Cycling from London to Shangahi

MickeyFinns

MickeyFinns

MickeyFinns

Man of Honour
Joined
17 Nov 2006
Posts
1,931
Location
Tooting, London
Starting on October 1st I'll be attempting to cycle across eurasia over a period of about 9-12 months. A lot of people here enjoyed Messiah Khans thread about hiking the Pacific Crest Trail so I thought I'd make a thread about my trip as well :).

Messiah Khan's thread

I've written about the plans for the route and the why's of this trip on my site here;

http://www.121degrees.co.uk

I'll add some more posts over the weekend as I start to do the final prep for the trip. Hope some of you enjoy following along!

edit: new blog to Vienna. Run in with a wild boar;

http://jamesftravel.wordpress.com/2013/11/04/passau-germany-to-vienna-austria-201-miles-1149-miles-total/

edit: Vienna to Budapest

http://jamesftravel.wordpress.com/2013/11/11/vienna-austria-to-budapest-hungary-via-bratislava-slovakia-201-miles-1350-miles-total/

edit: Budapest to Serbia via Croatia

http://jamesftravel.wordpress.com/2013/11/17/budapest-hungary-to-novi-sad-serbia-via-osijek-croatia-276-miles-1626-total/

edit: Stuck in Serbia

http://jamesftravel.wordpress.com/2013/11/26/novi-sad-serbia-to-belgrade-serbia-57-miles-1683-total/

edit: On the move again

http://jamesftravel.wordpress.com/2013/12/04/belgrade-serbia-to-bela-palanka-serbia-183-miles-1866-total/

edit: Into Bulgaria and my first little crash

http://jamesftravel.wordpress.com/2013/12/09/bela-palanka-serbia-to-plovdiv-bulgaria-171-miles-2037-total/

edit: Into Turky

http://jamesftravel.wordpress.com/2013/12/15/plovdiv-bulgaria-to-edirne-tukery-111-miles-2148-total/

edit: Istanbul! Europe finished :)

http://jamesftravel.wordpress.com/2013/12/18/edirne-turkey-to-istanbul-turkey-europe-done-168-miles-2316-total/
 
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[DOD]Asprilla;25006829 said:
Couple of questions:

What's your bike set-up, gear and what are you doing for electricity?

Any particular reason why you are choosing to cross central Eurasian plains in winter? Doesn't it get a bit snowy?
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Roux etape 250: Steel framed, disc braked touring bike, shimano mid/high range components.

Ortleib front and rear panniers plus handlebag. Sea to Summit 65L dry bag on top of rear rack.

Trangia alcohol stove. One man 3 seasons bivvy tent. Sleeping bag rated to -7c. Thermarest.

Electricity is a 12,000mah battery pack charged by solar panel. Don't have many gadgets anyway, will be using maps not GPS.

I won't hit central Asia til April as I'm taking a 3 week break late Jan to Mid Feb to get some visas in London and do a trip to Somaliland that I'd already paid for.

It's going to be a bit of a miserable trip across Europe but my main concern is wanting to hit the Pamir Highway late Spring/Summer as it's the most remote (read dangerous) part of the trip. Also as a bonus, if I manage to get an Iranian visa then I'll be there for Nowruz.


Cheers for the words of support eveyrone else :).
 
ntg said:
What is the reason you are doing this?
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To go an an adventure, I get a lot of satisfaction from things like this. Also the amount of jealousy I have for people who've done this sort of thing has driven me to do it.

ntg said:
Have you thought how risky it can be, cycling so many miles in countries that have no cyclist driving culture?
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Apart from the roads going into Istanbul and Tehran, the general consensus from other people that have done these trips is that the UK is one of the most dangerous places to cycle.

ntg said:
Have you thought about the people you will leave behind in case this stunt goes wrong?
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No dependents :) And my parents are jealous of me, my Dad has said if I ever do something similar on a motorbike he'd come.
 
Leprechaun312 said:
Better bring an ocean of water with you to drink:D:D:D good luck to ya, i know someone who cycled to china, watch yourself :cool::cool:
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Going to get by on tap water until Turkey (with some coffee filters and purification tablets in case I have to resort to any bad stream water). After that I'm going to pickup either a Steripen or Lifesaver bottle so should be covered!
 
antran said:
I wish you best of luck.

I'm so jealous, would love to do something like this and get away from the city's life.
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It's not as hard to do these things as people imagine, unless you have a lot of commitments. The hardest part by far was giving up my job. From a financial point of view this trip will be very cheap, it's by far the cheapest way to see so much of the world!

This site is a collection of journals of people currently cycling around various parts of the world, have a read if you're interested!

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/
 
BuZ said:
Just imagine what this guy will achieve at the end of it (a place in 'Guinness World Records'). :)
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Unfortunately this has been done many times before! And I'm not in the same league as the people who have the records (They do 200+ miles a day, I'm going average 50).

