Cycles of all sorts

Glue your tires to your rims with tubular tire glue or 3M Fast Tack all the way around one side.

Install a new chain at least a week before the event and put some miles on it in all gears.

Repacking hubs, bottom bracket, headset and pedals with lighter grease will make the bike easier to pedal and steer in the cold. We use Lubriplate Mag-1 since it stays the softest in extreme cold.

Clean your gear and brake cables and either leave them dry or lubricate them with something no thicker than Triflo. Thicker lubricants will interfere with indexed shifting in the cold.

Goretex RideOn cable and housing offers a real advantage in extreme cold since it requires no lubrication and has less internal friction than conventional cable and housing.

You can reinforce the housing with 3/16-inch heat shrink tubing to avoid having the plastic crack in the cold.

The most common bike problems we see in the Iditasport are flats due to tire creep, racks and panniers damaged by rough trails and crashes, and broken chains. So your repair kit should include spare tubes, pump, chain tool and spare links and some tie wire and duct tape. Beyond these essentials, consider what's likely to go wrong with your bike that would keep you from riding on to one of the tech support checkpoints. Keep in mind that you'll be working under difficult conditions so only the simplest repairs will be feasible.

For riding on soft snow, tire width, tread pattern and pressure are the critical variables. The double wide rim (Snow Cat) has proven itself a major advantage in the last five runnings of Iditasport.

The tires that have worked best for us on snow so far (as of 11-96) are the Continental Competition Pro-2 for the rear and the Smoke Dart 2.2 for the front. WTB's Velociraptors are unusually good for having a smaller casing. Appropriate tire pressure varies with conditions. You'll have to experiment. It's usually better to take the time to make pressure changes as soon as you think they're needed, rather than wasting energy fighting the bike on tires that are too hard or too soft.

Beginning snow riders almost always run their tires too hard. As the snow gets softer, so should your tires. "When in doubt, let air out."

Mini pumps offer performance similar to that of medium-sized frame pumps. You can keep them warm inside your jacket so they work better in the cold.

Presta valves are less prone to freezing up and easier to inflate and let air out of than Schraders. If your rims are drilled for Schrader valves, you can use either type of tube in an emergency.