Any tips? Bit of a large subject I know. Has anybody done anything similar? Hoping to camp all the way there. Will need to buy a bike for the journey too (part of the reason I want to do it!) was looking at a Surly- either the Long Haul Trucker or the Cross Check. Will need to buy either a tent or bivvy too…

No real tips but I'll be interested to see what people say as I'm planning a trip for a few months next year. I was also looking at the Surly long-haul trucker too but am a bit worried it's too heavy. Until now I've been doing short tours on a Giant SCR2 roadbike with pannier bags and a handlebar bag with tent on pannier rack – I think this might be fine but with some new stronger wheels. I did a 3 day tour in the dolomites this weekend and really noticed the extra weight (not much, just evening clothes and a jacket really) on my bike compared to normal on the climbs, so I think keeping everything to a minimal weight is very important.

I prefer to go with a small light-weight tent because I think (I've never tried bivvying) that the extra space is quite important on a longer trip and on rainy days.

A couple of inspirational blogs:
1000 words
Charlie

But there's loads of other stuff out there (check out warmshowers.org too)

Thanks! Think I'll stick with a steel framed bike, just because it's stronger + easier to repair if need be. Thinking about doing a longer trip to Kamchatka if this goes well, so want something that will last. Interesting that you prefer a tent, you're prob right- a bivvie's a bit basic for a longer haul!

sounds great, you must read these books

Very inspirational

Thanks! I'll check those out. Has anybody got an ideas how to charge up an mobile phone + sat nav whilst on the move?

I tend to have a meal/coffee every couple of days in a cafe and normally just ask to use their powerpoint. That's fine for a phone where it only needs charging every 10 days or so, not sure about a sat nav. Solar power?

ps. can you post up your final bike decision? I am also thinking about getting a steel framed bike for the ease-of-repair reasons…

Cool, I'll look into the solar power. Or maybe just ditch the sat nav! I quite like good old fashioned maps anyway 😉

Oh, what kind of tent do you use btw?

I'm in Ethiopia at the moment, and am planning a ride back from Cairo to the UK on finishing my placement.

I'm not planning on camping, so am only running rear panniers.

I use a On-One Inbred 29er- here it is in my garden…

I've done a solo tour of Southern Thailand on it and it worked really well…

I rode from Bucks to Gondar, North Ethiopia with My GF in 2004/05 via the middle east. We both rode Kona Smoke Hardtails (when they had 26" wheels) with upgraded bits and pieces and front and rear racks. I would do as much as you can here before you go to really sort out what kit you can do without more than anything. We didn't and carried more than we really needed. The kind of kit that Tootallpaul has, plus a bar bag would be my choice, if you can fit everything in. I would also think about getting a bottle cages that can hold PET bottles, as they were amazingly useful.

As for tents, we had a Saunders Galaxy, which was great for two as you could fit a bike and panniers in each porch and was roomy inside. It was quite heavy, though, at 3kgs. It was worth it for us as we were sleeping in it most nights for 7 months.

I would go steel frame. We had a few crashes and I got knocked off my bike in Turkey. We had no major damage to the frames, but that was probably because they were so tough, and they would have been repairable had we not been so lucky.

Unfortunately, our website from the trip is no longer live, but this guy was an inspiration when we were doing our trip: http://www.alastairhumphreys.com/adventures/roundtheworldbybike/

tootallpaul – that's a bling saddle!

Personally I would go for a 'road bike style' tourer by the likes of Thorn or Hewitt – lighter, quicker and built for purpose. Also, riding both road and mountain bikes I'd prefer the variety of hand postions that drops give, plus the ability to get down low into the headwind that you are bound to experience at some point!

having done the journey by car, I'd make sure you have enough time in morocco as well as just the journey down – if you've not been its an excellent place to go, and I think seeing the riff mountains by bike would be a pretty good way to do it. worth baring in mind some of the drivers are a bit sketch though

Baldysquirt- what route did you take through the middle east? I have another 18 months before my placement ends, and I will probably be getting a bar bag to finish off my luggage.

Headfirst- Ethiopian Saddle Cover! All the rage, and perfect for making the bike blend in…

Bike Travelling is fantastic. My trips of a similar ilk include Israel/Palestine and Egypt and a non bike jaunt around/into deepest darkest Marocco. I take it ya not just gunna arrive at the border say youve done it and catch the next boat out of there! Its an absolutley stunning place and the further you go into its interior the better and safer! Lanscape is out of this world, 'countryfolk' exceptional hosts and weather damn hot! We got as far south east as Zagora (and then a bit…)close to the Algerian border. Maybe thats stretching it? In terms of bike think long haul comfort first and ability to carry gear safely and sucurely as repairs will be hard to manage in the outbacks. Check out the like of Thorn and Hewitt and dont get in to the niche stuff just for the 'pose'. Thorn/Hewitt/Dawes/Roberts etc have decades and millions of miles under their rubber/steel to prove their worth..Do lots of research and of course this does not take in to account ya trip south through France and Spain first…Get on with it and report back on here. Bon Voyage!

