Comments on: What’s it Like to Ride the Tour Divide?

By: chrisd

chrisd — Tue, 08 May 2012 14:06:00 +0000

how about a Burke and Wills tour? yikes

By: Greasyrider

Greasyrider — Mon, 07 May 2012 09:53:00 +0000

Err…got chased by a pack of wolves? What would you have done if you’d been bivvying?

By: Vance

Vance — Wed, 02 May 2012 02:25:00 +0000

Princeton Tec Eos2 both on my aero bars and on my helmet. However, I usually only used one or the other. On a dirt road, I generally used the one on the aero bars and on single track, I used the one on my helmet. They run on AAA batteries. Any lights with rechargeable batteries just isn’t feasible to finish in under 19 to 20 days. The added weight of the batteries and then the time to recharge them is too much of a burden. Keep in mind, that the pace at night is rather slow, so there isn’t a big need for 1000 watt lights. Heck, one night coming off of Fleecer Ridge I was chased by a pack of 4 wolves with just my Eos’ on medium, so like 50 watts. After I made it into Wise River, MT, I saw on my gps that I hit 44 mph downhill at midnight one night and the temp was in the low 30′s.

The amount of night riding depends on your mileage goals. Most mornings, I was up in the dark for about 3 hours and rode for about 3 hours into the night each night. Keep in mind that in Canada and Montana, it doesn’t get dark in the summer time until almost 10 PM. Once you get into Wyoming, dark falls around 9 PM. Colorado it is around 8 PM and stays about that into New Mexico.

If you haven’t done much night riding and you are thinking about riding the TD, you need to do a lot of it. Riding at night is like riding in the rain. Everything is harder. Everything takes longer. It takes getting use to.

For last year, we were in a good moon phase, so on clear nights, I would turn the lights off and just cruise in the dark. It was really nice. I miss it.

By: Inspiringrider

Inspiringrider — Wed, 02 May 2012 01:20:00 +0000

Hi Vance. What lights did you bring with you? How many night hours did you ride? Helmet and handlebar lights? Did your lights have a batery pack you charged or replacables? inpiring riders want to know!

By: Vance

Vance — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 22:38:00 +0000

I just realized that I misquoted the climb on the TD. In the video, I said 20,000+ feet of climb, when it is over 220,000 feet of climb. Sorry about that.

By: Vance

Vance — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 22:33:00 +0000

Eric, yea, that is what I thought too. Unless one has done something like the TD, one doesn’t know what being alone is. Being deep in the back country with no one else and no sign of civilization other than the road you are on is challenging. It does sound romantic, but one needs to learn how to appreciate this.

By: Vance

Vance — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 22:28:00 +0000

Jeremy, you fix it or walk to somewhere that can fix it. If you chose to get in a motor vehicle, then you can move backwards on the route to a place to fix it, just not forwards.

By: Reveal The Path

Reveal The Path — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 22:20:00 +0000

Maybe Darryl will do something similar with the new film revealthepath.com

By: Reveal The Path

Reveal The Path — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 22:19:00 +0000

Right on Ben. Glad you enjoyed the film! Vance does have a great perspective of the adventure.

By: Reveal The Path

Reveal The Path — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 22:17:00 +0000

Thanks! Hoping you’ll like the new one as well. revealthepath.com