First Trans US Bikepacking Race June 2013

[Beardog]

One of the reasons I like riding all of these races is the solitude and challenge of riding it ALONE. On the official RAAM ®© website the RD advises that a solo rider should expect to spend at least $20,000 to ride the 3000 miles that make up the official RAAM route across the US. This is plus I believe an entry fee around $3000 (for timing station and officials, etc). I have qualified and asked the RD if he wouldconsider letting me and ohers riding it self supported. Other than Jay P last year the RD does not seem intested in allowing those of us who simply want to try to ride the route solo self supported and who do no have 7 friends or family members, $20K and a van for up to 14 days to slow puruse us (and spew CO2 in the atmosphere). So, I am posting this to get input from all of those out there interested in joining me likely June 1, 2013 in Long Beach to race self supported to Maryland on the official RAAM ®© route. This will be under rules similar to the TDR, AZT, CTR etc--ie. One bike - SPOT tracking - NO HELP whatsoever from anyone-can only hitch backwards to get a part. The current record appears to be Jay P's last year for men (12 days 23 hours 30 minutes) and I am unaware of any "official" female record. After I finish my races this year in the TDR and CTR I am planning on putting together a website and pick a name and date - likely June 1 (to avoid the heat of the deserts and the "official" RAAM start in mid-June.) I was thinking about TUSSBR ("Trans United States Self Supported Bikepacking Race") but does not exactly roll off the tongue. Please either post up here or e mail me personally (beardog1960@msn.com) if you are interested in racing - organizing- etc. This could be a good campaign for ridiing with a minimal carbon footprint or just plain fun!!     

[mbeardsl]

Trans America Self-supported Race = TASR (but sounds like tazer!)  ??
I know America isn't accurate or at least would be the US-centric meaning of it, but rolls a little better.
I think bikepacking is redundant but I'm sure there are more creative people that will chime in.

[al_maxey]

Maybe a collection of keywords would help everyone come up with a suitable acronym.  Here are a few, but I'm sure there are many more:

bicycle
race
trans
cross
ultra
ultralight
light
unsupported
solo
epic (or maybe effin' crazy)
America
continent
US
great
cross country
trans continental
time trial
grand depart


Anyway, that's a start.  Maybe with those and a few other words, some of the creative folks can come up with a cool name. 

I'd love to race this, too bad for that four letter word "W O R K" that gets in the way - I can't imagine getting the time off for this but I'll start dropping hints now.  If anyone has any suggestions on obtaining spousal approval for races like this, let me know.  We should start a thread on juggling work/family/racing.....

[groundedkiwi]

  If anyone has any suggestions on obtaining spousal approval for races like this, let me know. 

TANDEM!!!!

See that was easy.....

[krefs]

Wasn't the Great Divide Race the first trans-US bikepacking race? That fact aside, JayP pioneered this idea and I'm glad to see someone trying to build off what he did. It's too bad that the RAAM RD wasn't interested, but in reality, you know that they'd slap on a $2000 entry fee or something like that for the self-supported racers.

[Endurance Junkie]

I'll be there!
Gonna go ahead and put in for the time off!

[mcmurv]

Dave:
I have been a fan of this:  http://www.transamtrail.com/about/   

Yea, it is about motorcycling, but it is off road. 


Vance

[cartographer]

PASS - Pacific to Atlantic Self Supported

Whatever you call it, have fun out there!

[AZTtripper]

This could be a good campaign for ridiing with a minimal carbon footprint or just plain fun!!     

You silly hippie no one cares about their carbon footprint and even if they did they would just by carbon credits so they could do what ever they wanted and still feel good about themselves. Just kidding of course. Personally I would be more into that moto route as it's more dirt.

PASS sounds good to me have fun with it.

[DocTrike]

This could be great for me as I am supposed to do the TDR this year but do to passport renewal issues was planning a late year ITT or a GDR. We also have not received the pre-production sample trike yet. This sounds like a pure road race so logistics, equipment requirements, and costs could be much higher.

