This is all My Gear for the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route

Hello my friends. My name is Ryan Van Duzer. I'm sitting in my backyard in beautiful Boulder, Colorado. You can't see the mountains from here, but I promise it's beautiful. And check this out. I've got my bike all packed up for the Great Divide. And I'm going to go through all my gear and stuff because I know you love stuff. Really quickly, I don't get paid by any of these brands except for Priority. I do get royalties off of my bike. But as far as everything else goes, it's stuff that I have used for years and trust. Okay, here it is. The most important piece of gear, my bicycle. If you follow my channel, you know what bike this is. This is the Priority 600 ADX. I helped design this bike with my friends at Priority Bicycle. I actually rode the prototype of this bike on the Great Divide in 2020. I love this bike and I'm going to show you the most important part here. We've got the Pinion and Gates low-maintenance drivetrain. So we have the Gates carbon belt drive. Never needs to be lubed. Last three times longer than a chain. We've got the Pinion gearbox with the 600% gear range. More gears than you would ever need. And it's protected obviously the gears are protected from snow and mud and gunk. And yeah, see? No derailleur back here if you're wondering. The Divide is pretty bumpy at times, so I really like having suspension. This is the Marzocchi Z2 Bomber with I think 120 mm of travel. I don't know. It's plenty. You know what I'm saying? And since we're right here, I really like the Vittoria Mezcal tires. Here's an overview of what my cockpit looks like here. I'm going to start with the most important part, obviously, my Captain America bell. My friend Hunter gave that to me. Right here is where I put my action camera. It's a GoPro mount, and it's here so I have easy access to it while I'm riding. I can take it on and off, and point it at anything that I see interesting along the way. And I'm testing out a new prototype bar here with a little bit more, you know, real estate to put stuff on. Here's something new for me. I've actually never ridden with my phone attached to the handlebars. Usually it's in my pocket, but I think it'll help with navigation. I have this Peak Design mount here, and it just, boom, locked in right there. Very cool. My bike computer is the Karoo. I love this thing. I've got a little snack bag here made by Green Guru that I'll either put bottles in or snacks. My frame bags here are made by Green Guru here in Boulder. They're actually made in Colorado from upcycled material, so they are rescuing material that would otherwise go into the landfill. I'm a simple guy, so I just like one big pocket. This is where I put all of my food and some of my electronics. I like to have my weight kind of centered on the bike. In this bag, I have a lot of my tools in here. Doesn't hold a ton of stuff, but just enough for like tire repair kit. In this one, I'm probably going to put snacks and other yummy things in there. And back here is something new. If you've been following my channel, you know that I've had the Arrow Rack, and I've also used regular old commuter racks. Now I have the Old Man Mountain Divide Rack, and I have their Ponderosa waterproof panniers back here. I like the panniers because you can just throw your stuff in and out of there easily. On other trips to the Divide, I had the big Revelate seat pack, which is great, but you have to like cram everything in. And if you want that one thing that's down here, you got to like pull all the stuff out. So, it's just nice to have a couple different compartments. I have the Nemo Dragonfly tent, which I love. I've been using this for years. I have a little Lezyne light here on the back for when I'm on roads sharing with vehicles. Oh, and this is very important. In 2024, I attempted the Tour Divide Race and got severe saddle sores, but hopefully not anymore. This is the Infinity saddle. I've been using it ever since that ride in 2024. I absolutely love it. These are handmade in California. They're expensive, but so far worth every penny. I do have a dropper post for descending down steep terrain, and this one actually has some suspension in it. It's a Priority brand dropper. I am going clipless for this ride. These are my very old Shimano DX pedals, and they are just still kicking, you know, so why get new ones? Over the past couple years, I've been using a hydration pack. I actually helped design this one with my friends here in Colorado at Mountainsmith. I love it. I also have a Sawyer mini water filter here. So, when I have my bladder in my hand, I can just scoop up water. Cold Canadian mountain water. And then it filters as I suck water through the tube. I put my drone and other fragile things in this bag, so it doesn't get rattled like crazy. I used to have my drone and other things on the bike, and I realized that that kind of ruined my electronics from all the the bumping. I've been wearing the Smith Forefront series for years. This is the number three, and I really like this helmet, and I've never had a white one. Usually have bright colors, so I'm going to go with something a little bit more chill. And these cool shades are the Smith Lowdowns. I have very sensitive eyes, so I always wear sunglasses. So, check this thing out. I am using the brand new Luna Ultra Insta360. It's one of those gimbal cameras. I've never used a camera like this. Usually, I have like a Sony DSLR, but this thing seems pretty amazing. I've only had it for a few days, but here we go. Check it out. So far, it follows me. Oh, I have like a little robot friend that follows me around. I have things separated here. One pannier is pretty much all camping gear, and the other one is all of my clothing. Okay. First off, I have this old GoPro case that carries a lot of my electronics. I have this battery pack that holds three batteries for my action cam. I've got this Anker What are these called? You plug them into the wall, and you plug other things in. Plug, plug, plug. And I've got this big beast of a battery bank. I think it's like 27,000 mA, and of course, lots of cords. I have so many electronic things. It's a little overwhelming at times, but in order to make videos, I got to have all this stuff. And in this waterproof Pelican case, I carry the most important things I'm carrying, all of the memory cards. They range from 256 GB to 128 and 64. I've got a ton extras in here. I don't travel with a computer or hard