What I Learned Completing The Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (GDMBR)

so I'm back back in the east of England not on the gdmbr might transition back into normal life is going well I'm becoming less and less feral each day I've had quite a lot of questions and I thought I'd do a quick video answering some of them some of the more common ones anyway namely what I would change the decisions I made before I set off and whether I do anything different and also a lot of people have asked how much it cost so I'm going to go into that and then I put some thoughts into how I could have done it cheaper I think I should think about how to do these things cheaper in the future otherwise I'm not going to be able to do many of them so some of the questions timing I decided to ride this route in July and August I'm trying to think why and I can't really remember I believe there was a window of uh when you're supposed to do it and that might have been July August September October I think and I'm just impatient that was the reason I just thought no I'm going to do it as soon as I can now would I change it no definitely not because I had perfect conditions I would say for the whole two months I had rain in the second half but uh you know that's rain is rain it doesn't really bother me the direction I decided to go Southbound I think that's what most people do that was one reason why I chose to do it secondly New Mexico is hard and everybody told me it was hard and I thought it was easier to go Southbound having ridden the route now I would say it's definitely easier to go Southbound um starting in New Mexico would have been difficult there's so many considerations the the availability of water the terrain the um distance between resupplies um yeah I would say it's easier going Southbound so I went with uh sander broken road the reason I went for that is because I wanted the pinion gearbox that was my primary concern I wanted maintenance free and I wanted a belt drive and I'm very happy I went that way there was no maintenance I washed the bike out of guilt not very often and it worked perfectly there was a small issue with the belt popping off but I know now that was my fault I've remedied that I've learned my lesson I I'm happy I'm happy bear in mind I'm not an expert this is the only bike I've ever ridden on a long distance Trail I could jump on a different one and like it a lot more I I really don't know I can say for me I would say it worked fine if I'd had a bike with a derailleur that was a capable bike I definitely wouldn't change it I would have been happy if I'd have already had a bike and now I didn't so I needed to buy a new one anyway but yeah in hindsight if I needed to spend a bit less maybe and and get a bike with a derailleur definitely I I could have I would still buy this if I was to um need a new bike though I'm I'm glad I have got it I was looking at what's that one I was looking at a surly Bridge Club that's an awesome bike an awesome bike and that's I think you can get them for about twelve thirteen hundred dollars and that would definitely be fine on the trip I saw a few of them out there and uh I strangely want one I don't need one but I like that sort of basic well-made No Frills sort of approach a surly Bridge Club is that bike I would add a front rack and I've ordered a front rack um I would have liked to have carried more food and I think I would have liked to have brought a tarp in addition to the 10. just like I said that when it was raining and not be confined to the tent which did happen quite a few times I would like to have been able to just sit outside and cooked and you know there's something nice about being out in the rain when you're not getting wet so uh yeah carrying capacity and food I wish I'd carried more food because I was always hungry and Bill had lots of food and coincidentally a front rack and he was never hungry so yeah front rack that's it yeah I wouldn't change anything else I mean I'm lucky considering this was my first proper trip I think I got it quite right I mean I researched everything to death which is my way and it paid off I suppose one thing to add to the uh equipment sort of discussion it obviously depends on how fast you're going if you're doing 30 days or you were looking to finish in 30 days then you go lighter weight and if you're gonna take longer then you go heavier weight I think I would have done it a little longer if I was to do it again maybe 70 days I did it in 62. but I think I would have done it in 70. 75 maybe just so I could have explored more I would have liked to have done a few sort of uh side rails hikes but uh who knows it's hard to think how I felt whilst I was on the trail because I'm saying I would have done it in more days and I could have done it in more trails and more more days and uh I didn't so I don't know I don't know if I do it again I'll let you know [Music] I've moved to a different location apparently it's the way to keep your audience you all get bored if I sit in the same place for too long children so costings I've worked it out in toll I'm going to do it in dollars I think because even though I'm in Britain you're going to be spending in dollars so I think that's the easiest way I spent seven thousand nine hundred and sixty six dollars in total but I'll break it down for you the biggest expense was meals out 2846. lodgings were next 1310 resupplies um so just you know grocery stores things for eating when I'm not in towns 748 dollars um flights of course that's unique to me uh 2 244 the flight home was ridiculously expensive that includes you know luggage fees all that sort of stuff maintenance 475 dollars and miscellaneous 342 dollars so yeah 7 966 dollars approximately I didn't say in as many hotels I thought I was going to because of warm showers um I wish I'd done that earlier on now you shouldn't think of warm showers as being free and I don't and you you do need to pay it forward or you should pay it forward and I will pay it forward by doing a similar thing hosting people but still you know it's it's uh it's a good way of cutting down the costs maintenance I said 475 dollars I put two new tires on whilst I was out and I didn't really need to they weren't new when I set off uh you should get uh the whole tour done on one set of tires so you might be able to take them off the miscellaneous is things that I bought uh water bladders I bought some of those I bought some different tools when I was out there nothing essential so I sat down with Ross and he helped me work out a way of reducing it what you could do how you could do it cheaper and we came out with a theoretical minimum uh of course then you can get anywhere between them so this was also based on a 50-day tour because that's another good way of cutting down the cost a theoretical minimum this is so you could do uh fewer meals out I reckon you could do 100 a week that'd be three or four meals out a week I think that's reasonable giving you a total cost of seven hundred dollars lodgings you don't really need to do hotels at all I did them at the beginning and the end of the trip and that's a large part of my costs for the for the lodgings and I didn't need to you could do hostels you can you can start quicker on the