BuZ said:
What countries will you be bypassing and heading through?
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The plan is;

UK
France
Luxembourg
France
Germany
Austria
Slovakia
Hungary
Croatia
Serbia
Bosnia
Croatia again
Montenegro
Albania
Macedonia
Greece
Turkey
Georgia
Armenia
Iran
Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan
Tajikistan
Kyrgyzstan
China!
 
Yeah seen Janapay, I was little bit disappointed if I'm honest. It's more of a story of how he met his wife, thought it was going to be more of a documentary of the trip.

Will have a look at the Sawyer Squeeze now :).
 
platypus said:
Solar charger?
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Solar panel that charges a battery pack that will be able to charge the GoPro.

I've got a spare battery for the Olympus and they can only be charged from a wall socket so I'll just have to keep on top of that. I may come up with more of a backup plan for the remote legs of the journey as it'd be shame to run out of battery!
 
Trifid said:
I'm rather jealous! Isn't 50 miles a day a little low of a target though? Are you planning on stopping a lot?


Don't forget a Kindle full of books (loads of free ones on Amazon).
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50 mile average, so probably 70 on cycling days. Although sections will be slower , I think on the Pamir highway I'll struggle to do 50!

Yeah going to be stocking up on Kindle books!
 
groen said:
I noticed there is a big gap between georigia and uzbekistan. Do you have any thoughts on what route you would take there because i am not sure how well the roads are. I think some of that could be riding through the desert or mountains without shops on the side of road etc. Are you going to rough it completely with tents and survival back packs or take public transport with your bike and thinks like that?

This an epic journey, riding across china is a big enough of a challenge. How many people is going at the same time?
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I've left it blank because of how tricky it is to get the Iranian visa. The main plan and backup are as follows;

Plan A:

Tbilisi, georgia
Yerevan, Armenia
Tabriz, Iran
Tehran, Iran - Stay for two weeks whilst getting Uzbek visa and Turkmen transit visa
Mashad, Iran
Race across Turkmenistan via Mary in 5 days.
Head to Bukhara, Uzebkistan.

Plan B:

Get Azerbaijani visa in Tbilisi.
Cycle to Baku, Azerbaijan.
Get Kazhak and Uzbek visas.
Get weekly ferry from Baku to Aktau, Kazhakstan.
Head to nukus, Uzbekistan and then down to Bukhara.


Plan A is all fairly developed, lots of truckers go through Turkmensitan so lots of shops by road.

If I go with Plan B the bit of Kazhakstan I'll be going through as well as Western Uzbekistan will be quite remote so will stock up on supplies.
 
groen said:
No GPS? lol you will take one for backup though? Just not a car gps? like a hiking gps or handheld gps.
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Nope no GPS. Once you get to the more remote places there's so few roads it's hard to take the wrong one. I'm not going to be going over any plains or steppe.


Hank_Marvin said:
Look forward to reading it. Good Luck.

Someone else posted a link to a blog of someone they knew cycling to russia about 6 months ago and also to a guy cycling to india I think it was, that was an excellent read, young guy who grew a propa dirty beard haha, i need to go back to that one and see if he finished the blog.
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For the India one I guess you mean this guy?

englandtoindia.com

Yeah he finished the trip recently and then developed Typhoid! He's back in the UK now. Spoke to him a while ago for some visa advice.
 
BuZ said:
You could have a different route:

London (UK), France, Germany, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and then CHINA! :)

I hope you're aware that you'll be passing through a desert in China.

Risky choices - you will need lots of processed food and drink items.

If you complete this, you should get some kind of award from it. The motivation you have is immensely amazing.

100% supporting you! Hope and wish you a safe and happy experience. When the going gets tough and you're tired - take rest and sleep well. Don't over exercise yourself. Keep within a certain limit, you'll survive it longer. Don't rush - take your time!
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I've visited Belarus, Russia and Ukraine all before so wanted to focus on the Balkans which I've never visited. Also the Russian Georgian border is a political, and literal, minefield!

The Taklamakan desert is probably my biggest worry. Ultimately if I think it's a really bad idea near the time once I see what the weather's like when I reach Kashgar I'll just grab a bus to other side and then take a longer route in China to make up the miles, I'm not trying to kill myself!
 
Glaucus said:
You should so get a gps tracker and track the whole route. Find an energy effecient one. Carry more than just one back up battery, why only 1200mah. And how about a dyno on the wheel.
Would be awesome to see the entire route.
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It's all money really, I'm on a super low budget (£3k to live off the whole year, that has to pay for visas and the return flight too). GPS trackers are about £100 plus £100 a year (Spot 2). The battery is 12,000mah not 1,200mah, it can charge my phone up 4 times.

Wheel Dyno is expensive and I'd have to have the wheel rebuilt. The solar panel was £40 and should be simpler once the weather picks up a bit.
 
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