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Q: How long is the ride?
A: 2,545 miles / 4,096 kilometers. It runs from the Canadian border to the Mexican border down the Continental Divide via as many unpaved roads and trails as possible.
Q: How much is unpaved?
A: The Adventure Cycling Association, the mountain bicycle group that researched the route, says about 80-85%.
Q: How many states do you ride through?
A: Five: Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado & New Mexico
Q: How many days did you take to ride it?
A: Nine. We were scheduled for 10, but put in a 400 mile day on day nine to finish up.
Q: How tough is the ride?
A: Nowhere near as challenging as riding down the length of Baja off-road with Malcolm Smith, but orders of magnitude tougher than riding around sub-Saharan Africa with Helge Pedersen. The key to this ride, like Baja, is pacing. There are long stretches of easy gravel and dirt. The toughest riding is in southern Colorado and New Mexico. There are long stretches that are impassible if they are wet & muddy.
Q: How good of a rider do I need to be to do this ride?
A: If you skip the hard sections, then you just need to be comfortable on dirt and gravel for long sections. If you are going to ride the tougher sections, you need to be an intermediate or above level off-road rider and on a decent off-road capable bike. This would not be a good ride to attempt if you have no deep silt, deep sand or mud experience or capability.
Q: How do I know where the hard sections are?
A: Some are listed in the ACA detail maps route notes. The rest are burned into my memory and imprinted into the suspension of the GS. Unfortunately, I did not have the time available to lay down waypoints for each difficult section on this ride in the GPS files. You will need to be ready to turn around and use the DeLorme detail maps to find your way around the tougher sections.
Q: Can I do this ride two-up?
A: I'm sure someone has done it two-up, but I don't know what sections they rode and what they skipped. There are many easy sections that could be ridden two-up with no problems. There are also many long, tough sections that I wouldn't want to ride with my wife on our DRZ400, and we have ridden two-up on that bike through some pretty formidable terrain.
Q: How many people have done this ride?
A: I can't answer that. We asked along the way and got answers ranging from less than a dozen to around a hundred. I'd guess less than fifty. We were told we were the first group through in 2004.
Q: What bike did you ride?
A: The two guys I was with each rode Suzuki DRZ400s, probably the optimum bike for this ride. I rode our BMW R1150GS Adventure. The tough sections of this ride exceeded the suspension capability envelope of the GS. It was very comfortable on the easy portions and more than a handful in the deep silt, deeper sand and mud. The washboard surfaces that you spend a lot of time on completely overwhelm the rear suspension of the GS, and the many jumps and rocky sections are too much for both ends of the bike. To give credit where credit is due, the GS took an incredible pounding and came home in one piece. There were many times I was sure the frame or suspension was going to break from the impacts.
Q: What tires did you use?
A: Stock R1150GS Adventure Continental DOT knobbies. The rear lasted the entire 5,254 miles door to door from my home in Southern California.
Q: Did you ride all the dirt sections?
A: No, we skipped about ten sections totaling around 70-100 miles. Some were closed to motor vehicles, and others were described as too tough for the GS in the course notes or by knowledgeable bicycle riders we met. Others were too muddy to attempt on the GS. I needed to get the bike and myself on a plane to Japan for a two month tour of Japan and China about a week after this ride, so I was very conservative in skipping sections if I thought I would just be dumping the bike repeatedly and risking major bike damage or injury to myself.
Q: Is is possible to ride all the dirt sections?
A: Some are closed to motor vehicles and you'll find that in the course of the ride you will probably skip sections to make gas stops, avoid impassible mud, make it to the hotel, etc. I'm sure someone already has or will soon ride every inch that is legally open, but we weren't out to prove that on this ride.
Q: How fast did you ride?
A: I was usually running 20-40 MPH (GPS actual speed) in third gear on the dirt sections, 60-70 MPH (GPS actual speed) in fifth and sixth on the open flat dirt and gravel.
Q: What should I bring along?
A: See what to bring.
Q: What are the requirements?
A: See requirements.
Q: How much did it cost?
A: See costs.
Q: Why did you do this ride?
A: As we learned in Turkey while touring a museum of religious relics, "to the true believer no explanation is necessary, to the non-believer, none will suffice."
A street legal dual sport motorcycle
Gearing to run 70 MPH (GPS actual speed, speedo indicated would be ~80 MPH)
DOT knobby tires
Tire repair tools, air pump, etc.
Spare tube(s)
Chain lube (if required)
Tools and spares for common crash damage (perch, levers, etc.)
Gas capacity for 150+ mile distances
Satellite phone if you want to be able to communicate. There is little to no cellular coverage on the route or in most of the small towns along it.
DeLorme Atlas & Gazetteer maps for Montana, Idaho (optional), Wyoming, Colorado & New Mexico. Invaluable for finding your way around locked gates or non-motorized trails. Highlight the route on each detail page and on the overall map on the back cover.
