Unique Cycling Tour...Riders Wanted

Cycle-touring, Expeditions, Adventures, Major cycle routes NOT LeJoG (see other special board)
Samuel D
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Re: Unique Cycling Tour...Riders Wanted

Post by Samuel D »

smith4188 wrote:You up for it?

I’m not, and there’s no need to wait till May to consider that definite! Bladderwrack?

However, I’ll cheer you on from the comfort of my armchair. And I’ll buy a book if you write one about it, assuming you don’t starve to death by about Milford Haven.

I hope this eggs you on (and think it might or I wouldn’t say it), but I would write this trip off as doomed to failure if you didn’t have a track record of some sort.

Your £1 a day idea is good: it will be crucial to boost calories, it may fix an unforeseen problem or two along the way, and it even has some marketing value. But to state the obvious, there will be many things competing for that £1. Some of them will cost about 20 quid.

One thing that hasn’t been talked about much is how you intend to deal with frayed nerves when the going gets tough. Many adventures I’ve read about take a bad turn when people disagree about a course of action. (A harrowing example: the Donner Party. Worth reading if you’re not familiar with it.) The more people you have involved, the harder it will be to deal with the politics of it all and the greater the risk of a serious falling out.

And people will probably drop out along the way, assuming you do muster a decent group at the starting line. Unlike the Donner Party, members of your party will be able to drop out by making a phone call. That will be a huge temptation after days of hunger, some sickness, ailments caused by or imagined to be caused by an unbalanced diet, the odd cycling injury, harassment by authorities or meddlers, etc. Over 100 days, people will find lots of reasons why they can’t possibly continue; that’s ample time for some sort of family crisis to develop back home, for example. And that’s fine. It’s hugely admirable to try at all. But losing a member may critically unsettle the dynamics of the remaining group. Are the people signing up aware that their dropping out would affect the others in ways that are hard to predict at the outset?

On top of all this (and more, I’m sure) you face a cycling challenge that would be non-trivial while dining and resting in fine B&Bs along the route. A hearty, hot meal makes a world of difference to my morale. I mean, it just transforms my outlook on life in half an hour. I know I wouldn’t mentally cope for 100 days without roughly 100 of those. Not unless my life depended on it.

“As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and as I drank their cold liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste of wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy and to make plans.” So said Hemingway about food, and I think it applies even more to hot food after a day of cycling.

As I said, your plan is audacious. I hope you get to Gibraltar. But if not, you’ll undoubtedly have inspired a bunch of onlookers in trying.

Here’s hoping for a brief total collapse of the euro around mid-July!
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smith4188
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Re: Unique Cycling Tour...Riders Wanted

Post by smith4188 »

Thanks for the Donner link. I'll give it a proper read in a minute but even I'm not so desperate to finish this thing that I'd resort to cannibalism. I don't have the butchery skills for one thing.

Yes, it'll be tough at times. Just last night I sent an email to those interested telling them how tough it'll be. Regarding morale if someone drops out, I'd have thought it'd be better to lose someone who wasn't enjoying themselves (if only the bloody-mindedness of it all) than to drag them along feeling miserable. We're quite lucky with the route. EasyJet and RyanAir provide an airport back to the UK approximately once a week if anyone has had enough.

Starting on Monday, the Live Below The Line challenge starts, where you have to live for 5 days on £1 a day. Thousands do it each year. I'm going to give it a go with minimal foraging and see how much you can eat for £1. Also during those five days I have two or three 20 mile rides and 2 two-hour games of padel (a bit like tennis) organised to see how energy levels keep up.

For me, it's not the hearty evening meals I'll miss - if we budget carefully and forage well we should still have them - but the cold pints at the end of the day.

Whatever happens, it's going to be interesting.
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Heltor Chasca
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Re: Unique Cycling Tour...Riders Wanted

Post by Heltor Chasca »

Hey Steven. I'm still doing a sad clown's face [emoji17]that I can't join you this time and your merry caterpillar of bikes. I know I would have a gas and offer useful input. I'm sorry I'm not in a different '5 minute space' in life, but as you know we all end up stepping in dog poo when you take a short cut down an alley way. I'm liking the new cover on your book! I've got it for my little mission on the IOW to find an early Glanville Fritillary. Keep an eye out for interesting bugs on your travels.…b
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smith4188
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Re: Unique Cycling Tour...Riders Wanted

Post by smith4188 »

Heltor Chasca wrote:Hey Steven. I'm still doing a sad clown's face that I can't join you this time and your merry caterpillar of bikes. I know I would have a gas and offer useful input. I'm sorry I'm not in a different '5 minute space' in life, but as you know we all end up stepping in dog poo when you take a short cut down an alley way. I'm liking the new cover on your book! I've got it for my little mission on the IOW to find an early Glanville Fritillary. Keep an eye out for interesting bugs on your travels.…b


Keep avoiding the dog poo. :-) I'll look out for the bugs. And thanks for buying the book!
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Heltor Chasca
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Unique Cycling Tour...Riders Wanted

Post by Heltor Chasca »

Finally! Steven your book is brilliant. The last two bike travelogues I've read had me wishing I'd never been interested in bikes, croissants, hotel receptionists hills and giving my bike a name. I've laughed out loud at a lot in your book. I'm pleased you have unashamedly chucked your dark humour into the mix and been edgy from the off. Too many authors try and mainstream their writing by being too polite and PC to please everyone. You are a fine ambassador for Blackburn and the North, long hair, beards and oversized forearms.

