cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19688003

In the evening twilight hours of September 11, 2024, Lael Wilcox became the unofficial new world record holder for the Fastest Circumnavigation of the World by Bicycle (female).

Wilcox left Chicago's Grant Park at 7:06 a.m. on May 26, 2024, and returned to the Buckingham Fountain 108 days, 12 hours, and 12 minutes later, having completed 18,125 miles (29,169 km) across four continents and 22 countries.

With her time, the 38-year-old Alaskan has unseated Scot Jenny Graham who held the record since 2018 after completing her unsupported journey in 124 days, 10 hours and 50 minutes.

"I had so much fun — felt like I could’ve just kept riding forever," Wilcox commented at the finish, where she was welcomed by family, friends and the Chicago cycling community.

...

Further to the post (Here) I thought I would give more information about our entire journey for the people who might find it useful.

The Beginning

It started when we watched Ed Pratt's videos on unicycling around the world and it gave me the idea to also do a long cycle tour. My girlfriend is from Poland so the idea of cycling to Warsaw over the summer seemed like a fun idea and much to my amazement, she agreed to it aswell.

Preparations

I volunteer at a charity in Aberdeen called BeCycle. (Also the Instagram We fix bikes that were donated then loan them out to people who want one, like refugees, kids and anyone else. It's a mix of people who just want to get around the city and people who want to get into the sport but might not have the money. From there I was able to get both my, and my girlfriend's bikes and fixed them up during the rare quiet moments in the workshop and spare evenings that we had.

My bike is a Shogun trailbreaker (blue /green one) (picture of me working on it below) .

I think from 1992, the gears had previously been upgraded to a 2x10 drive train with a normal front chain ring (42 tooth) and a tiny granny gear for the steep hills (23 tooth).I swapped the handle bars for a set of 46cm gravel bars and some foam bar tape. I also rebuilt the bottom bracket, headset, both front and back wheels and anything else mechanical with new grease and new bearings for one wheel. I added a front and back pannier rack with some slight modifications to the bike as it didn't have the place on the frame to bolt them on.

My girlfriend's bike is a Specialised Hardrock (red one) also from the early 90s. We changed it to have a 2x7 drive train (brilliant find in the parts bin to get nearly matching shifters) with a slightly smaller front chainring (38 tooth?) And a granny gear aswell. We swapped the straight bars for some butterfly bars as they gave more hand positions. We also rebuilt the headset, wheels and bottom bracket. And swapped the seat to a really old brooks saddle.

With the exception of my handlebars both bikes were made with parts that were around the workshop so some might not be the newest or the lightest, but they work and I know how to fix them if they break.

My front bag was a donation to the workshop, it is made by trek and sits on top of the rack with 2 fold out pockets and was brilliant (would have been even better if it was waterproof). I made the green bags at the local library. They have a roll access and are secured with some straps and buckles. They bolt onto the frame at the water bottle cage mounts and are secured other places with double sided velcro loops. One mistake I made with them was making them slightly too big, this caused the sides to bulge out too much and they would rub against the cranks and the chainrings, causing holes. Also while I tried to make them waterproof, they did let some water in if it rained all day. The rear bags are just 30l dry bags with rucksack straps, ment for paddleboarding. Cheapest place to get them is go outdoors. The pink bag on the Shogun has tools, tape and other usefull bits in it. The waterbottle stem bags were really useful for carrying our bottles in easy reach, also sometimes put snacks in them too. It was difficult to put them on the Hardrock as the bars and cables got in the way of the stem, one thing I would change would be how they were attached to the bike so they were easier to get bottles in and out of. The fuel for our stove was carried in the red bottle you can see in some of the pictures. It's difficult to find a bottle cage big enough as I don't think they are made anymore. Originally we used a bottle cage that could stretch over the bottle but it broke near Berwick upon Tweed and I just tied the bottle on. Eventually we bought a side loading cage that held it allot better, it had to be moved to the Shogun as it no longer fit where it was on the Hardrock before. There were no cage mounts on the bottom of the hardrock (or on the pannier rack of the Shogun) so to attach it I cut a bottle cage down so only the Frame mounts were left, then bolted it to the other waterbottle cage with some washers imbertween, this left a gap to put 2 hose clamps around it and hold it to the frame (with some tape to protect it).

