2016 Tour Divide Preparation

[kiwidave]

Then why no announcement here from Trackleaders, or identification on the form?  Smells like weekold fish.

Rick - it is legit. Matt Lee sent the link from his personal email to a TD racer who forwarded it to me. I posted it on the Tour Divide 2016 Racers Facebook page and Tanadog re-posted it here.

See you in Banff in a couple of weeks.

[rick miller]

Rick - it is legit. Matt Lee sent the link from his personal email to a TD racer who forwarded it to me. I posted it on the Tour Divide 2016 Racers Facebook page and Tanadog re-posted it here.

See you in Banff in a couple of weeks.

Thanks Kiwidave!  I didn't know about the rules change.  I could have easily been relegated for not tipping and not even known!  I wonder if that applies to buffets?

[Pampa]

Our rental units have 'unlimited' tracking enabled which means they don't timeout after 24 hours.  They are also at a 5min ping rate.  Both of those options cost more than the cheapest 'basic' tracking option.

If you don't have unlimited you can still track 100% of the time, you just have to turn your SPOT on/off every day.  The problem, of course, is people often forget, and then their friends/families panic because they don't track for a day or so.  With unlimited tracking we see a lot better tracking performance. 

Thank you for the answer & heads up.

[Erik_A]

Which giant canisters (32oz or 40oz) for water do you guys recommend?  I plan to use it in a Blackburn Outpost Cargo Cage.

http://www.everythingwillbenoble.com/blog/bike-packing-touring-gear-review-blackburn-outpost-top-tube-bag-outpost-cargo-cage

[pbasinger]

Thanks Kiwidave!  I didn't know about the rules change.  I could have easily been relegated for not tipping and not even known!  I wonder if that applies to buffets?

There are really no changes here from the original rules dating from the GDR.  Basically just do it yourself. I guess they are just going into more detail about what that actually means.  I've heard they get hate mail each year from relegated riders that blatantly and sometimes admittedly break rules.  The tipping thing is funny though.

[gotchile]

For water storage I used MSR 2 L bags in my Anything Cages.  They fold down when you don't need them.  Others I say were buying 1L bottled water at Cstores along the way and strapped them onto their fork cages. 

[ScottM]

Then why no announcement here from Trackleaders, or identification on the form?  Smells like weekold fish.

The general procedure is to send an LOI in using the contact form on tourdivide.org.   Matthew then sends out the link (posted here) to riders by email after that.  So no general announcement from us.

That's the form to get the SPOT registration form, though.  It's real, as others have said.

[Flinch]

 

Last weekend I had to 'Hike-A-Bite' at Pie Town : Took an entire hour to push fork thru frozen ice cream slush, and two pieces of rough and uneven blueberry and pecan pie.   

Met two bikepackers at Pie-O-Neer who started in AW and were heading for somewhere in Colorado - time limited vacation.

Be aware of cafe hours for the summer:

Pie Town Cafe Friday to Monday, 8am to 3pm Mountain Daylight Time
Pie-O-Neer Thursday-Sat 11:30 - 4 pm, or until pies are gone. No longer serving 'food', just pies.
The Pie Source Homestead Cafe, Mon-Wed:   9:00 am - 6:00 pm Sun: 11:00 am - 4:00 pm
The Gatherin' Place, 7 days a week 7:30 am - 6:00 pm

Am carbo loading for next year's race, so make us blue dot junkies proud this year!

[cmn529]

Another technology challenged question-  how come sometimes I see high/low points marked on a track and sometimes the same track doesn't show them on my eTrex20?  It seems like it isn't a part of the track itself.  Is there an option somewhere on my eTrex? 

I saw something on a Garmin forum that said waypoints are automatically generated for major high and low points, however the same track sometimes shows them and sometimes does not??

[Cosmo K]

Boom...it's up!

http://trackleaders.com/tourdivide16

Tour Divide 2016 starts in 15 days, 17 hours, 7 minutes () -- at 08:00:00 AM (MDT) 06/10/16

[Jbennett]

I'm seeing reference to emails being received.  Should I be concerned if I haven't gotten an email yet?  I sent my LOI and then a follow-up, at which point I did get a response.  Just want to make sure I'm not missing anything important!