But Hell's teeth: Even in Afrika I never saw an Englishman with Sun bleached eyebrows! I see a fashion phenomenon sneaking into the world of cycle touring. Pass the peroxide. 40% mind...b
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smith4188
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Re: Unique Cycling Tour...Riders Wanted

Post by smith4188 »

Heltor Chasca wrote:Finally! Steven your book is brilliant. The last two bike travelogues I've read had me wishing I'd never been interested in bikes, croissants, hotel receptionists hills and giving my bike a name. I've laughed out loud at a lot in your book. I'm pleased you have unashamedly chucked your dark humour into the mix and been edgy from the off. Too many authors try and mainstream their writing by being too polite and PC to please everyone. You are a fine ambassador for Blackburn and the North, long hair, beards and oversized forearms.

But Hell's teeth: Even in Afrika I never saw an Englishman with Sun bleached eyebrows! I see a fashion phenomenon sneaking into the world of cycle touring. Pass the peroxide. 40% mind...b


Thank you very much. Really glad you liked the book. But sorry to disappoint you - my forearms are like bits of string. On the other hand, my legs have recently been described as like Popeye's. My eyebrows are currently blonde again. I just have to accept that I'm a freak of nature. Thanks again and thanks for mentioning it on here.
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smith4188
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Re: Unique Cycling Tour...Riders Wanted

Post by smith4188 »

smith4188 wrote:and thanks for mentioning it on here.


And - I've just seen it - thanks for writing the Amazon review.
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Heltor Chasca
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Re: Unique Cycling Tour...Riders Wanted

Post by Heltor Chasca »

Only a pleasure! Credit where credit is due. It's a great book...b
robing
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Re: Unique Cycling Tour...Riders Wanted

Post by robing »

Heltor Chasca wrote:Finally! Steven your book is brilliant. The last two bike travelogues I've read had me wishing I'd never been interested in bikes, croissants, hotel receptionists hills and giving my bike a name. I've laughed out loud at a lot in your book. I'm pleased you have unashamedly chucked your dark humour into the mix and been edgy from the off. Too many authors try and mainstream their writing by being too polite and PC to please everyone. You are a fine ambassador for Blackburn and the North, long hair, beards and oversized forearms.

But Hell's teeth: Even in Afrika I never saw an Englishman with Sun bleached eyebrows! I see a fashion phenomenon sneaking into the world of cycle touring. Pass the peroxide. 40% mind...b


You're not wrong there! I've read quite a lot of these bike books now and Steven's certainly stands out. Some are terrible (and I have to include a certain ginger haired adventurer ). I'm currently reading one about a tour round Ireland because I did the same journey. But am losing the will to live, I don't need to read his commentary on the tour de France when Wiggins won.
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Sweep
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Re: Unique Cycling Tour...Riders Wanted

Post by Sweep »

Heltor Chasca wrote:Finally! Steven your book is brilliant. The last two bike travelogues I've read had me wishing I'd never been interested in bikes, croissants, hotel receptionists hills and giving my bike a nameb

Am assuming/hoping that the bike naming refers to an author, not you.

If so, i fear i may know what you mean.

Mr smith has a very rare style - i just hope he manages to maintain it.

I'll be in line for the next book.
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smith4188
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Re: Unique Cycling Tour...Riders Wanted

Post by smith4188 »

Thank you for the kind comments about my book.

As a follow-up to the original post we are now a team of four setting off from Liverpool in a little under a month's time. We also have two or three other riders who'll join us for part of the way. On another cycling forum the other day someone was describing cycling touring and said, "It doesn't have to be fun to be fun!" So whatever happens it's definitely going to be fun.
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khain
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Re: Unique Cycling Tour...Riders Wanted

Post by khain »

smith4188 wrote:someone was describing cycling touring and said, "It doesn't have to be fun to be fun!"

So true.

Is anyone keeping a blog of the trip?
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smith4188
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Re: Unique Cycling Tour...Riders Wanted

Post by smith4188 »

khain wrote:Is anyone keeping a blog of the trip?


Probably not a blog but hopefully daily updates and photos on the Ride And Seek 2015 Facebook page. If you're on Facebook, please come and Like us.
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Samuel D
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Re: Unique Cycling Tour...Riders Wanted

Post by Samuel D »

Any thoughts on how things are shaping up, Steven? I don’t have a Facebook account, which makes keeping up with this sort of thing difficult.

No-one has got cold feet?
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smith4188
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Re: Unique Cycling Tour...Riders Wanted

Post by smith4188 »

Samuel D wrote:Any thoughts on how things are shaping up, Steven? ... No-one has got cold feet?


Since the deadline of May 15th when people had to tell me if they were definitely coming, all three who said 'yes' are still very keen - nay, excited! - to be starting in less than a week's time. We've all been sorting the necessary bits and pieces to make it work: bike spares, fishing tackle, cooking equipment, etc. I've a good feeling about this. I'm sure there will be a few hungry days when a positive attitude will be the most important attribute we can possess but if we can keep up the initial enthusiasm, even slightly, it should be a fun trip.

Cheers,
Steven
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