The Rig: What I Chose to Ride the Baja Divide

At the heart of this entire experience is the bicycle, and so I put much thought and research into what I wanted to ride the Baja Divide with. While there are so many options that I could have selected, I ultimately chose the Tout Terrain Outback Xplore to serve as my home for the next 30-40 days while I traverse the entirety of the Baja Peninsula.

Tout Terrain is a German company which specializes in touring and adventure bicycles which are sort of the perfect combination of mountain bikes and road bikes. The frame is made of steel to support the kind of weight that must be carried on long distance tours around the world. The Outback Xplore's frame is particularly unique in that the rear rack, on which my sleeping gear and the rear saddlebags are hoisted upon, is pre-built as a part of the frame. This feature ensures I won't need to worry about the frame falling off (as attached frames are wont to do if not secured properly).

The most attractive feature, however, and the one that influenced this choice of bike the most is the Pinion Gearbox. Pinion is another German company (the Germans probably know bicycles better than anyone) and they specialize in what should be described as enclosed, belt-driven bicycle motor systems. Instead of a chain and derailleur system (what most bicycles that we all grew up with and ride now have), the Pinion gear box is completely enclosed in a casing that is engaged by a belt that revolves while pedaling. The advantages of this system is that maintenance and upkeep are extremely minimal; no need to clean or lubricate a dirty or rusty chain, no chance of misalignment of a chain on the gear teeth, nada. It also has 18 different gears which allows for much easier climbing for times when the gradient of the ride gets pretty steep! I highly recommend visiting the following link https://pinion.eu/en/technology/ if you are interested in learning more about this cool technology!

Another awesome feature of my bicycle is its Dynamo Hub which allows me to charge my phone and other devices while I'm riding by transferring the mechanical energy of pedaling into electrical power! This feature was a must have when I was in the research phase of planning. While in Baja, it will be difficult to find opportunities to charge devices, and ensuring that both my phone (primary GPS), my bike computer (backup GPS), and my Garmin Messenger (Emergency locator beacon) are charged is vital to knowing my location and being able to reach someone in case of a potential emergency. To get an idea of how well it works, I cycled a few days ago to a different friend's house in San Diego, a trip of about 15 miles which took an hour and a half. In that time, my phone went from 75% to 90%. Super cool!

I am riding with Vitoria Mezcal 27.5x2.1 tires, which is as the largest I was able to fit on this frame. I would say the size of the tires is the one downside for this particularly journey. Previous riders of the Divide recommend at least 2.6 inch wide tires and many people ride on fat 3.0 inch tires as a means of more traversing through the sandy parts of the route. Having smaller tires means that there may be sections where I will be doing a lot of "hike-a-bike" aka pushing the bike through areas that skinny tires have difficulty staying stable. I'll find out soon enough if this becomes a major issue!

Longer post than usual, but I hope it gave a good sense of what I chose to ride and why!

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