Interesting rack, gets around the complication of mounting to a suspension fork. I wonder if unsprung weight is much of an issue when common touring wisdom recommends a rigid fork making everything unsprung.

I like my suspension fork - and the fact that it's a cheap one (just two coils) makes it about impossible to break.

The bike looks similar to mine, could it be a cheap Specialized ?

I only dream of going on a very long tour, for now...

I was curious, but could not find a label that was not covered with stickers. I met her in 2014 in year 7 of her long tour, so the bike would be from 2007 or earlier, probably bought in South Africa.

of course, Guinness has to have a standard criteria otherwise they would not really be able to authoritatively state that a world tour had taken place or not. But as far as I’m concerned around the world tour doesn’t have to mean go to every single continent see every single square mile, etc. My world tour started in Alaska and finished in southern South America, I flew to Portugal and went across Europe, the Middle East and Asia to the Korean peninsula through China. To me that’s a world tour OK. Oddly enough, I really did want to do some cycling in Africa, but I was afraid I would get malaria. As it turns out, I got malaria anyway! The main reason I did not do Africa, however, is I wanted the bicycle tour to be two years in length not three.

.

i’m the exact opposite, I usually recommend to people who are touring that they travel alone. It is a lot easier to meet strangers when you are solitary, and you have a lot of time for reflection and self analysis of what you just went through over the course of a day or over a longer period of time. When I was planning my world tour, I thought about having somebody come along and they’re really were only two people who I knew who would have any chance at all of enjoying the experience. So I went by myself. It made the experience unforgettable.

a dream is a good start.

I have done a mixture of both. A nice thing on an extended tour is that it offers the possibilities of doing different things, e.g. in 2007 I did:
- A solo set of riding through Texas (one month)
- A ride from Amsterdam to Vladivostok (six months); to St Petersburg was solo and across Russia was with Dutch and English speaking cyclist
- A ride across China with TDA group of ~30+ (two months)
- A solo ride across Thailand (one month)

When I went from one phase to another, I enjoyed the contrasts. For example cycling with someone else through Russia took some adjustment because she was faster than me. Other than ~10 days where we lost each other, we camped in same place each night and generally traveled separately during the day. My brother also came to make it a trio for a few weeks. After cycling with one person I was happy to be in a group for a while in China and then just as happy to be solo in Thailand.

Everything else being the same:
- In English speaking countries I prefer cycling solo where I can interact more with locals
- In non-English (and non-Dutch) speaking countries, it is nice to cycle with someone else - both to problem-solve and to have more significant conversations than the "where are you from, where are you going" sequence I get very good at in whatever language
- If things are more complex with borders/visas or related logistics such as for me Africa or China then at least for a while I appreciate a group for trading off logistical help vs. independence
- After a while in one mode, then it is also nice to switch. An extended trip makes it easier to have such phases in different areas

I'm sure others are wired differently...

Sorry for the late reaction, it was exam season :twitchy:

To Yan:
Quite the experience indeed! I am weirdly quite looking forward to the experience, as it seems rather unique. Not sure if it is enjoyable, but I always read positive feedback over the attitude of the police towards cyclists when doing my research, so... to follow!
I was indeed not planning on cutting short but on following the route you adviced on. However, after Xining, I was planning on going to the Ili prefecture. This means following your blue route to Jiuquan, but then following the G30 to Hami, and then go to Urumqui to then join the Ili Prefecture. This route seemed to cross the least sensitive regions. Does it seem okay, or would it be better to continue following your blue route after Jiuquan until the G218, and then join the Ili prefecture through the Bayingolin Mongol prefecture?

To Tourist in MSN:
You are right, during my research I also found that most travelers used four panniers. I do think it will be fine to only use two, but time will tell :) I did, however, change my plan slightly and will indeed use anything cages to carry my cooking apparel (to avoid getting the inside of my bag dirty) and my tent (for storage space purposes), as I have those anyway from my bikepacking trips. It would be a waste to not use them :)

To Axolotl:
.
Thank you! This confirms that it is indeed possible :) And a great Idea as well to use a lighweight rollable bag. I was thinking about using a disposable, but you had a better idea. A duffel bag can also always be used later on, if necessary. Thanks for the advice!

To mev:
These guidelines were indeed the ones I intended to follow. I am not that strict on myself, so if I break something and hitchhike a few dozen miles to get to the closest city, I do not plan on hitchhiking back (^u^;)

to Tourist in MSN (again):
Seems like quite the encounter! Especially fan of the stickers, if I may be so honest :))

To Roughtstuff and mev:
I will get to know both, and will be able to judge afterwards the one who is right afterwards xp
More seriously, I think I agree with mev that neither is better than the other. Each has its advantages and inconveniences.

