather turned from sunny in the 50s to snowing.  I lost air again. Fine. I put a tube in.  But this time, my pump didn't work.  So I'm sitting there on the trail, getting cold, fiddling with my pump (crankbrothers ppp) trying to get it work. From what I could tell the seal on the plunger just got cold and iced over and wouldn't do it's job.  Thankfully some super cool guy (Jeff??? - may all the good trail karma flow your way  ) came by with a Big Air canister and filled me up.  Has anything like this happened to anyone? If not, what pumps are you using? My pump has worked ever since, but I've never tried it in the colder temps.  I've also considered bringing along a BigAir as a back up.  I just wish I had more confidence in my pump and didn't desire a back up.  Clearly this aspect of my kit is not as dialed as my clothing.  

Man I've heard so much talas bashing over the years from teammates, friends, etc. I wonder why I've had such an awesome experience with mine. The adjustability has worked so perfectly for mountain trails, both mechanically and for my riding style that I hate switching things up. But I've got a new fork sponsor and will be rocking a 100mm manitou marvel pro QR15 this year. -- update -- turns out the Marvel Pro will not be on the build.  Manitou says it won't be ready until 2012.  So it'll be the R7 with a reducer headset and 9mm axle.

But back to pumps.

I've never had anything happen to a fork/shock that a pump would of fixed. Whenever I've lost pressure it's always required sending the suspension back in for repairs. Even on my talas, when I scratched the stanchion, the guys at the fox tent rebuilt the fork to get me riding again, but they also said that my stanchions needed replacement too. I never replaced the stanchions and the fork failed as predicted. A pump would not of fix this.  So, my question is: what has happened to you folks where your suspension failed and a pump helped?

Man you just went way over my head.     Sounds like you know something about fork internals, more then my own anecdotal knowledge.  So, could you help me out?

My talas went out again a few weeks ago.  That same scratch on the stanchion that I smoothed out with some 1000 grit seems to of blown another seal.  Now the adjustability may or may not work.  It went out on a climb, and I noticed it on the downhill.  Basically, it was stuck in the 90mm position will a fair bit of oil on the riders left stanchion.  Additionally the fork felt  really rigid and was not compressing properly, negatively impacting my ability to get into the travel.  I made it to bottom and racked the bike on the jeep.  By the time I got home, the fork had repositioned itself out to the 140mm position.  I tried riding it again and reset the fork to 90mm position.  The fork did adjust, but it's still way too stiff.  I've taken the fork off and don't know if it's worth the money to get it fixed by Push.  Any idea what went wrong?

Also, either way, scratched stanchion can't be fixed my a pump.  My experience (though I don't know anything about the inernals) tells me if a fork looses pressure, adding more air won't fix it.  What's your experience with this type of failure?

I have had great success with maxis crossmark's ust, though I still use stan's too. My next set of crossmarks will not be ust to save the weight since sealant is helpful even with ust.

Stefan, without even knowing me, described my experiences to a T. In 2009 (a very wet summer) I rode the CT with car support for fun and basically road in between rainy sections. I did get caught out in a couple of storms, but I also got to go back to a nice big tent at the end of the day with nearly all the comforts of home to get warm and dry.  So, I tried the CTR in 2010, and got mentally trashed from getting saddle soars on the first day from being constantly wet from the rain.  I dropped out the second day in Frisco.  This year I seem to want it more mentally and emotionally.  I can feel the drive inside gaining focus... force. I also have a different packing strategy -- much less weight on the back pack and more on the frame -- to help prevent saddle soars, but the rain gear is clearly more important to me.

Thanks for the insights Stefan!

Bart

I have never benched 230 and at this point never will.    I'm fine doing sets of half that!

I think you will find folks being successful with everything from flats to clips with carbon shoes.  I also think you will lots of sad stories with the extremes, even though guys like Ethan kill it with fully rigid shoes.  

Jeff Kerkove has a great write up on his effort last year here where he shows some gruesome pictures of feet and shoes (hope it's ok that I'm directing folks to your blog Jeff?): http://www.jeffkerkove.net/2010/08/race-report-colorado-trail-race_06.html

I like clips with semi-rigid shoes.  Having shoes that hike well and  bike well is what I look for because I know I'll be hiking sections like this:


Not sure what to do about getting the trail head.  Lots of folks get dropped off by friends/family, but I also heard of some people riding to the start the day before and camping there.  I also saw a taxi last year too.

I can guarantee you that your training schedule is tougher than mine!  Nice work.  About the only thing that comes to mind is maybe adding a couple days of core strengthening in there.  You will be pushing your fully loaded bike up a lot of really steep trail and it can take it's toll on you if your core isn't strong.  I also add a little upper body strengthening too, but that's because my shoulders and chest seem to melt away if I don't, and then I more injured in wrecks.  I would also consider a couple of over nighters too to get the camping gear dialed too, plus it's fun!

Good luck at school!  Utah is an amazing place with a ton to do!

