Instructions for Life - The Dalai Lama

Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.

Follow the three R’s: Respect for self, Respect for others and Responsibility for all your actions.

Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.

Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.

Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.

When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

Spend some time alone every day.

Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.

Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.

A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.

In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.

Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.

Be gentle with the earth.

Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.

Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.

Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

On the "SPOT"

One of the biggest concerns that my wife has about me riding the GDMBR is the lack of contact in case of an emergency. She is confident that I could probably ride the route without any difficulty, but things happen. In some circumstances the consequence of no emergency contact could be death. Like Jacob Teale in Louis L'Amour's novel Conagher, I could ride off, fall, break some bones and lie there until I die. I could get bitten by a rattlesnake, and there are countless other ways to get into deep trouble on a trip like the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route.

Some of that risk has been reduced by arranging to travel with a small group of mature adults. These are people who have no need to "shred" the route (or themselves). They want to see what is out there, and to try to get a better understanding of the country as well as the people who inhabit it. There is hardly a better way to do that than on a bicycle. You are going fast enough to get resupplied, but slow enough that you do not miss much.

Nevertheless, if someone in the group got seriously injured, it might take a couple of days for someone else to ride out and notify emergency medical services or other rescue personnel. If the wounds were severe, then that might be too long for survival. In the case of a venomous snake bite or a bear attack with mauling, minutes make a difference.

Since I started blogging I have also started reading other blogs, which has provided me with a tremendous source of information. One of the most valuable discoveries was a small GPS tracking device that allows you to send out programmed messages via satellite. That means you can have one way contact with your support people and if needed with Search and Rescue (SAR) from almost anywhere in the world. It is called a SPOT and you can check it out at: http://www.findmespot.com/.

There is a “911” button for life threatening emergencies. There is an “OK” button for simple check-in procedures. There is a “Help” button for non-911 contact with your support people to let them know that you need help and where you are located, but that you are not desperate – yet. You can also purchase an additional tracking service so that significant others can login with a password and track your progress or lack thereof. The SPOT broadcasts your coordinates every ten minutes and they can see where you are located on Google Earth.

So, for a weight penalty of about 7 ounces and a cost of about $170 for the SPOT, plus about $100/year service fee for everything except the tracking feature, you and your loved ones can have some peace of mind. The tracking fee is approximately $50/year (which you could do by pressing the OK button manually every now and again). Furthermore, if you sign up when you initialize the services, then you can get some SAR reimbursement insurance for about $8/year. That would help pay for the helicopter and other SAR expenses that you may be charged for out-of-pocket.

In total, for about $330 you can greatly reduce the risk that you will not live to tell about your adventure. Personally I think the expense is very reasonable, and I am in the process of purchasing my own SPOT.

Introduction to My "Home Exercise Program"

Even though I commute by bicycle in the winter I am careful to not work up too much sweat. On mornings when the temperatures are in the teens my students often ask me if I was cold on my bike. They are dumbfounded when I tell them I actually stopped about half way to work and unzipped both of my coats because I was getting too hot. My commute is about 15 miles (one way), and in the morning the first half is mostly down hill as I drop from the Heights to the Valley. That is really why I need to stop and unzip or even take off at least one layer before proceeding along the Bosque Trail beside the Rio Grande.

The commuting gives me my weekly base miles, but it is challenging to do much more than that in January and February. Sure, there are club rides, but that style of riding, light and fast, does not meet the needs of my training to ride the Great Divide. I would be deluding myself. Fortunately, there are plenty of other ways to physically prepare for riding the GDMBR. In my profile I mention that I am a teacher. Actually I have only been a teacher for the last seven years. I am also a physical therapist. Teaching allows me to enjoy a lifestyle that I only dreamed about when I was practicing physical therapy full-time.

Initially I went in to teaching because of an injury that prevented me from working with patients safely. Once I got use to the severe decrease in pay coupled with the significant decrease in hours I had to work (i.e., vacations) I became hooked. My wife has been a teacher for many years and it is nice to have the same time off. As a physical therapist I actually use to feel obligated to sell back my vacation time in order to cover for personnel shortages. I was a fool and my health suffered. I was fortunate to get injured and discover a much better way to live. Besides, as a high school teacher I am never bored. I love teaching.

