Cycling Around the World, Sadly had to return for major repairs

[dodgy]

I tend to put the same effort into reading as the person has put into writing. I couldn't figure out what it was all about.

 

[John Peel]

You sound an amateur John...and which,in part,is why I sometimes follow you.
As a man of the 60s and in his 60s I like some character. You seem well balanced. As a numbskull on the network I seem only to be able to follow you on Facebook. And I'm not a member(and don't wish to be) Give me a link wherein I can dip into what's happening to you. PS If you ever appear on the dreaded One Show,I'm out.
BFN

Very good, I enjoyed your comment. The ones you hear about mostly, are the ones I try not to emulate. I've worked damned hard to afford to experience this one chance at RTW, and I'm going to get my money's worth. Not one days cycle touring before starting out, that's how I wanted it, I wanted to feel the whole thing, warts and all. Dragged out of school in my early teens to graft, hod carrier for years in Manchester, to building my own building company which I ran for 20 years, and I did it with not a penny from anyone. So yes, this is a little different from anything you may have read, and I must be completely bonkers, but I'm pretty proud of myself for getting here. If you want a link to follow, go to my homepage stephenpeel.co.uk and choose the link to Google+ Blog, this is the page I post to firstly, and you don't have to be a member to read. Thanks for your input and nice its good to know you are following. S

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I haven't (yet) read all 7 pushes of this, but having attempted to cycle around the world myself (along with my husband) I can say a number of things such as if you want to blog, do so. I did and family and friends followed my updates. I kept a daily diary handwritten had well. Do what you want and if it means a lot to your family and you, keep it going. It is a means of communication and whilst sometimes it was a chore, or felt like one, it has become so very valuable to us since our tour ended unexpectedly 12 months in.

People told us we were carrying too much, well they are not us. 1 pannier alone was medication for a number of serious medical conditions I have and we always had a minimum of 3 months meds for me. we preferred to have tools and spares with us, and not just for the bike but for this like our airmats, the tent, goretex patches for our waterproofs and a sewing kit for our clothing. I often had to make repairs to our clothes, a couple of times to our tent (a lemming chewed it's way into the inner tent in the very far north of Norway) our groundsheet had numerous inner tube patches on it etc. Carry what you want. Your speed and enjoyment is yours and tips alone. We carried 1 paperback book each which kept us company and are frequently traded along the way with other tourers and also swapped at camp-sites.

Another thing we did which proved ideal was to take an advanced first aid course which taught things such as IV, cannula and sutures. It was exceptionally useful and continues to be so.

I also did a lot of photography. Someone calculated that for my blog there was a published photography for every 8 miles... I never owned up to how many are not published. I carried 2 cameras. A small Canon Powershot G10 and subsequently the G11 which both took a polarising filter and take in RAW format and my big camera the Canon EOS 5D mk ii asking with 2 lenses (L series) a limited selection of Lee filters and a polarising filter, cleaning kit, tripod, spare batteries etc...

We too were on (and still have) or Rohloff speedhub (we love them) and also ran into problems though more indirectly (like you). For my husband's it was a small oil leak which meant that his chain was constantly dirty and coated in an oil to which soil and and stuck to. He wore through parts much faster than I did. For me, I had best changing issues caused by the best changer leaking water into the cable and it slowly rusting. It gave up for the first time in Serbia where I was given much help by SJS Cycles from whom we bought the bikes. The water inside the gear run had frozen preventing me from changing gear! In Greece we had to drill out the screws for the gear changer and completely replace the gear changing system.

I think you know by now, do what you want to do. Some people here have very firm ideas on what should and should not be carried. A 2 week camping tour is totally different to a world tour.

Best wishes and hope to hear that you are back on the road soon.

And should you find your way to Australia and into the Canberra area, give us a yell. You are more than welcome to visit our stay. We are on warmshowers as well.
SNSSO

 

[raleighnut]

If you're ditching the chair/table I'd suggest using one of these,


Very light but comfy back support

 

[oldfatfool]

Dont botther with a blog etc, get back, write a book about it, self publish on Amazon, and donate the royalties to a charity of your choice.

 

[Blue Hills]

I tend to put the same effort into reading as the person has put into writing. I couldn't figure out what it was all about.

Read it again - one of the key points was an expression of boredom with the tales of over professional overprepared trips (possibly sponsored) and the exaggerated macho tales of hardships, near death experiences bla bla bla. I had an invite to a bike touring film show a while ago which i passed on as it was full of that sort of stuff. Lots of examples on youtube i think. The subjects would be better off having a good **** in their sleeping bags of a morning, chilling a bit and maybe telling me/us something more interesting about the day that followed. Something that would give us an insight into them and the areas and people they were experiencing. In short, not a human cycle travel tale that read/filmed more like a shoot-em up video game.

 

[Blue Hills]

Thanks for your post above satnav, though must admit that despite you saying you love the rohloff, it does sound problematical on a long trip.

 

[tyreon]

Satnavsays seems very decent. Sort of open and fluid. Like the style

From my own place, have you read Are You Experienced by William Sutcliffe? It's a wry take on those on the road, albeit without bikes. Travellers in competition! Against my cautious judgement,I liked it. 5*. There can be a culture 'out there'(those who are travelling the world)of reverse snobbery or ambition and hidden pride. You'd finish the book in the morning.

'Out bush' (out of Europe)my main concern would be avoiding lorries and the like. I expect I'm 'racist' but from past experience and my BBC fed English nationalism,drivers 'over there' don't seem to adhere to the same rules and regs 'over here'.

