It's been a rather warm winter here in central Indiana, and I've logged a ton more on-the-road miles than I had expected at the beginning of the winter. The trainer has seen plenty of use but the outdoor riding has really enhanced my fitness and the long-duration rides I've completed have been breezy and pain free. No one is going to ask me to join a pro tour team, but my fitness is high enough to start planning for the upcoming summer season.
Bike wise, I've gone back to the Salsa Fargo Ti. Although my cracked frameset was beyond the 5 year warranty, Salsa graciously offered me a steep discount on a new frameset and I took them up on the offer. I had very high hopes for the GMX+, and really threw some bucks at the build, but in the end, the geometry just didn't suit my riding style. Last summer, I got the Fargo Ti built up and did an active comparison of the two bikes over a six week period. Over the same 50+ mile courses, I was almost always faster on the Fargo than the GMX+, and with less transient body pain afterwards.
Not saying that the Salsa is better than the GMX+, but my testing protocol showed that it was better for me. All of the base miles on the relaxed MTB riding style of the Fargo seem to have prevented me from benefiting from the more aggressive gravel angles of the Curve frameset. Insert your favorite old-dog-new-tricks aphorism here. If you're interested in the GMX+, I have it for sale on the website.
So at the moment, my plan is to tour the GDMBR on the Tour Divide course leaving Antelope Wells the week of June 10. My plan is to stay out of the way of the Tour Divide racers and just cover as much distance as I'm able to on any given day, with a target of 25 days. To stay out of the race, my blue dot will be on the Trackleaders GDMBR site rather than the Tour Divide page. The team there does a really nice job keeping these two separate. The mid-Rockies snow pack seems modest this year and I'm hoping to beat the New Mexico monsoon season by leaving relatively early in June.
I'm still finalizing my gear kit and bag situation. I'll publish a full-on touring build setup in a couple of weeks, once I get all of that sorted!
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