Blog of Irishman who cycled round the world

Dots1982

Hi All

My brother completed a round the world trip (23,680KMs) on a Koga Signature bike back in April. He kept a blog during the trip which any of you into cross continent cycling should find very interesting. The link is below. It starts at the end so if you want to read the whole thing just click on November (10) under the Blog archive heading and go from there.

Enjoy

http://globalcycleride.blogspot.com/

650Ginge

Nice post, congrats to your brother. I will sit down and read that over the next couple of evenings, there is a lot in it.

It would inspire ideas.

Sacred_git

epic of all epicness!!!:cool:

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

Dots1982

Thanks for all the interest. If you pm me I'll send you marks email address. He's currently touring the carribean. Curaçao last I heard. Total travel junkie. He'd happily answer any questions.

Hauk

I posted this on Reddit to try and generate a few more views for you.

Good read! Very interesting. And fair play to your brother!

CramCycle

Fantastic read, not even close to finished reading it yet but i'm getting there, pass on the Kudos your brother for a bit of sheer brilliance.

paky

fair play. love to do that

paky

Dots1982 wrote: »

Hi All

My brother completed a round the world trip (23,680KMs) on a Koga Signature bike back in April. He kept a blog during the trip which any of you into cross continent cycling should find very interesting. The link is below. It starts at the end so if you want to read the whole thing just click on November (10) under the Blog archive heading and go from there.

Enjoy

http://globalcycleride.blogspot.com/

how much would it cost to do this trip?

Dots1982

paky wrote: »

how much would it cost to do this trip?

to be honest I don't know, I should have asked him before now. I'll try and find out for you and post here.

hshortt

Very nice read, great story. I wonder if you might ask him to get onto the forum here where I'm sure that others who have read the blog might also have a question or two.

For me, I'd like to know.
Total cost including all food, hostels, breaks etc.
Level of pre-planning required, such as waiting for bike parts in remote locations.
How safe was the fly-tentin'? I'd imagine waking up to someone trying to rob the bike, me or the gear. The packing of two wallets and extras to avoid being targeted was a great idea, didn't he worry though about staying at some randomers home?
Ditto the bike safety when staying at a hostel?
Toilet breaks? - Just wondering, some of that grub (sweet baby jebus, yuk!) would leave me saddle sore without having a bike.

Anyway, it's a great story and something I'm sure that he'll remember for ever. Well done.

Tonyandthewhale

This reminds me, is Blorg still on tour does anybody know?

Ole Rodrigo

Fantastic. I'd love to do something like that. Congrats to your brother and thanks for sharing

christeb

Thank you for this, I got through most of the whole thing last night. A truly fascinating adventure - Sky Burial and the note from Markus that your bro was 1 dat ahead especially - the mind really does go into overdrive when immersed in the story. I even had a look on the Koga site :eek:

CramCycle

christeb wrote: »

I even had a look on the Koga site :eek:

Me too, you'll get a decent second hand one over in the Netherlands
Not that I have been looking much

Dots1982

hshortt wrote: »

Very nice read, great story. I wonder if you might ask him to get onto the forum here where I'm sure that others who have read the blog might also have a question or two.

For me, I'd like to know.
Total cost including all food, hostels, breaks etc.
Level of pre-planning required, such as waiting for bike parts in remote locations.
How safe was the fly-tentin'? I'd imagine waking up to someone trying to rob the bike, me or the gear. The packing of two wallets and extras to avoid being targeted was a great idea, didn't he worry though about staying at some randomers home?
Ditto the bike safety when staying at a hostel?
Toilet breaks? - Just wondering, some of that grub (sweet baby jebus, yuk!) would leave me saddle sore without having a bike.



I've sent these questions to mark, he's away at the moment but hopefully he'll come back to me soon enough. I have to say the scale of what he did amazes me but when you talk to mark he honestly doesn't make it sound too hard. Never moaned much about the extremes of the weather, the punctures and problems with the bike or the quality of the food etc. I'm too fond of creature comforts to try and even cycle across Ireland

Anyway, it's a great story and something I'm sure that he'll remember for ever. Well done.

feck sake lads

brilliant brilliant just watched a couple of the videos really enjoyed them ,what a great bloke always a smile fantastic sense of humor ,jeez i'm away to bed happy well done love it.;)

Dots1982

My Brother answered the questions that was posted here by you guys, If you need anything else let me know.


Firstly, its great that every1 is very interested in the blog
The total trip cost about 20,000 euro for 17 months travel including all flights ( one flight was from vietnam to San Dieago in the US and the other from Cancun, Mexico to Dublin). It took me a full year to cycle from France to Vietnam.
In all, the trip took about 5 years in a combination of dreaming about it, saving for it and planning it. The biggest headache was visa issues. The need to get visas in advance throughout the stans in central asia was a lot of hassle.
As for "waiting for bike parts in remote locations", the Koga is an extraordinary bike, and was well suited to long distance touring. The chain broke in a desert in Iran and I had trouble fixing it and finding a suitable replacement. Petrol is so cheap in Iran, that very few people cycle , so its hard to get good bike parts. But I was able to have a suitable replacement chain posted from England to a hotel in a city in North Eastern Iran, that I knew I would be passing through in about 10 days. I then booked accommodation in that hotel and nursed the bike on.
There would have been an element of risk with 'fly-tentin', but generally I would set up camp just as the sun would set and I would be up and gone soon after sunrise. Over time , I would be quickly able to find a suitable and safe place. If I camped near a house with a dog, chances are that dog would bark all night. I remember one night in China, I was camped in a hedge and 2 people meet and chatted for about 15 minutes, right outside my tent and yet, they could not see me due to the darkness and how well the tent can be camoflaged. Its when people are out walking a dog that you can be found, (but no one walks a dog in Asia). I was found a few times and generally people would invite me home or just sit down for a bit and chat, look at my maps etc. overall no problems.
As for 'BIKE SCEURITY',- If possible, I'd always bring it into the room with me, if not, it would be chained to something sturdy.

Morrisseeee

Fantastic story, I really enjoyed reading it, especially about Vegas & Iran !
Fair play, it was a huge personal 'task' to take on, but I'd imagine hugely enjoyable now to look back on.

AstraMonti

Tonyandthewhale wrote: »

This reminds me, is Blorg still on tour does anybody know?

10 days ago that I heard from him he was well and heading to Oman. I am so jealous!

High Nellie

I just started reading it and it's nicely written.
The first page describes interesing cultural encounter and a curious response. I'll be interested to read about further such encounters in different parts of the world:

"The ferry was filled with a large contingency of the traveller community from Limerick. Even when we were queuing up for the ferry there were full of questions (which were cautiously answered). Once we set sail, they were over again with loads more questions. So where are you off to? And how do you finance such a trip? Have you no wife? Do you know, you can get 1 in China for a tenner? And,of course any I asked was vaguely answered and followed by more questions."