As I have been training for UDNB schedule (which included 200-300 miles on the weekend and working the rest) I have been realizing that I would not have to carry a fraction of the gear that I do if I biked every day, but slowed down, and just stayed in a hotel/hostel/koa every single night. This is a much more attainable goal for a lot of people.
Riding the Tour Divide competitively is basically credit card camping. The competitors take ultralight bivies because they almost never sleep outside when they don’t have to. Lachlan Morton even had his people arrange for all his lodging in advance so he just had to ride into the hotel, shower, and sleep without even dealing with the logistics himself (which is why his time on the TD is absolute bullshit and should never be mentioned as “the fastest” at all, as impressive as it was).
The Tour Divide shows that credit card camping doesn’t have to be for wimps. It can be a way to focus on the objectives and experience of being on the bike more than trudging along not even able to dry your sweat because your speed is too slow to generate any wind.
One significant difference from the Tour Divide, however, is the weight of the remote office required, which is usually about two times heavier than all the rest of the gear carried by a Tour Divide competitor. Many will not have ultra-light bikes as well. Theres’ no way most DNBs will be able to triumphantly lift their bikes over their heads at the finish line. It’s just unrealistic. All this weight makes climbing particularly hard and significantly reduces the amount of miles per day a DNB can cover. A DNB also has to work the next day, so cannot be so wiped out from the previous day that they just want to sleep.
The estimates for regular adventure cycling (on roads with loaded bikes and street wheels) are between 40 and 60 miles per day. These are based on using all the sunlight to travel and sight-see. The distances can be much higher for those on high-end road bikes doing credit-card touring. So what is a good estimate for a credit-card touring DNB who has a beefier gravel+ bike and carrying about the same as a loaded, sight-seeing adventure cyclist, but only because of the remote office?
Adventure cyclists generally use 10 mph as the average speed per day. These are people using their entire day for their trip, who do not work during that same day. Still, this is a good low-average speed for a DNB focused on riding faster in order to allow time to stop and look at things on the route. A DNB schedule that involves daily riding (as opposed to a UDNB who only rides intensely on the weekends) needs the time to explorer each day, yet another reason to stick with estimates on the low-end.
Assuming a DNB works 6-8 hours per day on weekdays, that leaves 4-6 hours per day of riding without it interfering with lodging and living logistics. Those preparing for DNB living can actually begin training this way locally around their homes by adding a 4-6 hour daily ride to their weeks and slowly adding the gear to their bikes that they would carry once on the road making sure to not add anything unnecessary. Most will probably want to limit riding per day to four hours at an average pace of 10 mph, that’s a 40 mile distance range per day, longer on the weekends.
There’s nothing preventing a DNB from staying in the same place more than one night. Taking a break becomes something that doesn’t have to be planned. Don’t feel like riding through a torrential rain storm? Just stay in your lodging another day. Not even carrying a tent does limit options, but also forces a DNB to think seriously about the next 24-48 hours.
Traveling in the off season as a DNB would make the costs very low. This makes many places attainable that would not be otherwise.
The gear required by a GDMBR credit-card touring DNB is absolutely minimal:
Because it is the GDMBR it would require bear spray as well.