You said that you stopped wearing your padded shorts and went with merino wool underwear. Dumb question but where your merino wool underwear a compression type fit or just regular boxer type that were a little baggy. I also have a B17 and still searching for the right combo. Thanks for the info. Chuck
The perfect combo for me was icebreaker merino wool underwear which were snug fitting, not loose. I’m sure you can find them from smart wool or other places too. And I wore Castelli mountain bike shorts which are the best bike shorts ever. They have pockets on the sides that face backward away from the tops of your legs to carry stuff w/o chafing, long enough for sun coverage and baggyish in the butt to accommodate the riding position. No padding I wore the same combo this year on my Europe bike tour 1,000 miles from Amsterdam to pretty far west of Zurich plus I ware the same thing on EVERY ride at home daily. If you like the b17 then I would try and ditch tight padded bike pants. I got saddle sores with tight bike pants until I switched. I DONT THINK WHAT I WORE IS THE SOLUTION AS MUCH AS STOP WEARING BIKE SHORTS WITH THE B17. good luck!
@@chuckmillerqq4546 sure thing good luck. I love my b17. The guy I started the divide with had one and hated it. If it can work for you, it’s the best because no more tight sweaty bike shorts.
@@user-xn7oj3oy5g your kidding right? Once is enough on that grizzley bear ridden, endless ribbon of dust and gravel through a lot of terrible small conservative towns
I’m far from a bike expert but I had no problems. It’s a really great bike. Very comfortable. Looks kind of funny with the wide fork though. I guess the clearance is not so much an issue when you only need a 40 but as your clearance needs increase the tire width also does.
@pgreenx sweet. I have a Breezer Thunder steel bike, but have always wanted to build up a Fargo frame with a 2x. Already have a 36/28 crankset I can use. Would go 2x11 with possible a Deore 11-51 with a SRAM Force lever I still have. Mechanical brakes I would still need to buy.
@@51249ca I rode on the GDMBR for a couple of weeks with a guy that had a Breezer. He loved it. they are supposed to be really nice bikes. He needed up finishing the divide on the Breezer and going into Mexico!
I know that NOW but at the time I was all by myself and didn't. That section in northern NM was terrible (rocks, mud and won't even include the all day raining). Where where you last year when I needed the help! I am much happier this yr riding in Europe
Thanks. I forgot to download the Europe map layers for my Garmin for Germany and Switzerland before I left for my trip and did not have maps available. Just the pink line I followed. I didn’t do as much planning as I should have but I had a lot of fun. thanks for watching.
I’m enjoying your videos, and dreaming some someday riding the same route. Thank you for taking the time to make your videos and uploading them. I appreciate your sharing them.
Sure thing. thank you! The videos are a little rough because I edit them in my tent at night and do not have access or the time to add fancy music, text etc. I also try to show the good and bad of the trip which most people do not do. I mostly do them for my self but nice to see they help some people.
@@pgreenx I appreciate your authenticity of sharing both the good and bad. For example, you show lots of nice riding along the way, however you also mentioned the ride between Bonn and Kolenz went through some pretty industrial areas. That’s useful to me. It helps me realize that not everything is ideal along the way. That’s life. Thanks again for sharing your journey. I appreciate you. I wish you a continued nice journey south. You are doing something special, and it is fun to see it.
I used the GDMBR a paper maps from the ACA. They were great for long range planning on the trail, figuring out resupply towns and how many days to get to next town. They identified miles, elevation profile and they also identified road surfaces (ie paved, single track etc). between towns to determine difficulty. . I looked at them every night in my tent, but never used them during the day. I used my little wahoo with the downloaded GPS track during the day. I would definitely buy them and bring them again Ps- it was huge ups and downs all day every day so I didn’t really look at the profile much during the day, but I did see that on the wahoo as well through the GPS files I bought from ACA Hope that helps.
