What’s In the Bag and How Much Does it Weigh?

Since our July 1 departure date for the Great Divide Mountain Bike Ride will be here before we know it, we’ve been out riding our Cuttys in southern Indiana most weekends where there are a few more hills. I mean… central Indiana is flat and although southern Indiana has a few climbs nothing around here can adequately prepare us for 150,000+feet of climbing coming in July and August.

So, part of preparation will be the ride itself. We’ve learned from past rides that gradually building up mileage on extended bike tours with lots of climbing works better than going all out on Day One. Thinking about the Appalachian Gravel Growler here. #mistakesweremade

We’ve also been putting together our packing lists and to see how much weight we can cut from our 2018 cross country ride along the Northern Tier. I mean… who wants to haul a bunch of weight up all these mountain passes?

Tom’s list:

Salsa Cutthroat: 24 pounds
Bags and Gear: 31 pounds (does not include food and water)
Total: 55 pounds
Click here for itemized list

Deb’s List:

Salsa Cutthroat: 24 pounds
Bags and Gear: 26 pounds (does not include food and water)
Total: 50 pounds
Click here for itemized list

What’s different on this trip?

New bikes. New bags. No kitchen. No inner tubes. No camp chair. *sigh

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The above isn’t entirely accurate for our 4,200 mile Norther Tier ride in 2018. I had an extra set of panniers sent from home to Whitefish, MT and added to the front of my bike. It was more difficult pulling weight on the back than having it evenly distributed. #lessonlearned

The packing list from 2018, however, is just about the same.

We switched to a tubeless tire setup which is a plus since more than 70% of the roads we’ll cycle on are unpaved and although scenic, a bit ratty. What’s the big deal if we get sprayed with a little sealant if we puncture a tire?

And we won’t be carrying a kitchen. What? You ask, no kitchen? What will you eat? Apparently there are enough local restaurants or resupply stops we can eat on the fly or purchase food to consume (but not cook) later. Basically we will have nothing to do all day but ride our bikes. So no excuses for old Deb to quit early to set up the kitchen.

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Tom’s replaced nearly all of the components on both of our Cutthroats, so we are ready to roll. There’s definitely a benefit to riding the same model bikes.

Besides riding bikes we’ve been up to a few more shenanigans including home brewing with our buds, growing into hydroponic gardening and taking groovy pics of our bikes.

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Basically we’re just a couple of shenanigators waiting on that train.