08/22/2023 Bikepacking Spain Day 14 : Visit the Cirque D Gavarnie

by Brian · Published August 22, 2023 · Updated March 3, 2024

Photos:

Early morning at our AirBnB - time to do stuff before the heat. Last night it was powerful and close thunder and lightning - making me glad we had a shelter (previously I had been lamenting being stuck in a hot building). 🌡️

Janet’s favorite part of the day! Ok, sometimes my favorite part too. ☕️

Janet needed a rest, so I did a solo out-and-back to the Cirque de Gavarnie while she recovered at the AirBnb. This is a location I had found online and it looked beautiful. I think everyone else has heard of it too! The main road up to the parking lot was a non stop flow of vehicles. Cars and motos - and compared to other places in France, not too many bicycles. I did find this quiet side road with a bonus climb that really made things much more enjoyable! Also, parking for cars was 10 € - so happy to have pedaled! 🅿️

Gotta stop for some of the waterfalls along the way.

Classic view of the cirque. It was nice, however you can surely find prettier pictures online (I wasn’t there at the best time for light/photography). Also, it wasn’t quite the magical feeling I had been hoping for - the trail (which was a fire road width) was packed with hikers. I ended up stashing my bike and running past the throngs of people to the top. The bike had two AirTags hidden in different places making me slightly less worried about seeing it again. 🌲

People have asked about the kit and I’ve been meaning to talk about the new touring gear I’m trying for this trip. Janet and I usually take a tandem, but for this trip I bought a new bike: An S-works Epic Evo. I built it mostly the same as Janet’s bike so I could carry the same spare parts for us to share. Same spare tube size, brake pad type, etc. For a long time, people have chanted that “Steel is Real” when it comes to touring, but having cracked some steel frames and trying to get them welded, I now know that “Steel is hard to heal.” In the hands of an expert welder… maybe… but most welders will blow a bike frame to bits. So, how about carbon? Here is my thought: I once met a French bike tourist in Guatemala who had cracked his steel frame in Argentina. After having it welded several times (welds kept failing), he finally repaired it with JB Weld (epoxy)… and it went strong after that. Since my frame here is carbon, I’m thinking that it might actually be more repairable than steel - and with an over-the-counter solution to boot. Just my controversial thoughts on optimal bike touring gear selection…. 🚴

As part of the bike, I bought some Uber-light rims from https://lightbicycle.com - they have 34mm wide rims and i built the complete MTB wheelset to be 1184g. You read that right. But then I worried about the strength and tire options, so for this tour I’m instead using these boost wheels I built for our gravel tandem. In a pinch (haha) I could put a 700x25c tire on these rims, opening up another spectrum of spare tire options. They are tall (50mm) and uselessly aero at these speeds, but they were built with 32 spokes and strong enough to support 350 pounds of tandem and rider. Those lightweight MTB wheels will be fun to try when we get home. 🛞

Full Suspension. This is new kit for me, at least on a 29 single bike. Suspension is NOT popular amongst touring cyclists. I have no idea why. This shock has a lockout, making it super efficient on the road. Climbing on rocky trails, I personally believe it is more efficient unlocked. You may remember a power meter experiment I did on train tracks which proved that a fat bike with 6psi tires was WAY more efficient than a 29er with any pressure. I’d like to prove that this bike is overall more efficient, but it takes a lot of setup to do the experiment correctly and the power meter is at home. To make up for the missing frame-bag space, I ordered a custom bag from https://rockgeist.com. I’m pretty happy with it, but I think they could have filled the frame even better. They were nice to work with, otherwise. 💼

The modern style: super short stems. And a new extra fat bar size. Admittedly not the best for bike packing due to difficulty in finding a spare and the minimal positioning for cockpit bags. But, this stem combined with a 120mm fork makes the bike a “down country” bike as opposed to a “cross country” bike. Personally, I’d prefer a steeper head angle and a longer, higher stem. Specialized makes the S-works Epic (not evo) with better touring geometry.. but it has the “brain” which is an absolute no-go unless you want a useless bike as soon as the brain breaks. Plan is to source a steerer tube extender to improve the comfort and handling of the bike. Although a 100mm fork would probably make the bike handle better on the road, the 120 is pretty nice on single track. Also, I like the Fox brand a lot better than Rock Shox. If you call rock Shox, they just say, “talk to your dealer” (which is usually some online store who doesn’t have a service department). Meanwhile, with Fox, they change specs less frequently and you always get an intelligent and articulate person on the phone when you need help. 🦊