When I'm alone I normally use a small tent I borrow off some friends so not too sure what it is. It's just got a single pole and no seperate entrance area but is simple and quite spacious. I don't think I can post photos from Facebook (where I have one) so I'll try and do it this evening.

Right… off to waste some time on bike websites I think!

I had Stephen Lord staying with me last week (author of the Adventure Cycling Handbook) and his friend Peter who is 5 years into a round the world cycle adventure.

From here (mid wales) Peter was heading up to the lakes, on into Scotland for a month then over to Ireland. His proper destination is Turkey but he's taking a long way round. He camps nearly every night and lives on pretty much nothing. All his kit fits into 4 smallish panniers and a bar bag … he was to be the happiest looking bloke I've ever seen.

If you are planning a big trip then the 2nd edition of the Adventure Cycling Handbook is out about now, certainly very handy.

I've toured in Morocco and if I was doing it again I'd build something like tootalpuals rig above – 29er frame, flat bars, discs etc. rather than a road tourer myself. The best bits in Morocco were the off-road/dirt road sections.

Try and balance the weight front and rear, so it still handles okay. All on the rear is a handful.

Reggie- Exactly why I went down the 29er route…

The reason I built the inbred was I did my first tour – crossing Cambodia on a normal mountain bike (Pipedream Sirius) with just a rucksack, and I enjoyed riding off road when I could. So the 29er with racks/disks/flat bars/bar ends works perfect- still capable as a mountain bike, but capable of moving the load off my back and into panniers. The big wheels and marathon tyres make the big distance days easier too- the longest day I've done on tour was 200k + from Krabi to Surat Thani in Thailand. In the monsoon. 🙂

I'm definitely a credit card tourist though… hence being able to tour with only 2 small panniers…

P

And the only thing I think I may change before the ride home is the forks- I'm not sure about carbon forks on a tourer at all, but I ran out of time to change things before my placement with the VSO began.

I've got 20 months to sort it out though!

Maybe a pair of Salsa Cro Moto's…

:o)

P

I've been mulling over the idea of a seriously lightweight tour? Just a bivvy bag, multi tool and a change of clothes.

"Journey to the center of the earth" is a good read, about two guys (one experience cyclist one rower i think) riding to the point on th eearth surface furthest form the sea (India to somewhere in Mongolia IIRC).

IIRC they did it on normal road bikes with a set of slightly larger touring tyres in the panniers for the himalayas, their reasoning being that they werent planning on going anywhere where there wasn't some semblance of a road and they didn't want big heavy touring bikes whilst climing himalayan passes.

Okay, see if this works.
my tent:

I quite like the look of the Hewitt bikes… may have to visit the shop next time I'm in the UK!

Is it easy to find places to camp? I guess I'm more worried about as I travel thru Europe really- I imagine once I get to more remote places I could camp pretty much anywhere, but maybe I'm being a bit naive there. Thanks for all the ideas! It's one of those things where the more you look into it, the more questions seemed to get raised- it's great to hear about other people's experiences! 🙂

Just bought "The Adventure Cycling Handbook". Thanks still s8tannorm!

http://pompinos.blogspot.com/

this is Mrs Stoner and mine's blog of our trip across Spain and France – about 5,000km.

I would definitely recommend the light-weight approach, we had a superb time and were as comfortable as anyone could wish to be.

Inbreds/pompinos/kaffenbacks make good tourer bases as they are cheap, strong, steel (so can be either welded or bent back into shape if necessary), have good clearance for comfortable tyres and have all the eyelets you might need. They ride comfortably and any weight penalty over alternatives (no more than a lb or two) is de minimis even with light weight kit.

Midge bars/high drops are to be recommended for the comfort of multiple riding positions that bar ends on flats cant quite match.

Mechanically: keep it simple.
Kit-wise: keep it necessary, but allow yourself a few small comfort items (for me it was the SW radio and a book)

Bets bits of kit I can recommend:
folding plate/bowl/mug
http://www.backpackinglight.co.uk/product22.asp
Id also take a solar powered powermonkey for the phone/pda. You can also get pre-pay data SIMs on the continent which are good VFM if you want to keep online using a pda etc.