Six map set of CDR route maps from the Adventure Cycling Association (ACA), the mountain bike group that researched the route.
Map highlighter (be sure to check the color when used with your tinted face shield or sunglasses)
GPS files of waypoints, routes and tracks. Original files are available from the ACA, actual route files with additional waypoints are available here.
Garmin GPS V or equivalent
GPS handlebar mount and 12V power cable fed by the bike's electrical system.
Tank bag or map case large enough to hold ACA route maps
Good quality compass (GPS does not function as a compass unless it is moving).
High capacity water hydration system (Camelback, etc.) 70-100 oz. recommended.
Water filter, whistle, matches and basic survival gear.
Powerbars, PowerGel or other compact energy food.
One credit card and one ATM card (some gas pumps won't authorize credit cards)
Three pairs riding shorts, three pairs socks, four t-shirts, one civilian pants/shorts, one civilian shirt, civilian shoes
Waterproof and Moto-X gloves
Well vented waterproof riding gear (Aerostich Darien worked great for me)
Waterproof boots
Leatherman type multi-purpose tool
PDA or small laptop to download daily GPS routes/tracks to GPS (if required)
Very, very rugged luggage system (some trails are very rough)
Gold Bond Medicated Powder & Cortisone 10 creme (monkey butt prevention)
Ear plugs
Post card stamps and addresses
A well stocked First Aid Kit
Prescription medications, in the original bottles or with a copy of the doctor's prescription
| Gas (GS1150) | $243.58 |
| Food & Misc. | $400.52 |
| Lodging | $790.58 |
| Total Costs | $1,434.68 |
Note: costs do not include bike preparation, tires, brakes, air filter, etc.
1. Keep a bottle of water next to your bed every night. You will be riding and sleeping at very high altitudes. It is common to get dehydrated at night and wake up very thirsty.
2. Buy gas whenever you have the chance. Some of the small mountain towns don't have gas available any more.
3. Eat at the small cafes. They have great food and you'll meet some wonderful local characters.
4. This ride is mostly about pacing. You've got a long ways to go, so keep your speeds sustainable and pace yourself to a number of days of travel and corresponding miles per day that you can maintain for the route and number of off days, if any.
5. Think "remote." You will be riding through areas that reminded Bob and I of Baja more than once in their abject remoteness. The main highways and towns may look reasonably close on the map, but when you are out on the trail, especially if you are broken down, they are a long ways off. You will have zero cellular phone coverage on the trail, so don't expect AAA to come and rescue you. Bring along basic crash spare parts, tire repair parts, and the tools required to maintain and repair your bike and know how to use them.
6. Discover the wonders of Gold Bond Medicated Powder and Cortisone 10, the magic preventatives for Monkey Butt.
7. Get versed in how to ride soft and deep silt and sand. Here are some basics I've learned from picking up my DRZ in Baja a lot:
Start in 2nd Gear. Slip the clutch to keep from digging a hole. First gear starts don't buy you much and usually just dig a trench. Get up into the revs in 2nd and get the bike up on top of the soft stuff ASAP.
Get up on the pegs immediately. Stand on the pegs in soft silt and sand, it moves the center of gravity down at least 18" compared to sitting.
Stay out of the front brake, use engine braking and a little rear brake to slow the bike for corners or obstacles.
Speed is your friend. The idea is to get the bike planed up on top of the sand like a boat on water. Get it up on top of the sand and keep it there. Attack the corners to keep your speed up through winding sections.
Attack every corner, i.e. stick the front in, then power on hard through the corner.
Use the outside of the two tracks and trail corners as berms, really plant the bike into the corners up against the sides.
When in doubt, use more throttle. More power will transfer weight to the back and lift the front tire up out of the sand, all the while helping to prevent that imminent face plant.
Relax your shoulders, arms and hands. The front end will want to wander and "ski" in deep soft sand and silt. Let it wander and just generally keep it nudged in the direction you need. Don't grip the bars with a death grip. Keep the speed up and let the bars wander around.
Plow when you need to. There will be times when you will need to let the front plow, with the bars turned quite a ways in either direction with not much happening in the direction change department, until the bike finally starts to move where you want it to. This is another good time to roll on a little throttle to help lift the front end and get the bike rotated in the direction you need.
Pay close attention to front to rear weight transfer and balance. Big bikes like the GS are especially sensitive to front/rear weight bias in soft silt and sand. Use one higher gear than you would normally to keep from jacking the weight back and forth with every slight throttle movement. Be very careful not to get the weight rotated up onto the front wheel. Keep your front/rear weight balance even or biased to the back wheel.
Trip reports of other Continental Divide Riders:
Clement Salvadori's Rider Magazine article (12 MB PDF file)
A CDR on paved roads by Whizmo and Gizmo.
Down the same route we took, about two weeks later, by ADVrider luv2lean
Adventure Cycling Association (the mountain bike group that researched and documented the route and sells CDR maps)
If you have questions or
comments please contact
Douglas Hackney
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