I’ve previously blogged about my concerns on riding solo around the world, and my fears still remain. There are lots of positives to riding solo – Your own pace, Your own route etc. while at the same time there are a similar amount of negatives – Inability to carry as much gear, No one to bounce ideas off of, lack of companionship, group memory building. Nervous anticipation of not being able to release any emotions or feelings to anyone may in fact do me some real damage in my head. It is a pessimistic way of looking at things, and I suppose those feelings will only change when the trip actually starts.
Many friends have expressed interest in coming along for a short period of time. Most cannot imagine a long term bicycle journey, based on existing committments, or just the lack of desire to commit for an extended period of time, so I have been tossing around ideas on how you, my friends and family can come and join along.
First – Location. You’d need to pick a place where you’d want to meet up, and for how long. With ample notice, I can arrange to be in a specific region of a country or continent. We’d work together to find a mutual agreeable time. This is the easy part. You can get an idea of where I’m planning on being from this post.
Second – Equipment. It’s a no-brainer that you should have a bike that fits you and can carry at the very least a rear set of panniers and a trunk bag. I’ve got the majority of equipment already to do regular living – However, you’d be required to bring a few dishes, a sleeping bag, and your own tent. Sorry, but if you ain’t my lover, we ain’t sharin tents! Check out my Equipment page to understand what I’m bringing, and
Third – Training. I’m not asking you to be able to do 100km days, but I would expect that you’ve done a reasonable amount of riding on your bike, with it loaded of equipment enough so that you understand the dynamics of your bicycle, and how to effectively manage conditions in rain, going up hills, and understand basic maintenance. I’ll only have enough spare parts for myself, but you can get away with a minimal set of equipment and most usually rely on bike shops wherever we travel. If your butt still hurts when you ride a bike, ride more before coming.
On a budget end of things, you’d need to have enough money to survive on the road, deal with airfares, and purchases of equipment. This can be had for very reasonable costs. If interest is out there, I can help introduce various people together, and start organizing a communal purchase of equipment, which can be passed onto each other for a fee so that everyone gets to benefit.
I’d really like to see a lot of you beside me on this ride to break the monotony and to reconnect. Think about making it happen and let’s do this!
Hey. I rode from Winnipeg to Montréal in 2008 by myself. It was a good experience, but I concluded that a long-distance bike trip alone was a bad thing for me to do again. The negatives you mentioned were all significant for me. Particularly bad was how I found out a quarter of the way along that my bike was too small for me but just rode with the seat very high, causing compression in the wrists to the point of loss of sensation in the fingertips and still got knee damage; I think if I’d been with someone, they could have talked me out of it.