Why, Planning, & Prep
Why: I was never that interested in riding on gravel and back roads. Most my life I was generally the guy who wanted to zoom around on a bike on smooth pavement. For probably 25 years of my life, my philosophy on bicycles was like this: the lighter the better, the more aerodynamic the better, the skinner the tires the better the higher the air pressure in the tires the better. I was constantly trying to maintain my speed around the “loop” to what I could ride it in 1974 or latter to the speed I could ride it 1992. Then the age thing caught up with me….. My time around the loop was steadily getting longer and longer. So sad. It was time for a change, I retired my clipless (clip in) pedals, I causally added phone brackets, and wider tires, and forgot all about getting in the “tuck”. Consequently, here I am ready to ride The Great Divide Mountain Bike Route. I still like the smooth pavement, and I will tour on these surfaces in the future.
I believe it’s been since around 2015 that I first started to be interested in this route. I found YouTube videos and blogs that showed beautiful trails, wonderful scenery and wicked down hills (and difficult up hill climbs). It’s a tough ride, the challenge is a big part of the “why”.
Planning: Last year in the late spring I started looking at the maps, studying the possibilities, and a big thing for me was seeing that there were men and women doing this ride who were my age or older. I saw these characters doing it solo and self-supported and of course with friends and supported. They all had the tenacity to accomplish sections or the entire thing, and they all appeared very gratified to have completed whatever part of the challenge they rode.
I was at a meeting of the “Touring Cluster” of the Cincinnati Cycle Club last spring and I took the floor to ask if anyone in the group was interested in riding the GDMBR with me. One guy talked to me after the meeting – Scott. A few months later I recruited another guy (brother-in-law of a very good friend) also a member of the CCC. I knew he had ridden across the continent a few years ago. Unfortunately, this brother-in-law of a friend has come across obstacles preventing him from committing 75 to 80 days of his life to a recreational bike ride. I also recruited another guy who is a cyclist and adventurer but his life has also taken a turn and he has decided to do other things. But Scott and I have muddled through most of a year of patching a plan together and we are ready.
Our planning included purchasing the ACA maps and resources, months of computer time developing a day to day “spreadsheet”, making calls, and sending emails. At the end of it all we have everything planned out except how we are going to get home from Antelope Wells, New Mexico. I know from my cross-country tour in 2023 that these plans are helpful, but anything can change at any time.
Prep: What an experience it is to get prepared to travel by bicycle for 3300 miles and live in a tent that you carry on your bicycle for 75 to 80 days. There is no set routine, there is no text book, we read about other folk’s experiences and how they got prepared. I have been riding a bicycle most of my life so foundationally that part I’m ready for. I started working out, setting distance goals, lifting weights and other exercises, etc. Then in March I was planning to do a 6-day tour in Florida just as an early test. The opportunity was there, the CCC organized their “Spring Fling” the ride was supported, the ride was excellently organized, the ride was on and off pavement, it fit for me well. I was 22 miles into the first day and out of the BLUE a tree broke off and fell directly on top of me while riding on a beautiful bike trail. My left forearm – both bones—was broken. Surgery, 13 titanium screws and 2 titanium bars and 8 weeks off the bike and I’m mostly recovered. I had only 11 weeks to get back in shape. Ready or not I am on my way, but I need to talk frankly; I would say that break from conditioning was noticeably a good thing. It was a break in conditioning that could not be avoided but I hiked and walked and casually maintained as much of my fitness as possible and I emerged for this break just fine.
You should know that planning for something like this is an all-consuming function, late in 2025 I decided that my aging had changed my body to the extent that I did not fit my current bicycle anymore. It had become uncomfortable in several ways. I set out to get a new one, I thought that was going to be easy. I knew what I wanted, I knew what components I wanted, I knew that the new bike needed to be GDMBR ready but also function for me after the ride. The process to have a bike built consumed many months and really came down to the wire. I received it on June 29th. But it’s great.
You might want to know that the rest of the planning is just as hard. We have made lists, and I have practiced packing and there was waterproofing tent seams and finding bags and Paniers for the new bike. There is the small attachment hardware that needs to be worked out, there’s supplies like dry toothpaste and prescription meds and Canadian currency, and passports and train tickets, and car rentals, that are needed. You will see as we progress the wonderful details we have worked out and the things we have forgotten and the things that will be wrong.
Ken's Adventures 