I make the videos for me and not views or subs. So I don’t have a reason to embellish or make stuff up for click bait etc. again, hope it helped. One thing I’ll mention is I invested in new electronic sram 12 speed year and love the additional gearing. Would have been a much better trip for me with lower gearing. What I would do differently now that I’ve been training for a European tour next month is NOT GO ELECTRONIC WITH THE MOUNTAIN BIKE 1X SYSTEM I BOUGHT. nice at home but battery life is low due to the large rear derailleur. I’ll probably carry 4 battery’s and if I was going g to a remote place a lot more to be safe. I wasn’t worried about reliability here but even sram says only about 20 hours of battery life on the 1x. Not a lot on a long-day tour
Not exactly sure what you are saying. Are you saying I could have used a 28mm tire up front? I’m not the best person with all the bike specs. Thanks for watching
I enjoyed your video and your comments. I'm a native New Mexican, an avid bicyclist, and hiker. I appreciate the fact that your views reflect those from someone that is not from this part of the country. Many of the southwest rivers carry silt from the monsoon rains in the mountains. The fence posts you pointed out that go up the hills are the Right of Way demarcation for the roads that are owned by the state or Federal Government (on Interstate Highways.) You'll see these fences on every highway. Forest road conditions reflect the amount of traffic that utilize them. Monsoon rains also tend to erode them to expose the base caourse material. You do need to watch for the ticks, as they may carry diseases. My grandfather, whom I never knew, died in the 1920's from Rocky Mountain Spotted fever, which he contracted at a Wyoming sheep ranch. Thanks again for a good job with your introduction route video, your filming, and your honest view of the GDMBR.
Thanks for the kinds words and the information. I’m sure NM is a great state. I just saw rocks and mud. I’m off the do a long Europe trip in July. Hope I don’t complain too much there. Will be very diff biking through small towns. Btw- I’m mostly a hiker. I like the bike but prefer the northeast woods and mountains.
Thanks. Hope it helped. I saw pretty much only wahoo and garnin. The garmin seemed better at navigation off the route but I liked the wahoo to keep me on route. I used my phone and downloaded maps to take me anywhere off route. Have fun and be safe from the bears if you are going this summer!
Only time I was not scared of the bears was the daily lightning storms in Canadian Rockies. Oh, and Montana too I had a couple of really bad scares I didn't get on camera.
Nice wrap up video. Thanks for doing it. I just ran across tonight and will subscribe to watch the rest of your GDMBR series. I was out there last summer as well for 600 miles, heading back this year. I got a video series of my trip up on YT if you're bored some time. 😊
Will check it out. Won't spoil it for you but really disliked NM between the highway, monsoons and mud! I actually ran access your videos the other day and commented how great they were. Mine are just endless rambling clips but I was tired at the end of every day when I produced them in my tent
You will love riding in Europe. The Eurovelo 15 is a treat. There are towns every 30-50km so you don't need to carry a lot of resupply. Campgrounds might be crowded, and often near RR tracks or the river so they can be noisy. Short story, my wife and I riding into a village along the EV 15 route where it was not on the separated trail, a large black BMW sedan approached from behind us on a narrow stretch of road. I looked back and yelled at her, "Car back, watch out!" because traffic was approaching from the opposite direction too. I figured we would get brushed within inches by the BMW. BUT, the driver slowed, almost stopped 30 feet behind us, and waited for oncoming traffic to pass. The BMW driver then pulled into the opposite lane and slowly passed us without cursing or blowing the horn. I wanted to move to the EU right then and there.
@@pgreenx I watched your videos of the Divide. Funny you mentioned having a Moots Ti, but prefer the Salsa steel w drop bars. Same here but own Chumba Ti, and now have a steel drop bar bike with racks and panniers front and rear. I rode half of Divide route in 2021, going to ride again this summer 2024. Enjoy the EU, thanks for your video work!☮
As I/we come from both bicycle touring and hiking background this was an eye opener. I must say this was very informative and worth watching. Certainly your style of presentation was very down to earth. Thank you.
glad it helped. What probably didn't come across was the endless miles and days of dusty, boring roads..... The only parts I really liked were Banf to about whitefish and northern Co
@@pgreenx You are right I did not get the feeling of the endless miles endured. As seniors we travel slowly by fatbikes with 4.8 in tires. BUT we still enjoyed tenting. Keep rolling. Have FUN!!
