It's been fascinating to see how Tour Divide bikes have changed over the years, and watch the distances-per-day increase! It's hard not to think they are both correlated, but there are many factors at play. 🏆 Here are tubeless sealant and aero bars articles that I referenced in the video: 🛞 www.cyclingabout.com/best-tubeless-sealant-for-gravel-road-mtb-tires 🛩 www.cyclingabout.com/bikepacking-aero-bars-comfort-speed-bike-adventures

Two videos in a week? Is this what cycling christmas feels like?

Dylan Johnson took 10th place at the 200 mile Unbound Gravel Race using 2.2 Continental Race King XC tires and a Lauf suspension fork. Maybe he took some lesson from the Tour Divide racers. Check out his KZfaq channel where he goes over his build.

This is terrific, answering many questions I've been having on how to optimize bikepacking and touring setups. Thanks for pulling it together and for including some of the more subtle choices. For example, the choice to use a dynamo vs fast charging batteries. Very well done, just like the rest of your channel.

Thanks for the detailed information and data, much appreciated since I have a lot of gear upgrades and choices to make, planning for my first ultra next year! I’m not competing and just want to finish the race so according to the data I don’t need a carbon frame bike, you just save me a lot of money 😂 thanks 🙏🏻

I know you have done a lot of great analysis on bike and gear weight. It would be interesting to look at the whole race pack and see if bike weight and gear weight correlate to overall speed or completion rates. I have a feeling that for this type race with steep long climbs at altitude a 21lbs (Trek SuperCaliber) bike vs a 35lbs (Priority Pinion) bike is a MASSIVE HUGE difference. So much more time is spent at slow speed climbing vs for most tests I have seen online in easy rolling terrain. My own perception is that as it gets steeper and longer, bike and gear weight start to multipy and the weight penalty goes up sort of like areo and speed. If nothing else, the mental toll of perceived effort/fatigue adds add up over hour+ climbs vs pure watt calculations. A small percentage of extra effort over a personal daily max set point at the end of a long day can impact recovery more than pure watt calculations and then the daily decline strarts accelerating.

Thank you very much for this in-depth analysis. Great voice over as always.

Fantastic video. Thanks for the insights.

A great and informative, video, thank you.

Nicely done and thank you.

your videos are so cool! Thanks :)

THE metadata man. Thanks

Need to collect data of conditioning regimen, prep diet and match diet, these factors constitute 50 percent of the battle imho.

Excellent synopsis!

I love a nerd out. I'd still like a Bamboo bike with a pinion drive.

Do a review of Pinion and Rohloff based gravel bikes with drop bars please 😊

I tried the Infinity saddle E1X, unfortunately it didn't work for me and I ended up going for the Brooks C13 Carbon. I hear good things about the Infinity saddle for other people and they don't use padded shorts at all either.

Probably worth noting that Lachlan raced an older variation of the route that has some key differences not present in the route raced in 2024, nor in 2023

Infinity saddle user here, the 'solid' E1X. I've been riding recumbent bikes on the road for 20+ years; they're comfy and potentially faster. I kept dabbling with my mt bike occasionally. A few years ago I got a CX bike to try out 'gravel', and I was hooked. But not on the seat. From friends in ultracycling (RAAM, RAW, RAO, 508, etc) I knew of the Infinity saddle, and also figured I had a way to resell it if it didn't work for me. After trying 6-7 saddles it was just another one to try. But this one worked, and worked so well. First few rides were great, and I went longer than I had been. Moved that saddle to my custom steel gravel bike a year later. A bit after that put another one on my new 130mm full sus mt bike. And we added one on my partner's Specialized e-bike; she'd gone thru 3-4 saddles herself with no luck, also having come over from years on the recumbent.

I’ve tried a Brooks C17 over a weekend, the damage it caused to my sitbones area took 2 years to recover. The Infinity seat is difficult to adjust correctly but once adjusted, it is fantastic. The only saddle I’ve found I can seat on more than 3 days without pain, Dr Vince now makes a synthetic version which is best for bikepacking as the leather version requires lots of maintenance.

I ride an infinity seat, and I have to say it affects my performance in unexpected ways. Put simply, almost anytime I stop somewhere, someone will eventually ask about it, and we spend about 5-10 minutes talking about it. That slows me down, but I don't race, so that's not a problem! 🤣 The leather and padding.started falling off mine and I ended up taking it off completely, exposing the naked plastic core. Overall the leather and padding are very minimal and do not strongly affect the ride of comfort. I mentioned this to the infinity staff in an email a few weeks ago and they said that the original model didn't have the leather or padding, but they found they sold more when they added it. The naked option is not available on their website, but they will sell it to you if you request it. I prefer it. No having to worry if it gets wet while leaving the bike outside in the rain. But yeah, I like it a lot. It's a comfortable seat and good for long distances if it works for you. The downside is that it's hard to test one out without buying it first.

