Cycling from London to Shangahi

AGD said:
Will be an amazing trip but you will be impotent after it due to all the cycling. :p
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:p

I should alright, I've tuned my saddle position! I sometimes get numbness in my right toes but that's about it.

Just need to get out of the London commuter mindset of having to keep up with traffic and rushing, need to learn to drop my pace a lot if I want to complete this!
 
Craterloads said:
What you going to do about pictures? Assume you will be documenting along your travels.

Edit. page two!!

Is the 12000mah going to be enough for phone/camera.
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Got a couple cameras and my MBA which I'll be taking. Should be able to update various bits of online stuff every week or so.

Should be fine keeping at least one battery going at any time!
 
Did a short 15 miles to test run the setup fully loaded today. Not too bad at all, although steep hills are pretty brutal. Only just made it to the top of Broomfield hill in Richmond Park, getting a cassette with a granny gear fitted tomorrow which should help. I've swapped out the stock saddle with a Brooks Flyer leather saddle, once I'd broken this in after about 200 miles it feels great!

A pretty big spanner also got thrown in the works on Friday. On my last day at my job (also payday) the company went in to administration, meaning no pay. This has savaged my budget for the trip but I think I might be able to still get it to work.

Anyway, I thought I'd write a bit about equipment for a few people who were interested, first a couple of pics;

4ueUZm1.jpg

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The bike is a Roux Etape 250. The main features that make it suited for the trip are a steel frame (easy to weld in developing countries) and disc brakes (the bike and luggage are very heavy, I need as much stopping power as possible for mountain descents and in the wet.)

The bike comes with a rear rack and I added a front one too (Tubus Duo steel rack). Luggage wise I've got Ortlieb front and rear panniers (the most popular by far) as well as an Ortlieb large Handlebar bag. On top of the rear rack I have a Sea to Summit 65litre dry bag.

Each piece of luggage is a different "room";

Front left pannier: Kitchen;

Trangia alcohol stove
Fuel
Vegetable oil
Aluminium pots
Cutlery
Food stocks
spices
500ml thermos

Front right: Workshop;

Spare chain
Spare rear derailleur
2 spare tubes
3 pairs brake pads
tools (Bicycle Multi tool + Gerber multi tool)
some more food stocks

Both rear panniers: Wardrobe;

1 set of casual clothes
2 sets of cycling clothes
1 set waterproofs
1 set thermals
Macbook Air
Kindle
Solar Panel when not mounted on top of 65litre dry bag.

Handble-bar bag: The safe

Camera
GoPro
Battery pack
Documents
Wallet etc.
Fleece used as packaging for camera

65 litre dry bag: Bedroom;

Jack Wolfskin Gossamer 1 man bivvy tent
Sleeping bag
Thermal sleeping mat
2 x Camping pillows (my neck locks up without both of them)

Should be doing the first real day on Tuesday or Wednesday so will update on how it goes then! Any questions let me know!
 
tres said:
I would highly recommend a Spot tracker - find a company to sponsor you and provide one, that's what we did for the Mongol Rally. It takes 4xAA batteries, which lasts a month, and is completely weatherproof. To have your full route with 15 minute checkpoints would be amazing!
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I had a look at those but got put off by several reviews where the device malfunctioned and triggered search and rescue operations!
 
metachi said:
what will happen if you got your bike stolen during in the middle of your journey and all the travel documents are gone as well?
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All docs are stored in a bag that is removable from the bike, I take this bag everywhere! Also copies of my passport are stored in my Google Drive account. If I lose everything all I can really do is try and reach that countries British consulate and ask for temporary documents to get back to the UK. This will cause a big headache in places like Central Asia and China (And especially Iran as we have no embassy! I believe the Swiss represent our interest there?).

If the bike gets nicked depending on my budget at that point I'd buy another and carry on! Or go home, earn money, and pickup where I left off later on...

Nix said:
Nice one Mickey. Always wanted to do something special like this myself. Stay safe!

As an aside, how did you actually go about planning the route? I wouldn't know where to begin myself.
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My main process was I wanted to go the Southern route (Turkey, Iran). In terms of Europe I didn't want to do the Alps (heavy bike and I'm not athletic) and also wanted to avoid places I'd been before. Didn't want to do Pakistan as the visa is expensive and restrictive so opted for Conetral Asia which has fascinated me for a while and is a favourite for cyclists. Opted to end in Shanghai as I went for three days last and was ill so saw almost none of it and want to go back! Also flights back are fairly cheap (as low as £250 one way).
 
