What bike for the Tour Divide?

yeah I’ll admit to knowing bugger all about the subject, but grease & occasional removal has been ok so far. Anything else I should be doing with a Ti post in a Ti frame?

For a Ti post in a Ti frame use copper slip or Ti Prep.

Everyone’s personal choice is going to be different. While 29ers are most common it’s interesting to see the record was set on a 26″ fs bike. Something like a Pegasus or a Superfly would be really nice IMO. I know Aidan is racing a Peg this year.

The thing that puts me off a lefty is that of it fails parts are hard to get (even for Matt Lee…) and you can’t even bung on a different fork, without replacing the wheel.

you can’t even bung on a different fork, without replacing the wheel

That’s a very good point!

pedalhead – thanks for the tip on the finish for the post. Might have to crack open the piggy bank and get one 8)

The thing that puts me off FS is the potential reliability issues. But perhaps it shouldn’t?

If you follow the Fox service schedule (as an example) you’ll be servicing the forks once a day and the shock once every 2 days.

I’d be sceptical about riding any suspension component for > 2500 miles with no maintenance, and if you;re plannign to have to maintain it you have to make sure you have access to seals/oil/tools/etc which rather goes against the ‘unsupported’ thing.

You coudl ride FS and have no problems but if a bearing or bush goes you could pay a high price.

I’d be lookign to do somethign of that length on a hardtail with a rigid fork but I’ve not done it (nor have any plans to) nor have I done the 1000’s of miles trainign with the setup I’d use in the race to make sur eit works for me).

What is the maintenance support like? I believe Levi Leipheimers family have a bike shop on the route.