GDMBR 2023: bikepacking gear review, what worked, didn't and what I would change
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- čas přidán 6. 06. 2024
- I bikepacked the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (GDMBR) in 2023 and wanted to do a quick gear review. more importantly, I discus what worked, what did not and what I would change.
Note: this is my first bike packing trip and I am a hiker turned bike packer for 2023. I am not an expert on bikes but learned enough to give some advice.
I’m doing this video to help anyone that may listen or want candid and honest advice. I’m not sponsored by anyone and didn’t not receive anything free.
Note: I stopped about 250 miles from NM border due to drivetrain/shifting problems caused by mud in MN. I didn't want to get stuck in the middle of nowhere without any bike shops or cell service. plus I was getting pressed for time and getting back from the border would have been difficult for me. I was happy with the rest of the trip
0:00 Intro
0:34 What worked
4:35 Navigation
7:09 Sun protection
8:40 Riding & packing style
9:40 What didn't work
9:44 Starting date and direction
10:50 Problems with GPX files
12:31 Frame bag suggestions
13:54 Quad lock problems
14:29 Aero bar problems
15:28 Things I would change
15:31 Front suspension
16:24 Brakes
17:24 Gearing and drivetrain
19:37 Tire pressure
20:38 Other stuff
21:09 Bears
21:41 Safety light
21:59 Town stops and budget
22:43 Final thoughts - Zábava
Editors note: I forgot to talk about tires and chain lube. (see my other video)
TIRES: I used Vitoria Mezcal (the durable casing models) 2.25 inches and ran them tubeless with Silca’s Ultimate Tubless Sealant with Fiberfoam. Never had a flat or lost any air and I was pretty tough on them. I highly recommend that combo.
CHAIN LUBE: I used Silca Synergetic wet lube. I was lazy here too and only lubed my chain every 4-5 days and my drivetrain still stayed super clean ex the NM mud. I will never use anything else. It’s excellent.
I'll be watching all your videos!
Wow. That makes you and my family!
I’m starting my European trip in about three weeks. Thanks for watching.
Great, no-nonsense video. Thank you!
Thanks. Hope it helped. Have fun on your ride!
On the Divide I found the ACA phone app was spot on correct for turn by turn. We found GPX files provided by other people were off sometimes. iPhone set in Satellite mode would last over two days for mapping, never lost connection even in the Great Basin.
I agree with all that. I had problems with some of the GPX files but the ACA app got me back on course.
What's a wrong turn here and there surrounded by grizzly bears and an extra 1000 feet of gain......
I have the same bike as you, perfect information
Best bike ever!
Paul, Great video and review. If you don't recall we met at the Whitefish Bike Retreat. Liked your very practical take on things. Best, Steve
Hi Steve - yes I do. That was a great time at Whitefish and the bike retreat. Colorado was nice too
I wasn't really a fan of a lot of the rest of there trip. a lot of rocks and dusty roads in southern Montana and NM.
Im planning a trip on the Eurovelo 6/15 this summer from Amsterdam, thru Zurich and to Budapest. Big charge from girzilly bears and rocks....
What are you up to?
I rode June 10-29 from El Paso via Columbus (border crossing photo op 2 miles south), Deming, City of Rocks State Park (free camping and showers for cyclists!), Silver City to Breckenridge, then July 20-Aug 16 Jasper (actually Hinton KOA) to Breckenridge . I took the spectacular Icefields Parkway alternate which I and every single person I talked to recommend. Can confirm at least in 2023 the NM section was dry and not really all that hot at that time. Had a tiny amount of snow over Indiana Pass, like 100 yards, easily passable. Got pretty lucky with the winds too, as they were coming out of the SW and the TD SOBO racers had days of headwinds. Rained overnight once, dry by morning. Going south I had good weather and winds pretty much all the way. I got lucky with temps too, not sure I ever saw 90F. One day of rain near Tetons but still managed 50 miles. My lowest gear is 24-50 and I used it A LOT on my admittedly heavy rig. I pushed bike maybe a few hundred meters on whole trip as virtually everything was rideable with ~15 gear inch granny. Thanks for the recap!
Good stuff, I’m also a newb. Great advice on the shorts, I’ve been hearing wool is the way
Wouldn’t change much expect for lower gearing. Thanks for watching and good luck on your ride !
Very good review/report. Thanks for the advice!!
Thanks. Enjoy your trip!
@@pgreenx I'm preparing for a journey through parts of patagonia. So honest reports of "this works"/"this doesn't" really help.
I make the videos for me and not views or subs. So I don’t have a reason to embellish or make stuff up for click bait etc. again, hope it helped.
One thing I’ll mention is I invested in new electronic sram 12 speed year and love the additional gearing. Would have been a much better trip for me with lower gearing.