Gearing: Ok, this isn’t really new kit, but instead recycled old kit. I couldn’t bring myself to keep the 10-52 wireless XX1 kit that the bike came with. It was fun to try in the parking lot, but I knew that eventually having a wireless shifting failure on a tour like this was inevitable… so I just took the old stuff off my tour divide race bike and slapped it on here. I sold the divide race bike with the brand new XX1 wireless that came on this bike… basically the guy bought the cassette, derailleur, chain, and shifter… and got a free bike. I was excited to be giving this guy such a good deal, but when he showed up, he said, “so what is the deal with this shifting? Is it, like, wireless?” 🤦‍♂️. Well, Hopefully he is enjoying it even though he didn’t know much about it. Anyway 10-42 in the back with 34 in the front is usually enough for me. If it is steeper than that, I’m happy to walk and save $100 on those pricy 12s chains 😆 Janet does differ from me in this space: she has a 10-52 12s setup (meaning we carry separate spare links). Sometimes I’m walking while she is still pedaling. Good on her! ⚙️

After the last trip where I couldn’t get insulin without special help (thanks Corrine), I decided to bring everything I need instead of taking a chance on buying en-route. I’ve got 1,800 test strips and 5,700 units of insulin. If you have a working pancreas, that’s about how much insulin the average Joe might make in 3 months. New for this trip, I cut open a bunch of injector pens, threw away the destroyed injector and wrapped the inner vial containing the precious liquid in a thin foam. Some non-bikepacking genius decided to make the vials out of glass, so I’ve got them padded and wrapped in my thermos. They have already taken a beating with the bouncing on the trails - so I repackaged them today (hence the photo). Also, this time I brought 3 glucose meters (two spares) and a pile of spare needles - though I use the same needle for 2 weeks (about 120 injections) before it gets dull. Each kit has an Apple AirTag sewn in, and the thermos which carries the insulin has an AirTag taped to the top. Everything has a QR code with my contact info on it too. Be thankful if you have a working pancreas, which only weighs ~100g and works much better than my brain+these tools. T1D isn’t for weight weenies: This kit here cumulatively takes up a large bag and weighs 3,000g! 💉

The final “new kit” for this trip is the TailFin fork mounts (https://tailfin.cc) which allow you to place 2 bottles on each fork leg. Because so much bag space is consumed with the aforementioned diabetes stuff, I had to outsource the bottle location to the fork. After some growing pains where the ultra short bolts worked loose, I’m now pretty happy with these. The mounts are tedious and time consuming to install, but once you get them on the fork, they are very gentle with the paint due to their design which distributes the pressure/load quite evenly on the fragile fork legs. Just in case, I put some gaff tape under the mounts. 🍴

Strava Comments:

Janet W.

I feel like I got to see the Cirque de Gavarnie after all, and without a single tourist in your photos! You wrote quite a detailed and interesting review of your bike and diabetes supplies. I learned some things, even through I’ve been touring with you for years!

Corrine L.

Thanks for sharing your set up! And all your diabetes supplies. Uggh! So much to think about but glad you mostly have it figured out.

Ian G.

Thanks for the bike overview! I enjoy your experience and the way you follow your own path. I haven’t been reading your posts in detail lately, your ride write ups are novels and it’s hard to keep up. Keep it up, it’s an incredible reference.

Janti of the J.

I know where you are! Our campervan got an early morning knock on the door in Cauterets. "N'est pas camping here stupide American." I'd love to spend more time there and Lourdes.

Ann L.

Love the waterfall pics and the cute one of Janet of course! Coffee is her happy place 😊

Jim S.

Wow Brian! First of all, all of these photos are stunning but the first one with the dappled light on the building is quite magical. I also really enjoyed reading through all the captions. I didn’t know Tailfin made those fork mounts. Also, the diabetes supplies was particularly interesting to this fellow T1D. I don’t know how you manage with multiple daily injections. I use an Omnipod 5 insulin pump and Dexcom G6 that allows me to think much less about my condition and still stay in range. It means that I have to carry a lot more stuff however. Your solutions to carry minimal stuff both for diabetes and computer related equipment is impressive.

Brian L.

Jim Sevaly - If you get some time, I hope you post on your ride across the US what you carry for t1d. That trip will be a month at least, right? That’s going to be quite a bit of stuff unless you plan to resupply on the way? I didn’t want to deal with resupply of insulin after what happened in NZ.