The next thing I'd be cautious of is dogs. Back in the days of the square wheel the Turkish lorry drivers pastime was to swerve to kill them as they came from left and right to attack their trucks wheels. At the same time,many youngsters enjoyed the innocent pastime of throwing bricks and stones at passing (unwanted?) travellers.

Such experiences. Such 'interesting times'! Thank G I'm now well past ever thinking of contemplating such a journey.

Jupiter's Travels depicted the world and era when it was at its best. 8 years back the 75yo went round the same route on a motorcycle to revisit the places he'd been. All wrecked. Doomed. Doomed. We've missed it.

Apologies to readers for the last paragraph: my attempt at humour. (It's why I've never attempted the stage)

 

[dodgy]

Apologies for my rude response on this thread. I had tried to read the message a few times but it didn't scan for me. It would have been better for me not to have commented at all

 

[steveindenmark]

You made me laugh talking about the KOGA dealership you dropped into. I had 3 Kogas, including the World Traveller which is a lovely touring bike. But without any doubt at all, KOGA has the worst customer service of any organisation I have ever dealt with. I have spoken to 2 KOGA Ambassadors who agree with this and who say getting anything from KOGA except the bare minimum is like pulling teeth. They will not reply to my LBS and he is a KOGA dealer.

I have now changed over to Genesis and have a Croix de Fer 20 and it is great. The guys at Genesis are only too happy to help.

I have sold one KOGA recently and the other 2 will go in the Spring.

Lovely bikes but awful service.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

Size not always a good thing in the case of Koga, I guess - and yet, with their reach they should be the obvious, no-brain choice for expeditioners, one would have thought. OP was looking for a "fit-and-forget" solution as a novice by his own admission, and clearly didn't get that, nor did he seem to get the help he needed when most required.

 

[jay clock]

, and buy a phone that I will work better with transferring images from my Sony A7rii phone to it via wifi, instead of doing the editing on my laptop. .

You sound keen on photography - no idea this helps at all but Nikon have a feature called SnapBridge that allows you to automatically transfer pics from camera to phone via Bluetooth.....

 

[jay clock]

walkman.

One of these?

 

[jay clock]

Stephen? John? I am with you on taking a laptop btw. One comment is that you said you are backing up videos on SSD drives/ Are you also uploading to Cloud. I have a 1TB account with Dropbox, and it would certainly help once in a while when you have good wifi to let it all sync to the cloud

 

[jay clock]

I haven't (yet) read all 7 pushes of this, but having attempted to cycle around the world myself (along with my husband) I can say a number of things such as if you want to blog, do so. I did and family and friends followed my updates. I kept a daily diary handwritten had well. Do what you want and if it means a lot to your family and you, keep it going. It is a means of communication and whilst sometimes it was a chore, or felt like one, it has become so very valuable to us since our tour ended unexpectedly 12 months in.

People told us we were carrying too much, well they are not us. 1 pannier alone was medication for a number of serious medical conditions I have and we always had a minimum of 3 months meds for me. we preferred to have tools and spares with us, and not just for the bike but for this like our airmats, the tent, goretex patches for our waterproofs and a sewing kit for our clothing. I often had to make repairs to our clothes, a couple of times to our tent (a lemming chewed it's way into the inner tent in the very far north of Norway) our groundsheet had numerous inner tube patches on it etc. Carry what you want. Your speed and enjoyment is yours and tips alone. We carried 1 paperback book each which kept us company and are frequently traded along the way with other tourers and also swapped at camp-sites.

Another thing we did which proved ideal was to take an advanced first aid course which taught things such as IV, cannula and sutures. It was exceptionally useful and continues to be so.

I also did a lot of photography. Someone calculated that for my blog there was a published photography for every 8 miles... I never owned up to how many are not published. I carried 2 cameras. A small Canon Powershot G10 and subsequently the G11 which both took a polarising filter and take in RAW format and my big camera the Canon EOS 5D mk ii asking with 2 lenses (L series) a limited selection of Lee filters and a polarising filter, cleaning kit, tripod, spare batteries etc...

We too were on (and still have) or Rohloff speedhub (we love them) and also ran into problems though more indirectly (like you). For my husband's it was a small oil leak which meant that his chain was constantly dirty and coated in an oil to which soil and and stuck to. He wore through parts much faster than I did. For me, I had best changing issues caused by the best changer leaking water into the cable and it slowly rusting. It gave up for the first time in Serbia where I was given much help by SJS Cycles from whom we bought the bikes. The water inside the gear run had frozen preventing me from changing gear! In Greece we had to drill out the screws for the gear changer and completely replace the gear changing system.

I think you know by now, do what you want to do. Some people here have very firm ideas on what should and should not be carried. A 2 week camping tour is totally different to a world tour.

Best wishes and hope to hear that you are back on the road soon.

And should you find your way to Australia and into the Canberra area, give us a yell. You are more than welcome to visit our stay. We are on warmshowers as well.
SNSSO

Great comments @SatNavSaysStraightOn . I have done a lot of touring, mainly shorter but going across the US shortly. You learn from your own experience what matters in terms of comfort etc. I LOVE to write a blog (see www.jmhr.com for my offerings) and even now I re-read my own often to relive trips.. So why would I not do it? I have had people on this forum tell me I should leave my mobile phone behind. Why? I LOVE talking/texting my family (inc 5 children) very often so again, why would I follow someone else's rules.

Best one was being told that dental floss was not needed on tour as "you're hardly going to pull are you?"

Having said all that, @John Peel you will learn new stuff from others, and glad to see you actively are doing so.

Have fab trip!