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I don’t normally do kit lists. But, my Divide kit worked out pretty well this year and there isn’t much I would change. So here’s what I took:
The Bike
- Singular Pegasus singlespeed frame
- On One carbon fork
- Hope Pro 2 / Stans 355 29er wheels
- Maxxis Crossmark LUST rear tyre, Maxxis Ikon EXO front tyre
- Hope headset
- Hope 90mm stem
- Easton EA70 bars
- Shimano XT brakes with 160mm Ashima Air rotors and Goodridge hoses
- Thomson seatpost
- Selle Italia Flite saddle
- Hope ceramic bottom bracket
- Shimano Deore cranks
- Velosolo 34t chainring with Velosolo 19t cog
- SRAM 8spd chain
- Shimano M520 Deore pedals
- Race Face grips with Cane Creek Ergo bar ends
Bike Accessories
- SPOT tracker (original)
- Garmin Dakota GPS (tied to the SPOT and around the bars to avoid losing either in rocky sections)
- Cycle computer – the 2nd cheapest in Mountain Equipment Co-Op
- 2x Specialized Z bottle cages (side entry to give more space around the frame bag)
- 2x 800ml bottles
- Spare inner tube cable tied to the bottom corner of the main triangle
- Flashing rear light
Front bag
- 5L Lomo drybag held on with a Wildcat Gear harness
- Rab Neutrino 200 down sleeping bag
- Silk sleeping bag liner
- Terra Nova Discovery Light bivi bag
- Balloon Bed sleeping mat
- Mosquito net
- Spare inner tube
- Toilet paper (with bag to pack out used paper!)
Frame bag
- One-off bag made by my friend David Kleinjan
- Topeak Mountain Morph pump (duck tape wrapped around it)
- Allen keys and torx keys
- Leatherman Juice
- Park pre-glued patches
- Park tyre levers
- Toothpaste tube (for use as tyre boot)
- Cable ties
- 2x brake pads
- 2x power links and spare chain section
- Bolts: chainring, disc rotor
- Spare socks
- Plastic bags to use on feet
- Warm hat
- Sock for chain cleaning, White Lightning Epic chain lube
Rear bag
- Bag made by Revelate Designs, borrowed from Chipps (of Singletrack magazine fame)
- Drybag full of Torq recovery drink
- ACA maps of the route in plastic map cover
- Gore softshell arm warmers and leg warmers
- Gore Alp X jacket
- Spare shorts
- Fox antifreeze gloves
- Hope Vision 1 Adventure head torch
- Singular long sleeve jersey
- Camera strapped to outside
- Bits bag:
- Toothbrush + toothpaste
- 2x 9 Bars as emergency food
- Suncream
- Nappy rash cream
- Iodine tablets
- Ibuprofen
- Bandages
- Steri-strips
- Spare AA batteries
Clothing
- Specialized BG Sport shoes
- Singular socks
- Sugoi bib shorts
- Singular jersey
- No summer gloves!
- Giro Athlon helmet
- Endura Mullet glasses
- Bear spray in jersey pocket until Jackson, WY
NB I also carried a lightweight backpack to keep food in. For the dry sections, I carried 2.5 L of extra water in Gatorade bottles (2L in the front of the saddle bag, 0.5L in the backpack).
Thanks Aidan, most interesting. I was wondering which bivi bag you had. How did it cope with the conditions this year?
You’re welcome Mark. From trying to research these rides myself, I know a kit list is a good concrete way to help figure things out!
I only had to sleep in the rain once. That night, the bivi bag shed the rain easily enough but there was more condensation than usual on the outside of my sleeping bag.
It was a daily ritual to dry that condensation from the bivi and sleeping bag. Usually I’d try to set that up while having a cooked meal in a diner or wherever. A couple of times, I didn’t manage to dry it during the day, but those odd occasions didn’t seem to do any harm to anything.
super, cheers. Still can’t decide on my Laser Comp tent vs Bivi. Weight v comfort. hmm…
Blimey! Did you use the balloon bed every night? I’m a great advocate of balloon beds for lightweight touring but even I’d get p*ssed off with pumping seven latex sausages up every night for more than a few days 😉
🙂 I used the balloon bed twice.
