So has anyone actually shipped their stuff to Banff somehow? Or know of a way to do this?
I know it would have to be well in advance due to customs regulations, but after booking my flight, one flight says that there is no problem in carrying my bicycle on the flight but they are unsure of the connecting flight.... this leaves me wondering what i should do, as if i show up in calgary without the box that has my whole life in it, i will be pretty SOL.

Also, anyone know of a guide on how to send drop ship packages ahead of yourself on the route/the way to do this?

Can you change your flights?

I shipped mine in 2009 on May 30th from Tennessee, moved to Ohio and spent the week talking to fedex, faxing docuements etc to prove I owned it and wasn't going to sell it.
it got out of customs the day I arrived.  I'm pretty sure I lost a few hairs because of that.  you can probably ship stuff to the YWCA. and i'm willing to bet you can ship "general delivery" to canandia post(as you can in the states).

I brought most things as carry on so my bike box would be lighter(and hopefully cheaper).
Air canada waved my fee...
I just wore some worn out clothes and pitched them that morning.

Do not fly with a reusable fancy plastic case. They are too big to mail to the states via Canadian post(your only option in Banff).
I priced shipping an empty case from Calgary(to Ohio), and it was as expensive as the case.

Other than a change of wheels did you run the Stumpy in its "off the peg" configuration?

Most of the stuff I read has people using Ti/Steel.
Do many people use Al/Carbon off the peg bikes from Trek/Specialized/Scott etc?

I saw a ton of superfly's in 2010.
I did it in 09 and 10 on an alu/carbon 26er

I took mine(custom, typed from the maps back in 09), copied them into excel, did the math to swap the mileage, and now I'll have to copy them back into word and swap "left" for "right" and fix the formatting.......I'll wait for a snowy day for that.

I ran fluid and added 4 oz to each tire in Steamboat.
excessive? probably. worth the piece of mind..no doubt.
but that's just me, I worry a lot. 
I know racers have been fine with less.

Stephen, I've found your sticker on the ground, about 3 weeks later

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sluttyduck/5983139272/#


-- sigma7

seriously?
I removed it, must have fallen out of my top bag. I didn't leave anything in the wood.

Besides the single track section after Boreas Pass (Gold dust trail), and the one before Silver City, are there any other changes to the route? I'm asking because my maps are from 2010.

we'll have to wait for someone from ACA to chime in.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sluttyduck/5982871303/#in/set-72157626832492824  boreas pass entrance

Are you running Stan's as well?
Did you vary tire pressure on TD or did you stick with one in particular? 
Did you also stick with this tire for TNGA?

Thanks...

26: flows
29: crest

tire pressure no idea, set it and forget it
although I had some sort of leak on the 29er but once I hit it up with a powered pump everything was fine.
same thing for the TNGA

UST(or LUST as Maxxis calls it).
26 2009, 2010
29 2011

Chaco is post Cuba. El Malpais is the alt post Grants. right?
South of Cuba
There are two. both are pseudo grocery stores.
I couldn't tell you the mileage off the top of my head. the first one was closed when I went by(5amish) and the second I stopped at.

South of Grants
Gas station at the interstate exit(subway).
water at the national monument visitor center.
then pie town.

What's the consensus on tires for the TDR? I rode, and have loved, Nanos for several years. When I recently upgraded, my new ride came with Racing Ralphs. After my first flat, the thin sidewalls gave me a little pause.
 

3 years, 6 Maxxis Crossmark Tubeless 0 flats.

I'm assuming there will be a sign up link on the site. Last year's LOI's were not published.

Winter Solstice is only 3 days away. Get those LOI's ready :-)

I believe Matthew put the kibosh on LOI's.

Stephen,
How do you feel about the way the Rohloff feels? I mean is the power loss very noticeable to you? I feel like mine is sluggish, like it's dragging or something. Not 100% sold on it yet. Maybe I just need time to get used to it.

The only time I notice the power loss is when I'm going downhill. Which was a good thing because it kept me from hitting too high a speed on some of the downhillls like Cabin's Pass.  I'm sure the extra drag wound up adding minutes, hours, or more onto my overall time, but the piece of mind was worth it.

Try and keep it in 11th gear as much as possible, since that's a 1:1 ratio.

you can change the gears with an 8mm open-end wrench (on the disc brake compliant EX version). I didn't have any problem with my Rohloff IGH since more than 30.000 miles.


-- sigma7

I know, I have one too.
I was thinking of the "worst" case where something internal breaks(assuming it's not the worst worst worst case where the internals are broken so bad it just freewheels).
Breaking a cable isn't that big a deal in the grand scheme of things.

14 gears.
Worst case scenario you're stuck with a single speed, hopefully in a good ratio.

Singular Gryphon w/Rohloff and Phantom Pack bags.

Fineally figured out how to upload pictures directly to the site :-) I'm not too computer savy.

who made that shifter and can you get it in the states?

I used my AAA discount where I could.
most places didn't even ask to see the card(I had the number in my phone); YMMV.

I never thought about buying just bread, but buying a sandwich(or two) to go for 2nd dinner and 1st breakfast is a great way to take so luxury with you as you pedal away from civilization.

I removed the 2011 column since it was a radically different course.
This is just the GD stats, I didn't do ITT.

Planning on abandoning just sounds depressing to me.
I remember an evening when I was trying to get to town before a restaurant closed.
I told myself to stop dreaming of the juicy burger and fries because I'd be depressed if I didn't get there in time.
So I just thought about eating my peanut butter and tortilla and that was more depressing than not having a burger.
Screw that.