Equipment

These pictures are of the stuff we started with. We did add to the things we carried throughout the trip. Main ones were changing from foam mats to self inflating ones (OEX 3/4 length) as they were more comfortable and easier to carry. We got new pots that replaced the mess tins, not by choice, they got stolen at a camp site. Once we left Scotland we found that we were carrying too many clothes so we left some at our parents. I got a packable bag so that when we are off the bike I have a bag to carry things. Lost the first one in Amsterdam so had to buy another one. I had an old GoPro hero 3 that I took with us, while it was really good the battery is 10 years old so doesn't last that long. It was attached to the bars of the hardrock most of the time, a way to quickly detach it would have been good to take pictures with as our phones were difficult to get at as they had headphones and charging wires coming from them most of the time. Speaking of technology, I had a big power bank in my green bag and a cable that ran from inside out the top of the bag and to the phone, had to buy an adaptor so I could listen to music and charge at the same time as apple stole my phone's headphone jack. Wired headphones are the best as they are dirt cheap if they break and can't fall out and get lost. Having a big powerbank was very nice as we could go 2-3 days without power easily without caring about how much we used our phones. A problem we had was not being able to charge everything when we did have electricity, a second plug would have been very useful for this.

One of the blue bags had the tent and the self inflating mats in it, the other had our clothes and sleeping bags in it, this ment that we would only have to open the bag inside the tent when it was raining which help keep stuff dry. The green bags had things that we would only need less often, like bulk food and heavy things like the the power bank. The front bags had most of our food and other things we needed to get to regularly. It made the front quite heavy but overall worked ok. We carried about 1.5 l of water each then I carried another 1.5 l in my green bag.

The Journey It took us 2 months in total. Here is how our bikes looked when we left.

We cycled about 40 miles in the first day and wild camped near a place called inverbervie. From then, weather wasn't brilliant and it was really windy, that combined with the worry about the trip made that first night really stressful, we both had a good long cry about how worried we were that we wouldn't make it more than a few days and that that night we would get soaked. We made it to Dundee the next day and stayed in a hostel, it was a welcome break from being outside.

The next day we managed to find our first warm showers host. The wind for the past few days had been a 30mph head wind, if felt like cycling up hill wherever we went, it also rained allot during that time. Our host drove out to find us, I have never been so happy to see the face of a total stranger. They were truly incredible and gave us so much advice on cycling through Europe. We felt so welcome with them and were refreshed with a new plan on how to continue.

The next day we cycled to stay with a friend near Edinburgh where we stayed a day, it was nice to refresh after the last couple of days and to see a familiar face.

Over the next few days we cycled down the east coast of the UK (upon the advice of our first host), to try and avoid the major hills although there were still many. We stayed with many brilliant warm showers hosts in that time as we worked our way to Newcastle, we stayed with some family friends who I hadn't met in years, it was so nice to see them again. I wanted to ride the metro while we were there (cuz I'm a huge nerd) the only time we had the chance was when we had our bikes, the times and places worked out that we didn't get the chance, but only got told after we purchased the tickets. Once again we stayed there for a few days.

We next cycled to York, again following the coast for the first bit, before cutting inland. We cycled through allot of very deprived towns during this time. And stayed with some fantastic people, also managed to get a really cheap room in a pub for the night, which was nice as it pissed it down outside then. By this time we had fallen into a routine, we would wake up and start cycling about 9:30am, cycle until about 1pm, have lunch for half an hour, then cycle again until about 5pm. In the UK it was easiest to find warm showers hosts, which made it much easier as this was our first bike tour ever . We stayed in York for a few days to see the city, we went for a tour around the city centre and saw a few museums (highly recommend the national railway museum).