I don’t mind sleeping on the ground without a pad, but the balloon bed kept the weight down whilst also giving me the option of extra warmth and comfort if I needed it.
I think a Neoair or similar would probably be a functional improvement, but the balloon bed is WAY cheaper and a fair bit lighter!
What bothers me more than rain is Mosquitos! Which net did you use, and how did you rig it up? And that’s not a lot of water you carried!
In my experience, mosquitoes in camp are a bit like rain: You always have the option of staying on the bike until things clear up.
On that basis, I took a single small sheet of netting to lay over my face. Everything else was protected by the bivi so this net was just for breathing through. One night last year I did have a bit of a time getting away from the mosquitoes and finding a windy ridge to sleep on. Got there in the end, though, and some extra trail miles in the bargain.
That was a minimal, but do-able amount of water. Probably not enough if you haven’t ridden the route before!
Did you not take chain lube?
Oh, yeah… I did, but I forgot to list it. Edited the list!
Another Flite fan. How many years have you been riding them. I’m on my 18th year. Those that know love a Flite. 🙂
What is your jersey made from. Wool/lycra. Stink or no stink.
I’ve been on Flites for 11 years. They’re a lot more expensive than they used to be, but worth it! Quite enjoying a Brooks on my road bike right now.
I used a merino jersery from Endura in 2010 and it didn’t stink in a way that bothered me. I probably smelled so bad overall that it was offensive for other people, though.
In 2011, I wore a synthetic Singular jersey. Synthetic didn’t fare as well as merino – it got more crusty and smelled worse but I still got by on just the one.
If you have the choice, I’d go merino. If you’ve got team colours to wear, then synthetic is OK too 🙂
Hi Aiden. They stopped making the Flite for a while. I ended up buying a load from Ebay. I have a small stock pile for the future. I always ride merino tops. I must have some bad smelling sweat as my synthetic tops smell something awful after a few days riding. I rode the Bearbones200 with 3 guys who also completed the Divide race. Bruce Dinsome. Alan “Im Brad Pitt” and Steve. Cant remember surnames. I got some great advise and some worrying stories from them. I think the EWE will be a stepping stone to the Divide race.
Err, I’m expecting EWE to be significantly harder than the Divide (which is pretty easy). It will be much less of an investment for UK riders to get to, but I think it will be physically tougher.
We’ll find out next year though!
[…] The key things in my equipment choice were: simplicity, flexibility, and reliability. So I rode a Singular Pegasus 29er with a rigid carbon fork and singlespeed gearing. Light weight, and no suspension or gears to worry about. It rode great, and the big wheels ate up the miles superbly. All the rotating parts on the bike were from Hope – made for UK muck, so I knew they would go the distance. I was proved right when a fellow racer’s bottom bracket fell apart after only 6 days. My Hope one is still spinning perfectly. For tyres, I went tubeless with a Maxxis Crossmark (rear) and Ikon (front) on Stans rims. They lasted the whole distance, even surviving a nail in the rear about half way through. I used an odd ratio of 34:19 for the drivetrain, so that was a great excuse to get tidy a Velosolo chainring and cog. Choosing clothing for everything from high mountains to desert is tough. A Gore Alp-X jacket shrugged off rain and wind, and packed away in a tiny space. I had never used arm or leg warmers before, but the Gore ones I took were superb: extra insulation, and easy to roll down as the heat of the day came. I slept in a Terra Nova bivi bag with a Rab Neutrino 200 down sleeping bag – just enough for conditions on the trail. Full listings of the equipments I used can be found at: http://www.aidanharding.com/?p=337 […]
[…] For the divide I am planning on around eight pounds total gear weight with bags configured such that I will have space for at times adding nearly ten pounds of food. The key to making this work is going to be a very light 2 pound sleep system, no sleeping pad, moderate amounts of extra clothing and a minimal of extras. I don’t use an iPod and about the only non essential bit I plan to carry is a small digital camera. My planning will be similar to what Aidan Harding describes in his blog posting. […]