The website says Nov. 7, 2020. Do you know what the actual event date is?

You don't need much detail on the maps. I did it the first year and only had a line on my mapless GPS to follow. When I did the Cairngorms Loop I had a Wahoo ELEMNT which also doesn't have much detail and did fine. But if you want there are free maps you can download for a Garmin. Open Cycle Maps would be my recommendation: https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2019/08/how-to-install-free-maps-on-your-garmin-edge.html

We just finished our Cohutta Cat group ride last weekend and there are still people out there. Winter is a great time to ride in the Southeast. It's cold but rarely snows. Had guys on everything from rigid SS to fat bikes to FS last weekend. Check it out: http://www.bikepacking.com/routes/cohutta-cat/

In case anyone on here missed it, we've updated the route this year to add about 30 miles of riding, better resupply, less questionably legal sections, and a little more singletrack. Group depart in November or tour it whenever you want to! http://www.bikepacking.com/routes/cohutta-cat/

Yep, Nov. 3, 2017

I made a sweet loop route called the Cohutta Cat in North Georgia/Eastern Tennessee. Check it out at http://dgjessee.wix.com/cohuttacat

Ha! Touché. I guess I meant they haven't outsourced customer service to someplace around the world from where the company is. I know a lot of the guys at the Wahoo HQ and they are all local folks (except for some development folks in Brisbane actually).

No you don't need the premium RWGPS account. For road routes all you do is import the route into RWGPS and the turn-by-turn directions just happen seamlessly in the GPS unit over wifi. You can choose to add other POIs in RWGPS and that will show up in the routing too.

You do not need the phone for anything except settings. So as long as the settings are how you like them before the trip you'll never need to pull it out. I run a super light 2200mah cache battery off the dynamo during the day and plug the battery into the ELEMNT when it gets around 15%. I leave the phone on airplane mode and use it for music and pictures for days.

Thanks for the advice on KB. I do have the GSB in the back of my mind but part of what I love about bikepacking events is meeting so many great people. It's very hard to pass up a group depart. Olie told me in another thread both were amazing, the GSB maybe a little prettier, but also he said the KB had more interesting singletrack. So for now still planning on KB but I have an RV so really can make last minute changes quite easy.

Ray wrote that review last March. Long before the turn-by-turn nav was added (he has one-two other update posts). I disagree on the "rudimentary" navigation. it's far better in my opinion than an eTrex for turn-by-turn directions and at least as good as an Edge. You don't have to add cues if you use RWGPS--it will automatically say "turn right on Smith Road." But if its on a trail or unnamed road in OSM may not catch that it's a new turn. Same exact thing eTrex or Edge would do. I had things on my route that were like "bear right on Moss Creek Trail" which I would have had to create on any unit but it was stupid easy in RWGPS and simply part of my studying the route. As I said, when you approach a turn it flashes at you and the LEDs show you which way to turn as well. It will flash red if you get off-route too. You'll have your eyes glued to the screen far less than on an eTrex (especially) or an Edge. Like I said, I would be riding along at night, no screen on, and then it would flash and beep before a turn, I'd get through the turn, and then it would turn off again until I hit another turn. Again, it matters what service you use and I recommend RWGPS. When you're just following a track on the screen (which is what happens when you create a route in Strava and follow it) it has arrows showing you which way you need to go and a solid line for where you've been. It's no different than following a track on an eTrex. Honestly the biggest difference is the black and white e-ink screen. It doesn't bother me at all but I could see some folks not liking it. Heck, with the recent ELEMNT app update, you can now be out on a ride, get lost, pull out your phone, search for a location using your phone map, and send a new route to your ELEMNT to get you there.

If you're not sure it will meet your needs, write down what you want to do and call Wahoo CS. They are awesome people and will answer all your questions. They all sit around one table in Atlanta, Georgia; you're not calling some center in another country. You can also order it from their website with free shipping, try it for 30 days, and return it for a full refund if you're not happy.

Yeah, I know about the Kiwi Brevet re-route. It also made it 100 miles longer than in the past. I'm not worried about it - I ride in city traffic all the time. It's only about 60 miles of roads that are higher in traffic than usual. In any case, would love the NZ govt to fix the coast road and railway just before we arrive!

very easy to zoom the map in and out using the up/down arrows. There is no panning however. Yes, you can update and contribute to OSM all you want. The ELEMNT will automatically update its OSM maps but I have no idea how frequently that happens. You can manage world maps on the ELEMNT too, but I dont know where the data base comes from and to the best of my knowledge it's all non-topo OSM maps. There's absolutely no online interface specifically for the unit. So there's no "Basecamp" type application for lots of detailed editing. But you can link dropbox to the ELEMNT so if you do all your own work on a route in something like Basecamp or Topofusion, you can send the GPX file to dropbox and the ELEMNT will import it through WiFi. You can't plug the ELEMNT into the computer and move any files that way. It's all wireless. So yeah, adding GPX files is very easy, but you just have to figure out your preferred online application (I will be using RWGPS for all my bikepacking in the future). As for firmware, yeah I mean you never really even notice when it does the updates. It will download them whenever it's turned on and in WiFi range.

Actually my only complaint - and it might be my phone's RAM dying - is that when I am using the app to change date fields it sometimes freezes for like 5 seconds (the phone screen), then it's fine. One other minor niggle is just that you're limited on the settings you can change without a phone. So like I usually have auto-pause enabled when I am doing road cycling training rides. But I never use it for mountain biking or bikepacking. When I started the Cohutta Cat 260 I realized I still had it on but I had to take my phone out, open the app, change the setting, then put it away. Really wasnt a huge deal, but a little irritating. Mostly my own fault for not pre-planning better.

