The Plan
So, I should probably write a quick introduction to this journal. For a long time it’s been a dream of mine to cycle around the world, passing through as many different cultures and exotic locations as possible. This isn’t really anything too groundbreaking, countless people have done it before me and countless people will do it after me. Nonetheless, travelling the world in this way is an experience I have craved for a long time.
Setting off on a trip like this isn’t something that can just happen. If you go down the sponsorship road or take out a loan it can happen a lot quicker but I liked the idea of earning it myself and having no commitments at all once I leave Ireland, leaving me entirely free to do my own thing. That’s why this trip has been 5 years in the planning. After several years of hard work and living well within my means I’ve finally reached the point where I can set off on this journey. At 24 I’m probably at the younger end of the spectrum of people taking on a journey like this. For most people there are only short periods of time in life in which you have no commitments or constraints. I was very fortunate in that everything fell into place for me and I was free from any commitments. Instead of regretting a missed opportunity I’ve bitten the bullet and gone all out and put all of my effort into making this adventure happen. We’ll have to see how it plays out now!
The Route
The plan as it stands is to set off at the start of January from Ireland and to head across Europe during the Winter. I plan to head east as far as Ukraine before cutting south to Turkey and onwards through Iran, Central Asia and into Russia and Mongolia. The main reason for leaving in January was to have enough time to get across Western Mongolia before the Winter hits. I have relatively little planning done for anything after Western Mongolia but the gist of it is to head south towards Australia, island hopping across Indonesia on the way. If all that somehow goes off without a hitch then South America and Africa would be on the cards but I’m not even thinking about them at the moment. There’s a general outline of my plan (visa dependent) for the route to Australia below.
The Bike
The bike I’m on is relatively important so I better describe it here. I had originally planned to go for a custom built Thorn Nomad but a check up at the Dentist put an end to that. A Root canal and a couple of fillings later and the Thorn Nomad was out the window. So, I had to start looking at other alternatives. No matter what I knew I had to go for a steel frame with 26″ wheels. The steel frame so it could be welded if it was to break on me in the middle of nowhere. And the 26″ wheels were necessary both for their extra strength over 700c wheels and also the fact that replacement parts would only be available for the standard 26″ size in the more remote parts of the world.
This narrowed down the options considerably seeing as most bike companies focus all their effort on 700c wheel touring bikes. These are perfect for the likes of Europe, North America and Australia but when you’re going off the beaten track they’re not ideal.
In the end I settled on a Ridgeback World Expedition. I can’t seem to find any journals of anyone else who has done a world tour on one of these so I’m taking a bit of a risk here but we’ll see if it pays off!
I have only made a few small modifications to the bike. First of all I’ve added a front pannier rack. Secondly I’ve replaced the saddle with a Brooks Imperial B-17 saddle. This is made of rock hard leather although it supposedly molds to your shape over time making it the most comfortable saddle out there. And thirdly I’ve fully replaced the rear wheel. The rear rim seems to be the most common failure point for touring cyclists so I’ve made sure to try and get it right here. I’ve gone for one of the older models of the Sun Rhyno rim and I’ve chosen one of the older models of XT hubs (pre 2010) when the axle and freehub components were still made of steel. The wheel was then built up by Hollingsworth Cycles in Dublin who did a great job in putting everything together for me under a tight schedule before I left the country.
The Person
So usually people would write a bit about themselves here but I don’t like doing that and to be honest I don’t know myself well enough to write a description! All I’ll say is that I’ll be trying to make it around the world taking as few selfies as possible. The last thing the internet needs more of are close ups of my face! I will however try and document the trip as well as I can pointing the lens the other way!
The Preparation
Although I’ve been planning the route, researching visas and keeping an eye on country specific news for the past few years the actual physical preparation for this trip was all done pretty hectically in the last month. The bike and all my gear were only sourced before leaving and due to finishing up my job only 4 days before leaving meant I had no time to test it all out. The late nights of research will have hopefully paid off though.
My preparation training wise has been non existent. At the moment I’m probably the least fit I’ve been in over 3 years! Over the last few years I’ve been fairly intensely into mountain bike racing and would have put in long hours training. This year though I’d entered barely any races and from August onwards I’ve hardly been on the bike. Work took priority for most of the year and the long hours of overtime meant that in the last 4 months I’ve been out cycling 5 times at most. Not ideal at all but I’m sure the fitness will come back in time…right…right!?
So, yeah, that’s pretty much it. I’ll be using this blog to record my trip. I’m not a great writer and I’m only an average photographer so don’t expect too much but it’ll hopefully be of interest to some people out there.
Irregular Adventures 