Thanks for the update trailrider11!  Too bad on the bike build.  The older I get the more I'm amazed at how emotional I can get about bikes, skis, gear...  I think there's some sort of bond that happens with the machines we use to move around this planet on and a problematic bike build sucks donkey balls  It's tough learning about all the ins and outs of bikes because they are reasonably complex, not space shuttle complex, but anyone who's tried building a bike from scratch knows the nuances never end.  I'm no bike mechanic, though I know a couple, so if you have any questions, post them, and I'll do my best.  I don't know much about Indiana, but I respect anyone that wants to come and give the CTR a shot!  Getting the bike dialed to a point where you stop thinking about the bike is key for me.  I stress over the bike during the winter when I'm skimo racing (drives my wife nuts!!!) and then during the warmer months I stress over the ski gear.  It keeps me balanced.  Do whatever it takes to get your bike solid in your mind, and then be flexible and deal with whatever happens.  I bailed last year because I stopped having fun after I couldn't sit on my seat any more.  I just didn't want it bad enough.  I had no issues with the bike or gear, and I still felt really strong even though I wasn't eating particularly well. The truth hurts sometimes.  Completing the colorado trail can be a huge, monumental, life changing event.  Stack all the odds in your favor and hone your bike, day by day, until you stop thinking about it.  When it's solid, you'll know, because it won't be on your mind.  And then you can deal with the much bigger task of your own mind/spirit.  This trail will definitely challenge your gear.  No doubt.  And getting it "perfect" on the first effort is not probable, that's why folks keep doing this thing!  It sticks with you throughout the year.  You keep thinking about different ways to do things, with your gear, with training, with your mind.  A little fire is stoked inside and it just keeps growing and growing, and I'll never even come close to folks at the front of the pack!  It's a powerful, humbling experience.  The thing that always runs through my head is just how privileged I am to have the opportunity to do this stuff.  It's a huge blessing and I don't take it for granted.

My point is this:
   - dial your bike
   - keep an open mind
   - be flexible
   - get ready for a powerful experience!!!!   

On a totally different topic...
My father-in-law lives in the mojave desert and rides in the desert.  When I first picked up his front wheel up on his xc bike my mind literally farted! It was so heavy I didn't understand what was going on. It was almost as heavy as a DH wheel.  It turns out that in the desert there's lots of sharp things, so tuffy strips and tons of slime in the tubes is the norm.  So it quite possible that tubeless wouldn't be a good choice there.  But here it really has been a blessing for me.  Last year, in my first week of riding in the spring, I had 3 flats    WTF!  Somewhere between XC and DH I lost all my style and was just ploughing through stuff and blowing up my wheels.  So I went gehtto and stopped the insanity.  Sure I would burp some air here and there, but no big deal.  At a race in Nathrop, CO I went OTB and landed in a cactus patch after (being rude) and trying to pass on the downhill.  Cactus was all over my arms, etc so I picked out what I could, got back on the bike, and finished.  Later that day I realized I had cactus in my front tire, but the Stan's kept it sealed.  As soon as I pulled the cactus out the tire deflated.  If would of had tubes it's likely that I would needed to change a tube.  One the colorado trail, I would just put a tube in and keep riding. At the next town I might pull the tube. 

I don't think I've ever broken a front derailleur, and I'm certain I've never bent a crank, not even after 3 season of DH racing! What parts were they? I used XT without any issues for 4 years, just normal replacement of BB bearings. I'd love to hear what happened with the crank.  I've seen some pretty huge wrecks downhilling with bikes tumbling down the mountain through trees and rcoks and almost never see any bent cranks! I just ordered the e13 single speed cranks, hopefully they will be as good as the XTs.

There's plenty of stories of ripped sidewalls, broken chains, and broken rear derailleurs. I've also seen racers have issues with various parts rattling loose, think brakes, etc.  Wearing through brake pads is pretty easy to do if it's wet a lot.  Personally, I'm a bit anal about preping my bike and making sure it's as good as I can get it with the resources I have. And then on the trail I do my best to clean off the suspension and knock off any dirt/mud that I can. Once that's done I clean the chain and lube it.  It only take a couple minutes and I like to do it while it's still light and I have a little energy/motivation.

The CT has parts that are smooth, but it also has significant sections that are long extended rock gardens too. I run tubeless and don't have any problems. Clearly, you can run tubes without any problems. For my style of riding tubeless was a huge break through; better climbing traction, better cornering, less flats.

Here's a smooth section:


Here's a rough section:


Here's a moderate section:



Temps vary from year to year, but morning temps tend to be in the 30s and 40s while highs can get into the upper 80s. I would bring warm clothes on some pre race training missions and see what works for you. I tend to be a little chilly in the morning so I like a little extra to start off with but shed it once the sun comes out.

I would think a full revelate set up with seat/frame/bar bags with extra pouch, and a gas tank should suffice for a serious UL effort. Anything more and the bike might start leaning towards the heavy side.

At 7 grams, the titanium gramcracker solid fuel stove works for me. I like the dehydrated dinners for racing and cooking seems to make me happy. One fuel block per day at 15 grams per block is fine for my racing weight weenyisms. I like this little setup over a fire for racing because it is so easy, no fussing about when I'm tired. Role into camp, get the water going, role out the bivy, dump the hot water in the pouch, change into my thermals, crawl into the bivy, and eat a hot, yummy meal. I'm always amazed at how good food tastes when I'm outdoors.  I'm always searching for food options too! Food can really brighten my day, and the lack of the right nutrition can just as easily wreck a day too. Some folks can process foods that would make me ill during a race. They make me jealous eating a pudding pie in the middle of a race for a quick 500 calories.

Whenever I'm trying to decided if I can do without something I bring it on a training mission but purposefully don't use it. If I really need it, I have it. If I didn't use it I know I can leave it at home next time.