If I were going on my own, Id probably keep our tent as it's so compact and light for its utility. But equally Id be happy taking a bivvy bag and a tarp to save about 1 litre of space and the need to carry the tent poles but not much weight.

Many communes in france have their own campsites. A lot of them (not all) are marked with a triangle next to the town/village name that has them on the yellow Michelin maps. We were never more than 20km from a campsite at any one time. Campsites in france are cheap, ubiquitous and comfortable usually. Take a little roll top/dry bag as a shopping bag in which to place daily shopping* that you can clip to the outside of your kit bag towards the end of the day. A half pack of Spaghetti, (a pack snapped in two) and a little pouch of pesto makes for a good emergency food reserve that takes up little space in your kitbag. Sometimes there may not be a shop near some of the more remote/poorly appointed campsites and you'll need to call on your reserve stash.

* we would grab our shopping during the last hour of planned riding of the day (say 3ish) and then ride on to the first place with a campsite.

Hey, Stoner, that was some excellent advice! Thanks very much indeed. The photo didn't show up on my computer. Is that your set up? It would be good to see it! Not sure I understand what you mean by 'communes'- are there a lot of them? How do you find the ones not marked by a triangle?

communes are like parishes.

for photos go here: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/northmalvern/PompinoTrip

nearly every "parish" and town has a campsite in it. It will be signposted, or you may need to visit the Marie (Mayors office in the middle of the village) in some of the more remote cases.

The ones marked by a triangle are simple ones that appear in a michelin "recommended" guide, so it doest cover all of them – in fact Im not sure there is a single book of all the campsites in france simply because there are so many of them.

another photo of the set up

I rode to Coatia in 2006 via a 7000km zig zag route up and down Europe. Took an alu MTB (Rock lobster) with a bob yak using disks and flat bars using slicks on the road but carrying knoblies on the back so I could go MTBing.

Did a mixture of wild camping, sleeping on sofas and, whilst in France using municipal camping sites.

Mobile phones etc can be charged at campsites using the electric razor
socket or at cafés etc.

Don't under estimate the kindness of people you will meet along the way.

Edit: Take a look at Warmshowers.org

Nice one! Thanks Stoner. Looks like I'll be fine in France at least…

http://www.thebigafricacycle.com/

Check Peters progress he has ridden a similar route to what are looking at, their are some nice photos too. :

Senegals further South don't let his experiences there put you off 😯

Tootallpaul – we rode France, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Syria, jordan, Ferry across to Egypt (Sinai), Ferry across lake Nassr to Sudan, Ethiopia. Once you get into Turkey, there aren't actually that many route options down to Ethiopia and we bumped into lots of folk doing similar things en route.

I agree with Stoner on most points, although in more remote places, 26" mtb wheels are more easily repaired / replaced. If you are riding in more remote areas you may need to carry more food and water, though, and clothing for a larger range of conditions. We had anything from -8deg at night in Turkey to 52deg in Sudan. In Sudan we also had to carry nearly two days worth of water for blistering temperatures. I carried 12 litres, and still ran out an hour before we reached anywhere we could restock.

But.. it is amazing what you can do without and what help people will offer, unsolicited, on the way, so you can always get by if you don't have that "essential" piece of kit.

Cheers Baldy- I'm thinking the reverse from Cairo, Sinai, Ferry to Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Greece, and then following the Med all the way back to the Pyreneees. Cross the Pyrenees, and along the Atlantic coast of france to Calais and home…

One other question- if I'm not camping, are there towns close enough together through Jordan/Syria to find places to stay?

My VSO placement finishes in January 2012, and I'm thinking about taking 6 months ish…

Hey, everyone's welcome to come and stay at ours when on the road. We live to the north of Grenoble, by Grenoble Airport, which is not really Grenoble. Happy travels, exciting times.

Dan

What pedals are best for this? SPD's flats? I thought flats, because you can ride them with any shoe I guess….

Doing a trip this September and using a Thorn Raven and BOB Yak, planning on going silly light.

I use Shimano shoes with Time pedals – they are not too stiff and the cleat is recessed enough that I can easily walk an hour or so without problems. The ones I have look like approach shoes. Then just a pair of light slip-on sandals as "extra" (slip-on is good, though depends on your fashion conciousness – because if it's cold then you can wear socks with them, which doesn't work with flipflops).

Just received and been avidly reading the "Adventure Cycling Handbook", it's excellent! Increadibly helpful, massive thanks still s8tannorm 🙂

Have a look at the CTC forum.

Some of the posts on there put this place to shame

What do you mean? ❓