What I would do differently now that I’ve been training for a European tour next month is NOT GO ELECTRONIC WITH THE MOUNTAIN BIKE 1X SYSTEM I BOUGHT. nice at home but battery life is low due to the large rear derailleur. I’ll probably carry 4 battery’s and if I was going g to a remote place a lot more to be safe. I wasn’t worried about reliability here but even sram says only about 20 hours of battery life on the 1x. Not a lot on a long-day tour
Thanks for taking the time to Help others at Bike Wondering with a Pack
Glad I could be helpful. Have a great trip! And thanks for watching.
thank you so much for this. As someone who is a hiker and not a biker, this is very helpful
Glad it helped. Only my perspective but the few hikers that were biking kept it simple. A lot of pure cyclist really love their gear and had tons more electronics , bigger tents, more clothes etc.
Loved your honesty, and was very informative
Thanks. Glad I could help.
Thank you this is very helpful😊
You’re welcome glad it helped. I’m going on a European tour this summer. no grizzly bears so I’ll be a lot happier.
As I/we come from both bicycle touring and hiking background this was an eye opener. I must say this was very informative and worth watching. Certainly your style of presentation was very down to earth. Thank you.
glad it helped. What probably didn't come across was the endless miles and days of dusty, boring roads.....
The only parts I really liked were Banf to about whitefish and northern Co
@@pgreenx You are right I did not get the feeling of the endless miles endured. As seniors we travel slowly by fatbikes with 4.8 in tires. BUT we still enjoyed tenting. Keep rolling. Have FUN!!
Thanks. You too!
I can relate in many ways, thanks for the insight! For me, bike navigation has always been frustrating! Congrats!
Thanks. Took me a few days but the wahoo and ride wgps saved me a lot of time after I figured out how to use it.
Nice wrap up video. Thanks for doing it. I just ran across tonight and will subscribe to watch the rest of your GDMBR series. I was out there last summer as well for 600 miles, heading back this year. I got a video series of my trip up on YT if you're bored some time. 😊
Will check it out. Won't spoil it for you but really disliked NM between the highway, monsoons and mud!
I actually ran access your videos the other day and commented how great they were. Mine are just endless rambling clips but I was tired at the end of every day when I produced them in my tent
Great video and great information! Thank you for taking the time to share this with us!
Glad it was helpful. Be safe with the Bears out there this summer. I still have some PTSD from the grizzly bear fear.
Thanks for spending the time for posting this very helpful information. A lot of good take-aways here.
Thanks! It is helping me on planning my ride next year.
Thanks. No more GDMBR videos for me. Happy to answer question though. Good luck next yr.
Thanks for sharing. I really appreciate it. Very informative.
Thanks. Glad it was helpful!
Thanks , great information . I also have the Fargo and love it .
Thanks. Best bike I have ever owned!
Great vid
Hopefully it helped somehow.
Thanks for the honest video. All the best!
Thanks. Hope it helped. Great trip except for the grizzly bear worries I had (and the mud in NM)
Cool just subbed
Thanks - hope the vids helped
Thank you, I’m riding this year on a fargo as well. You made some points!
Have a great time. Met a bunch of people on cutthroats too and they all seemed to say the wish they took their fargos. Way more comfortable even though it was heavier.
Thankyou!
You're welcome!
I appreciate the insight. I enjoyed the data delivery style too. Just saying it how it is. not trying to put any spin on it. Thank you.
Thanks. Hope it helped. I was pretty honest in my trip vids too- you should hear me complaining about how much I disliked NM!
Great review
Great video, honest review, I will follow you.keep the good work.
thanks - I appreciate it. no sense making it out that its better than it is. One thing I forgot to mention was all the boring days on dusty gravel and the pick up trucks ripping by kicking up the dust.
Im heading out for 3,000 miles across Europe this summer. hope you have a good riding season!
I think I know this guy! Nice to see and hear you again.
Hi. Did I meet you on the GD?
Hi, I think Sarah and I met you at the Elkford Campground and hung out a bit under the ramada in the rain. Glad your trip turned out well, enjoyed your video 🙂!
Yes I remember you guys. Trip was good except for NM and all the rain/mud. Thanks for watching.
this is the channel I have been looking for. I am also a long distance backpacker who is getting into biking after a knee injury. Your thoughts and experience have validated everything I have been thinking and I appreciate your time and information. Thank you for posting this.
Thanks for watching. I hope the guitar stuff didn’t throw you off too much. I am a lifelong backpacker and had a foot injury two years ago and that’s why I picked up the bicycle. I really like the bike when it’s super hot out but when it’s spring and fall I prefer to hike.
Also prefer the simplicity of hiking over all the gear and the bike stuff but I’m doing both now going forward. Thanks for watching.
@@pgreenx I think I will always be a backpacker first. There is just something about it I can't get over. Keep making your content. It's important. The algorithm will catch up and more people will see your stuff. I appreciate your authenticity.
Thanks. I mostly make these videos for me to watch and so I don’t have to keep a bunch of uncut footage clogging up my pc hard drive.
I’d like more views but ok it I don’t get them.
Thanks again for watching and commenting. I’ll be doing some winter hikes after the holidays.
And I agree with you on the backpacking.