So, what does a physical therapist do to get ready to ride the GDMBR? Even if you ride a full suspension bike, the route is going to deliver a lot of fatigue inducing movement to your whole body. As in my last post on whether to take the weight penalty on of carrying a stove, you have to make a similar decision as to whether to take the weight penalty on how much, if any, suspension to use. I am 55 years old. Although most people think I am no more than mid-forties, I have accumulated enough wear and tear on my body (“high mileage”) that I am going to take the weight penalty of a full suspension bike. That means I will train for slower speeds and heavier loads for extended periods of time while bucking rocks, ruts and roots.

I come into contact with enough bacteria and viruses in the classroom without heading off to the gym to increase my exposure even more. Besides I have a Nordic Track, a Total Gym, a mini trampoline, a stationary bike, and miscellaneous other equipment such as small weights, foam rollers, and a Gym Ball. I could actually do a complete training program with no special equipment, but over the years these are the pieces of exercise equipment that have served me well. It takes a lot more intrinsic motivation to exercise at home as opposed to going to a gym. I do not have anything against gyms; it is just that I have usually had access to all that of equipment at the clinics where I worked. At the same time I would usually send my patients home with a home exercise program. I am very use to improvising to make home programs work for my patients, and for myself with my own injury.

So, what did I do today for my “home program?” I started with a 30 minute warm up on the Nordic Track. I cannot say enough good things about the benefits of using this type of equipment. It helps counteract all the bad postural things that occur from sitting a lot (i.e., driving, desk “work”, blogging, etc…). Not only do you get a terrific cardiovascular workout, but you have to use the gluteal (butt) muscles while maintaining an elongated position with the rectus abdominus (“six pack”) muscle. At the same time you are strengthening the latissmus dorsi (“lats”) while stretching out the pectoralis majors (“pecs”). Meanwhile you have to maintain your balance and your coordination.

From there I got on the Total Gym. The Total Gym is a slide board that you can raise or lower to different inclines. There are cables and pulleys for some of the exercises, but basically it is a good way to regulate the resistance for your various exercises using gravity. Since the Nordic Track gave my hip extensors (gluts), hip flexors (iliopsoas and rectus femoris), and latissimus dorsi (lats) a good workout, now I need to exercise pectoralis major muscles and shoulder external rotators. I am very careful to not overdo the deltoid muscles in my shoulders, because it is really the deeper rotator cuff muscles that will be dealing with the jarring and twisting forces as I ride the GDMBR.

I hope you are getting the idea of how important it is to maintain a balance between muscle groups? Muscles contract and relax; they cannot push. So if you exercise muscles in isolation without the counterbalance of training the opposing muscles then you are creating or increasing imbalances that lead to other problems. Muscle imbalances not only cause problems with posture, but also with joint movement.

Furthermore, if you are not exercising throughout the functional length of a muscle group, then you may not get the full benefit of the exercise. Of course there are reasons why we do not exercise through a full function range after injury, surgery, or some pathology. Respect your pain; it is trying to tell you something. Consult your physician. I am not offering advice, I am telling you why I am doing my exercise the way I do.

Next I do a Pilates Basic Mat routine. I was an early endorser of the Pilates methods of exercise, because they do exactly what needs to be done with regards to what I mentioned above with the posture and elongation. The current popularity of Pilates is well justified, but I would strongly recommend that you get some small group and/or private lessons before trying to do them on your own. I have a couple of books in my Shelfari Bookcase (sidebar) that I use, but I have taken a lot of individual instruction. Of course, I could always use a lot more individual instruction, but I am living on teacher wages now. Be warned that at first the Pilates exercises might seem totally wacked to you, because it is probably so different from any other type of exercise that you have done before. Nevertheless, you will learn a lot about your body and how you use it if you give the Pilates a fair chance.

