Personal setups » LyndaW’s 2011 AZT 300 bike and gear

Before AZT I scoped every bike set up I could find. My set up ended up pretty tight and worked well for me at AZT 300 so as payback and thanks to everyone who shared theirs, here is mine.

I faced some pretty big challenges with carrying capacity. My stats are 104 lbs and 5’2″. I do prefer 29ers but the wheels are so up in the frame/fork there is no room for a seat or bar bag without tire buzz. I chose a full suspension 26er bike for AZT. If I was a few inches taller it would have been a 29 for sure! Brian Blair at The Path bike shop helped me with the perfect set up and I had on board a 3 x 10 drive train with a 22×36 gear. Putting that on 26 inch wheels made for a super-duper granny gear which was key for me as it allowed me to keep riding up hills in the heat very slowly but without boiling the top off my head. It was hot out there BTW, really hot.

This is when I was clean before the start.

Thanks to Caroline Soong for the photo

Even with my 26″ bike there is limited rear seat to wheel clearance and I could only get a medium sized seat bag in there without rear tire buzz when the suspension compressed.

The main triangle is too small for a frame bag that is useful. I did have one, it was small and awkward shaped and I ditched it. In my main triangle I carried one 29 oz water bottle and two slime tubes tightly wrapped in Tyvek to protect them from spikey desert things. Held on of course by Gorilla Tape.

Fluids: One 29 oz water bottle zip tied and velcroed to each fork leg, one 29 oz bottle in my main triangle, 100 oz bladder in my pack and space in my pack to pick up a big bottle of soda at the gas stations.

A regular top tube tank sits behind my stem, a custom made by Relevate Designs bag sits in front of my seatpost and a compression drybag on my bars. On my back a women’s sized (meaning shorter and wider) Solomon Raid Revo 20 pack.

Handlebar bag: Sleeping bag, neoair pad, bivy, emergency blanket, ear plugs, Teko socks. Sleeping comfy was on the plan!

Seat bag: Spare chammy, another pair of spare socks (I thought the heat/sweat would swell/damage feet so wanted several sock options), underwear, running shorts, waterproof pants, Craft Zero long sleeve, puffy jacket, thermal knee warmers, thermal arm warmers, bra, warm gloves, buff, thermal hat, cycling jersey (which I never used).

Front top tube bag: Ride food, lots of it.

Seatpost bag: Tools (pliers, multi tool, levers, pump). Spares (brake pads, der hangar, cleat bolts, zip ties, tire plugs, patches and glue, quick link, tire boots, gorilla tape, lube, rag). I didn’t have a spare cable and near the end my rear der cable was frayed and hanging on by only a few threads. I stopped shifting it at about mile 200 to save it.  Batteries for GPS and for lights. More ride food. I could cram a lot in this little bag!

Lights: http://www.ayup-lights.com/ on head and bars with a total of 42 hours of runtime battery juice on board. No skimping here!! I was ready to be nocturnal.

Backpack: 100 oz bladder, more food, sometimes a big bottle of coke, a big tube SPF 100+ sunscreen I used liberally, chammy cream, lip stuff, wispa toothbrush, toilet paper, tampons (yes my friends these were needed the whole time…), trash bag, printed maps of the course, moleskin, wipes, 3M tape, water filter, chlorine dioxide tablets, matches, waterproof jacket.

Clothing: White Craft ProCool t-shirt, De Soto arm coolers (I wore these 100% of the time night and day, they never came off and were held up with gorilla tape after the first day!), chammy, Patagonia bra, green knee high recovery socks I had sewn tyvek panels in the front of to keep the scratchy desert prickers out of my girl skin, Pearl Izumi X-Alp Pro shoes, around my neck I wore a knife, helmet, Smith Pivlock sunglasses daytime,  pink Dragon Moto MX goggles at night. My goggles make me happy at night 🙂

I think that is it. I probably forgot somethings as it seemed I had an overwhelming number of little bits and pieces with me.