2014 Tour Divide Gear List

Racers posting a list of widgets and bits they use (or intend to) is now a regular feature of the annual running of the Tour Divide Race.  This is especially true if, like me in 2014, you had luck on your side so that you can lay claim to having had the foresight to plan well and make astute choices and want to brag a bit while providing useful information to others.  Of course, assembling this menagerie also requires quite a bit of money.  So any perusal of a good list of TDR gear reflects having had the means and/or indiscretion to have spent a lot of change on things so specialized that most people have never heard of them.  Mine is no different.  So I'm grateful to have been able to put together adequate gear to tackle this beast of a thing.  And thanks to the guys at Freeze Thaw Cycles for helping me put together a bombproof bike.

So for the benefit of those who are interested, or have nothing better to do on a cold winter day, I'm including here a list of all the sundry pieces of hardware that accompanied or carried me from Banff to Antelope Wells in 2014.  A few things I'd change or do without but most of it would stay the same when/if I become delusional enough to think it'd be a good idea to head out to Alberta in June to pedal myself into a kind of numb, incoherent ecstasy again.

It's kind of unbelievable just how much stuff there is on this list.  Especially when you consider that it all fit into or onto a small mountain bike frame (or on me) and that some of it never saw daylight once.  The whole shebang came in at something under 50 pounds, not counting consumables.  I'm sure John Stamstad in 1999 would have loved to have had the stuff we have today.  I know I do.

Here's the list:

Paul Barsom’s 2014 Tour Divide Race Gear List

(items in italics deemed unnecessary)

Bike

2014 Salsa Fargo 2, size small, carbon fork –

Rohloff Speed Hub (chain drive)

Salsa Woodchipper handlebars (ESI extra chunky grips on the ends, under 2 layers of bar tape)

Shimano XT Crankset (38t, green Raceface chainring)

Avid Apex Brake Levers (no shift levers)

Avid BB7 Mechanical Disk Brakes

Brooks B17 Saddle, well-broken in and waterproofed (I'd never run anything else for this, personally)

Custom Wheelset – (as true at the end as the day they were built)

Stan's Arch EX 29er rims

Front: Schmidt Son Dynamo Hub

Rear: Rohloff Speedhub (16t cog)

Crank Brothers Candy 2 Pedals (orange)

Bontrager XR-1 tires, tubeless (no flats, replaced rear with Maxxis Ikon in Salida, CO)

Profile Designs T-4 Aerobars (with custom made cross members for mounting headlight and GPS)

Serfas Magnum 33 oz. bottle (on downtube)

2 - 22 oz. Freeze Thaw Cycles shop bottles (on fork bottle cages)

Piece of shock cord to keep Magnum bottle snugged to down tube on rough terrain

Bike bags

Revelate Designs Salsa frame bag (zipper expectedly failed; I'm going with velcro flaps instead)

Revelate Designs Pika seat bag (Viscacha too big for my small frame)

Revelate Designs Spocket

Revelate Designs Mountain Feedbag

Revelate Designs Gas Tank

Revelate Designs Jerry Can

Sea to Summit Event compression sack (on handle/aero bars for sleeping gear and shelter)

Mesh Backpack (brand unknown) for long unsupplied stretches

Sleeping

Big Agnes Fly Creek UL-1 tent (w/o footprint); used in every conceivable configuration

Exped inflatable pillow 

Vargo Titanium Tent Stakes – 10 (lost one in New Mexico)

GoLite 30-degree backpacking quilt (I was never cold sleeping, even the first frigid, rainy week)

Thermarest ProLite Pad (full length, just stuffed it into the compressionsack)

ZPacks down hood

Repair/Tools

Aloksak for misc. repair items (brake pads, tire boots, etc.)