I know that I have probably not been as specific about my home program as some of you would have preferred, but I just wanted to give you some general ideas and considerations for your own exercise program. I tried to take some pictures of myself as I was going through my program today, but by the time I would set up the camera, and jump back into position the camera would go off. The pictures did not show what I wanted to show and it was really breaking up the flow of my exercises. If I can get some assistance then I will try again to document it. That way I will be able to relate the exercises to specific things that happen as we ride that I am preparing my body to deal with, and also to help prevent injuries on my “high mileage” body.

Pros and Cons of a Stove

Am I going to carry a stove on the GDMBR?

On any trek the question arises as to whether or not to carry a stove. Most people do, but some prefer the freedom of hauling less gear. It is possible to carry food that does not need to be cooked or even heated. Then, whenever the opportunity presents itself, buy hot meals. There are some real advantages to this strategy worth considering.

First is the decreased weight. If I do not carry a stove and fuel, then I may not need as much cookware. Even the lightest stoves, cookware, and fuel are going to add up to at least a pound, but 1½ to 3 pounds is more realistic for the total weight penalty for the hot meal and drink benefit. Second, there is the fuel consideration. Besides the weight will I be able to find it when I need to resupply? If I do not find fuel what are my alternatives? Third, can the stove break down? Do I need to carry a repair kit? Do I know how to fix it?

If I carry less weight, then I can probably travel faster and further per day. At the same time, this may become necessary, in order to get to resupply stops. Let’s look at this stove issue another way. One way to look at the weight of the stove, fuel, food, and cooking gear is that it makes me go slower. Another way to look at it is that it lets me go slower. If I can solve the fuel issue, then it is less important to push on to the next town because I am more self-sufficient.

There are reports from GDMBR riders who have not carried sufficient food supplies to make the long distances between supply stops. Ultimately, they end up relying on the good graces of people they meet along the way. Hopefully you will meet some really nice folks that you may not have met otherwise. Yet, I am not completely comfortable with the idea of relying on other people to give me a handout. It is okay in a true emergency, but I have met plenty of nice people without being desperate. So, if I can, I would like to avoid getting into situations where I run out of food. That means I need to be realistic about my daily mileage.

These considerations are particularly true in New Mexico. For example, it is about 250 miles between Silver City and Grants and there really is not any place in between to resupply with food. Perhaps I might find something in Mimbres if my timing is good, but in my case I will be going through there on a holiday. Then there is Pie Town, which is great if I arrive when at least one of the cafe’s are open. Again, depending on when I arrive the Post Office might not be open either. So, I have to either go fast enough and far enough to make the distance in fewer days, or carry what I need to go at a more leisurely pace.

Another consideration is the fact that I might get sick, injured, have a major mechanical failure, get lost, or be stranded due to weather in some remote section of the GDMBR. It might be several days until I get out or until help arrives. It is a lot easier to ration food, then to go hungry for several days. Just because I have not had anything adverse happen so far, does not spare me from the reality of the situation if the __it hits the fan.

Once I make it to Del Norte, Colorado, then the no stove strategy starts to make more sense. The resupply stops are a lot closer together. There are some other stretches such as across the Great Basin in Wyoming where I will definitely have to carry two or three days of supplies. In Northern Montana and on up to Banff it makes more sense not to cook to avoid contact with bears. By that point in the trip a change in strategy might be very appropriate. By then I will be conditioned to ride harder and longer. The days will be longer and the nights shorter. So, going lighter, faster, and further might be smarter. Also not camping in an isolated part of bear country makes good sense.

What do you think?

Sobo or Nobo? Which way to go, and When?

Adventure Cycling Association (ACA) and Michael McCoy strongly suggest riding southbound (sobo) on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (GDMBR). Their reasoning is sound and I do not have any disagreements with it, except they suggest that it will be too hot in the Chihuahuan Desert if you leave nobo much later than May 1.

Some years that might be true, but you will probably only spend one day in the desert if you ride like Scott and Paula http://www.topofusion.com/, which I don't think most GDMBR riders can do fully loaded. Scott and Paula had a friend drop them off at Antelope Wells and their gear off at a motel in Silver City, which is about 125 miles away. It is certainly a tribute to their youth and their high level of fitness that they accomplished this distance against the strong headwinds they encountered on their first day out.

