Put your backpack on a diet. Strap every thing you can to the bike to get weight off your arse.
Ride SB8’s – if you are going to hit a razor sharp flint, it will cut all but the heaviest tyre, so pick a faster tyre and look where you are going.
I think the hills at the east end are ok; just be topped up on fuel before you hit them…. they are all only 10 minute efforts. The difficulty is in your head, not in the terrain.
Just get it done and enjoy the views.

About to run a set of Thunder Burt’s down to Mexico. Loads faster than the SB 8’s I used last time. They don’t hold mud, I just wonder how long the tread will last.
Lets find out.

Well, a year on since the SDW double double and I’m just off on an ITT of the Tour Divide.
Its not a cheap game this one.
So, next year could be a sub 50 hour double double (and I can be home in time for tea) instead of taking about 4 days to get back from Antelope Wells to England.

Snowpack report.

I just rode out into the edges of the flathead behind Fernie and the tracks are clear up to 5600′, which compared to 2011 is a full 1000′ higher.

Darn cold and rainy and the mud finished off my rear derailleur, so I just finished of chicken pie for two to help me warm up again.

Temps slowly on the rise, but forecast to be wet for another week so the descent after Corbin will be a river for sure.

End.

Good luck to all the Brits riding this year – if you are in Banff on the 8th June, I’ll be heading out at 0800 aiming to make it to Sparwood and it would be fun to see you all then.

Bags and bike packed – Banff here we come, with a little side trip to Fernie to get some hills done and some altitude under my belt and a little road ride in Eureka this weekend with free beer and pizza at the finish.

Please don’t be on strike again tomorrow Southern trains.

Dirty rider – you are right, the two don’t ‘match’, but the Lauff is there to take the sting out of the trail (and it weighs much less than a kilo) and there is nothing to go wrong with it. It works brilliantly smoothing out potholes and breaking bumps on the trails to Mexico.

Many of the top boys are riding fully rigid bikes for TD these days – I’m just not that hardcore so a bit of rear suspension does help.

When the race is done I’ll be refitting a SID.

Yep – its simply faster to wear the bibs outside your shirt. When you are in the same kit for days on end (last time I didn’t take any kit off for a 3 day stretch), it helps for doing Pope impressions in the woods!

I thought I’d share a couple if piccies of my rig from last weekend.
I’ll do a ‘bare bike’ picture at the weekend so you can see what’s underneath all the clobber.

Really important to practice twisting it away, before you use it for real.

I used one for a 6 day kayak race when speed of setting/breaking camp was a big factor.

Great tents as long as you have space to carry them.

I just got new bearings and all the components for the VPP on the Tallboy – thanks to Jungle for sorting those out and I’ve had a happy afternoon off the bike fitting them.
Probably happier than the 4 hr TT session that went before it.

Bags all finished and the box of clever pixies that power the gps and Revo light are about to get immersed in potting compound and sealed forever.

Packless at last having found enough room on the bike for up to 6 litres of water.

umm, just finish riding and don’t take it off before getting into the shower; they wash perfectly with shampoo, afterall, most of the dirt is greasy hair.

I’ve ridden my fattie for loads of miles in Canada (on snow trails and dry trails) and with the right gearing, fatting on the downs would be an absolute hoot and make riding the roots just after the A27 crossing simple.

Bump.

Gave the gps/dynamo/revo charging system a really good testing last wee.

I started the ride to the peak district with one bar flashing and the low battery warning on the screen, rode 85 miles during the first day, 130 the next and stopped the charging and switched to powering the revo for the last hours of that day.
I then rode the final 40 miles to Edale with the Revo on and no charging of the gps happening. Perfect so far.

I then did another 3 days of riding trails around the peak district (in all about 26 hours of riding) before the rechargable battery ran out of stored juice inside the gps.

Thanks Andy G for your hard work in making a nav and lighting system that will outlast my ability to sit on the bike and pedal.

I don’t even have a phone in the UK, so bothering with one during a race seems dumb…when you see half the world wasting their lives on one and never looking around, why would you want one.
Yes I understand about being updated re diversions, but notices do get posted at mercs and other stops, so I will hear of them.

Spot (Rob dodging bears) will be active so there is a enough safety, and I have a bear whistle!

All powered by a dynamo and loads of cookies and ice cream.

The last time I took music on a race, the player jammed on one song after 24 hours of getting rained on. I’ll never listen to Tiny Dancer again.

Mine is going well; had a great mix of TT and snowbike through the winter in Fernie and am just setting the race bike up for a ride to the peak district and a long weekends riding with http://www.southdownsmtb.co.uk/ then a jaunt around Wales next weekend.

Heading out to Canada on 19th May to get a spot of climbing done and to do last minute tinkering. Kit is pretty much nailed and really looking forward to not having snow diverts as in 2011. It could be bad for fires this time as the snowpack is melting fast.

The GPS, lighting and charging system is all working (no cache battery, no phone and no mp3 for this race) and plotting 130 miles a day…..

Cut a sculloped hole in your saddle in the same place that your lump is…. it worked for me and kept me riding till the thing burst by itself and ran down my shorts… took about 5 days of 16 hour days to explode, but it was worth the wait.