Crank Brothers bike multi-tool

Leatherman C4 Juice multi-tool

SRAM master links - 2

Small section of chain

dérailleur cable

brake cable

Spare brake pads - 1 set w/holders 

Chain Lube (mix of remnants in small bottle; should have carried more)

Shoe cleat and 2 screws

Extra Boa laces for shoes

Spokes - 4 (one of each length)

Fibrefix spoke

Bontrager pump

Spare tubes - 2

Park Tool Tire Boot - 2

Tire patches 

Shoelace (for whatever)

Sewing kit for tires/clothes (kept chamois from coming apart after Rawlins)

Tenacious Tape 

Rip-stop nylon tape

Pedro's tire lever

Lock (thin 24” cable and padlock)

Valve stem

Gorilla Tape (fixed broken glasses frame in Canmore, before the race)

Zip ties (various)

Saddle cover (child’s shower cap, never used)

Personal 

Toothbrush (cut to fit inside Jerry Can) and floss

Small tin of Bag Balm

Small container of Vaseline

Water treatment tablets (chlorine-based)

7 ACA Great Divide Mountain Bike Route maps

Cue sheets (seldom used, discarded in CO)

Sunscreen 

Insect repellent

1 oz. spray bottle of Bactine (for chamois at the end of each day)

Lip Balm (with sunscreen)

Large Ziplock bag (for takeout food)

Platypus 1-liter water bags – 3

Small glass pipe, lighter, etc. (CO)

Fine Tip Sharpie (used once)

TP (usually paper napkins from restaurants, in Aloksak)

Passport (for flight to Canada, sent home in MT)/Passport Card /Credit Cards (in Tyvek wallet)

Electronics

Spot 3 Tracking Device (with 4 AAA batteries)

Lithium AAA batteries – 4 (got more in Salida)

Lithium AA Batteries – 4 (ditto)

eTrex 20 GPS with 8GB micro SD card

Micro SD Card with backup copy of maps and gpx file

Micro SD card to SD card adapter

Cateye cyclocomputer (sent home from Banff, behaving irregularly)

Cygolite Expilion 800 headlight (charged with dynamo)

Cygolite Hotshot taillight (mounted on back of helmet w/piece of shock cord)

PrincetonTec EOS mounted on top of helmet (failed on day two from water intrusion)

iPhone 4 in waterproof case (knockoff of LifeProof case; worked just fine)

iPhone wall charger and cable

Ear buds (sealing, doubled as earplugs)

2 mini USB cables for running/charging GPS, iPhone 4 and Cygolite 800

Sinewave Cycles Revolution dynamo-USB charger

2 – 2032 Batteries (for cyclocomputer; not needed)

Clothing

Lazer Genesis helmet

Freeze Thaw team cycling cap

Bolle Parole glasses with Rx insert (broke frame before race, tape job lasted until Mexico)

Buff (wool)

Mosquito head net (never used)

Bandana (wore wet around neck mostly)

Redram merino wool t-shirt (also wore wet around neck/back in CO and NM)

Ibex merino wool arm warmers

Ibex Giro merino wool long-sleeve cycling jersey

Freeze Thaw team jersey (Sugoi)

GoLite Selkirk 800 down jacket

Pearl Izumi Zephyr wind jacket

Look fingerless gloves

Gore Bikewear full finger gloves (lost near Hartsel, CO)

Sugoi semi lobster gloves

Home-made Tyvek wind mitts (not durable or waterproof for long, but windproof)

Freeze Thaw team bibs (Sugoi) (rode the chamois out of them but they were great)

Defeet Woolies leg warmers (chafed badly behind knees when wet, cut holes in them on day 5)

Umbro shorts (sleeping)

Gore Bikewear goretex socks (cut ankle-constricting elastic out on day 6)

Wigwam 40 below wool socks (da bomb)

Freeze Thaw team synthetic socks (sent home after a few days; pew)

Freeze Thaw team merino wool socks (lost north of Breckenridge, replaced with others)

Lake MX-175 MTB Shoes

Lukes Ultralight silnylon rain jacket and pants (jacket made with side zips)

2 reflective ankle bands (never used)

3 Bearpaw silnylon stuff sacks (seam sealed, in different colors)

Aloksak (large, for down jacket)

First Aid

Aloksak for contents

2 makeup sponges

Band Aids

Moleskin

Ibuprofen (lots)

Caffeine pills (lots)

Aspirin 80mg (lots)

Pepto Bismol (some)

Anti-Diarrheal (some)

Various repair tapes for wound closure

Bactine and sewing kit intended for other uses