Most of us nobos are going to take about two or three days to ride either from Antelope Wells or Columbus to Silver City. So even when it is as hot as Hades, if you stay well hydrated, then you will be out of the intense heat before you know it.

What does "stay well hydrated" mean? It probably does not mean quite the same thing to a desert rat as to someone not accustom to the desert. Remember that you can only drink so much water without literally drowning yourself. A rule of thumb we use around here is to sip or drink fluid at least every ten minutes so that you have drunk about a liter per hour.

Before you start your ride, whether you are thirsty or not, drink a liter of fluid with something like Accelerade or Endurox R4 mixed in. For me the Accelerade or Endurox R4 works well to help me drink more and to replace stuff I lose in my sweat. I like Gatorade Endurance too, but it only works for me up to about 95 degrees F in these arid conditions. The Accelerade or the Endura Rx4 also supply the right balance of carbohydrates to protein. So they are feeding my glycogen depleted muscles too. They are part of my nutrition plan, but I will blog about that later. You must experiment and find what products work for you - ahead of time!

As I mentioned above I like the Gatorade Endurance too, but it just does not work as well to keep me from bonking in the higher temperatures after about four or five hours of moderate exertion. I like the Lemon-Lime better than the Orange, because the Orange leaves a disgusting orange crust around my mouth. Maybe you would like that crusty stuff? Each to his or her own likes and dislikes. It is just not my style.

You can also try to supplement with some gel, but if you wait too long to use it then you might already be too spent to recover without a few hours of rest. Hydrapak http://www.hydrapak.com/ has a new "Gel-Bot" bottle that fits inside a regular water bottle and gives you a little hit of gel as you drink. I have not tried it, but it sounds promising. I am not sure it is a solution for a long-haul ride like the GDMBR due to resupply issues. Nevertheless, in the beginning it might get you over the first few humps as you acclimate to the conditions.

The main caution with your hydration system is that you have got to keep it clean. It is bad enough that you might have to filter and purify water out of a algae filled stock tank or a mud puddle; if you don't keep your bottles, lids, tubes, water packs clean, then it will not be long before you are real sick. Chlorine bleach works well, or make your own with a MSR Miox purifier. Be careful not to touch a contaminated filter/purifier to anything you are going to drink or eat from.

The symptoms from contaminated water, from food poisoning, and from severe dehydration look and feel about the same. In fact with the projectile vomiting and intense diarrhea the "end" results will be exactly the same in no time. If someone does not get you to a hospital quickly for an IV and other appropriate treatment, then may die soon of "un-natural causes."

Apparently most people have some level of awareness of this and the other risks of riding in the desert when it is particularly hot. That is why they go sobo later in the year during the rainy season when the desert cools off a little.

Even though there is a lot more Border Patrol and National Guard presence in the Bootheel region of New Mexico since 9/11/01, do not count on them to save your butt. They may not get there in time.

Many people grossly underestimate the amount of fluid they must carry in desert conditions. The math is simple. If you are going to ride for "x" number of hours, then you need to have "x" liters of water on board. You say: "Hey, wait a doggone minute!" "That means I need to carry five or six liters of water for the day?!" No, actually you need to have at least 8 liters (about 2 gallons) per person per day in the desert. That leaves a little for cooking, hygiene, and wound care (hopefully not already). But, being the mathematician, you say: "That is about 16 pounds of water!" I say: "It would be better if you carried a little more than that."

The most I have ever personally carried for about 50 miles is 48 pounds of water plus food and camping gear. For the next 50 miles including a significant divide crossing, I carried about 20 pounds of water plus everything else. I wanted to see if I could do it and whether the bike and trailer could handle it. I certainly hope I don't have to do that very often, but I know I can if I have to.