Santosh M.

Inspiring the way you manage your supplies Brian Lucido ❤️💪🏽

Mark G.

Thank you for this super detailed explanation about your bike and gear. Getting ready for a tour sure is quite a candy fest for you...and all the French fun. I read it twice and actually understand some of it now😂

Mark G.

Is this a 2021 bike? Love the color. Oakley Green

Nancy P.

That first photo looks like a painting and sorta not real somehow. I read all the captions, enjoyed the ones with the views, the others reminded me of Sorcerer 🅥. The most profound thought, and a recurring thought on all of your adventures, is the amount of careful planning, expertise, experience, and WORK goes in before you ever leave home 🤯! Sheesh

Osman I.

Love your photos, Brian!

Osman I.

I also love your reports about gear. I always learn something new. When people say that steel is repairable but carbon not, the assumed failure mode is probably a bent tube. Once I had an accident, and had bent chainstays cold-set at a bike shop at very low cost (half an hour of labor). Carbon would certainly have fractured. Welding a steel bicycle tube is not an option, in my opinion. Carbon is repairable. Steel is prone to metal fatigue; carbon has almost infinite fatigue life. But in a crash, it breaks. The fellow from Argentina used epoxy? Well, that's at least 40% of the carbon composite material on a "carbon" bicycle frame.

Osman I.

I am very interested in your tests to compare the efficiency of a fat tire bike and full-suspension 29er vs. this new bike. Vibration isolation via pneumatic tires works in different ways than coil springs and linkeages. The compliance of the inflated tire depends on the shape of the bumps on the road or trail. When you press your thumb into the inflated tire, the stiffness of the pushback response depends on the size of your thumb. A dime can be pressed deeper into the tire than a quarter with the same force. Not so with linkeage suspension. So, a fat bike may outperform a 29er on small pebbles, but on rounded boulders, the roles may be reversed. Same with sharp cracks in the asphalt versus long speedbumps, for example.

Osman I.

I also thought electronic shifting would be difficult to repair, adjust or maintain, and I never took one on a tour, but I am finding that they don't need any maintenance or adjustments or repairs whatsoever; so I am not certain now. Also, I put 20,000 miles on a SRAM AXS 12sp flat-top chain, with zero elongation wear so far. At this rate, it would last for the rest of my cycling life. I'm not sure I should replace it anyway, but it certainly proved to be more robust than any chain I ever used -the opposite of what I had assumed.

Brian L.

Osman Isvan - You bring up many interesting discussion points. The carbon/steel could definitely be argued both ways. I feel like the tire/suspension question will never fully be answered because it is so dependent on the terrain.. Comfort is also a factor that is hard to measure, but comes into play during this discussion. I’m especially interested in your 12s chain. Thanks for mentioning that; it’s truly amazing. I’ve read that 12s chains last 3x longer than 11s… but didn’t believe it. Hearing this from someone I trust makes me reconsider the high cost of the chains and parts. I also appreciate your take on the e-shifting. For touring, I’ve also considered the extra space required for a specialized battery charger (assuming SRAM), which takes up more space than a derailleur cable. I’m even carrying a spare hydraulic hose on this trip. Also, I may be going to some places where modern bike gear simply isn’t available. Lots of gear choices to be made!

Sօʀƈɛʀɛʀ 🅅.

Brian Lucido, thank you for another brilliant activity with illuminating commentary! The new bike with the old drivetrain is beautiful. Funny about the 12 speed chain because I think it was you who told me that 12s outlast the others, and here you are staying you don't believe it's true. Well I'm all in now, because I read some stuff online that encouraged me to try using 12s on 11s and it does work. I'm using the Deore level chains and they aren't expensive. Now I'm wondering about whether it's only the SRAM chains are better. In any case, the way I go about things, as long as it works I'm happy. Yes the photos are lovely too. Looks like you're having a great time.

Osman I.

Normally I replace my chains when they reach 0.5% elongation. This schedule makes my cassette go through 3 to 4 chains (about 15,000 miles), and chainrings last even longer. I am wondering if this particular drivetrain must be maintained by other criteria than chain elongation.

Osman I.

Yes, comfort is hard to measure because it is ambiguous, but compliance can be measured under specified test conditions.

Osman I.

For given size and pressure, knobby tires are more compliant (on a flat surface) than slick tires. True or false?