North Pole ride

djvagabon

I am in the process of organizing a mountain bike ride to the North Pole. It has never been done before so this will be a first.
I am at present in contact with Sir Ranulph Fiennes personal secratery. I am very serious about doing this.
Is there anyone who would be able to help in such an expedition. I am looking for sponsors or any advice that could be helpful.
I have contacted the B.B.C in the hope that it can be made in to a television program.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

jayson

I cant offer any advice but its certainly a brave thing to do especially on an MTB.

dodgy

I think it might turn into a mountain bike walk, it's not exactly MTB friendly terrain. But good luck anyway!

David Lund

Will some of the snow support a bikes tyres? as Dodgy said you may edn up walking it.
Maybe a custom frame which can hold 10" tyres
All the best anyway!
Dave

djvagabon

I have e.mailed Merlin, Litespeed and Specialized about a bike. I have also e.mailed Schwalbe about some tyres that are suitable for the terrain. I will be riding a single speed bike as there is less to go wrong. I know i will be doing lots of walking along the way.
At the moment i am looking into what materials to use for the parts. I have been told carbon will become very brittle at those temperatures and could break easily. Im looking into using all titanium parts where i can.
Thanks for the messages of good luck. I will keep everyone posted as it progresses.

Nick Dastardly

That's awesome, hope it all gets organised and good luck!

If you make it back do you fancy doing the first MTB ascent of Everest?

djvagabon

The trouble with ascending Everest is, you haveto get to the top first.

uk_mr_brownstone

I remember seeing a MTB rear 'track' for use on snow, in one of the mags I think- basically utilised a short rear track to create a wider contact patch witht eh snow- I can picture it in my head but cant remember exactly how it worked!

Uncle Peter

You're going to need to do a helluva lot of cold weather training and capability tests, I work for QinetiQ, their HPPE (Human Performane Personal Enhancement) division is part of my business group. They did all the training capability tests for Ben Fogle, James Cracknell and the other guy Ed, you can read about it here...

http://www.qinetiq.com/home/capabilities/team_qinetiq.html

I'm sure you're not going in to this half arsed, but there's an AWFUL lot of things you need to think about.

BlackSpur

http://www.gizmag.com/go/6633/

something like that could be very useful.

Uncle Peter

Or one of these...



With wheels of course.

cougie

What is the alaskan bike race iditarod or something ? Lots of learnings from there i think ?
Top gear did it anyway - so it cant be impossible ?

djvagabon

They did a bike race at the North Pole a few years ago. I think they are doing another 1 this year, but nobody has ever actualy ridden to the North Pole. I know about the cold weather training. I did it when i was in the army so im pretty clued up on that. I know there is a lot of stuff to think about, thats why i contacted Sir Ranulph Feinnes.
Thanks for the link Uncle Peter. I will check that out tomorrow. As for Top Gear doing it. They did have a team of experts including Sir Ranulph, and ex special forces soldiers to help them. Ive been planning it for just over a month so im still in the early stages. If all goes to plan i will attempt it next year.

cougie

http://www.alaskaultrasport.com/race_stats.html

May be useful ?

Good luck - sounds very interesting !

Uncle Peter

cougie wrote:

What is the alaskan bike race iditarod or something ? Lots of learnings from there i think ?
Top gear did it anyway - so it cant be impossible ?

Didn't Top Gear have Toyota Hi-Lux specially adapted pick up trucks? Not Mountain bikes?