Love a good bike nerding out video 🤓

Have tried the infinity seat… was unimpressed. The pressure has to go somewhere, and ultimately just made me sore in different places. I spent a couple of weeks experimenting with it. For me it wasn’t anything special… just another saddle that may, or may not, work for a given butt.

I don’t think most people know about the “10 hour” time penalty from dynamo hubs. I looked into it while deciding my setup for this year and found the same thing! They make no sense on a route like this where charging stations are everywhere. I also think the Mezcals should be on their way out for the tour divide. People say the tread durability is better but don’t realize how weak the sidewalls seem to be. Continental race kings have proven to be durable enough for the course. The Thunder Burts are theoretically faster and they held up for me this year. It will be really interesting to see if full suspension takes off in popularity after this year

I would be very curious about the infinity saddles too, the concept seems very interesting, but the proce it's steep to try them

super!

Nice

Great video. You might want to add the Silca sealant to your test list for next time. For me, it works better than Orange.

What percentage used electronic gears?

Has sponsored equipment been discounted this time?

❤

Is it good and confortbal for touring +2000km?

Wow

For me, the Infinity saddle (the E2 model) was unfortunately not a match made in heaven. In fact, quite the opposite. As much as the open design on the rear alleviated sit bone pressure, the curvature of the seat was simply too extreme, putting a lot of pressure on the perineum. There's a good summary about the issue on the weight weenies website which echoes my experiences with the saddle. For reference, I've had a professional bike fit, watched a lot of bike fit videos and completed a few ultra-distance bikepacking events, but despite trying out different settings of the saddle (tilt, fore-aft position and height) and allowing my body sufficient time to adapt for each minor adjustment, I just couldn't get the Infinity to work. At this point I've tried about a dozen different saddles so I've gotten a fairly good idea about what kind of shape and padding works for my rear end. Accordingly, I'm seriously considering one of the custom 3D printed saddles, more specifically the Posedla Joyseat. It's interesting how the novel technology has been changing saddle design in recent years, with the older archetype of a bike saddle being refined into more individualized shapes, thanks to body mapping and advances in 3D printing. Of course, there are still saddles that have stood the test of time, like the Brooks leather saddles. Sadly, even after breaking in the Brooks didn't work for me as the nose put too much pressure on my perineum, just like the Infinity. I hope that investing in the custom saddle will be worth it, and if not, Posedla even offers a 60-day return scheme (although they do deduct 100 euros from the refund amount). While it might be true that an optimally fitting saddle is money well spent (probably the most important contact point on the bike, after all), I find the price of the Infinity saddles not so competitive, considering that you can get the fully custom Posedla for 490 USD whereas the E1X from Infinity will set you back 387 USD. Granted, I'm somewhat biased as a European as I also need to add duty+VAT to the price of the Infinity, whereas the Posedla is manufactured in Europe, meaning no extra charges involved.

What kind of eye glasses did people use?

Is your Koga Denham bar a substitute usable in lieu of aero bar? Would you use aero instead for touring?

Have to admit, im confused about folks switching to batteries over a dynohub - how are they recharging the batteries? Are they just carrying a bunch of batteries and ditching them in towns?

Do we think 1x 12 drivetrains are the most efficient for tour divide , or is it because manufactures are focusing heavily on this drivetrain including on the bike frames so no front deraileur , thus making 2x10, 2x11 2x12 obsolete expecially on mtb bikes 🤔

50.000 m in elevation? You're going stratosphere 😂😂

Great video! Nobody matches you on the amount of information per minute you pack into each video.

Why don’t they run it south to north so it’s downhill instead of uphill? Be more fun, I think.

lower the bass in your mic

Wow... here I am... 1st place bike this and that.... how nice second place bike this and that.... how nice... *NOTHING* on LtD's bike? Carter voice 'screw you guys I'm going home'

the 1x popularity is disappointing id be using a 2x11 its lighter more reliable more aero and more efficient and you can get even more gear range i have a feeling the 1x meme is gonna die out again at some point when people get bored of the 1x meme

Mountain bikes with drop bars silly. and aero bars even sillier 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Miles dude miles

You really couldn't bother to learn to pronounce the winners name right?

Only losers bike just to get there faster.