What Gear Do I Need to Ride the White Rim?

Ah, the White Rim Trail – a legendary 100 mile mountain biking adventure that carves its way through the heart of Canyonlands National Park in Utah. This immersive journey into a landscape sculpted by time and the mighty Colorado and Green Rivers is an experience that should be at the top of every adventurer’s bucket list. We have several White Rim In A Day (WRIAD) rides between us (Ryan has done it TWICE!), and here are our best gear tips and recommendations to help you have the best experience possible.

Choose your bike setup!

Let’s start by going over the most likely bike options for the White Rim, and what we’d recommend (spoiler, it’s exactly what you’d expect).

Overlooking Island in the Sky.

Hard-tail Mountain Bikes

Hard-tail mountain bikes are a popular choice for riding the WR. These bikes are efficient, easily setup for carrying gear and are generally lighter than full suspension bikes. Hard-tails are also easily maintained and have fewer replacement parts than their “full-squish” counterparts. On the down side, you may end up with a serious case of bruised tailbone on a hardtail. If you decide to go this route, it is imperative to prioritize comfort. 

Full Suspension Mountain Bikes

In general, full suspension bikes have versatility, increased stability, and modern full-squishies are almost as efficient as a hardtail. These bikes are going to be more comfortable and more fun to ride. On the down side, a lot of full suspension bikes, especially older ones, can be much heavier than your average hardtail bike. Also, full suspension bikes have more moving parts which means more potential breakdowns. Typically it's also a little bit harder to mount gear bags and frame bags to these types of bikes as well. We think the pro’s outweigh the con’s for this type of bike though, and we very much suggest a cross-country oriented bike for riding the White Rim. 

Other Bike Types: 

The White Rim really isn’t very technical, which means it can be ridden on almost anything. We’ve seen gravel bikes all the way to full enduro bikes on the White Rim. Though bikes like these definitely aren’t ideal, they can definitely work…especially if it is all you’ve got!

Frame Bags:

Rule number one of bike setup: get as much gear off your back and onto your bike as possible. Use a frame bag, saddle bag, handlebar bag, or combination of any of these three to save numerous pounds of weight that would otherwise be in your pack, crushing your back and soul. Many gear shops now offer bikepacking rental equipment, so their isn’t any reason not to outfit your trusty steed to the max. Be sure to also utilize the water bottle cages on the bike frame.

Clipless or Flats??

Clipless pedals are highly recommended. People ride the WR with flats but doesn't really seem like an advantage to not having clipless pedals. The energy savings of clipless pedals is hard to beat on a ride this long.

Wanna see what bikes we used on the White Rim? Check out this video!

Here is some extra information on choosing your bike.

Layers

Bottom of The Shafer Switchbacks.

• Socks…bring one extra set per day in case one pair gets saturated in sand.
  

• Gloves
  

• Padded bike shorts (Or jorts) are going to be critical. Don’t skimp on these. Get some good ones with some extra cush. The plusher the better
  

• We found lightweight sun hoodies to be a crucial layer for the entire ride. It's also good to have a hood to fit under or over your helmet for when the sun gets angry. 
  

• A wind layer is going to be really nice to have in the Spring-time and during the early morning portion of the ride. Riding down the highway section in the morning can get pretty chilly so having this wind protection is really nice. 
  

• And finally, bring some sort of insulation. This is probably only going to be a lightweight synthetic puffy jacket. Something that will likely probably just sit in the bottom of the backpack but will be good to have if something goes wrong or it just ends up being much colder than anticipated.

Overview of gear planning for single and multiday rides of the White Rim.

More gear advice.

The Other Stuff

• Backpack (under  20L) Generally, something small and lightweight will work great, around the 10 to 20L size. In our case we used 15L running backpacks.

• Helmet

• Food (~200+ calories per hour).

• Water storage (1 gal/per day (4L) minimum, more for single day push and during hot weather).

• Water filter We brought small squeeze filters and were able to use them at the Green River to top off.

• Headlamp + batteries

• Bike light

• Emergency Satellite Communicator We love the Garmin InReach Mini.

• Bike repair kit: spare tubes, extra derailleur hanger, patch kit, allen wrenches, chain quick link, bike pump.

• Sunglasses and sunscreen

• Navigation (maps, downloaded on phone)

• Permit for camping

• Appropriate layers

• First aid kit

• Chain Lube (absolutely mandatory)

Video case study of the Exact Gear we used on the White Rim.

The Exact gear we used on the White Rim.

Remember, the White Rim is waiting, and with the right gear, you're just a chain lube and a dropper post away from conquering it. Now go get dirty!

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