Good luck to all of you! Be sure to enjoy it all - all of the Joy and all of the pain - the Tour Divide is one of life's greatest gifts. Rooting for every last one of you. Just keep pedaling!

Ah! Hopefully, looks like he is moving fine

Maybe he is tring to get down to 126 (pavement) for some reason?

Paul Barsom looks off track heading into Cuba?  Hope he figures it out soon!

Gold dust trail was mandatory in 2013. Make sure you do not forget about it because it will sneak up on you quickly and it would suck to miss it and have to pedal back up to the pass.

Oops. I meant 20 year olds.

Anyone selling? I'd take fred bars by Siren, or anyone else as long as they get the job done.

only five left from a run of 60. Better hustle.


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Frozen toes would also be a non-issue for south-bounders as long as you're willing to start your ITT in August.  But then you'd miss out on the grand depart festivities.  Choices, choices...  -dp

Go with Alpaca socks- no itch and 5X warmer than smart wool. I have an issue with cold feet and this was a major concern for me( i am from Florida:)  I used alpaca socks on the Td in 2013 all the way to New Mexico.  They were awesome! No issue at all with cold feet. Also used Rocky Gore-Tex OverSocks for the rain/water.


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I used 2.1 small block eights in 2013   
2858 miles - zero flats.

PdkSr

The only mechanical I had was fork mounted bottle ejection issues and broken bottle cages.
I see a pattern here
I had zero flats and ran Small Block Eights 2.1 - tubeless. Tires were in good shape but I changed them in Salida just to be safe.


Peter Kraft Sr.

Peter Jr. Was 20 as well. Interesting that both of the 20 year olds are majoring in Engineering.


Peter Kraft Sr.

[where]

I killed 2 computers during the race.  Normally I advocate wired computers, but on a bikepacking rig if you don't get the routing and strain relief perfect, the computer won't last.  (Too many bags and things rubbing and shaking.)  If I did it again, I would go with the adjustable VDO computer in digital wireless form.

When I had a working computer, I navigated by cue and occasionally double-checked the GPS.  I had customized the cues and printed them out myself.  I never looked at the GPS and found myself off course, but I occasionally used the GPS to navigate a tricky intersection.

Navigating by cue is, IMO, the most fun, most immersive way to ride.  No staring into screens, and the cues give you a sense of where you are that the glowing red line does not.  Keeping the GPS on as a backup helps you stay fast, but put it on a 15-second timeout so you aren't tempted to stare at it.

I killed 2 computers during the race.  Normally I advocate wired computers, but on a bikepacking rig if you don't get the routing and strain relief perfect, the computer won't last.  (Too many bags and things rubbing and shaking.)  If I did it again, I would go with the adjustable VDO computer in digital wireless form.

When I had a working computer, I navigated by cue and occasionally double-checked the GPS.  I had customized the cues and printed them out myself.  I never looked at the GPS and found myself off course, but I occasionally used the GPS to navigate a tricky intersection.

Navigating by cue is, IMO, the most fun, most immersive way to ride.  No staring into screens, and the cues give you a sense of where you are that the glowing red line does not.  Keeping the GPS on as a backup helps you stay fast, but put it on a 15-second timeout so you aren't tempted to stare at it.


[I was big on VDO wireless. I used one as did my son and they both failed roughly 20 days in.  Within days of eachother.  Maybe I just need to be faster. ]

I have been on pace for 26 days for most of the race. Then on Monday I screwed up coming down Magnus before the baptist church water fill.  I have no idea what happened but I crashed and had to take an hour and a half ambulance ride to Socorro(I think that was the city). My son who is racing this year as well (we ride all day alone because his pace is much faster than mine. He was at the church wondering where I was when I showed up in complete disarray. He accompanied me in the ambulance. They stitched my ear, eye, right knee, right elbow, left elbow(plus added a tube in the elbow) and I hurt my back.  24 hrs later we got a ride back to the church where our bikes were and pushed on. Still trying for 27 days we started up the CDT last night late(we did not do the reroute because we came to do as much of the whole original route as possible. All of a sudden about 11pm last night my son became violently ill. Throwing up literally all night. We knew we could not come back down to the Sapilla CG until daylight. Took three hours to walk down with my completely delirious child( who had been talking about doing it next year without me in 23 days. A forest ranger said he was in trouble and needed to have an ambulance get him to Silver City.  So here I sit waiting on the answer of what is going on with my son.  And he says to me, "dad we are going to finish thing one way or another.
We have trained for three years for this race as much as possible.  Not all of us just ride bicycles all day every day.  Family school and kids are part of life.
I am done ranting, but if the doc allows him to continue and we do in fact finish.  Would probably be 30 days at this point and if you elitist assess thinks that's too long. Then the hell with you all.  Make it a professional race.


Peter D Kraft Sr.

Not sure why. But if you are using TourDivide2012_v2.gpx then it is part of the route. Just follow the line.

It's actually more of a short detour. It was an addenda update

He is on route. There is a reroute there.

Another question for the TD Vets - Is it overkill to make a short list of services with phone numbers and location within each town. Or, would I be better served to do that in the "smaller towns" as the full service towns have plenty of service on route? How did you guys know where you wanted to resuply when you stopped in a particular location?

Thanks

Thank you guys for the feedback on the tires. Long ranger why not tubeless?  What tires did you guys use?
I am really torn on this and am just not sure if the sidewalks will be an issue.

Thank you again!

Peter Kraft Sr.

I would like some feedback from the vets that may have info on using small block eights. How do they stack up to the nano raptors?

Thanks guys!