Probably going to have the same issue in 8 weeks time – the rebirth of Uncle Fester!

Thank you all for the replies – it all makes sense.

New shock RT3 on its way.

Thanks P, that makes sense, though I still have no idea what the letters actually stand for…..

Whats brown and sticky?
Muhamed Ali opening a can of coke.

Brown and runny?

Usain Bolt.

Whats brown and rhymes with snoop?

I don’t even change my shorts.

Awesome, nobody complained about the composition of the piccie.
Does that mean I’m becoming mainstream?

Cokie – I really don’t want to weigh it fully loaded, I just know when I have to lift it over trees or push it, it weighs too much.
I always train with a backpack (Original Mountain Marathon) as I can carry 5 litres of water in it for a bit of extra ballast – I wish I could race without it, but my suffer levels are not high and I need to carry a few extra items of clothing that I can’t load elsewhere on the bike.

Kayak – the front wheel is bigger. Front tyre is a super grippy Small Block 8 and I’m trying out a fast Thunder Bert on the back to see how long it lasts – if its only good for 1000 miles then I’ll look at a Speed King 2.

Last night I took the gps/dynamo/charger out for a three hour hill session; the battery indicator was showing two bars (out of four) at the start of the session, and before the end (2000′ of climbing on muddy active logging trais)of the ride was showing fully charged again.

I’ll fully discharge the batteries before Sundays 7 hour ride and report back as to how long they take to be full again – this test may not be totally fair as I have to do a road section before the real ride starts and that will allow faster charging because of the faster speeds.

Very pleased to be doing away with the cache battery.

Well, I’ve been on the Lauf fork since November and for the Tour Divide I now am sure its the right tool for the job. It has 60mm travel and for normal riding its been perfect so far. There is no vibration coming through into my hands and no numbness at all (though many folks numbness is caused by bars without enough sweep).

I’ve been riding it with a SB8, and will change to a Thunder Bert in the next month as the trails dry out.

It’s certainly 600g lighter than a ‘normal’ fork, has no parts that will fail with use or lack of servicing,and for those reasons alone I’ll be riding it to Mexico and if its good enough for Guy Martin, its good enough for me.

I have dremmel’d those slots even further back on my race SIDI’s to stop achilies problems (did a race in 2011 when I could actually hear my achilies grinding after about day 6).

Moving the cleats further back will takes stress away from there and allows you to ride further.

A simple case of less leverage on the joint should make it last longer.

I appreciate that some folk need to get heels down, produce loads of power for short bursts etc, but if it keeps you in the race!

Duct tape helps too.

Had a very windy 70 miler with a spot of climbing on and around the South Downs.
Roll on Banff.

It’s pretty filthy up there and in my opinion will keep hold of its wonderful green slippy chalk till we get 2-3 weeks of sun.

The SDW double site is a great source of info, as is http://www.bikedowns.co.uk/
it shows tap locations, info about route changes etc.

My little blog https://southdownswaydoubledouble.wordpress.com/ is not as detailed but may tempt you into riding it more than once…

Just out for a days training, gtting in shape for TD ’16 and got a beady eye on the biggest/longest mountain bike race thats starts in 2017 on the east coast and finishes in Oregon….. 5000 miles of yummy trails.

This much mud means reps up and down gravel trails in the woods or 2 hour sessions on the trainer.

Actually it means both.

Roll on dry weather.

Check out the riding at Fernie (3 hour drive) and you will get on the plane tomorrow. There is the best and most range of things to ride that I’ve ever seen. Anywhere.

I’m about to start ride-testing a system that has done away with the cache battery. It should be able to charge the batteries of the GPS during the day and leave the dynamo to power the lights during the night sections.

Results in a few weeks time…….

Hmm, I’m not into questioning folks posts on here, but to say Paul Howard’s ride is ‘how not to do it’ is not very charitable as he did get it done, and the attrition rate on this race is close to 50%.

Paul got it done in about 26 days and took a day off to smell the roses and that makes it a darn good completion.

When you do this race, you meet loads of interesting people, see awesome sights, push through so many sections that would make mortals quit, that just to finish is far and away above what many riders can contemplate.
The feeeling of finishing and then being able to write a book on the race that helps others is simply another way to do this epic race.

I’m in again for 2016 but won’t be on the GD start -I’m heading out of Banff two days early to get the best parts of the route to myself. Its just another way of ‘how to do it’.

+1 for the Tallboy – regarding the bottle mount on the down tube, just get a bottle from Halfords with a flip-over cover over the nozzle. It keeps all the cow shit splatter away from your mouth.
The bottle never ejected once on the Tour Divide and did not need an elastic band to hold it in place (unlike the bottles mounted on the forks)

How much washing of said shorts are you planning?

I’ve no idea on the stats; I just rode my bike loads.
And had a hoot doing it, met some great folks, did some dumb things, and will cotinue to ride and meet dumb folk and do great things next year too.

See you all in Banff.

I’ll be bashing the trails on this in Feb and March all over Hampshire.
25lbs of trail smoothing tank

Udder cream is great , just don’t use the mint versions and then cycle in bear country….. they love the fresh minty smell and can whiff you out from miles away.

I just build my first bike.
This is so much more fun than riding the turbo trainer in the basement.