From there we cycled to Warwickshire to see my girlfriends parents and stay with them for a while. I had to go back to Aberdeen to re-sit an exam so it was a good place to stop for a bit. And a good chance to get some bike parts from the workshop in Aberdeen. And to relax for a bit (at least for my girlfriend, I was stressed revising for an exam). When I got back we spent a few days getting ready and I replaced the chain on my bike as it was stretched so much that I was having trouble with my gears. I also changed serviced the breaks on both the Shogun and Hardrock, replacing most of them at that time.

From Warwickshire we wanted to cycle along the grand union canal through Milton Keynes. Once we got on it we found it to be mostly uncycleable. The grass on the banks had just been cut so there was no clear path, and cycling through the cut grass was slow, bumpy and difficult. We decided to change the route to go on the roads for a while until the path along the canal became passable, which it eventually did. Our next big challenge was getting through London, to my parents who live in Kent. The route we took lead us around the north of the city, then along the river lea as there is a nice bike path that takes you right into the city centre with no cars. We stayed the night with our last warm showers host in the UK. It was difficult to find anyone as it was the day of the world cup final so not many people were free. We didn't plan to stay in London, my parents live close to it so I have visited lots of times before. We decided to get the Thames clipper boat to Greenwich to try and skip the centre of the city, both for time and safety reasons as it let us cycle from London to my parents in a day. We stayed at my parents for a day to recover and so I could swap some of our kit with some stuff I had stored there. I also booked the ferry tickets then, unfortunately the website didn't work on my phone for some reason so I couldn't do it early. As it later turned out, I booked them for the wrong day.

We cycled from there to Dover, staying with a family friend half way. At Dover we stayed in a hostel called "Dover Adventure Backpackers" it was next to the harbour. It was cheap and got the job done but really run down, there were holes in the floor in places but the people running it were really nice.

The next day we crossed the channel to Calais.The cycle from calais to where we stayed the night was my least favourite day, the cycle network had lots of closures and diversions which made the route much longer than planned. It was also so hot that day my phone overheated if i left it on my handle bars so i had it in a pocket, I hit a pot hole and it bounced out, cracking the screen despite the thick case and screen protector. We stayed with an amazing warm showers host and his family for that night, they get lots of cyclists through there so we were very appreciative of being hosted for the night. From there we slept in campsites and using another app called welcome to my garden as we made our way to Brugge. We found it was becoming harder and harder to find people to stay with. We stayed with a welcome to my garden host in Brugge for a weekend to rest and recover, it was starting go get very hot by this point.

There were lots of ferrys from Brugge to Amsterdam, they are very frequent and most are free, some cost a few euro. It was also mostly along busy canal paths, it was a steep learning curve being with other cyclists for the first time and hard keeping our bikes out the way of others as they handle like boats. It was also very flat by this point and with few trees of hedges it was difficult to find shelter or a spot for the toilet. This was made more difficult as you have to pay for everything like toilets and cash machines that we were not used to in the UK. The cash issue was made worse by the crowdstrike update that bricked all the atm's we could find.

We couldn't find a person to stay with in Amsterdam so we stayed at a campsite on the edge of the city, it was very nice however we had our cooking pots stolen while we left them out to dry.

From Amsterdam it started to get less enjoyable, the days were very hot and we were starting to encounter more hills again. Also now that we were passing through countries less quickly the feeling of progress was reduced. One of the most enjoyable things for us was meeting people along the way however there were not as many people to stay with along our route however the one or 2 people we were able to stay with were brilliant. Fortunately in Hamburg we were able to find a really amazing host who we were able to stay with for 2 days, really not enough for a city as big as Hamburg and we wish we could have stayed longer.

At Hamburg we decided that we wouldn't make it to Warsaw in time as we had to be back in Aberdeen for September, if we wanted to see any of my girlfriend's family we would have to get the train to Warsaw from Szczecin. I tried to book it on the website however every seat was taken on every train I looked at, I figured that this was a bug with the website and we would just have to buy it at the station.

