Changing Gear: A Bike Ride from Britain to Bulgaria
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Despite riding across deserts, over mountains and through jungles they experienced far more kindness and hospitality on their journey than they did hardships. Which leads him to the inevitable conclusion that perhaps anyone can cycle the world…. When we left home, we had not even worked out how to get to the south coast of England, let alone mapped out what roads we would take across Italy, Albania or Vietnam.
Once we got going, we just looked at what country we were aiming for next and planned a few days ahead. Similarly, we did not arrange a single visa before leaving home. In fact, of the 26 countries we visited, only two required visas to be arranged in advance. Part of this could be attributed to our laissez-faire approach to life, preferring to take things as they come rather than map them out in detail. But mostly it is a testament to the ease and simplicity of cycle touring. You carry everything you need to be self-sufficient so it does not really matter where you end up at the end of a day.
You could plot an entire route around the world on a GPS device if you really wanted, but we just set off with enough maps to get us across Europe and then picked up free ones from tourist information offices as we went. Everywhere has road signs and people can usually point you in the right direction if the worst comes to it.
Besides, navigating is rarely as hard as it is in the UK, with its dense network of intertwining roads. In lots of countries, we would follow one road for several days without making a single turn.
Whenever we struggled in big cities, we used Google Maps on our phones. Cycling around the world is not complicated. As with the practical preparations for the trip, very little physical preparation was required. We cycled around London a lot, but never went out of our way to get in shape for the trip; we just got fit as we went.
There are those who set off around the world at record speeds, pushing their bodies as hard as they can, but it was not like that for us. Sometimes it was hard work, but we would often cruise all day and simply enjoy the scenery. Cycling around the world need not be a gruelling experience.
Bulgaria (all)
The trip did not cost a lot of money either. That is still a reasonable sum of money, but I know people who have spent more on a two week holiday. That amount includes all of the food we bought from supermarkets, cafes and restaurants. It includes every visa fee we paid, multiple repairs to our bikes, campsite fees, hotel bills, several international flights, a few bits of medical attention, travel insurance for America, replacement clothes, local SIM cards, cups of tea, cups of coffee, toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap and more. It was the cheapest we have ever lived and probably ever will.
We were very lucky to be given some top quality touring bicycles for our trip by Ridgeback. Having previously only ridden bikes that were either second-hand or very cheap or both , it was a real luxury to have good quality bikes that ran smoothly and reliably. However, a fancy bike is not a prerequisite for doing a big trip. Others have used Brompton folding bikes, penny farthings and even unicycles. Ann Wilson, a friend who cycled around the world aged 59, only got as far as Bulgaria before her custom-built touring bike was stolen.
Undeterred, she bought a cheap replacement from the local bike shop and carried on regardless. You can cycle around the world without a fancy bike.
The cause of this problem is surely the work of that Slovakian KGB Agent, foolishly disguised as a laundress in Svolen. There are even round-the-world cycling veterans who still do not know how to change a tyre. Along the way I joked often, saying: This interaction gives a real sense of the place, the traffic tells you what kind of things are going on in the area, tourism, logging, farming, industry etc. Rodadas es un manual para aquellos que quieran iniciarse en el cicloturismo. Certainly the type of rider influences the perceived barriers, however, weather is consistently the biggest factor for regular riders. Part of this could be attributed to our laissez-faire approach to life, preferring to take things as they come rather than map them out in detail.
Although Laura and I had expedition and travel experience before we rode around the world, we had never undertaken an adventure on this scale before. We were reassured however, by knowing that experience is not a prerequisite for such a trip. Loads of people set off into the unknown on two wheels, without any cycling pedigree. While riding through China, veteran adventurer Sarah Outen bumped into a guy who asked if he could come with her. He had never cycled beyond his hometown before and did not own a bike, but he joined her anyway and cycled across China.
The only experience Ann Wilson had when she decided to take early retirement and head east was riding her bike from Carlisle to Ipswich.
Changing Gear is about love, loss and adventure. In the summer of Allan and Eileen cycled from Britain to Bulgaria. He was a fit 52 year old with a new. Editorial Reviews. About the Author. Eileen Sutherland lives with her husband in London, Northumberland and Bulgaria depending on the time of year. She likes.
There are even round-the-world cycling veterans who still do not know how to change a tyre. You do not need a lot of experience to cycle the world. In short, our trip did not take much planning, require any training or cost a lot of money.
ALPHA ROS LIGHT JACKET
It could have been done without a flash bike and it did not require any experience. Cycling around the world is not as hard as you think. In fact, although our adventure was remarkable to us in so many wonderful ways, going on a big bike trip is not remarkable in itself. Anyone can do it and thousands have. Students fresh out of college have done it, as have those in their 50s, 60s and 70s.
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Men go on their own, as do women. Dervla Murphy cycled solo to India in the s. Families do it too. Nancy Sathre-Vogel, for example, completed a 27, mile trip with her eight-year-old twins in tow. Even serious disabilities need not necessarily rule it out: Karen Darke crossed the mountains of Central Asia on a bike, and she is paralysed from the waist down; and despite being legally blind, Christi Bruchok and Tauru Chaw pedalled from Alaska to Ushuaia.
Cycling is a safe form of transport that prolongs life through the health benefits it delivers. For our members who are new and occasional riders, lacking confidence to ride on the road is one of the biggest barriers to riding. I rode on a slick-tired, rigid-forked mountain bike, made by a now defunct U.
I opted for such a sturdy machine in part because I knew certain parts of the route, notably Laos and Tibet, would involve unsealed roads.
But, as he says, for anyone riding around the world a good bike is the one thing worth investing in. The British cycling group CTC once asked three round-the-world riders , Beaumont included, what gear they recommended, and all opted for bikes with Rohloff hub gears , a pricy system that has the benefit of being fully sealed and, in theory, largely maintenance free.
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All three riders recommended the same tires, which are also hugely popular with bike commuters -- the absurdly tough but fast-rolling Schwalbe Marathon Plus. On my trip we spent the entire Asian leg staying in cheap hotels or guesthouses and didn't carry a tent till Europe. For most of the trip I packed everything into two modest panniers on the rear of the bike, including a small selection of bike tools. Fast movers like Beaumont tend to take lightweight tents -- his weighed less than a kilo 2.
He recommends the completely waterproof roll-top panniers made by Ortleib. Beaumont has one other packing word of advice: As a man who spent the first two weeks of his trip cycling with a mandolin on top of his bike rack, I'd agree. For high points, Beaumont names a section from his 13,mile ride from Alaska to the tip of Argentina -- through the pampas of Patagonia to the mountains of Tierra del Fuego. I'd go for the month we spent riding across the absurdly beautiful and often eerily empty Tibetan plateau, from Lhasa to Kathmandu.
BELT DRIVE
Beaumont sums up the joy of bike travel: And that at the speed of a bike you see so much, but experience it all, unlike any other mode of transport. Peter Walker is a journalist based in the UK who regularly contributes to cycling publications. He once rode a bike most of the way from Sydney to London. A year of the world's Best Beaches There's a perfect beach for every week of the year.
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