The Gear

January 15, 2025

After riding the Great Divide I gained a lot of experience. It was by far the longest bike route I've ever tackled at nearly 4,500 km. As far as the gear was concerned I got a lot of things right. I was mostly happy with every single piece of clothing I brought and I didn't carry too much. I mean we weren't fresh every morning but we did do laundry occasionally!

For this trip I am making very few changes to my clothing plans. I may carry 3 different styles of riding gloves (summer, mid-weight, winter ski gloves). And I've switched up my underwear game hoping to stave off the riding pimples. I've also invested in some acne stuff to help in that area. Oh, the joys!

Here's a link to my journal about the Great Divide where I outlined both my clothing and other non-bike gear.

https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/shifting/the-gear/

I've added a few shared items to the list that my friend Peter was carrying including a utility tool, first aid kit, Garmin Edge Explore2, and a few miscellaneous repair items.

Bike loaded for a test ride to Vancouver Island.

Outside of that gear I bought a new bike for this trip. I am not a roadie in my heart. I consider myself a mountain biker first. I was not that interested in gravel riding until we rode the Great Divide Route. On that route I grew to appreciate that style of riding. And where it could take you. Normally, on a big mountain bike ride we take on 10 - 20 km and 700 m - 1000 m. It's another thing to ride 112 km and 1300 m of elevation gain on gravel.

Handlebar bags are tight to my hands but manageable.

And as one fellow rider commented "how's it even possible to ride that far every day on a mountain bike?" It's certainly possible. You just need to keep turning the pedals over a very long day.

The cockpit is congested so I’ve added a raised bar.

This little added bar attaches right beside the stem creating room on the bars for straps and my hands.

I decided that I'd give gravel riding a test and after a lot of research I settled on the Tumbleweed Stargazer. This bike has amazing reviews on Bikepacking.com and so I thought it would serve me well for this specific use case. I bought the bike in December and it's still early days but I'd say that I'm very impressed.

Edit: After my test ride to Victoria I’m in love with this bike!

On the Great Divide trip I did incur an injury. I developed numbness in the tip of my right middle finger and the tip of my index finger and a bit on my left thumb. It was annoying on the trip but didn't impede things. I was diagnosed with mild carpal tunnel of the medial nerve. It was either constricted at my wrist or neck or both.

Since getting home I've done physiotherapy and registered massage, along with regular exercises for going on 16 weeks. It's not 90% better and I'm confident it will return to almost 100% before starting on this next trip.

It's not fun being injured. And I wasn't reckless on the last trip. I did my best to set up my bike but it obviously wasn't ergonomically perfect. For this trip I wanted to try narrower bars with multiple hand positions. I also went to a physiotherapist for a professional bike fit. Fingers crossed that I don't experience the same challenges.

On the bike itself I'm carrying almost all the same bags. In the frame I am using a custom bag for the bike. On the front I am using the same Revelate bags that served me well on the Great Divide. On the top tube I have a new Restrap bag but functionally it's identical. On the forks I may carry 2 Salsa Anything Cages but that's a last minute decision. I may opt for another water bottle cage instead.

On the downtube I'll carry a water bottle. On the rear rack I'm carrying the same Revelate dry bag but I've added matching Arkel panniers. The panniers are a combined weight of approximately 1 pound which is impressive! On the Great Divide trip I started without panniers and added one along the way. Having 1 loaded on one side of the bike wasn't ideal for handling. These panniers are super light so I'll try to balance the weight.

I actually have more carrying capacity but I think I'll need less. That makes no sense! Why?

On this trip, from all accounts, I will find groceries almost every day. On the Divide we had one stretch that was nearly 4 days. So, I won't have to carry that much food.

I found though that I needed at least 1 additional bag for the food (pannier) so having the balanced weight should make it super convenient to peel layers which happened every day on the Divide trip.

That's about it. Trying to keep it as minimal as possible.

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