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Comment by floriannn | Hacker News Reader

I have 2500 miles so far this year and could do a century any random day without preparation and I’m doubting whether or not I can do GDMBR, meanwhile this guy didn’t even own a bike, didn’t even do more than 30 miles once he did, and just set off across the country. I guess I should just do it.

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I often do ultra races, always trying to be at the pointy end. I have all the training, and all the fancy equipment you could possibly imagine. Doing something of the magnitude of this article though still scares the hell out of me. Every year I watch the Transcontinental Race, and every year I say "yeah, would love to do it, but next time". I still haven't signed up.

The gear, the legs, they help with going faster. Whether or not you can finish (barring catastrophical mechanical or injury) is all in your head!

At your fitness level, you're more than capable of doing a long bikepacking trail.

The hard part isn't really fitness (for any moderately experienced biker unless your trip has a specific time or FKT goal), it's the logistics of food + shelter, the mental grind, and dealing with possible repairs.

Yeah I have done some trips before, max was 8 days with 85-100 miles each day, some decent elevation (max 11k feet in a day, but others around 5-6k) pretty bad weather, mix of paved and gravel. No chance I’m coming anywhere close to Lachlan’s time on GDMBR but I do need to finish in under 40 days.

This guy was using Rockbros bags and rack and I’m wondering if I should swap out my Tailfin for a more durable OMM rack…

If you haven't, check out Mat Ryder's videos on YouTube. He's newly retired guy in decent shape from jogging who buys a bike and does the GDMBR while making a bunch of videos. He shows everything and at the end talks about how much he spent and how much less he could have spent if he tried harder to be frugal. You can see how an average guy without any bikepacking experience do it. You can do it too!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3-zVwEVdJ-UbC1DT4tSG...

Yep just do it.

(Gdmbr 2022)

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