trip you can do campsites you don't need uh hotels for showers or laundry most RV parks have them so as a as a guest we came up with 15 every other night so you wouldn't even need that a lot of campsites are cheaper and a lot of them are free so I would say 375 dollars would be a an easy target to meet for lodgings resupplies are more complicated because if you cut down the amount of food that you eat out you need more for resupplies my resupply bill uh was higher because I didn't didn't pay too much attention to where I was buying food I I spent more than I needed to if I'd have carried more food and had the capacity to carry more food I would have been able to buy more cheaper buy from Walmart Family Dollar not gas stations and some of these little tiny shops on campsites and Things They just they rip you off I mean it's crazy for instance Cliff Bars a staple you can spend five dollars on a cliff bar in a gas station or dollar in Walmart if you buy in bulk so you know you can reduce that right down so I'd say you could get away with 750 for a resupply cost maintenance chains brake pads there's certain things you have to have so 150 dollars there and miscellaneous things that break um you know there's always going to be something say you factored in two hundred dollars that all comes to 2175 I think you could do this tour in 50 days comfortably on 2175 and that's so cheap when you think about it how what else could you do for two months um and spend that little I think it's cheaper to hike but you know we're talking about bike packing here so yeah that's the theoretical low end um I would go somewhere in between you know there's a big difference between what I spend close to eight thousand dollars and close to two thousand dollars I think I could uh with a bit more thought and if I did do it again I definitely would probably look to be spending probably five thousand dollars something like that I've always known slot I got pages and pages of them this is all not off the top of my head instructions from Ross demands I would turn them and my paper's blowing all over the place so you know ordinarily I wouldn't announce how much I spend on stuff but you know I'm not I don't want to hide it uh it's not like I'm showing off eight thousand dollars is a lot of money but I there's things I've canceled I was supposed to do the PCT last year I had to cancel that that would have cost a lot more just by nature of the amount of time you're out on the trail that's another thing to factor you know it's two months off work I suppose um you have to add the cost of loss of earnings but yeah I was going to do a six month PCT through hike that would have cost me a lot more I was supposed to be doing the CDT when covid and all that stuff happened so I think this is I've treated myself this time uh in future I'll be doing it cheaper uh what else have I got to talk about yes uh how meeting people to ride with help keep costs down see that's the thing I met up with John uh quite early on and we split hotel rooms so there's a massive saving to to be had there and campsites uh strangely enough if you really want to take it to extremes even when you're resupplying if you buy in bulk you know packets of 12 say Cliff Bars and split six each you can you can do it cheaper there uh things like that it definitely helps to keep the cost down and at the end bill John and I shared a hotel in El Paso for three nights so you know that was the equivalent of one night each very cheap I would like to have done more wild camping when I was in Grizzly territory I confess I wanted to be on a proper campsite because of bear lockers and just you've got people around you I tried to do that where I could otherwise you could um do more wild camping and save money there but it did play on my mind and I wasn't the only one as unlikely as it is to be bothered by a bear if you do the correct thing and hang your food don't sleep your food they're still grizzly bears it's it's just funny if there's an option of spending ten dollars to stay in a campsite I would do it that that was my feeling yeah I think that's it costings wise I haven't got much more to add to it I suppose people have asked me about the mental challenge of all this and I would say the mental challenge is the biggest challenge I think anyone can condition themselves to be able to ride 50 miles a day and you do get fit or as you go along but I did have days where I didn't want to to ride I think I even announced it for a couple of them but not many you know it's just I think every time I just all you gotta do is that I'm no expert I'm not giving you advice here I'm saying what I did if I had a day and I was thinking I didn't want to be doing it I just had to think about you know going to work and what what other people have to do I'm I'm in a beautiful place doing something I love and I just tell myself not to be such a little that's that's the truth of it and I did tell myself that lots of times and I strangely listen to myself it's a privilege I mean how lucky to be able to go out and do stuff like that there's so many people that can't that would love to so that was my way of dealing with it but do you mean to be honest I I was having a fantastic time out there I I loved it so it's the next day I'm back home I was thinking last night um I didn't want this to seem like an instructional video I am still a novice at bike packing what I am an expert in I guess is how to do it the way I did it but I just wanted to reinforce that if you wanted to do this ride you don't need to be a seasoned by Packer you don't need to be an expert sort of what I'm saying is if I can do it then I think most people can do it reasonable amount of Fitness a reasonable knowledge be able to ride a bike without stabilizers and my aim and the reason for making this video is to encourage more people to do it I've had lots of comments where people saying they've been inspired and that's extremely nice to hear it's uh yeah I've said it before overwhelming I think but if you want to do it you can that's what I'm saying if you can get yourself a decent bike you can get the time off work you have some money I think I've made it clear you don't need to spend as much as I did and you can get yourself in the right position mentally I think anyone could do it I genuinely do so that's it really I hope this video has been useful finally I'd just like to mention that I'm going to be doing a live stream uh q a so if you have any questions see if you can turn up to that if you can't put the questions in the comments below and I'll answer any questions that people have you it can't be too silly a question it can't be too obvious a question and just put whatever you think anything you're thinking of I would appreciate it um and that's going to be on 22nd of September at 7 pm UK time be interesting to see how that goes wasps um yeah it'll be interesting to see how that goes I'm not sure uh if many are going to turn up but uh I don't know why not give it a try thanks for watching

Channel: Mat Ryder Adventures

Views: 30,630

Keywords: GDMBR, The Great Divide, The Great Divide Mountain Biking Route, Bikepacking

Id: EET-JoQelkE

Length: 18min 43sec (1123 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 18 2023