Touring - I hope nothing bad happened to Eric Von Zipper

http://www.theheaviestbike.blogspot.com/

Apparently something bad may have happened to EVZ. I was checking his blog this morning, as he set out on his 'round the world tour, and he posted this:

"Last Post

Things have gone a little strange. Not ready to talk about it, but I am fine and this will be the last post on this blog. If you have my email address, you can get a hold of me through it. Sorry to be so cryptic."

yes

Me too

I have sent him an email and left a comment.

very cryptic blog entry.

george

Wow, that is odd. I hope it's nothing serious. I was looking forward to following his progress. He had done a sweet build up on his old mountain bike. I hope it didn't get stolen or something. Maybe he just fell in love with a bonny irish lass and decided to give up the whole "around the world" craziness. :)

Maybe he just fell in love with a bonny irish lass and decided to give up the whole "around the world" craziness. :)

HAHA. I was thinking the same thing. I read about this around the world sailboat trip once: http://www.outofbounds.com/

The captain of the excursion fell in love with an Australian lass and the trip got put on hold a few months. It was pretty funny. I certainly don't blame him : http://www.outofbounds.com/html/suzie_kondi.html

The out of bounds site is great reading in the middle of winter when you are cooped up in some cubicle somewhere.

he changed his last post:

Sorry to have scared some of you and thanks for the emails, but I am fine. I'm in Galway. Nothing bad has happened.

I'll be in Galway Saturday! Shall I check on him?

Bike Forums To The Rescue!!! :D

somebody PM me his email address and I will track him down! :)

thanks velo, I dropped him a note so we will see.

Hes just getting used to the Guiness thats all... Its the first thing ill be going for when i get back :-)

lol. Not a peep from the ZipMeister.

I am sure he is enjoying himself in Galway. Everyone says what a great place it is, and how they looooove it. :)

His blog has a post saying everything is OK.

I hope he's fine also.

But you know this the the classic reason not to build up a trip. The guy has two journals going on, he posts here about his journal, and then he rides for a couple days, and says he's finished. And I sort of think, you know this is BS. You can't draw people in, them get them interested and feeling the excitement, then just say " no its over, I'd like to tell you why, but I can't". Complete BS.

I remember the CGoaB journal of Eric St. Mary, he too had a sweet bike and grand plans. As I recal there were 29 pages of journal about all aspects of the trip. He Started in Guatemala and I think had a total of 12 miles or something and then quit. No expanation, no nothing, and yet I was all into his trip as were many others.

You know what, when you start a journal, and start pimping it to the public, as in this case, you owe something to the public.

Having said that I do hope that he is fine.

"You know what, when you start a journal, and start pimping it to the public, as in this case, you owe something to the public."

Well, not actually. But then the public doesn't owe him anything either.

I reckon unless you are paying somebody, they don't owe you anything!

btw he is fine. I missed him in Galway, but he sent me an email yesterday.

Well....here's the kinda lame ending to the story...posted today.
At least he tried! Sounds like there's more to this story though...


Tuesday, June 19, 2007

For those of you who don’t know, (http://theheaviestbike.blogspot.com/2007/06/for-those-of-you-who-dont-know.html)


I am back in the states, North Carolina. The short of it is that I wasn’t happy and decided to come back, move to the beach, keep riding my bike (but not any epic tours), spend as much time surfing as I can, work on my book, and work (I got my old job back). There’s really not too much more to say. Thanks for the emails and notes wondering what has happened. Sorry that I rather abandoned this blog, but I have been struggling with what I should say or if I wanted to say anything at all. Anyway, here is a link (http://flickr.com/photos/84123449@N00/sets/72157600400765142/show/) to a slide show of some photos.

It sounds like the enormity of a world tour hit him and he thought better of it....no shame in it! Ultratouring ain't for everyone!

Personally I prefer to keep the goals really short term. I have to since I never really know whether my knee has a few more miles in it, or a few thousand. But I also think having goals way out of propotion to the short term can be a disadvantage. I like to have a short term goal, medium goal and long term goal. So maybe something like: "stay comfortable on the bike"; meaning stay on top of problems so they never become saddle sores or tendonitis, but also day to day mental state, heat exhaustion, whatever. Try to keep comfortable. If I can do that the miles take care of themselves. Mid term might be a particular section or coutry, fitness level, or becoming comfortable climbing.

Long term might be the world or cross country type thing, but it could be less concrete. It might be something like "learn to enjoy bike touring". I remember back in the 70s reading a story about a guy who had climbed El Cap about 3 times. He mentioned that the last trip was the first time he had enjoyed it. The other times where a big deal for him and his head wasn't in the right space, and it was a major adventure with all the doubt that implies.

There are a lot of posts here from people with "ridiculous" fears of assault, where will they sleep, or how can they fix such and such a problem, what gear to take, etc... It all sorts itself out on the road, and it would be rare to be presented an actual field problem that wasn't obvious in solution when the time comes. But that doesn't mean one is always comfortable.

I find that while I live a spartan enough existance at home, I miss the comforts and the routine here. Sure that is what I want to vary. I have been a hard core outdoor person for 48 years (birthday boy today), but I miss my wife and three kids when I hit the road. It takes a while to sort itself out. And I have been at this long enough i know it's just there, not something I have to react to. Life is always changing, for example the fact I work from home these days means I miss it more when I leave, and the fact I have a 1 year old means I don't want to miss any of that. Every day it's different and one has new reasons and reallities to deal with.

I don't loose respect for someone who packs it in. I think that if they can give up knowing it wasn't for them that is an almost perfect result. The less stuff you need to do in life, in order to be happy, the better. But what worries me about this kind of thing is if it sits there unresolved for years or decades, and becomes something that needs to be dealt with at another time. That can end up stealing a huge pile of your time.

When I go/die I do not want to have to say ....

If ??????????

But then everyone is different.

My kids are grown up, I am divorced, no ties.

george

When I go/die I do not want to have to say ....

If ??????????

But then everyone is different.

My kids are grown up, I am divorced, no ties.

george
Then again, George, we're in that age bracket where we realize we're really mortals!:p

I don't loose respect for someone who packs it in. I think that if they can give up knowing it wasn't for them that is an almost perfect result. The less stuff you need to do in life, in order to be happy, the better. But what worries me about this kind of thing is if it sits there unresolved for years or decades, and becomes something that needs to be dealt with at another time. That can end up stealing a huge pile of your time.

Ain't that the truth!

Just speaking for myself and not knowing the circumstances...I wished he would have given it a week before packing it in. From my own experience touring solo, the first few days are the hardest--loneliness, fatigue, fear of the unknown, self-doubt, etc. Then, everything comes together, I get into in the groove and start savoring the experience!

Personally I prefer to keep the goals really short term.

that's why I have become a bicycle commuter since getting it together to tour just isn't in the cards for me right now...BUT I can get up every morning and ride in to work!