My point is that ACA and Michael McCoy are right, for most people sobo is the best way to travel on the GDMBR. Especially for Eskimos. On the other hand, for desert rats, or those willing to temporarily adopt a desert rat lifestyle by training to carry a lot of water and drink it at a rate of about one liter per hour, nobo in late May or early June is fine. You also have to learn to moderate your level of exertion so that you do not lose more fluid than your body can absorb. That is harder to do without practice in actual conditions.

"Should I wear white to reflect the heat?" White is okay, but be aware that it is also reflecting the UV. So, you have to be particularly careful about using sunblock under your nose and chin because your sun visor cannot protect you from reflected UV off your white clothes.

Believe it or not I ride in a long sleeve shirt in the middle of the summer. My profile picture was taken mid-morning in early August. Notice that I am wearing a long sleeved shirt. Not only am I protecting my arms from the intense UV light (that picture was taken at an elevation over 8000 feet and significantly less atmospheric protection), but the evaporation off the shirt helps keep me aware of how much fluid I am losing from my body. In this climate you do not even realize you are sweating. It evaporates so fast off bare skin that you are completely unaware of the fluid loss until you are too dehydrated to make up the difference fast enough.

Remember, you can loose fluid faster than your body can absorb it. You have to balance your exertion with you ability to replace the fluid lost.

I will also be testing a little bandanna like thing that is filled with water holding crystals that absorb an enormous amount of water and release it slowly. BluBandoo® Cooling Neckbandoo: http://www.campmor.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=40000000226&storeId=226&categoryId=61411&langId=-1&parent_category_rn=61294
I guess you can use them on your head too like a sweat band. It is too cold to try this thing out right now. However, I have ridden with others who use these things and swear by them. Apparently when worn around the neck it helps to keep the carotid arteries a little cooler, but it is no substitute for proper hydration.

I got an email from someone this morning telling me that they were going to ride from Antelope Wells in early April and arrive in Roosville at the beginning of June.

A slightly adapted version of my response is what follows. After he received my response, he emailed me back to let me know he is really just scouting the route in preparation for the GDR in June. Nevertheless, there may be others out there who think they can start earlier than the last week in May. So, here is my opinion on starting nobo earlier than late May.

Unless you are traveling off the GDMBR most of the way, I don’t think you will be able to make it through that early. We are leaving on May 22nd and I expect snow and mud in northern New Mexico and deeper snow on Indiana Pass in southern Colorado. I have lived in New Mexico since 1972, and I respectfully disagree with ACA and Michael McCoy’s opinion about the best time to travel northbound (nobo). It is always dicey in New Mexico, but I would rather put up with 2-3 days of 90-100 degree F weather from Antelope Wells (or Columbus) to Silver City than getting buried in mud up to my yin yang a little further north.

That mud is the same mud they use to make adobe bricks. It is so sticky that in a few seconds you can totally clog your wheels and drive train. It quickly brings you to a dead stop. However, if you insist on going through it, and work at a little, you can even break your derailleur hanger and pull your derailleur into your spokes. It is not trivial, and there is a lot of documentation (pictures, video, and tales of woe) to prove it. If you need help finding the documentation on the Internet, then email me back and I will find it for you. I have tried to be a “hero” and ride through the “baby poop.” I made it about 10 feet!

With that said, I am a teacher so my travel window to do the whole GDMBR necessitates a nobo version unless I do a “flip-flop.” That means you start at one end, and then as conditions dictate “flip” to the other end and travel back to where you “flopped.” You can also do a “leap-frog” the way many nobo Continental Divide Trail (CDT) hikers do when they hike into winter conditions in the San Juan Mountain’s in southern Colorado. They “hop” up to someplace like Rawlins, Wyoming and do the Great Basin desert and then “hop” back to Colorado later in the season. That could add a lot of expense to the trip, but that is how they have to do it when winter conditions rule.

