Final commute of the year tomorrow!

knight2k

Following the ‘Gift of Redundancy’ I shall be starting an extended cycle tour on Monday morning. I will ride down to Portsmouth to catch the ferry to Cherbourg early Tuesday morning. I will spend the rest of the year meandering my way eastwards through Europe to Turkey and then Iran. Where I will turn right and head south. When I reach the south coast of Iran I will catch a ferry the Kingdom of Bahrain to pay a visit on my Sister and her family.

I reckon that’ll be some time in December; I’ll fly back here for Christmas and re-join the Rat Race in the New Year.

The full details of the tour can be found here: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/Bahrain

Have a great summer everybody and keep the rubber side down!

lost_in_thought

Are you serious?!

If so, then, my god, that's epic. Like proper epic. In the traditional sense of the word, not as in 'that's an epic post'.

:shock: :shock: :shock:

Feltup

Iran! wow that is some hilly country you are going to be going through. I would love to go to those mtns some time.

What an amazing trip. I am just hoping your sister doesn't want you to bring out lots of tins of baked beans etc!

knight2k

lost_in_thought wrote:

Are you serious?!

If so, then, my god, that's epic. Like proper epic. In the traditional sense of the word, not as in 'that's an epic post'.

:shock: :shock: :shock:

It's been my dream to do a tour like this ever since a good friend on mine and his wife spent 7 months riding around Europe back in 2005.

And Bahrain seemed the logical choice because of my Sister.

DonDaddyD

Awesome!

knight2k

Feltup wrote:

Iran! wow that is some hilly country you are going to be going through. I would love to go to those mtns some time.

What an amazing trip. I am just hoping your sister doesn't want you to bring out lots of tins of baked beans etc!

I love hills, coming from the Chilterns you have too. So the mountains have got to be brilliant. I'm looking forward to some of the climbs made famous by the TdF and Giro early on and any others after that should be a piece of cake.

The only thing my Sister is going to get is a smelly hippy cyclist on her doorstep and his dirty laundry!

lost_in_thought

knight2k wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

Are you serious?!

If so, then, my god, that's epic. Like proper epic. In the traditional sense of the word, not as in 'that's an epic post'.

:shock: :shock: :shock:

It's been my dream to do a tour like this ever since a good friend on mine and his wife spent 7 months riding around Europe back in 2005.

And Bahrain seemed the logical choice because of my Sister.

Wow. That's fantastic! Good luck!

londonbairn

That's awesome!

Are you going to have to carry a ton of tubes, tyres etc?

gtvlusso

I am soooo jealous! Run for the Sun!!!!

Enjoy yourself, I will continue on here, paying tax, paying bank charges and being a miserable old git, worrying about whether I am gonna get the chop soon!

CiB

A Telegraph journo is doing a similar trek, Yorkshire to India on his bike. If you have the urge to read his whole journey click on the Google map on that Telegraph link; they're all there.

Good luck with it K2K. That's a big challenge.

knight2k

londonbairn wrote:

That's awesome!

Are you going to have to carry a ton of tubes, tyres etc?

I'll carry enough spares to get me to the next cycle shop. I've recently fitted the slime tubes, so will take the two I took out as spares. They're only about 6 weeks old. I'll have a few of each spokes size taped to the frame and a couple of the temporary spokes too. I'll probably buy a spare tyre half way round - no point in carting it all the way.

A couple of spare links, chain tool, multi tool and gaffer tape should suffice for the rest!

Roastie

knight2k wrote:

Following the ‘Gift of Redundancy’ I shall be starting an extended cycle tour on Monday morning....

Unreal! Enjoy!

Porgy

knight2k wrote:

And Bahrain seemed the logical choice because of my Sister.

My sister lives in Plymouth - it just wouldn't be the same.

King Donut

This sounds great! And not at all what I expected when I came in this thread. Good Luck!!

gb155

amazing, just amazing man

cjcp

Fantastic idea! 8) There was a recent article in C+ about cycling through Iran. If you haven't got it, I'll email it to you if you want.

Out of interest, why did you choose to head back up and had through Hungary and Romania, rather than Croatia/the Dalmatian Coast (have I got that right?).

b0y1nterupted

sounds an awesome trip & the best of luck.....

theres a real chance i may get redundancy in the next month or so & my plan is to do america & end up in las vegas for a mates wedding in november....

cjcp

At the risk of sending the thread OT, which route would you take across the US?

b0y1nterupted

that at the moment is my biggest problem with the idea,

the routes i've looked at so far are no no's because the places a want to visit & areas are to vast between towns/people just incase

cjcp

Yeah, the problem is that there's a sh*tload of nothing in a lot of states.

b0y1nterupted

yeah i may do a coast to coast (new york to san francisco) then flay down to las vegas

as i've found this http://cycleamerica.org.uk/route.htm

cjcp

The Arches/Bryce Canyon area west of Colorado is a sight to behold.

Might be worth checking out Jane Tomlinson's route. I have a feeling she went through the middle too.

A chap in my cycling club took the northern route: http://cyclingacrossamerica.wordpress.com/

b0y1nterupted

thanks i'll take a look at those....

also found this really helpful http://www.theslowlane.com/bike.html

Totalnewbie

Good luck, I will keep an eye on your blog...guess you won't be doing any 'extras' gigs for the next few months...! Will keep an eye out for Midsomer Murders to see if we feature...

knight2k

cjcp wrote:

Out of interest, why did you choose to head back up and had through Hungary and Romania, rather than Croatia/the Dalmatian Coast (have I got that right?).

To follow the River Danube Cycle path. I've heard great things about it. Plus I've bought 2 of the Bikelines guides which cover the cycle path which will mean no need to buy any maps for around 2,000km.

cjcp

knight2k wrote:

cjcp wrote:

Out of interest, why did you choose to head back up and had through Hungary and Romania, rather than Croatia/the Dalmatian Coast (have I got that right?).

To follow the River Danube Cycle path. I've heard great things about it. Plus I've bought 2 of the Bikelines guides which cover the cycle path which will mean no need to buy any maps for around 2,000km.

Aaah, I see. Good luck with everything.

knight2k

Totalnewbie wrote:

Good luck, I will keep an eye on your blog...guess you won't be doing any 'extras' gigs for the next few months...! Will keep an eye out for Midsomer Murders to see if we feature...

Hopefully I'll get to see it at Christmas when I get back. I'm sure this will be our big break!

Porgy

Maybe a coastal ride North to south would be a better bet - or follow the Mississippi from the Great Lakes to New Orleans?

In fact - I'd quite like to do that myself. 8)

cjcp

Porgy wrote:

Maybe a coastal ride North to south would be a better bet - or follow the Mississippi from the Great Lakes to New Orleans?

In fact - I'd quite like to do that myself. 8)

Stephen Fry followed the river heading north, I think, in his recent programme. I'd quite like to ride from Vancouver down into the Cascades, across to Olympic NP and then follow the highway down through Oregon into California. Is it Highway 1? Gets a bit windy and perhaps not best done on a bike, but the views are great.