Thanks for posting, my turn 2024 on my Salsa Fargo redshift stem is great, Sarah swallow GPS is the tour divide race route not the GDMBR
Good luck next yr.
I remember reading that the Tour Divide (the race) takes a slighlty different route of the GDMBR bike packing route. So the Sarah Swallow GPS might have been different to the ACA route.
I’m pretty sure that’s right. At the time, doing pretty much zero preparation for this trip in terms of navigation, and just following two guys I barely knew- I didn’t know any of this and day-to-day. It was kind of problematic, but I figured it out. Thanks for watching. Hope it helped.
Fantastic review. Thanks for sharing. Navigation devices seem most difficult to figure out. Whst brand were most other riders using?
Thanks. Hope it helped. I saw pretty much only wahoo and garnin. The garmin seemed better at navigation off the route but I liked the wahoo to keep me on route.
I used my phone and downloaded maps to take me anywhere off route.
Have fun and be safe from the bears if you are going this summer!
Great synopsis. Theres a cliche’ New Englanders are overcritical but this was well delivered
Thanks. Hopefully it helped.
Thank you for your thoughts and your experiences! Everyone is different but I think there is always some “advice” you can do with. I am preparing my GDMBR in 2025 going southbound. I planned to start in Jasper around July 1st. What date would you advise to start instead? To avoid the monsoon rains muddy roads etc? Great work again thank you!
I was pretty slow and averaged 50 mpd but assuming you are not fast or do huge miles I think July 1 from jasper would be fine. I started in banf. All I know is that late August in NM wasn’t optimal. A lot of people took the highways and avoided the mud but I didn’t want to ride any more highway than I had to. Good luck!
Interesting start place. I was thinking 2025 as well though starting at the border rather than up in Canada but around 3rd week of June. Have a bunch of shake down trips to do first. Keep in touch.
@@michaellane1316 There is no fixed plan yet. But I'll retire June 1st and travel to Washington DC, to visit friends. Afterwards I'll take the train from Washington DC to Seattle to meet with my friend there. He will ride with me for a part or the whole trip, I don't know yet. So I planned to start in Jasper, this because I, partly, finished my TransAm there and took the train to Toronto where I finished the trip in Pensilvania. So I know the section from Jasper to Roosville will be tough, in parts, but it will be a good staring point of the trip.
We might meet somewhere ?
We'll keep in touch!
If I could provide one piece of advice it would be to take a couple of short trips to shakedown your gear. You rode a really big ride and should be proud of your accomplishment. You should not be learning about gearing and tire pressure on this route! A couple of easy fixes: go to a mod that turns your 11 speed road shifter into a 12 speed shifter, then you can add a longer derailleur and the 10-52 cassette. Find a good owner pressure for your tires and just stick with it. There is great advice about tires, pressure and rolling at Rene Herse tires. Consider a Garmin Varia rear light/radar. It reads a car approaching from behind you and accurately portrays its distance on your Wahoo. Not sure if it would pick up a grizzly chasing you! Great approach to navigation and wise to take the trip at your own pace - nice job!
Thanks for the advice. I was fine on the trip. I’m met a lot of people who were bike experts that bailed in the first few weeks so my main point is gear is not what’s gonna get you there it’s really all mental I dont think anyone goes thousands of miles without wanting to changing something. Just trying to be helpful to the next guy going.
Biking is not my main thing as you can’t see. I hope you saw the humor in my issues. I never got upset about bike problem. Just the Bears……
you could have used a 28 (or 26) up front instead of the 50 in the rear.
Not exactly sure what you are saying. Are you saying I could have used a 28mm tire up front?
I’m not the best person with all the bike specs. Thanks for watching
I was never a fan of Areo Bars, but since I've changed my breaking to hydraulic, the 1" gap to handlebar removes all the worries of lines cracking though compression n jiggling.
Also I removed the forearm rests.
As an ex through hiker turned unbelievably slow bikepacker, I admire how you carry yourself 🏆
With respect and gratitude P.T🦘
Thanks. I appreciate that. Even with my complaining about NM. I am pretty slow too on the bike. Didn’t bother me if everyone past me.
I didn’t see one single person past half way point with aero bars or anyone using them.
Nice review. Thank you. I agreed with most of your recommendations.
I had a Garmin which was going to be my primary with a downloaded GD file. That was problematic for me on the trail. I went off course several times. I found the ACA electronic maps far more seamless and helpful. I used them as primary after a week or so..
For gearing I put a 48 in the back with a wolftooth and a 32 in the front. That worked well for me. To go bigger in back without electronic shifting or a much more expensive overhaul was not an option from my research.
I did go with a son dynohub and several external batteries. It depends how much you camp, I suppose. It was important to me to be able to be off grid for 4-5 days and not run out of power.
I liked the tailfin rack on back instead of a seatpost bag. You could strap food and water on top when needed and not have rub on the rear wheel or fall off.
Those would be my additional suggestions. I rode a Salsa Cutthroat which I really liked. When I bought my bike selection was tough due to a bike shortage.