I think I caught up will all the replies. Once again for all of your help and I must admit I am looking forward to it more than ever now!

Like so ... :)

https://live.staticflickr.com/8164/7...40bc3988_c.jpg

Yup, that seems like a fully loaded rig to me :))

I would have slightly smaller panniers but with a framebag instead.

Are those yours?

Yes ... we travelled to various locations around the world for 8 months in 2012 with that setup, starting in Victoria, Australia where we lived.

We did a combination of camping and staying indoors ... turned out to be one of the wettest years in the UK! Our camping plans went out the window there.

For what it is worth, Lael Wilcox finished yesterday in Chicago - https://bikepacking.com/news/lael-wi...ld-record-set/

Tip of the helmet to her for the accomplishment. Her podcast was well put together and interesting to follow.

The rate she traveled was much more per day than I tour (her travels of ~29,000km in 108 days vs my longest journey of ~27,500km in 365 days is 3.5x faster on average). So also a different type of trip.

While I think one might learn some from her routing I also would avoid some areas based on her descriptions. In particular parts of Adventure Cycling Route 66 on I-40 that appeared to have a lot of debris and accounts of some tunnels in Turkey.

The bragging rights* world cycletour has become Trondheim to Cape Town then Ushuaia to Anchorage then Tokyo to Cabo de Roca.


I've imagined a 'round the world cycle tour @ ~33.5ºS: Santiago to Montevideo + Cape Town to Durban + Perth to Sydney. ;)




*If you're into that sort of thing. :)

Nods.

Josh Reid's front panniers + seat bag trans-Eurasia seemed a bit hair-shirt, although to his credit he wears a big smile much of the time. Ah, to be young!

I did a 2.5km tunnel in Turkey yesterday. This is what they look like. Two lanes per direction with a little platform on the side that is wide enough to ride on. The other direction has its own separate tunnel. Pretty good in my opinion.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...7f8aef6e82.jpg

Ya, I've done some tunnels like that and they were fine. I have gone through some short ones with no sidewalky thing, poor ventilation and they weren't great, but luckily could wait for a lull in traffic and get through most before a car came.
Touch wood touch wood all ended fine.

Was that planed on a paper map? 🤭

sorry ;)))

Chuckle
That's the great thing nowadays, it's usually doable to find out online how specific situations like this can be, researching ones route.
This photo a good example

much smaller panniers, 15L ;) and in the front. yes, a frame bag and a saddle bag. if needed 8- 10L mini panniers in the back.
with these ultra big all household panniers in the back the bikes controls you, not you the bike. ;)

On my tour this past June, I met a fellow from asia doing an around the world tour. We crossed paths in Niagara, Ontario. Photo below, his bike is in the middle of the photo, disregard the part of bike on the left which is mine.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...6df1a76023.jpg

I think he had more weight on his front tire than rear. An odd mix, Ostritch brand luggage up front, an Ortlieb Rack Pack on rear.

I will never understand why some people prefer friction downtube shifters for both front and rear like he had.

I am using friction downtube for the front on my rando bike, but on that bike I have a brifter for the rear. Less than 15 percent of my gear shifts involve the front. The first time I rode a derailleur bike with an indexed rear shifter, I knew I was never going back to friction on the rear.

Very curious and odd that his rear rack appears to be a type that doesn't have vertical supports going down to the rear hub area.
Strange choice.

And hey, re friction rear, whatever floats your boat I guess, but unless it's for using a Frankenstein setup and friction is the only thing that works, I dont get it also--but we grew up using it and realized how much easier and robust indexing was about 40 years ago.

I use Brouter.de for routing and Google Streetview to verify conditions. Tried them all over the last 16 months of touring. This is the best across all countries. I met a bunch of guys using paid Komoot and they all had inferior routes to Brouter.

great! but that road does not look very inviting. maybe google street view faild.

This tunnel is a new road which bypasses a 1000 ft climb on the old road.

You can choose either alternative. Go left to take the tunnel. Go right to climb the old mountain pass. Personal preference.

Actually funny enough, I met a German cyclist after I got out of the tunnel, who had just finished coming over the old road, and he was b*tching up a storm about what a pain the climb was. He wasn't too pleased when I told him how easy the tunnel was. He was using Komoot.

LOL.

Your account definitely more positive than what Lael accounted for here in her blog: https://www.laelwilcox.net/podcast/e...o-grele-turkey I think part of the difference is that the path was rough in the 4km tunnel she went through.