Even though it seems to be a “La Nina” winter (www.srh.noaa.gov/abq/features/LaNinaWinter/LaNina&NMprecip.php), I would prefer to take my chances finding water, than having water find me on those back “roads.” Actually, I have trained to carry up to 5 gallons of water plus my food (2 pounds or 4000 calories per day per person) and camping gear. If it is hot then it will take at least 2 gallons per person per day. You might get to Cuba, New Mexico if you stick to the alternative routes, but I don’t think you will get through the Jemez Mountains between Cuba and Abiquiu, and definitely not through the San Juan Mountains in southern Colorado that early in the year. However, there are paved and plowed roads that circumnavigate the GDMBR, but it seems to me that that defeats the purpose of the GDMBR. That would be the (yet to be created) Great Divide Road Bike Route, and perhaps that is what you actually have in mind?

I hope I am totally wrong, but just in case you may want to reconsider your timing. It is very unforgiving country, and you can go days without seeing anyone else. There is a good reason they call one area “Lonesome Mesa.” Even if you carry a SPOT www.findmespot.com/default.aspx help may not be able to get to you for several days. That is how bad the mud can get! They will probably have to travel by horseback. If they have to bring in a helicopter, you will probably get charged for the ride and it will reflect poorly on the rest of us schmucks who will be coming through later.

I have heard the horror stories from the BLM people here in Albuquerque, and also from the cowboys and ranchers that I have met in my travels on those back country “roads.” They are not too thrilled about rescuing people. Some ranchers have even tried to get the route radically changed so they won’t have to deal with these problems.

I don’t even think a Surly Pugsley with Endomorph tires can float over that mud. Even if it could, you would have to be a Son of Hercules to ride it loaded very far under those conditions. Basically, you had better hope that it freezes at night so that you can ride over frozen mud. That is what folks who deal with these conditions often do. Also, I hope you are good at repacking bearings, because if you don’t take them apart, clean them up and repack them with grease, then the dirt from the mud will pulverize the bearings and cups before long. Even “sealed” cartridges get contaminated and destroyed in these conditions. If you do the (yet to be created) “road” version – the GDRBR, be sure to look at the maintenance advice for cold weather conditions at www.icebike.org/Equipment/freehub.htm. You don’t want the grease in your wheel hubs, or your freehub freezing up. That will destroy them pretty quickly.

These are some of the reasons why I am leaving around May 22nd on a nobo version of the GDMBR. I won’t even get into bears coming out of hibernation and your opportunity to be their first meal in months!

Enough said?

Ride to Eat. Eat to Ride. Ride the Great Divide!
(At the right time of the year, with the appropriate training and with excellent preparation!)

Happy New Year! This is the year we Ride the Divide!!

Last night, New Year's eve, I spent alone downloading Service Manuals on my front and rear shocks. I know it does not sound too swift, but my wife was away taking care of her aging parents, and my visiting daughter was instructed to stay put wherever she ended up. Although she was not going to imbibe, everyone else on the road probably had; so I told her to sit tight until morning.

She arrived home safely (albeit exhausted) this morning and my wife checked in by telephone - a good start to 2008! I was going to sleep outside last night, but in years past there has been a fair amount of gunfire at midnight. I decided that I would prefer my roof to slow the velocity of the bullets down a tad before they hit me. Fortunately, there were a few fireworks, but no gunfire.

It was 14 degrees F when I crawled out of the sack this morning. There is a traditional 40 mile club bike ride, but I have not winterized any of my bikes yet (http://www.icebike.org/). The wind chill at the airport was at 4 degrees, so rolling down the hill to Rio Puerco could easily freeze the lubrication in the freewheel. Yes, I still use freewheels, but freehubs have the same problem. With my wife unavailable to rescue me and not knowing when me daughter would get home, I wimped out.

I decided to put my efforts into cooking. I uploaded some more pictures into my Cooking and Eating folder with some explanations of my equipment and experiments. For some reason the Picasa albums are not loading to the blog right now, but I am sure the problem will be resolved soon.

Later I studied the service manuals for the shocks on the full suspension bike that I am planning to use on the GDMBR. I really do not want to have to do any emergency service on them. Just keeping everything dialed in would be fine by me. I want to understand what signs and symptoms I should be aware of in case of an impending problem. I am going to take the bike to the shop tomorrow and talk to the mechanic about what service needs to be done on the shocks and suspension, how often, and what spare parts and tools I should have available (to be shipped, not carried). The service manuals say one thing, but the sales people say something else. I want a good mechanic's opinion.

