The Tour Divide is an annual off-road ride traversing the length of the rocky mountains,
from Canada all the way to the Mexican border.
The course is over 4,400 kilometres long,
and along the way, riders will gain over 60,000 metres in elevation. The
clock begins at the Grand Départ and doesn't stop until the riders cross the finish line.
And by the way, the ride is strictly self-supported.
The fastest riders will complete the course in around two weeks,
covering approximately 280 kilometres per day.
It's safe to say that the Tour Divide is an extreme test of both the body and mind.
It's also very interesting from a gear optimization perspective, as a few small
differences in bike setup will allow riders to make their lives just that little bit easier.
In this video, we will be analyzing 121 different bike setups from this year's
Tour Divide to find out what makes the best possible setup.
The statistics I will be drawing upon have been wonderfully collected by Bikepacking.com
in the form of two articles where riders from all around the world discuss their bike bag
and gear highlights. I'll link the 'Rigs of the Tour Divide' articles in the description below.
As these articles separate bikes based on whether they use a drop bar or a flat bar,
this seems like a great place for us to start.
A bit over half of the riders interviewed this year
are using drop bar bikes. When people think drop bars,
they think speed. But speed alone is not how most will pick a handlebar for the Tour Divide.
This is a very long event, so comfort is the likely reason
that riders choose one handlebar design over another. Contrary to popular belief,
the widespread use of the different bar types demonstrates that many bar
designs can be ergonomic and comfortable. It's really just a case of personal preference.
But comfort aside, there is likely an aerodynamic advantage
to using drop bars. When it comes to the aerodynamics of cycling,
you ideally want to make your body shape more aerodynamic, your frontal area smaller - or both.
By using drop bars, your hands and elbows do not sit as wide,
allowing you to reduce your frontal area, and optimize your body shape.
A bit of napkin maths suggests that drop bars could save two
or three hours over the full Tour Divide course.
While we're still on the topic of handlebars, one of the best
possible ways to improve both your speed and comfort is to fit aero bars to your bike.
Most Tour Divide riders seem to agree, as 77% of them are using aero bars this year. This
is partly because you can make your body shape more aerodynamic with an aero bar,
allowing you to ride faster with the same effort.
But arguably, it's the additional comfort that is the most appealing feature.
Consider this; Tour Divide riders at the pointy end of the race spend upwards of
20 hours per day riding their bikes. This results in a lot of localized body fatigue.
Aero bars offer your body a break by providing
a different riding position that reduces the strain on your arms, wrists, hands, and bum,
and will allow you to stretch out your back and use different muscles.
If you want to go further down this rabbit hole, I have a detailed article
about aero bars linked below.
Also, if you're interested in bikepacking bikes,
check out my Bikepacking Bike Buyer's Guide. This guide is updated yearly, for free,
and will teach you everything you need to know about the bikes, before allowing you to compare
over 270 bikes at the back of the book. It's a great way to keep on top of the latest bikes.
The saddle you choose is going to be the difference between completing the Tour Divide
and having to scratch. It's hard to make saddle recommendations to a broad
audience - you really have to try them first. But there are some trends here.
Brooks is the most popular saddle brand for the Tour Divide
with 20% of riders using one, so they must be doing something right.
Ergon saddles have really taken off recently, and now more than 17% of riders have one fitted.
And WTB has consistently been a popular brand, featuring on 15% of the bikes.
Only 13% of riders are using a suspension seatpost. After extensively testing suspension
seat posts, I think that many riders can improve their Tour Divide experience with one of these.
Short travel seatposts are 100 or maybe 200 grams heavier than a rigid post. That's it.
If you are racing the clock, your tires are probably the most important component
that you can optimize over a 4,400-kilometre ride.
Some tyres that I'm seeing fitted to Tour Divide bikes
have been tested on smooth surfaces to roll with 20-watts extra resistance over other tyre sets.
A bit of napkin maths suggests that slow tires could add more than 20 hours of pedalling to a
Tour Divide run. But that said, it's hard to come up with an accurate time figure
due to the mix of road surfaces, varying rider weights, tire pressures and so on.
The most popular tyre is the Vittoria Mezcal, and you'll find it on more than one-third of
all bikes. The Mezcal has been the go-to tire for the Tour Divide as it does an
incredible job of balancing rolling resistance, puncture resistance, durability, and grip.
When you move to faster rolling options like the
Schwalbe Thunder Burt, you end up with significantly less grip,
and a touch less puncture resistance too, which might not keep your mind at ease.
Essentially, there's a trade-off on all tyres,
and it seems that the Mezcal is where most people end up.
The second most popular tire is the Maxxis Ikon.
These are tested to be slower rolling but are known for their reliability.
I know ultra racers who have been using them for years and have literally never had a puncture.
I'm not sure why the Continental RaceKing Protection tyres are less popular than in years
past. These tyres are what the late Mike Hall used to set the current 13-day, 22-hour course record.
They've been tested to be ultra-fast rolling, they're protective of punctures,
and some riders have even raced the Tour Divide twice on the same set. If you
know why these tires are less preferred nowadays, let me know in the comments.
In terms of wheel diameter, there are three common sizes
on bikes tackling the Tour Divide: 26 inch, 27.5 inch, and 29 inch.