You can't camp just anywhere in many states so lodging costs will sure to be much higher. It could be worth exploring more. My body is already use to long road races and double centuries. I can use any of our existing trikes on the road without expense of something new; including the sociable tandem trike.

[groundedkiwi]

PASS - Pacific to Atlantic Self Supported

Whatever you call it, have fun out there!

I like it!!!

And the finishers T-Shirt can read "The PASS can go and kiss my A*#!"

And of course that leads to another version should there be any non-finishers.....

[DocTrike]

LOL

[hikernks]

Dave:
I have been a fan of this:  http://www.transamtrail.com/about/   

Yea, it is about motorcycling, but it is off road. 

I'd say go for this route.  Looks pretty good to me.

[Thumby]

It's a great idea.  Should the route be repeatable and comparable (to a degree) year to year?  Is RAAM still in the habit of revealing a new route each year?  If you "just do the RAAM route", it could be new each year and hard to compare times, if you are into that kind of thing. 

[mbeardsl]

I'd say go for this route.  Looks pretty good to me.

[quote

Stops in TN, so you'd need to do some more work in dirt routes through NC or VA to the coast.

[Beardog]

The moto route looks promising but personally getting rolled up on by a throttle jockey when grunting up a hill has always been irritating to me- a steady diet of that would drive me nuts-a couple years ago at 24 Hr Moab a bunch of bikers decided to crash the party only to bog down on sand hill behind us spinnin up on our mtbs and then have to push their heavy bikes up it. Some say that is KARMA. RAAM does announce its route each year but its records do not change since they reduced the mileage a little back about 10 years ago. It is always the same start and finish. At least for 2013 I am bent on riding the RAAM route solo self supported-you can sleep anywhere (ask Jay P) and do not have to hotel up-during TDR at times you are forced to sleep in less than desirerable bivvy spots-my worst was under a rr bridge somewhere to get out of the rain on a pile of rocks. In the not to distant future (say 2014-15) I am dreaming of a race Mathew Lee and I discssed once on dirt from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. Any cartographers out there?? And yes work is a 4 letter word - but a means to an end not the other way round.

[mbeardsl]

Been done a couple times on pavement but doing it all dirt would be wild.  Something like 15000-18000 miles?  On the order of 6 months to complete?

Even doing it that quick on pavement would have to be a record I think as most rides have been slow tours with lots of stops.

[Jilleo]

In the not to distant future (say 2014-15) I am dreaming of a race Mathew Lee and I discssed once on dirt from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. Any cartographers out there?? And yes work is a 4 letter word - but a means to an end not the other way round.

I'm curious where you guys are planning to get through Yukon and northern British Columbia on dirt. In Alaska there's the Denali Highway and Top of the World Highway for gravel, but beyond there I think dirt routes are pretty sparse. There are fire roads here and there but the odds of finding enough to string together seems low. Old roads and trails disappear quickly in the North. I've headed out looking for both the Fairbanks-Circle Historic Trail and the old rail line along the Copper River between Cordova and Chitina. As far as I explored, both are heavy bushwhacks just a few decades after they were regularly traveled. So outdated maps aren't going to be much help either. As far as a "Northern" Divide route, I would think the Alaska/Cassiar Highways would be your only options.

[fotooutdoors]

Been done a couple times on pavement but doing it all dirt would be wild.

Check out http://www.ridingthespine.com/.  A long ride (2 years as I recall), but mostly on dirt.

[mbeardsl]

Check out http://www.ridingthespine.com/.  A long ride (2 years as I recall), but mostly on dirt.

Wow, I have seen that before.  Don't know how I didn't remember it.  Looks like quite a story with all of the trouble they ran into.  Doing this type of ride solo could be quite dangerous, not that have an extra 1-2 people with you helps that muhc with bribes and drug runners but at least you'd have company in crisis.

This really deserves it's own thread I guess, but the timing of that route could be very interesting.  Start early summer in Alaska and ride the first section on snow? Make it through to central america and into South america during the fall/winter, which turns into summer/fall for the last 3 months?