What a bloody excellent book!

I haven’t read it but how the hell do you take 5 months off work to pedal around just because you’re a bit fed up? Is he a city banker or something?

He was a journalist at the time working for one of the big papers in London. The Guardian, I think.

Mike sent weekly articles in to the paper as he cycled around the coast line. The book is all those articles put together in one volume.

@fossy

Not mtb but …

‘I Bought a Mountain’ by Thomas Firbank, good read.

‘To Kill a Mocking Bird’ by Harper Lee, still seems relevant.

Sounds like a book I read about a guy fed up at work so he buys a BMW FS800 and just sets off riding until his money runs out. Cannot for the life of me remember what it’s called. In a similar vein to the other book I can’t remember the name of about a guy travelling round the UK surfing.

I read the book a number of years ago. Really enjoyed it. Keep meaning to re-read it but it seems to have vanished in a house move.

Not bikes but I enjoyed The Salt Path by Raynor Winn. A good ‘what have we got to lose’ story of walking the SW coast path.

The audio book of Rob’s book is on Spotify if you have premium.

Not listened to it yet but discovered it whilst looking for One man and his Bog by Barry Pilton.

(The latter book is out of print but the abridged version of Barry’s walk on the Penine Way is on 4x and BBC Sounds)

Another couple of books I thoroughly enjoyed this year:

Round Ireland with a Fridge
https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/round-ireland-with-a-fridge-tony-hawks/863690

The classic Dervla Murphy Ireland to India with a bicycle
https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/full-tilt-ireland-to-india-with-a-bicycle-dervla-murphy/84868?ean=9781906011413

Bought the paperback, it arrived yesterday. Returning it to Amazon, the typeface is uncomfortably too small for my old eyes and varifocals 🙄.

Asked my wife to give it a go and she agrees. Maybe time I got a Kindle..

What I found to be a bloody excellent book (which includes cycling),was –>> Short Ride On a Fast Machine (Magnus McGrandle).
A cycle courier from London and his mate go on an surreal trip to Norway,to pick up a stuffed owl.
Sounds daft,but the description and details around the cycling parts (IMO) are most excellent.

Call of the Wild by Scot Guy Greive is a bloody good read.

@sharkattack

I haven’t read it but how the hell do you take 5 months off work to pedal around just because you’re a bit fed up? Is he a city banker or something?

Sometime you just have to say f*ck it and take a gamble 🎰

Aged 52 (having worked in the NHS / education / health & social care – so far from rich) I am in the middle of an amicable but lengthy separation, I quit my job and after scootering around northern Thailand and island hopping the south (with my son), i’m now currently cycling from Kathmandu – Pokhara in back roads on a £220 (brand new) MTB in a pair of Teva’s.

Whilst in Bangkok I successfully interviewed for a new job in the UK. This was absolutely winging it seat of the pants luck!

Sometimes you just have to take a gamble that things will work out, I guess it’s how much control over those things you want that may impede your decisions, but it’ll be different for each individuals personal circumstances.

I return to a bank balance of zero.

The only certainty is death (actually that’s incorrect – the only certainty is compost and the ongoing cycle of life forces – but that’s a whole other discussion) – I opted to take a look around before i go. It’s also compounded how lucky I am to live where I do in the UK (Stroud, Glos.).

^^Superb and more than a little inspirational. 👍

took me a while to get into it, I tried 2 or 3 times to read it before I actually got past the first dozen or so pages.
And yes, the first chapter is all about the total lack of planning, what to take etc and how he coped in the early days carrying way too much stuff, all the wrong things and so on.

Once I’d got into it, it was actually good and it’s one of those books that really turns on its head the notion that you *need* this that and the other for any sort of cycle ride or hours on forums going “what are the best [things] for a long tour…?”

Me too! Although I didn’t have your patience and it’s been stopping dust from getting on the shelf for around 4 years now

. ‘The Long Walk’ by Slawomir Rawicz. A ‘based on a true story’ book about escaping from a Siberian WW2 gulag on foot to India. This is personally very moving for me as my grandfather actually did escape from a gulag and wind up, via Karachi, in Britain and the RAF (sadly, how he actually did it has been lost in the mists of time).

I thought it was generally accepted that this was a work of fiction? There seems to be very little evidence for any of it.

Just finished this as well (‘One Man And His Bike’ by Mike Carter) and it is indeed a bloody excellent book.  I actually listened to it on Audible and it is read by Mike Carter himself which makes it even better as of course it sounds exactly as he intends it to sound.  Listened to it while I was out running and was continually laughing and crying.  He really nails how I at least remember touring on a bike and it was brilliant right to the very end, he can really write.

Just started ‘One man and his bike’. Easy to pick up and put down, and instantly ‘into it’. Started reading it whilst camping a couple of weeks ago. Off camping to Bala next week, so will pick it up again.

Thanks for the heads up, started the audio book over the weekend. Really enjoying it. Just at the bit where he goes kayaking with the outdoors trainer who had enough of working behind a desk in his 40s and quit to start his company, properly how I’ve been feeling for a while now. The whole book just seems like a great idea.

‘One Man and His Bike’ by Mike Carter, thoroughly enjoyed every page.

Thank you for the recommendation 😊

With 5 months to play with why spend it riding around a wind and rainswept island when there’s the European cycle network a ferry crossing away ?

Perhaps because the scenery is so different in various places without traveling a huge distance, plus it didn’t require a ferry, and a bunch of documents to get through various different countries might have had something to do with it. Also, if things go completely to shit, home is a coach or train ride away.

Just a thought… 🤷🏼

Just finished reading it after this recommendation, also bought it for my touring pal. Both loved it, captures the spirit of both touring and this country very well.

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/gallery/2009/nov/06/mikes-big-british-bike-ride

Andy sykes buke called reggie series is brilliant