I appreciate your good outlook on people but most just complain I do not plug the gtr into the amp or provide music notes. Just happy to be playing again after two plus yrs
I rode a Shimano GRX on this trip (I think: F 30/46 and rear 11 speed 11-34). Honestly anything works on the GAP/C&O - its flat the whole way accept for some 2-3% up on C&O. On the GDMBR the above would NOT work for an older person (like me). I put a fancy new drivetrain in last week and will be doing a video soon. Thanks for watching!
thanks - I appreciate it. no sense making it out that its better than it is. One thing I forgot to mention was all the boring days on dusty gravel and the pick up trucks ripping by kicking up the dust. Im heading out for 3,000 miles across Europe this summer. hope you have a good riding season!
Many thanks for this. I have a Stratospire and it takes up half of my backpack. I’m going to try taking out the struts to fit then tent horizontally in my pack.
Thanks. I put this up there for some people so they know you could do this. The reality is, I’ve actually never done it. I leave the notch strapped to the top of my pack. It’s just another pain in the neck thing you have to do when you get in the camp at night. I’m guessing the stratosphire is a lot bigger.
@@pgreenx I don't ride, I leave water at rode in cooler my property, many miss because it's on a down hill left curve slope into valley. This year I'll make more visible for riders. Started small back 2019 case out there at a time to cooler approximately 30 cases last year. Met so many interesting & wonderful people on bikes, hosted many overnight.
Hi Steve - yes I do. That was a great time at Whitefish and the bike retreat. Colorado was nice too I wasn't really a fan of a lot of the rest of there trip. a lot of rocks and dusty roads in southern Montana and NM. Im planning a trip on the Eurovelo 6/15 this summer from Amsterdam, thru Zurich and to Budapest. Big charge from girzilly bears and rocks.... What are you up to?
On the Divide I found the ACA phone app was spot on correct for turn by turn. We found GPX files provided by other people were off sometimes. iPhone set in Satellite mode would last over two days for mapping, never lost connection even in the Great Basin.
I agree with all that. I had problems with some of the GPX files but the ACA app got me back on course. What's a wrong turn here and there surrounded by grizzly bears and an extra 1000 feet of gain......
I think it’s Lake Placid Blue. It’s made by Tom Anderson a boutique gtr maker In California. In my opinion, they make the best guitars in the world. I have one in Swamp Ash that’s got a translucent red finish, and it looks insane
@@pgreenx on my monitor it doesn’t look lake placid? it looks metal flake ,that’s why i asked . Every guitar builder seems to have their own shade or version of colors but I like your color a lot.👍 fenders same color is much darker imo
I have this gtr about 20 years at this point and went back and looked at the invoice. Tom Anderson calls it Metallic Ice Blue. I like it a lot;. didn't want a flashy color but something out of the ordinary. I don't get a lot of views on the channel and you're the first to ask about the color. At gigs, I get a lot of compliments on the tone though, especially clean. The sound doesn't really come through very well on the recordings though.
@@pgreenx ah ha ! I knew it was a metal something or another ! I was very close on guess , cause’ my first bike as kid I spray painted it metal flake blue. That’s my fav color and yours is very similar indeed. I’m sure at its age it’s just a great grand guitar 👍 I have a 95’ fender start -American standard - and great guitars do age beautifully. No wonder vintage cost so much .
I live in Europe pretty much on the junction of EuroVelo 15 and EuroVelo 6. I rode bigger junks of both of them. And you should definitely do the EuroVelo 6 (or maybe a section of it). Something else you could look into is the European Divide Trail, which is much more like the GDMBR: more dirt, more remote. Or you piece them together: Fly into Paris. Train to Orleans. EuroVelo 6 until you hit the EDT. Take that to the North until you hit the EuroVelo 15 take that south to the Alpes (take a train from Bingen to the Black Forest to skip four super boring days). Finish in Italy to fly out of Milano or Rome.
To each their own. In 2021, I rode the GDMBR route, Canadian border to Mexican border. New Mexico was my favorite state. Remote, isolated, rough, challenging, fulfilling. Simply the best. And, from my saddle, the vehicle drivers were the most courteous of the entire route. Hands down.
