I've been happy on my niner QR fork and RDO. I'm Giving enve a try this year but I can say anything negative about the niners I own.

I ran 2.2 Ikons at low pressure. If even consider the 2.0s if there was ever a next time. I really think my time in the aerobars is a bigger factor for no numb hands than tire size but then again I ride rigid exclusively and am very well adapted. I also run bar ends.

I cannot make the race date but if it's not snowy I could itt. My guess is trying for 2018 to complete my lifetime triple crown

Argg I want to join in

Mine is roughly torso length, 20in wide 1/8" thick. Not much but it's proven its worth.

Then there is weather nonsense too. Cleaning mud packed bikes, drying wet gear, keeping stuff lubed. On and off with clothing. I tried to do as much of this rolling as possible but it gets harder as you fatigue. Also remember route knowledge is huge. I knew where water was, most food stops from memory, what towns had what type of supplies. Thats a huge time saver for sure.

I haven't dug in to the numbers hardcore but I generally slept 4 hours, spent 1 hour at any resupply location unless more were coming soon, and only napped when falling asleep was a safety issue. Most days seemed to be 16-18 hrs moving? Occasionally the longer stops were when I had mechanical issues to fix (Brush) or was in a slow moving place (steamboat, Salida, etc). My one long stop was Sargents for a longer sleep before the final push.

Power was great for training. Awesome for day 1-3. After that if you're racing hard and not sleeping it's unnecessary. I still glanced at it but never needed it to pace. Your top end is gone anyway.

I'm definitely interested. Not sure how timing will work. I probably could squeeze it in a 3 day weekend but that time of year i can't take days off.

The ones setting those records are typically professional athletes -- that is their job. And they have a ton of support outside of the race to help them be as best as they can be. Most of us are not that lucky. We have jobs, families, limited training time, limited budgets, etc. While I like the concept of open classification, and digging deep to try and keep pace with those athletes brings out more in us than we could have imagined, I just think it's unrealistic for the majority of us to keep that pace. It's why most races have categories, albeit they're usually sanctioned events. But the principle being that most of us are not pros

I think you're reaching to describe the top Tour Divide riders as pros. I'm definite not a pro.

Best guess for a fast time? Under 2 days?

My moving speed was right on 11mph for the whole way

Looks sweet

Do you see anyone that you know's bike here:
http://bikepackersmagazine.com/2016-tour-divide-rigs/

Mine is the single speed with white bags

He Pivvay I am thinking of trying the tuscobia. Can you hit me up with gear lists and the like?

Try the required gear list from Arrowhead, Tuscobia, etc to start with. If you have specific questions I'll be happy to answer them but I don't have a complete rundown of my winter gear typed up and honestly it's pretty involved for winter. Plus what I carry really varies so you have to take the leap and just start trying things to some extent.

congrats on a great ride Neil. Recover and heal well!

Come on Neil!!

Hang in there Neil. Hope you get out safely or finish without doing serious damage. DNF or no it doesn't matter. You rode a hell of a ride and we all know it.

Yep, i'm out, sitting at home instead of headed to BV. Achilles got worse and worse and I had to call it with almost 400 miles to go still. It was a ton of fun racing again! I suspect that while my form is good, my tendons weren't quite up to multi day single speeding after only a year back on the bike. Hopefully not too much damage done. We'll see what the future holds...

In the meantime Neil is cruising and Tim and Christian are close together. Should be an interesting night. Both of them have slept.

Good luck Chris. I'll be keeping track of you. I'm pulling for you. What frame is that?

On-one Lurcher/Niner Fork