first I am not riding the coco 250,i was in Sedona wed,thurs,friday, as I drove towards 89a I saw a couple of you riders and wanted to stop and say good luck,but thought I shouldn't bother you as I don't know any of you..
on Wednesday we rode gooseberry mesa in Utah and ran into 2 riders on a 4day b/p ride said they were from san Francisco.
one of them said the raced the azt750 this year.sorry didn't catch a name.
anyways wanted to say good luck to all and hope the mud/snow in flag isn't too bad for ya. I am riding the azt from fr418 into flag in the morning maybe we will see some of you!!!!!

sorry for highjacking this thread

you are on it aztt,that is the plan we have,or start at snowbowl rd.
thanks again

The old Moqui Stage route is the 70 mile one day ride that is very doable. The AZT shares part of this.

IMO the full AZT with all of the single track would be a bit tough on a loaded bike. Staying in a room and traveling light might make it more reasonable.

One option would be to ride the Stage route out and the AZT back. Or perhaps a mix of each in each direction. Speed thing up some by skipping some trail in each direction, but make things more interesting by adding some trail into each day.

I see the opening post is a couple of weeks old, guess I missed this the first time around.

Hope that helps.

Tim

thanks for the reply,we have not rode this yet due to the heat,but now concerned with the afternoon rains,might be a gooey mess!?
we are thinking of staying in a room,really wanted to ride mostly azt,but I guess time will only tell. have you ridden this route azttripper?

[without]

Re: the seal of cotton...
Forgot to add that I also carry a needle and thread to sew, but have never chosen to do so... If I can't get a seal, I mop up the mess inside the tire [carry a plastic grocery sack and paper towels for this], check for thorns, just throw in a tube and utter some expletives. However it is nice to know the needle and thread are an option for one of those Castaway nightmare experiences. Yep, nice bits of cotton can also be found in the cotton compression bandages everyone has in their first-aid kits...

Re: plugging valve cores
Full disclosure - I hate presta valves. All my mountain bike wheels have Schrader valves. Yep, I drill every single rim and then retape. Schrader, instead of presta valve, costs me about 1 g more weight. I'm a weight weenie, but no lost sleep. Wider area at base of stem will seal and is not a problem with rims wider than about 20mm [inside]. I either use custom turned-down [lathe] aluminum racing wheel valve stems [off a Mazda racing parts web site -?-] or lately, I just make my own from 20" Continental BMX tubes, which are threaded full-length [you want full-length threads to lock down the stem with a nut for tubeless sealing]. How does an entire Schrader tube cost less than one tubeless presta valve? The hole in the rim is larger than a presta, but I can pull out the stem and run either a Schrader or presta tube in a pinch. No more lost pump head adapters causing stress... Pull into a gas station and just add air... Walk over to the compressor in my garage and just fill 'er up... Put a metal valve remover cap on the stem, like the ones you get with a Slime bottle, and you can easily remove the valve core to add more Stan's/sealant without breaking the bead.
End of presta hatred.
Not yet - forgot my main point - IMHO, Schrader valves do not clog as easily as presta valves.

I use old used dirtbike tubes,cut the stems out of the tube and grind it down to fit into the valley of the rim,then use the locknut to secure it. works really good and most motorcycle shops will save old tubes for you instead of throwing them away. (free) who doesn't like free stems.

after riding stage 1 of the Coconino loop my buddy says we need to ride to the g/c.
would like to ride the azt there and back. could this be done in 2 days? stay at the g/c at the end of day one and return the next day?
if we leave from the snow bowl it looks like 90mi.

our ride ended up having 10 riders 4 of them women. had a couple minor problems, rear brake on matts bike along w/ him twisting his knee,lisa nursing a previously broken ankle (8 weeks) and Yvonne rear flat. six riders pulled out @ Mormon lake. 4 of us continued on finishing @ rancho Sedona campground with a RIDE time of 6hrs 38min. great trail other than the climb out of fisher point and Anderson mesa..

well it looks like its going to be a hot one this weekend, 8 of us will be rolling out at 6:00am Saturday, looks like 102deg in Sedona.
oak creek sure will feel good while i`m drinking a beer. rode last weekend in 104deg heat so it might not be too bad.
wish us luck!!!!!!!!!!

Try one of those retractable keyrings.

Velcro does work pretty well.

You can buy a longer hose and quicklink type of attachment, but you'll have to suck harder to get a drink.

Buy the longer insulated hose if you can, then you can shove a spoke down between the neoprene sleeve and the hose, and bend it to shape to bring the mouthpiece up a bit and hold shape.

try flexlinehydration.com they have a nice system w/a check valve. they are good people and should be able to help you out.

flagster,is the trail closure by Mormon lake before or after the fr240 turnoff?

anyone know if the trail closure by Mormon lake will interfear with stage one. do we turn off onto fr240 before it.
any good eats at Mormon lake lodge?

3m-moisture sealing tape #2228 stuck on the inside of the strap works great on the down tube of my bike

hi all,i`m mike from az. not new to mtb but a newb to  bikepacking. grew up racing bmx in the seventies then onto mx until 5 yrs ago,though I still ride s/t on a Honda crf 450x. and love all day point to point rides. my current mtb is a spearfish 2.
what a great site scott,loaded w/tons of info.

thank you I appreciate the quick reply.

a group of friends and I are riding stage 1 down into Sedona on june 8.
we have not downloaded gps cords yet, wondering if there are any water stops at dairy springs c/g or koc camp or Mormon lodge.
we are newbies and hope water is avail at these locations.
plan on leaving flag around 6am and hope to make Sedona before dark.