[Get Mounted]

JBennett I've sent a couple of emails including an LOI and am yet to receive any response. I figure there might be a group email closer to the day?

[johnnystorm]

JBennett I've sent a couple of emails including an LOI and am yet to receive any response. I figure there might be a group email closer to the day?

Fingers crossed, I sent one via the form and one direct and haven't had a reply. As long I hear from someone , be it forum or otherwise I'm good!

[dp]

There are really no changes here from the original rules dating from the GDR.  Basically just do it yourself. I guess they are just going into more detail about what that actually means.  I've heard they get hate mail each year from relegated riders that blatantly and sometimes admittedly break rules.  The tipping thing is funny though.

In the Cordillera, I read an account of one racer getting chewed out repeatedly by hotel clerks along the route, as the racers in front of him were using hotel bath towels to mop down their dirty bikes in the room.  You can imagine the mess.  It's a matter of consideration.  "Be considerate of your fellow sentient being" as the saying goes (I'm paraphrasing).  In other words, don't be a dick.  Which is handy, since that was my New Year's resolution for 2016.  So this'll be good practice.

-dp

[mtbcast]

I have a couple of people lined up to interview about the charity they're riding for. I plan to do a few more if anyone wants a slot feel free to email me and I'll try to work you in. I'll try to get 5 interviews done over the next 2 weeks. I usually try to do one per week the 5 weeks leading up to the race but didn't get to this year. I'll try to do the same number and we'll just push them out as we can starting next week. MTBCast_AT_gmail.  Anyone not in a full-blown interview is welcome to do a pre-race call-in and give a plug for their cause as well and I'll roll them at the end of the pre-race shows. I will try to post links as well if you can send them to me.

[Mikebike]

Two questions.  Someone remind me when/where we sign up and input our Spot EIN# (I own my own Gen3)?  The other question is concerning the Garmin etrex20X...I can't find the function that will tell me my vertical gain for the day.  Seems to have everything else except the vert gain total.  FYI, I used Oregon 650T last year and it was a mistake...two reasons.  1) sucks the life out of batteries too fast...and 2) touch screen feature goes crazy in the rain.  I am dumbing down to 20x this year.

[johnnystorm]

Two questions.  Someone remind me when/where we sign up and input our Spot EIN# (I own my own Gen3)?  The other question is concerning the Garmin etrex20X...I can't find the function that will tell me my vertical gain for the day.  Seems to have everything else except the vert gain total.  FYI, I used Oregon 650T last year and it was a mistake...two reasons.  1) sucks the life out of batteries too fast...and 2) touch screen feature goes crazy in the rain.  I am dumbing down to 20x this year.

Just a page or so back.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1K9eeB6OGsN4WWh9pl7tH4ga4u4Rt2Q70nd--SW2NlyE/viewform

[metalartgate]

Two questions.  Someone remind me when/where we sign up and input our Spot EIN# (I own my own Gen3)?  The other question is concerning the Garmin etrex20X...I can't find the function that will tell me my vertical gain for the day.  Seems to have everything else except the vert gain total.  FYI, I used Oregon 650T last year and it was a mistake...two reasons.  1) sucks the life out of batteries too fast...and 2) touch screen feature goes crazy in the rain.  I am dumbing down to 20x this year.

Mike go to 'Setup' > 'Page Sequence' >'Add Page' > 'Elevation Plot' Now when you flip through the pages you will be able to see the Elevation Plot for the current track being recorded.

There is a VERY good tutorial on setting up a Etrex here http://www.aukadia.net/gps/lw3_0.htm

-Gary

[metalartgate]

If your trying to get it to show up on the map page as a data field it's 'Total Ascent' your looking for. You need to reset your 'Current Track' each day to have it show total for the day.

[Joraff]

How much chamois cream (and what kind) are you all bringing with you? I typically don't need any, but I will not be taking any chances on this! Is bringing an entire 8oz tub uncommon?