I used my ELEMNT for a 3-day, 270-mile bikepack ride and absolutely LOVED IT! Planning to use it for the 700-mile Kiwi Brevet too. I've been meaning to write a review on my own site. But to summarize....I uploaded the route to RideWithGPS and then added all my cues to the route (so, water on left, turn right, camping, resupply). I did a cue on every major turn or junction. It was super easy to do in RWGPS. Then when I turned the ELEMNT on the route was completely downloaded with cues and all. Easy turn-by-turn navigation, no waypoint filtering for size... it was just awesome. It does the upcoming elevation so I know how long the climb I am on is. It had a couple hiccups with that feature, but 95% of the time it worked beautifully to help me pace my climbs. I loved the LED lights showing turns or straights. I also loved that at night I had no need to keep the backlight on because it would light up every time a turn was approaching and stay on long enough to get through the turn. When I first got the ELEMNT, I was not impressed by the battery life. But it seems to have mellowed a lot. I think it would take perfect conditions (like 70-degrees, no navigation, no LEDs, no backlight) to get the 17 hours, but I rode from about 7AM-9PM and never went below 15-20%. I did plug it into a cache battery at about 20% because I didnt want to risk anything but it doesnt freak out from a USB like Garmin does unless you have a OTG cable. The contrast was awesome. Very easy to see, no glare problems at all. I can see where some people might want more topographic info but simply having the trails from OSM on there was plenty for me. The map is not 100% accurate as it's based on OSM/OCM, but neither is any Garmin or OSM map I have used on a Garmin device. I did get a top-cap mount from K-Edge which made plugging the USB in really easy, so I do recommend that for bikepackers if that line of site works. It is big compared to other units but it really doesnt bother me - I like the size for several reasons. One caveat to the aforementioned routing is that it's very dependent on the app/website you base it off of. So you can have a Strava route show up, but it will only show you a line. This would be much less useful in trail systems. it also doesnt prompt the LEDs. With RWGPS and all the cues, you still have the line on the screen, but you can have it set to say "in 2 miles, bear right on obscure trail." I seriously have no regrets at all about the ELEMNT. It was exactly what I was looking for: a GPS device that was super useful any day of the week (unlike an eTrex) but incredibly functional for bikepacking as well.

After 4-5 Garmins going bad on me I swore off Garmin a year ago. For most bikepacking my Suunto Ambit3 does fine (HuRaCaN 300 and TNGA with it). I'm very interested in the Wahoo ELEMNT for longer rides and more detail and just curious if anyone has been using it? I've read not-so-great battery reviews (really just want to get the stated 17 hours). Wondering what the topo looks like, if anyone's loaded long 300+ mile routes, max battery life achieved, etc.

Thanks!

There's enough sand in Stagecoach that anything less than 2.2 tires will be pretty unpleasant. You could probably route around those spots but overall I don't think a CX bike like the Straggler will be much fun. I don't think anyone on here has any experience with Baja Divide yet since it's not completely released and the first full through ride is this January. There's a lot of good replies from the creators on their website: www.bajadivide.com. But even they suggest 2.4" tires minimum.

Have you thought about the White Rim Trail in Canyonlands? I don't know a ton about the trail conditions that time of year, but from a temperature perspective it should be awesome. And definitely a polar opposite of BC terrain.

Do you think the route will be passable in mid-September? I am sure there could be an early snow, but just found out I may be heading to Tahoe area around that time for work.

Cohutta Cat in Ellijay Georgia: http://dgjessee.wix.com/cohuttacat

Hey everyone,

After about 1.5 years of work the Cohutta Cat is ready for prime time! A huge thanks go out to Jason Thorman, Brett Davidson, Andy Farish, and Alasdair McLean for all their help testing out this route! And to Mulberry Gap, and specifically Andrew and Kate Gates, for buying into my vision of another awesome bikepacking route based in North Georgia. The group depart is November 4 at 8AM. Sign up and check out all the details at http://dgjessee.wix.com/cohuttacat. This is low-key as f$#% so don't expect much ;-)

If you have questions post them here or email me at dgjessee (at) gmail

Check out the Highland Trail Race in Scotland. Designed by a CTR vet. Super gnarly in some spots, overall I bet I walked 50-100 miles of it - mainly because i'm not a good technical rider. Not the "singletrack" we're used to in the US - imagine 1000-year old "roads" and "postal paths" with 12-24" wide water channels running through them. Ledges and water everywhere. 6" wide singletrack through peat tufts as high as your hubs. I've never ridden so much rock in my life.

My buddy and i are considering heading up to Ontario and Quebec this summer. I know about the Trans Canada Trail. But I would love to find some progression of single/double track from West to East. Has any one found any good resources? At the least I would love to find a dirt route from roughly here: https://goo.gl/maps/5KMzBXYryUH2 to Montreal or Quebec City

There's shit tons of trail and gravel!! Especially from the MD/WV border to Asheville. Email me and I can send you some files: dgjessee (at) gmail

Cleaveland Mountaineering seatbag. Works great, light weight, simple, have used in on many trips. I've overstuffed and probably had about 15-18L of stuff in it (it gets real long). It's really happy in the 10-13L range. There is a small hole from seatpost rubbing I tried to show in the photos. Nothing some silicon couldn't fix, but it didn't affect my uses. $55 shipped in continental US. Email me at dgjessee (at) google mail if interested.

Check out Thule's racks. They are rock solid and attach to any fork, frame, whatever. No reason you can't have a full-on touring set up if you wanted. They are a lot of plastic and aluminum but if you search for some reviews of these (they used to be the Freeload brand before Thule bought them) you'll see some great comments. I will say I have had some issues using my own panniers just because of some odd alignment issues so make sure you either go with Thule panniers or test out the fit from others before ordering.