Chris Turner mentioned on his web site, http://www.boundaryzero.net/, that he had his rear shock "Pushed." There is a company in Denver called Push Industries that can rebuild, and fine tune certain shocks to make them more durable and more responsive to the particular needs of the rider (www.pushindustries.com/). This upgrade is rather expensive and it nullifies the warranty. I still have another year to go on my warranty, so I hate to cut it short. At the same time I do not want a preventable equipment failure to end my trip. I need more information and thought on this issue.

Consistent with the skill and equipment acquisition aspect of my preparation for riding the GDMBR I placed an order with Amazon for two books on bike set-up and maintenance as well as a couple more on riding techniques. My friend Rick is the only one who has ever taught me how to ride better and how to set my bike up. I stopped going on club mountain bike rides because I do not know how to do technical riding and my wife has a low tolerance for me coming home bloody and bruised.

The first book on my Amazon list "Mountain Bike Maintenance" by Guy Andrews has lots of good photographs to help you set up and maintain your bike. I can’t recommend it enough, but in the shocks department they refer you to your favorite bike shop. The only problem with that advice is that it is several hundred miles between bike shops on the GDMBR.

As an aside, but still relevant to this topic, Ron Faul (www.trek4fun.com/) warned me about this issue on the GDMBR. I bought his maps last week so he called to confirm the purchase. He said that there are a couple of real bike shops in Silver City. There is an excellent one in Salida, Colorado. There are another one or two real bike shops in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The last one will be in Helena, Montana. Ron told me that the rest are just general hardware stores that might occasionally sell a bike or a tube, but he did not think they ever turned a wrench on one. Now this information may or may not be up-to-date, because he rode the GDMBR in 2006. Even in one year things can change a lot. However, this type of research is already on my master list of things to do before we depart.

Another book on my list is Lennard Zinn’s book "Zinn and the Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance" and is one recommended to me by a former salesman/mechanic during a short bike maintenance course I took from him. It does not always get into exquisite detail, but it is pretty good. He does address the shocks and the suspension. Hopefully, with the specific information from the Service Manuals I can ask a mechanic some half-way intelligent questions. I have Zinn’s road bike maintenance book already, and it is excellent for my purpose. The mountain bike version will fill out my library.

Another book I ordered was: "Mountain Bike Magazine's Complete Guide To Mountain Biking Skills: Expert Tips On Conquering Curves, Corners, Dips, Descents, Hills, Water Hazards, And Other All-Terrain Challenges." I looked it over at REI and was impressed, but I could not find my gift card in my wallet, so I postponed the purchase. Luckily I got it from Amazon at a good discount.

The last book "Mountain Bike Like a Champion" by Ned Overend I probably could have lived without, because the GDMBR is not all that technical, but it had some terrific reviews and I am simply interested in reading it. Who knows, maybe I will ditch the BOB trailer and take off through the back country?
Update 1/18/08: Ned Overend's book is terrific! There is more good advice per page on bike set up, riding techniques, strategies, and fitness than I can do justice to with a review. Check it out of the library. However, I think you will want to have it on your bookshelf or nightstand permanently. It is a must read book.

Recently I started a Google Group with the other people who are planning to ride with me this summer. Right now it is only visible and open to them, because there are issues that we need to discuss privately among ourselves. As we do and as I get their permission to mention specifics in this blog, then I might publish the results of our discussions here if it seem pertinent to someone else's success on the GDMBR. For now we need to get to know each other as best we can online without any interference or distraction of others.

I received Lynne Whelden's DVD on Hiking the Continental Divide Trail for Christmas. He has an excellent list of topics and concerns for hiking the CDT that are equally relevant to the GDMBR. Unfortunately, my first, overly enthusiastic attempt to communicate that list of discussion topics to my group was pretty obtuse. I am in the process of reorganizing it and presenting it as questions and checklists to aide in our preparation.

So, 2008, is off to a solid start!

Ride to Eat. Eat to Ride. Ride the Great Divide!