My Round The World ride (inc top blagging at Spa & The Ring)

[neilski]

Silver940 said:

That hill looked like hard work!

I've been up worse on this trip but it did take a while to get to that height (over 900m) from sea level. The descent was epic although my brakes aren't a fan of all the weight I'm carrying!

[neilski]

daz3210 said:

Thanks for that, I was more thinking though about what you would need to carry by way of spares.

10 spokes (now 6), chain (now used & another bought in Budapest), cassette, brake blocks, brake & gear cables, lube, cable ties, gaffer tape, assorted nuts & bolts, pannier hooks & anti-sway catches, Brooks proofide, CR2032 batteries (watch & bike computer) fork sensor battery, inner tubes x 4, loads of patches, tyre boots, one spare road tyre (now used), two off road tyres to put on when I get to Asia and can't find 700c anywhere.

It's a lot of weight but I can't be sure I'll be able to find obscure stuff in the back of beyond or rely on international postal services.

[neilski]

Minemapper said:

Any thoughts about putting disc brakes on it? Seems like a no brainer with the extra weight and hills. They also wear a lot more slowly and are easier on rims (in my mtn bike experience).

The reason I haven't gone the disc brake route is because when I did my research before buying my bike I came across some info from SJS Cycles who refuse to sell a touring bike with discs because while discs might be good at stopping a mountain bike & rider on a short downhill course they're pretty ste when it comes to overheating & warping on a 20km descent on a fully loaded tourer.

I've got well set up cantilevers which may not be as powerful as discs but they're easily fixable at the roadside once the pads start to melt, something that can't always be said about discs.

[neilski]

It's a bit of a long shot but is anyone coming from the UK to Sofia or Istanbul in the next 1-2 weeks that can bring me a synthetic unicef t-shirt that looks as though it's going to cost about £30 to post?

At the moment I'm riding in a cotton t-shirt which gets a bit grim after a day in this heat never mind 1-2 weeks between washes.

[neilski]

daz3210 said:

Can we get one in the UK and post it cheaper from this end?

Any idea on weight so I can check?

The t-shirt is coming from unicef UK who sent it to Belgrade but it got returned as incorrect address (don't know why as I'm at the hostel now and the address is written above the front door) and at 34.50GBP to post they don't want to try again as this is money they should be spending on children so I agree with them on this so have asked them to send it to my parents and I'll pay for them to post it to me but I had no idea it was going to cost the equivalent of 3 nights accommodation!

The weight is only going to be about 100g in a small packet.

[neilski]

andy-ski said:

Hi Neilski (cool name btw) my wife is on holiday with her mum in Istanbul from 12th July till 15th July. They're with an organised group but she's happy to meet in the evening or something. Let me know if that suits?
I would be really happy to play a little part in your epic trip!

That would be great and the timing should be about right too (if I ride non-stop!) I've just checked and Istanbul is about 1000km from Belgrade so it would be a push to get there but if I don't make it I guess she could leave it with the hotel reception for me to collect?

Any chance you could drop me a pm through my profile with your address and I'll get unicef to post it to you?

Many thanks.

[neilski]

Map is now bang up to date: http://g.co/maps/vjj5d

Next up is Nis, Sofia, Plovdiv, Istanbul, Tblisi & Baku.

Also clocked up another 1000km just before Belgrade.

Edited by neilski on Saturday 30th June 11:53

[neilski]

Many thanks for doing this Andy. Unicef have put two in the post to you today so I can have one to wear & one to wash!

[neilski]

neilski said:

That would be great and the timing should be about right too (if I ride non-stop!) I've just checked and Istanbul is about 1000km from Belgrade so it would be a push to get there but if I don't make it I guess she could leave it with the hotel reception for me to collect?

Well I've now made it to Istanbul including a hot, hilly & death-defying 225km from Edirne to Istanbul in one hit yesterday.

Istanbul is the most bike friendly city in the world & I won't hear a bad word said against it! Cycling at night is the best, so relaxing.

[neilski]

I'd like to say a huge thanks to andy-ski for offering & his wife for bringing me two brand new, unfaded, crisp, clean unicef t-shirts that I picked up last night in Istanbul.

Not only did I get the t-shirts but they threw in two bottles of English real ale that I'm enjoying right now instead of the 4 months of fizzy pop lager that they sell everywhere on the continent. PH at its very best!

Cheers, and thanks once again!

[neilski]

RRS_Staffs said:

As someone who gets nervous leaving my bike outside a Peak District cafe for the time it takes to order a cup of tea and a bacon butty then what do you do with your bike, gear and expensive IT kit when blagging laps of racing circuits or drinking fizzy beer with the locals till it all goes dizzy in Ulan Bator?

The race circuits were no problem as everyone there was minted with a 911 GT3, Radical, Noble M600 or something equally exotic and doesn't go rummaging through some panniers on a bike hoping to find something better than sweaty cycling kit so all I did at Spa & the Ring was stick it in a pit garage or by the Ariel guys I'd met in the bar the night before and trust people not to steal from me.