drive. So, when I fill one up, I put it in here. I flip it upside down, so I know I've used it, and grab another one. Okay. This is my toiletry bag that I've had for many years. Has all my toothbrushes and other fun things, and of course, this guy. This is my quilt. It's the Therm-a-Rest Vesper quilt. I've been using this for years. Obviously, it packs down very small, about the size of was This is my Nemo. I don't even know what the model is called. The Nemo Oh, the Tensor Elite. This is my sleeping pad. I've gone through lots of sleeping pads in my day, and this one is tiny as you can see, but also pretty durable. I have a sleeping pillow cuz, you know, I'm older now and I want to be a little bit more comfortable and not have a sore neck every time I wake up. This one's made by Outdoor Vitals. And you know, I love jumping in rivers and lakes. So, a nice towel. Okay. We've got a rain jacket. That's made by Outdoor Vitals. These are my arm sleeves that I wear almost every single day to keep sun off my arms. Check these out. You got to have these. These are my Get Out There Best Day Ever socks. And one pair of my absolute favorite Out There socks. These are merino wool. They don't stink like the plasticky socks. And if you buy these, all of the proceeds goes to bike packing roots. The link is down below. A long sleeve. This is merino wool. Oh, no, this isn't long sleeve. This is short sleeve, but I have a long sleeve. This will be my main riding shirt. And then here are my 11 Pine shorts that I wear on all of my adventures. I've got my new Merino Buff, of course, to keep sun off my neck. It's also nice to get it wet when I'm near a river to keep my neck nice and cool. I've got one pair of underwear that I'll wear at night time when I'm camping. Here is a windbreaker, very lightweight windbreaker that packs down to the size of a fist. This is for those cool alpine mornings. Of course, a little chamois so my butt doesn't get sores, which is, you know, can be a problem. It can end your ride or make you very miserable. Here is my long-sleeve Outdoor Vitals merino wool top. And then I've got another long-sleeve merino. I don't know the brand of this one, but it's great. That's for staying warm at nighttime. And then I've got my puffy jacket, nice lightweight jacket made by Outdoor Vitals. I've got another buff just in case I want some more coverage on my head to stay warm at nighttime. And these have been with me since 2017, almost 10 years. These are just some old Adidas climbing pants that I use for my camp pants at nighttime. And that's all that's in pannier number two. And here is the big pile of clothing that I just showed you. It's really not that much. I won't be bringing a lot of extra anything. I've learned over many years of bike packing that you just really don't need all that much. And I wash a lot of my clothes by jumping into creeks and rivers. Works pretty well. In my hydration pack, I also carry my spare belt. That looks cool, doesn't it? I learned the hard way that you should always have a spare belt with you, a spare tube, and these pockets up front here that will be on my chest, I put snacks and stuff so I can grab them while I'm riding. Speaking of water, I won't need a ton of capacity in the northern section of the route, pretty much till maybe halfway through Colorado or so. It has been very dry out west this year, so I don't know exactly if the streams and rivers are flowing. Hopefully they are, but the route goes through towns pretty much every day, so you can load up on a lot of water. Anyway, in New Mexico, definitely going to need a lot of capacity of water, 6 L plus. This is a 3 L Hydra pack. Is that what it's called? Yes. And I will put that in my frame bag. I also have one of these Katadyn uh water filtration bottles. So, the tip here is a filter, so you can just scoop up and go. Uh what other knick-knacks do I have? I've been traveling with this for a long time. This is a a solar-powered Luci light. I put this in my tent at night and acts kind of as, you know, just like a a room light. Here is my Garmin inReach messenger. I will have a tracker on this ride, and this is how that whole system works. It talks to the satellites. This is very heavy, but necessary. These are the three batteries for my drone right here. Here is my drone. This is pretty big, but this will stay in my hydration pack. This is the controller. Here is the drone. The drone itself is actually pretty light. And I absolutely love this thing. It really helps out with getting those beautiful cinematic shots where I can show even stuff that I can't see at ground level. I bring the drone up, and it's just boom. These are my SPD shoes. These are Adidas 510. I wore these on the Divide in 2020 and many many other adventures. They feel good. They're comfortable. And when I'm not wearing those shoes, when I'm at camp or if I'm walking around a town, I'm going to bring my really lightweight Colorado-branded racing flats. I think the brand of these shoes is Altra. I don't plan on doing a lot of night riding, but if I ever want to, here is my light. This is a Fenix light. It's so bright. Okay, so here it all is. I don't have any idea how much it weighs total, but it's not exactly a lightweight setup, which is okay because I like to be comfortable and of course I need all of the electronics so I can make the videos for you to watch. Oh, and over here I'm sure you got a glimpse of this. I'm not bringing this, although I'm really going to miss it. I bought this sauna at Costco this past winter for $3,000. Four people can fit in here. And I love it. It's kind of cool to think that all I'm going to need for a month and a half is laying right there. That is true simple living and I'm really looking forward to it. There's a reason why I love riding my bike and camping and bike packing, bike touring, whatever you want to call it. I love it. It helps me to connect with the world and connect with humanity and connect with myself and challenge myself physically and mentally and just see beautiful places and new cultures. I'm into it. And if you're new to my channel and you haven't done something like this before, it's super fun. But start small. You don't need to go ride 45 days to be a bike packer. Just go for a nice overnighter and have a blast. And remember, I have a whole list on my I'll link a whole list of all this gear in the description down below. Thanks so much for watching my video and subscribe if you want to see more bike touring bike packing videos from around the world.