Gear Update!

February 18, 2025

I did a similar post on the Great Divide. If you don’t care about gear, skip ahead.

For this trip I decided to ride a gravel bike and honestly I am in love with this bike. The hand positioning is so great in comparison to my mountain bike adventure on the Divide. I spend most of the time on the hoods but I can rest my hands there sort of sideways as well. I can also get down into the hoods and there are notches for your fingers. It’s brilliant.

I am still very happy with my saddle. I don’t notice sitting for long periods, except for the occasional pimple.

The tires I’m using were designed in collaboration with Lael Wilcox (untracyclist and world record around the world). They have a very subtle sidewall and they are very light (about half the weight) of a full on MTB tire. This means that I have way less rolling resistance and it’s making a huge difference. I am generally averaging over 18 km/hour. I can offer ride at 30 km/hr on the sealed stuff.

On the flip side I’m much less confident descending on gravel on this bike compared to my mountain. The front end is more twitchy and that’s a lot to do with the amount of weight I’m carrying on the bars and fork.

On the back end the rack has been bullet proof. It attaches easily and the panniers have ample space. Once I figured out how to zip tie them in place they’ve been great and no flapping about.

I have too many clothes. And that’s not from poor planning. It’s because the weather has been warm. I have ski gloves that sit in my bag. Also a merino shirt worn once, puffy worn once, and windbreaker I’ve used a few times. What can’t you do!? Oh, the rain pants as well.

For context though on the Great Divide we needed every bit of clothing and one day we could have been in trouble potentially with the right gear (rain, elevation, 3 C). Hello hypothermia.

I changed a chain proactively and yesterday topped up the sealant. On the OGR I found my sidewall on the rear tire was leaking. I think I’ve stressed the sidewalls with low air pressure. I’m not certain I’ll be able to finish with that tire. Right now they are both good but probably half the tread is gone on the back one.

On the water front I have 3.2 L capacity. It’s overkill most times but I prefer not stopping and being able to drink a lot, especially since it’s been 35 C many days.

The tent is holding up fine, although. Or I’ve logged a lot of nights with it and it may need replacing back home. My collapsed pot, mug and bowl are great but I’ve cracked the lid on the pot with pressure rattling in the pannier.

I have used my locks when needed but no security issues thus far.

The blinking vest has been great, as have all my lights. I need to check the wear on my brakes and I’ll probably do that right now :)

The gearing I have is perfect for this trip. I’m using a 1x12 mountain bike gearing with 32T on the front and 10-52 on the cassette. It’s perfect for climbing and I don’t top out until about 38 km/hr. Really good.

All things considered I was well prepared and I’ve also been fortunate. I had that stretch with no bike pump. Now I use this new pump every day and I’ll likely wear it out as well. It’s all part of the trip.

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