If I'm just popping into a glass fronted shop for a minute to buy breakfast or lunch I'll not bother locking it but when I go into a supermarket and it's out of sight for 5 minutes I'll lock it up but that still leaves the panniers vulnerable so I have to take a view on whether the area I'm locking it up in is safe and so far I've not had a problem.

If I go to cafés in the evening I'll normally sit outside or back when it was winter I'd choose a café in the middle of nowhere so less chance of being robbed or sit by the window so I can keep an eye on it. When I get to cities and want to be able to explore for a few days I'll stay in hostels and leave it locked up inside with my bags in my dorm.

The main trick is to have a bike that's not desirable to thieves and to trust people because if I spent the whole time worrying then I'd never do anything except cycle or sit & watch my bike. When I went to the Porsche museum I locked it up for over two hours with all the luggage attached and took a punt that it would be ok & it was.

[neilski]

I forgot to post it at the time, but I got this tweet about two months back....



Pretty cool eh?

[neilski]

Here are a few of my favourite photos from the last 5 months. Enjoy....


A timber wolf at Merzig, Germany.


Riding through thick fog, Germany.


Sailing boats on Lake Chiemsee, Germany.


Slavin, Bratislava.


Hungarian Parliament Building, Budapest.


Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest.


Crossing a mountain pass, Slovenia.


Lake Bohinje, Slovenia.


Three fishermen on Lake Bohinje.


Lake Bled, Slovenia.


The Alps, Slovenia.


Lake Bled at Sunrise.


Pag, Croatia.


Sunset at Dubrovnik, Croatia.


Sveti Stefan, Montenegro.

[neilski]

Now that I'm in Asia where the roads are a bit less "smooth" than you normally get in Europe I decided it was time to switch to my off road tyres....



....which coped brilliantly over 55km of dirt road over a 2025m mountain pass.



I was so confident that my new "Double Defense HD Ceramic Guard SnakeSkin marketing bks" tyres would be up to the job that I happily gave away some patches to help out a young lad with a puncture on the way down from the pass....



Only to get my first puncture the next day.



I'm still smiling because it's only my first puncture but it did take three attempts (& three of my rapidly diminishing supply of patches) to fix because the patches kept coming off as soon as I pumped the tyre up so I fitted a brand new previously unused tube which lasted all of about 3 hours before the valve stem gave up it's fight to keep the air in leaving me with a nice surprise in the morning just as I was getting ready to leave.

So two punctures in two days wasn't a great start but to be fair they both appeared to have been caused by defective tubes rather than anything getting through the tyre but....



....that evening we (I met a Danish couple in Batumi who cycled with me to Tbilisi) rolled into a camping spot only for my super duper new marketing bks tyres to act as some kind of thorn magnet leaving themselves (and me) pretty deflated.

I think I've now been to every bike shop in Tbilisi (so probably every bike shop in the whole of Georgia!) on the hunt for some 700c tubes without any luck so my journey to Baku where I'm getting some stuff posted to could turn out to be a very long walk!

Edited by neilski on Wednesday 22 August 17:13

[neilski]

Thanks for all the offers of help, it's much appreciated.

This week I spent two evenings fixing punctures only to check the bike the following morning and had flat tyres front and back both times so the tubes have been ditched in favour of some 29er tubes as a bit of a bodge job to get me to Baku but if they ride ok then they're staying in until they puncture.

I've bought 5 more 700c tubes from CRC plus a bunch of other stuff that my parents are going to send to Baku but it's pretty expensive to post with no guarantee it'll arrive or that I won't have to pay some sort of bribe to pick it up.

Herebemonsters, do you have any idea when your dad or one of his colleagues will next be in Baku and if it's within a week? Any longer and I'll get it posted but if there's a slim chance that someone is coming then any help you can give would be great.

[neilski]

crisisjez do you also fly to Baku & which UK airport do you fly from? Gatwick?

[neilski]

A dry bag, helmet, 5 inner tubes, some patches, a back light, bar tape & a book about the silk roads. It's all at my parents house ready to be posted but after asking for help in the lounge the advice I got was that Azerbaijan can be a bit corrupt and the parcel might disappear.

Could they get it to you or a colleague and it be brought to Baku in person & I'll meet you / them. I should be there in about 4 days then staying there for 5 days plus while I get my Uzbek / Tajik / Kyrg visas then wait for the ferry.

This is the biggest item I need bringing & everything else fits inside.

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/ortlieb-rack-pack-travel-b...

[neilski]

PH to the rescue for the second time on this trip. Thanks Jez.

[neilski]

This is what happens when you ride 125km into a headwind in the desert when it's hot.



The look on the hostel owner's face when she opened the door was priceless.

[neilski]

Here's my route so far and in six months I've ridden 9165km in 18 countries. Next up is Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and a less than toasty Chinese winter.




Money raised for unicef so far is about £3,200 including £2,700 in a single night donated by the Baku Caledonian Society when I was guest of honour at their Ceilidh last Saturday and sat on the top table with the Chieftan & the British Ambassador. It's still very weird when stuff like that happens but nice when it does!