I flew to Calgary on July 29, and rode west to Banff, where the route officially starts. From there I headed south and on the first night out of Banff had my first bear encounter. It walked up to me as I was setting up camp filtering water. It was as startled as I was, and it steered clear of me when I stood up straight and stared it down.
The trip lasted almost exactly three months, including a week visiting family in Colorado, and rest days spent flyfishing. I brought a small fly-rod and used it whenever I could. I met a lot of other great people doing the route, and others who offered their amazing hospitality along the way. Grant was kind enough to let me use a prototype Bombadil for this trip, one of the first and an early version with only one top tube. I set it up with a nitto flat bar, marathon xr 50mm tires, v brakes, and special order 180mm cranks. The bike usually weighed about 100 pounds, including the weight of the bike, all my gear, a weeks worth of food and usually 10 or so liters of water when it was scarce. I arrived at the Mexican border in late October, and from there rode east to El Paso, where I flew home on October 29. My trip was almost exactly 3 months long. Let me know if you have any specific questions about the bike or the route. Daniel On Thu, Apr 2, 2009 at 7:18 PM, JimD <rasterd...@comcast.net> wrote: > Daniel, > Your Great Divide Ride is inspiring. > > How far did you go, how many days were you on this adventure? > > Did you meet any critters other than deer and what I guess are otters? I > mean how big (and hungry) were the bears. > > Please tell us more? > > Cheers, > JimD > > On Apr 1, 2009, at 10:14 PM, dmolloy wrote: > >> >> http://www.flickr.com/photos/markmolloy/sets/72157606879827070/ >> >> I still have some photos to upload, but there are some raw shots >> there. All photos shot with a voigtlander bessa r with a 35mm f2.5 >> lens >> >> Daniel >> >> On Mar 31, 3:38 pm, Mike <mjawn...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> >>> Dmolloy, you got any pictures posted of your ride? That sounds epic. >>> And on a Rivendell no less. >>> >>> --mike >>> >>> On Mar 31, 1:47 pm, dmolloy <danielmarkmol...@googlemail.com> wrote: >>> >>>> It's a great bike, I rode a prototype on the entire Great Divide >>>> Mountain Bike Route and put it through absolute torture with no ill >>>> effects. This isn't a bike to fondle and flutter eyelashes at, it's a >>>> purpose designed user with even heavier tubes than the Atlantis. I'm >>>> sure you'll like it a lot. >>> >>>> yagen...@gmail.com wrote: >>>>> >>>>> Hi all - a complete noob here, but I just have to tell somebody who >>>>> will >>>>> understand: I finished picking out all of the components for my >>>>> Bombadil >>>>> tonight, and it will be on its way *this week* (AAAHHHHH!!!). I asked >>>>> to >>>>> have the frame and parts shipped to me so I can do the build myself. >>>>> I'm >>>>> not a cheapskate trying to avoid the $210 build fee, I just have all >>>>> the >>>>> tools and want to be one with the bike. (OK, I am a cheapskate but >>>>> that's >>>>> beside the point right now. A true cheapskate would be happy with the >>>>> $450 "race-designed" Fuji he has out in the garage.) >>> >>>>> Any advice from Bombadil owners? Setup suggestions? I got fat tires and >>>>> fenders, for all-around road and light trail use. Also a brown Cardiff >>>>> saddle, because it will look nice with the green frame. And Nitto >>>>> noodle >>>>> bars, which may portray the wrong image for a rough-and-tough bike, but >>>>> I >>>>> just don't like the moustache bars. Do people prefer front racks or >>>>> rear? >>>>> Is it fun to ride? Did I pick the right color? Do I deserve a Riv? >>> >>>>> This is going to be a long week..... >> >> >> > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