As the largest diameter wheel offers the smallest angle of attack over bumps and depressions in the
road, it can maintain the highest speed. 88% of riders are now picking the big 29-inch wheels,
and it drops off to just 7% of riders using the smaller 27.5-inch wheels.
The average tyre width that's used on the Tour Divide is 2.2 inches.
This is likely the sweet spot where riders have the lowest rolling resistance
and the most ride comfort on the long dirt roads.
Almost half of all Tour Divide riders opted for a carbon fibre bike frame.
This is the obvious choice for an event with over 60,000 vertical meters of climbing,
as a kilogram can make a measurable difference here. A Salsa Cutty carbon
frame weighs a touch under 1.5 kilograms. In comparison, a similarly tough titanium frame
is often about 2.2 kilograms. And steel is closer to 3 kilograms. Again, the napkin comes out
and I've calculated an extra kilogram for the average rider to be about 1.5 hours over
4,400 kilometres. That's not huge, but it could be the difference between first and second place.
1X drivetrains now make up 82% of all bike setups using derailleurs. This should be unsurprising
as the Tour Divide is an off-road route that demands wide tyres and low gear ratios,
and almost all bikes that accommodate these features now come with 1X drivetrains.
You'll notice that there aren't too many gearbox drivetrains at the Tour Divide this year,
but this event has previously been won on a Rohloff 14-speed bike,
so these drivetrains can be a good idea.
That said, gearbox drivetrains are heavier and less efficient than derailleurs,
so I suspect that's why they aren't popular. Again, my napkin is out,
and I'd estimate the Rohloff would add three to four hours in good conditions as a result of
its lower drive efficiency. Plus, you could add another hour or two due to the heavier weight.
And the Pinion gearbox could add a total of 10 hours when we factor everything in.
If you want to get up the steep hills without going into the red, you'll want appropriately
low gear ratios on your bike. Tour Divide riders seem to know this well, as the average
low climbing gear across all bikes is just 20 gear inches. This is about right for the course.
Achieving less than 20 gear inches is easy on flat bar bikes, but harder and drop our bikes,
as there is limited compatibility between drop bar shifters and mountain bike derailleurs.
I'm really impressed with the drivetrain workarounds on the drop bar bikes. About a
quarter have been hacked in some way to achieve 20 gear inches or less.
The most popular hack is the Wolftooth Roadlink. This extends the effective length of your
derailleur, allowing you to accommodate a bigger cassette with lower gear ratios.
Another nice hack is the fitment of the Ratio Technology upgrade kit
that mates 11-speed SRAM road shifters to 12-speed mountain bike derailleurs.
If you have deep pockets, the SRAM AXS wireless road shifters
pair with the wireless mountain bike derailleurs to fit 10-52 tooth cassettes.
It seems that few drop bar riders are on a small budget,
as one-in-three bikes are using this setup.
Almost all riders are using clip-in pedals. Most of the performance advantages of clip-in
pedals are found under acceleration, so there likely isn't a big disadvantage to those who
choose flats. I'd guess that clip-in pedals are simply what most people use when they
ride their road or mountain bikes, and as a result, it's just their personal preference.
Hydraulic brakes are also preferred by the majority of riders. They are very
reliable these days and often require less grip strength to pull your bike to a stop.
This is particularly important when your hands are fatigued after a couple of weeks of riding.
Only 30% of all Tour Divide bikes are using suspension forks. Suspension will undoubtedly
reduce rider fatigue on the rougher sections of the route, and given that you can lock out most
suspension, the biggest disadvantage is simply that it adds weight to your bike - most suspension
forks are approximately 1.5 kilograms heavier than carbon forks. My napkin says that it's a
bit over two hours ride time for the average rider. So what do you think? Is it worth it?
Incredibly, Salsa made up a whopping 39% of all Tour Divide bikes this year. In fact,
there were eight times more salsas than the second most popular bike brand.
Salsa Cycles are the biggest adventure bike brand in the world right now, and the Cutty model,
in particular, was designed specifically to excel at the Tour Divide. This model represents 52%
of all drop bar bikes here, and it's not hard to see why. When I take a look at my
Bikepacking Bike Buyer's Guide, the Cutty is the only carbon drop-bar bike that can fit wide tyres.
If you've ever wondered where the name Cutty comes from, the Cutty trout
is the state fish for all US states that the Tour Divide passes through.
Through this analysis, I think the seatpost and tires are the only areas
where Tour Divide riders could squeeze out a bit more performance and comfort.
But overall, these rigs are really well dialled in.
Just lining up for this event requires a lot of research,
so I'm not surprised that almost all bikes are perfectly ready for the course.
Ok, to finish up, here's what the average tour divide bike is for 2022.
It's a rigid carbon bike, fitted with 29-inch wheels,
and running Vittoria Mezcal tyres in the 2.2-inch width.
The bike has drop bars, clip-in pedals, hydraulic brakes,
aero bars and a 1X drivetrain. The saddle is most likely made by Brooks.
There is a high chance that a SRAM wireless drivetrain is fitted,
which allows for the pairing of drop bar shifters
and a mountain bike drivetrain to give an appropriately low 20 inch climbing gear.
I hope you're now more stoked about bikes than ever before!