15 entrants this year that will be sticking to the no fly to the start, totally self-sufficient inc food rules. Just watched Josh Ibbott's vid on his kit list, he has 2 rather large orange bags strapped to the forks containing, he claims, 14,000 calories of food each to fuel him through the event. Interestingly he didn't open these bags despite going into great detail about the contents of all his other kit. Any thoughts on what these contain to give enough energy for 1,200 miles of hard riding? Tracker is on the website
https://www.theracingcollective.com/gbduro.html

Can't help thinking the self-sufficient rule was something of a knee jerk, as it now seems a little silly ... maybe it's just me though.

I think there's also some rule about everyone regrouping at various staging posts and once everyone has arrived, people can set off again. That must be soul destroying and very frustrating for the front runners.

pistonbroke wrote: ↑Fri Jul 31, 2020 3:43 pm Any thoughts on what these contain to give enough energy for 1,200 miles of hard riding?

One full of powdered carbo / protein mix, the other full of bio-degradeable toilet paper?

One full of cocaine
One full of olive oil?

How do they get water?

They drink their own p1ss Dave.

Nah, That's the GBDuneO.

14000 kcal in pure fat would weigh 1.5kg (9kcal/g) so that would be 3kg in total on the forks.
If it is carbs each bag would weigh 3.5kg (4kcal/g) so thats 7kg in total on the forks or just over 15lb in old money.

If it was comprised of commercial dehydrated meals, say the Expedition Foods extreme range at 1000kcal/meal then that's 14 packets in each bag and according to the weight on the Expedition Food website the 14000kcal will weigh 2.996kg - so my 3kg per fork leg is about right.

Does it look like 14 dehydrated meals would fit in each bag?

Edit - just looked up some other food options -perhaps he's packed Ginsters Cornish Pastys - he'd only need 43 per fork bag

Sean - if you decant the dehydrated meals into pour and store plastic bags they take up about half the volume. The packaging for the retail environment is quite bulky and not really necessary if you intend to eat the meals before too long.

You also need enough fuel to boil the water to rehydrate them, 400ml per meal or thereabouts, a quick search would indicate 15g of butane/propane mix to boil one litre of water, so ... 28 meals needing 400ml water each gives:

28 *(15 * 1000/400) = 168g

So a 200g cylinder *should* be enough to cook all those meals.

You don't need to boil the water to rehydrate things, it will just take longer the cooler the water is.

Does it look like 14 dehydrated meals would fit in each bag?

The bags look like Alpkit Airlok Extra 13 litre, so probably. He also has a cook kit and long Ti spork to reach the bottom of the packs so it seems Kosher (maybe not the food ) Water is obtained from streams and, I assume, publicly available taps but he's carrying a filter and chlorine tabs. Didn't mention anything about carrying waste products out but I'd be wary of buying any "used once" drybags in the near future.

Bob - I'd never thought if taking them out of the retail packaging, genius

They will re-hydrate with cold water, but it takes longer. It would be possible to re-hydrate them during the day and then warm up at night but if you decant into a pot there's obviously washing up, or just eat them cold.

Having just watched the video I'd say it's possible to carry 28000 kcal on the bike. The bonus is that every day as you eat the food the bike gets lighter

pistonbroke wrote: ↑Fri Jul 31, 2020 5:31 pm Didn't mention anything about carrying waste products out but I'd be wary of buying any "used once" drybags in the near future.

I have an exped dry bag made for this, it has a double seal on the top and a warning on the outside. I've never used it, it was on sale in a shop I was in and I cant resist a bargain

The bonus is that every day as you eat the food the bike gets lighter

Not necessarily if Stu is right about taking all waste with you, wouldn't want to get the bags mixed up when tired

pistonbroke wrote: ↑Fri Jul 31, 2020 5:31 pm

Does it look like 14 dehydrated meals would fit in each bag?

The bags look like Alpkit Airlok Extra 13 litre, so probably. He also has a cook kit and long Ti spork to reach the bottom of the packs so it seems Kosher (maybe not the food ) Water is obtained from streams and, I assume, publicly available taps but he's carrying a filter and chlorine tabs. Didn't mention anything about carrying waste products out but I'd be wary of buying any "used once" drybags in the near future.

There is not one stream in the south of England that I would ever consider drinking from even with treatment.

So it may be won by the last person squatting?
"I was on for a great ride until the world fell out of my bottom"

Dave Barter wrote: ↑Fri Jul 31, 2020 5:53 pm There is not one stream in the south of England that I would ever consider drinking from even with treatment.

Genuinely curious why? My water at home comes from a steam (river) and is treated (by Southern Water) and is much safer than say bottled water brought from a shop.

Not necessarily if Stu is right about taking all waste with you

The weight of what you eat does not equal the weight of what you excrete as you extract energy from it - I am not sure how much less it will weigh.

Going to need a lot of water bottles for your piss [ assuming you are not drinking it ]

Reminds me of thishttps://youtu.be/tP8Xh9MdFdw
Actually went to this gig

Just a thought.

If participants are not allowed to have contact with anyone on the route, be it at campsites or in shops, to stop the spread of a particular disease...

When they reach JOG and the event finishes (and they are no longer under the umbrella of GBDuro) how do they get home?

I thought the rules also forbid using cars and specified you had to use public transport to get to the start so I assume the same method to get home?

They may have changed the rules due to Covid 19.

I do hope they're not travelling through any of the newly restricted areas in North England.

ScotRoutes wrote: ↑Fri Jul 31, 2020 7:21 pm I do hope they're not travelling through any of the newly restricted areas in North England.

Straight through the middle of it....

sean_iow wrote: ↑Fri Jul 31, 2020 7:14 pm I thought the rules also forbid using cars and specified you had to use public transport to get to the start so I assume the same method to get home?

They may have changed the rules due to Covid 19.

So what is the difference between entering a shop for three minutes and giving much-needed money to local businesses and sitting in an enclosed train carriage for 12 hours to start/from finish? I don't understand this reasoning.