I found a pdf someone made a few years back, and I spent ages updating the figures etc and updated for the new route through the basin. Kept it as a txt file on my phone.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9oe3yhjouo513 ... s.txt?dl=0

Useful - thanks :)

That is a handy document - thanks mountainbaker.

Have updated with a few notes from my 2015 experience. (might take a while for dropbox to sync, I'm synching 2Gb of Photoshop files at the moment)

From a mental preparation point of view I'm thinking about the route and how to break it down into manageable chunks to think about.

Yeah, having similar thoughts. I'm thinking sections like:
- Banff to border
- border to butte
- butte to yellowstone
- yellowstone to pinedale
- the basin to brush mountain
- brush to Salida
-Salida to Abiquiu
to pie town
the gila/silver city
the finish.
sections that have similarity, and will feel like a natural change and milestone. Kind of tie in with climate/ topography changes too. Haven't done the planning yet tho....

I split the gpx into 200 mile chunks, added cuepoints to it, so I could see on the garmin (800) how far ahead things were, most useful was having a cuepoint set at the edge of each town with the town name. I could scroll through the cuepoints and see that e.g Salida is 76miles from my current location.

I should probably get working on some sort of notes. I've pretty much skimmed the maps and guidebook - not much else. I figure there will be time enough to think en route.

The mosquitos in montana will keep you busy, they can fly 20mph too.

It's built.

IMG_3832.jpg by Greg.May, on Flickr

It's built.

You tease ... can we not have a proper picture? How can we be expected to ooh and ahh if we can't see it?

I saw several shots of this on my Twitter feed - does look nice.

Bearbonesnorm wrote:

It's built.

You tease ... can we not have a proper picture? How can we be expected to ooh and ahh if we can't see it?

Need to get the real camera out - only got a spin on it before dark last night. Rides totally different to a Fargo but with a near identical position.

Flash by Greg.May, on Flickr

Oddly, it would appear that for once the hype over this bike is quite justified.

Ooh, ahh, ahh, ohh.

Bearbonesnorm wrote:Ooh, ahh, ahh, ohh.

I made similar noises with it last night.

Jokes aside - there are some really well thought out features to the frame that I didn't know about - like the asymmetric downtube!

That's looks pretty special Greg

I like the look of that. You just need to put some black bar tape on, now your oranges don't match (looked fine on the Fargo).

I like your thinking too. Ti Fargo a bit mainstream, winning the TD and all that, so swap yours out for the runners up bike (I'm just jealous)

Do the forks have a carbon steerer? That amount of spacers on a carbon steerer would bother me ... possibly unfounded but there you go

Bearbonesnorm wrote:Do the forks have a carbon steerer? That amount of spacers on a carbon steerer would bother me ... possibly unfounded but there you go

Yep, same as the Ti Fargo I hammered about Hebden for the pat few years. I ain't worried.

possibly unfounded

Not unfounded at all .. but I'd expect Salsa specced the fork knowing the bike's not one for the stem slammers. Carbon seems to have a better record on the TD than Ti anyway, been a few broken ti frames and forks in the last few years. No more than during other uses in general but 2800 miles is a lot of use with a short-period focus on it.

Nice bike. Tyres are great, those Saguaros are a perfect tyre. TNT or std? The stds seemed bit more flat-prone than Maxxis USTs but very manageable to re-seat and they're a great tread. Wish they made a 2.4.

jameso wrote:

possibly unfounded

Not unfounded at all .. but I'd expect Salsa specced the fork knowing the bike's not one for the stem slammers. Carbon seems to have a better record on the TD than Ti anyway, been a few broken ti frames and forks in the last few years. No more than during other uses in general but 2800 miles is a lot of use with a short-period focus on it.

Nice bike. Tyres are great, those Saguaros are a perfect tyre. TNT or std? The stds seemed bit more flat-prone than Maxxis USTs but very manageable to re-seat and they're a great tread. Wish they made a 2.4.

Totally agree - one of my worries was always the welds on the Ti Fargo...but after 3 years hammering it, nothing, nowt. However, putting half a years riding into one month...something has to give on kit. Framebags are my current bastward. Killed two in the past year.

My main worry was bearings - so I've opted to go Hope BB and Headset - hopefully they'll last the whole way.

Saguaros are probably my all time favourite tyre now - have been running them in 26/27.5/29 for the past 4 years now. Always the TNT - the sidewalls are made from Rhino hide, really bombproof around Hebden and my old granite stomping grounds in Ireland. Much more so than Ikons or anything by Schwalbe. But, I've also had good times of late with Nanos again, it would appear they have sorted out the production issues.

Had a short shake down ride (5hrs or so) with only my TD kit on the bike - but fully wet and semi food loaded.

All riding well, weight balance was a bit odd as I decided to carry a DSLR around to get some photos, but it all works. Now, to wait and see if the snowpack melts and I can take a bit less :)

Tour Divide Bike by Greg.May, on Flickr

I've handed in my notice at work, so I will now officially be available to do the Tour Divide.

Slightly worried that I don't have a job to come back to, but hope to have that sorted before I fly off to N. America in 4 weeks time!

Next problem is that the bike I'm planning to ride has a knackered square taper bottom bracket seized into the frame. Any top tips to get it out? Have tried WD40 specialist penetrant and a kettle of boiling water so far. Bouncing my full weight on the 32mm spanner I have attached to the tool makes the frame flex a lot, but hasn't budged the BB at all....

NewRetroTom wrote:I've handed in my notice at work, so I will now officially be available to do the Tour Divide.

Slightly worried that I don't have a job to come back to, but hope to have that sorted before I fly off to N. America in 4 weeks time!

Now that's commitment! Good luck!

NewRetroTom wrote:I've handed in my notice at work, so I will now officially be available to do the Tour Divide.

Slightly worried that I don't have a job to come back to, but hope to have that sorted before I fly off to N. America in 4 weeks time!

Good work! Done the same myself, last day was Friday just gone so spending the next month riding my bike before flying out for the TD (on my way up to ride part of the HTR550 route at the moment), and trying to fit moving house in as well!