Ice Rich said:
Really impressed with this,
Just seen the update.

How much did you budget for entire trip?

I've bookmarked this post and and 121degrees.
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I spent about £2k on the bike, luggage, equipment, clothing and injections.

I've got £5.5k for living costs, visas, insurance, the return flight and repairs. Hope to have some of that left for when I get home too.

divaboy said:
Superb keep up the good effort. You should see some awesome sights.

just remember when you have a bad day however bad it is , you will look back one day and laugh your ***s off about it .

Bookmarked your site
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I find a hot meal really helps!

Cheers for following both of you!
 
desires said:
You don't look as physically fit as I was expecting.
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Lol I'm not that fit at all. You don't need to be to do this sort of thing, just build up the pace as you get fitter. Currently doing 30-60 mile days based on how I'm feeling. Will ramp this up to 50-80 when fitter.

edit: to top it off, weight myself last night and lost 7 pounds in a week which is a bit worrying actually!
 
madtoady said:
Sounds like you need to be eating quite a lot more than your currently are :O
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DJMK4 said:
Yeah getting some food down you, you cant underestimate how much toll this is going to take on things like this so make sure your eating enough and not loosing too much.

Keep going :) and have fun
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Yeah I need to eat about 5000 a day at my current pace but I am trying to lose some of my excess weight at the moment, partly because I need to anyway, but also because it's about an extra 10kg's to haul over hills!

Mik3 said:
Wow incredible, best of luck to you pal. :)
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Cheers! :)
 
Freefaller said:
Yes Europe isn't the cheapest of places - glad you're able to keep updating your blog it's a good read. you've been to some fascinating places!
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Going to try and do a blog for each leg, so will write one in Strasbourg for the last couple days I think. It's getting more enjoyable now, my body seems to be getting used to it all! Also camping is a lot easier now I have a routine.
 
platypus said:
Did you sort all your visas in advance? Or are you paying cash as you go?
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Cash as I go as most Central Asian ones have fixed dates and I won't reach China before it expires. The visa plan is as follows;

Iran: Applied for authorization, if I get it I will collect visa in Trabzon, Turkey.

I'll be flying home for 3 weeks in Jan/Feb and will get my CHinese visa in London, they are no really difficult to get east of Istanbul to stop Westerners visiting Xinjian (which is what I'll be doing).

Once in Tehran I will extend my Iranina visa 30days and use them to get Uzbek invite and visa and then use this to get a 5 day Turkmenistan transit visa. If i have time in Tehran then also get Tajik visa (with add-on GBAO permit), if I don't I will get this in Uzbekistan.

I will extend my one month Chinese visa twice once in China (Once in Golmud and then again in probably Xian).
 
platypus said:
Hmm, I was looking at a Roux Etape this weekend. Would you recommend it?
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Here's my review, they cut a few corners but it's all replaceable;

Stock cassette isn't low enough for touring, replaced with a Shimano that goes down to 34.
Stock pedals are awful, I replaced mine.
Stock saddle is awful, replaced with a brooks.
Frame is good, very stable at high speed downhill and with corsswinds, as long as front panniers are balanced (made that mistake this morning).
Stock tubes are awful (stem is ruubber, broke off after 3 pump ups).
Brakes are top notch.
Brifters are very nice.
Stock tyres very good (strange when they put awful tubes on it)
Stock rack is very good.

All in all very good for the money but if I'd had an extra £400 I would've got a Surly Disc Trucker.
 
platypus said:
Are you camping every night or mixing it up with hostels/b&bs?
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Mixing it up, did the following so far;

two nights with friends in Brighton
one night Warmshowers.org host
2 nights camping in campsites
1 in a hotel
2 in campsites
3 hostel
3 campsites
2 hostel

Will start trying to stealth camp soon as most campsites start to close in October.

platypus said:
I guess one thing that would stop me doing this (other than the wife...) would be the paranoia about having my bike/belongings stolen.
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This is the thing. All the hostels and hotels I've been in have had secure parking. In the campsites I use extra tent pegs and pin a tarp over my bike. The bike is also always visible with a quick move of my head in the tent, any odd noises and I give a quick check. Been no problems although one Campsite was a tad rough.

Shopping with the bike is the hard part, I've been stopping in big supermarkets, locking the bike up and then putting my panniers in a trolley and taking them round with me. Can't think of a better option really...
 
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