From Hamburg we were able to find no warm showers, welcome to my garden, or 1nite tent's (another app for places to camp). We didn't want to wild camp as we were very tired and didn't need that additional stress. One night we were able to find a caravan that we could stay in. It was very nice to sleep in a proper bed for the first time in 5 days, not sure it was worth the 50 euro that we paid for it though.

It was a relief to finally cross the border into Poland as we both had had enough of being outside and wanted a rest. We missed talking to other people as that was one of our favourite parts of the trip. I think the light at the end of the tunnel made us more tired aswell as it was always in the back of our heads "just a few more days". Our final night was at a very nice campsite called "camp costa" the facilities were very good and they had food and beer that was cheap, only downside was the tent was on a bit of a slope.

I don't have that much to say about the later parts of our trip, as by the end it got a bit samey. We fell into a routine of cycling which made it a bit uneventful and also we met less people along the way which made it even less exciting. I think that the main conclusion that we got from this whole experience is that our future tours are going to be much shorter just to keep us motivated.

In szczecin my girlfriends mum got us a room so stay in for a few days. We found out that the trains were infact full so we had a panic while we tried to work out how we were going to leave. We were able to get the flixbus that carried our bikes overnight to Warsaw. In the morning we were very tired so it was difficult to feel happy about what we had accomplished, I think it will sink in over the coming days and weeks.

Advice for others As for advice for others it's probably best to devide into things that were good and things that were bad or that we would do differently.

I wish I had some shoes other than our cycling shoes to wear for when we are around campsites or in a lake/river. Also I think we carried too much food which weighed us down. We wish that we left earlier so we had more time to enjoy things along the way.

Some good things were that we had the perfect amount of water, we never ran out but didn't arrive anywhere with a huge excess. I experimented with carrying huel and having it for my lunch, this worked very well, only issue was the bags are big and quite heavy and I was too lazy to make it some days. We also carried spoke cards that we could write a message on with sharpie and give out to people we met, this was brilliant as it gave the people we stayed with a memory of us.

I'm happy to answer any questions people have, I probably have lots more stories to tell if people are able to dig them out of me. Il try and work out how to add more pictures once I have posted the story. Hope it is entertaining for those who read it!

Both of us are students from Scotland. I fixed up 2 scrap bikes and then we made it all the way to the Polish border. Wanted to go further but ran out of time so we are finishing the trip on the train.

Horse looking at out-of-fashion tech

Personally i like them quite a bit, the small gear steps, i am using the simultaneous shifting like front 1 up, rear 1 down a lot to find myself in the best cadence.

I know people being happy with their switch over to 1x setups, but tbh i don't see myself doing that at all. I guess 2x, but i wonder how you would get to the small steps, like do you do something like front 1 up, rear 3(?) down, or just get used to the bigger steps?

Do you think 3x drivetrains will ever make a comeback or are they fading out for good?

So in Slavonice there is a guy who makes this clock's from old vinyl. I want to commission something like this but more bikepacking/touring not tt.

I just don't like to buy one clock so if someone would like to help me make some designs and drafts, I will send one in EU for free.

This is how it looks in 99% of Czech Republic.

It changes to terrain signs painted on trees sometimes but it is also standard. I found 2 other signs for cyclists, some cross border route that decided to make their own on both sides. And still most cross border routes use cz standard signage.

So how it looks where you live? Am I just too spoiled by standards for hiking and cycling signage?

So ~14 days ago I begun my trip in Brno to Mikulov, join EV13, ride for a week and then return to Slavonice where I was cooking on summer camp for kids.

So on and off (with previous trips) I rode on EV13 from Bratislava to Vyšší Brod.

Tldr: It is amazing route, with little traffic, under appreciated, history, nature and every kind of surface you can imagine.

First few impressions/general feelings:

• Austrian side is pretty much empty and dead, Austrians in these border regions go on the bike ride to Czech Republic for beer...
• It is interesting to cross border few times per day, see differences in each country.
• It is really under used I met 3 people who rode this route.
• You never know what is ahead - sparsely populated region, nice roads, bad roads...
• Plan your trip that museums and stuff that you would like to visit are open. I didn't do that and I didn't visit anything.
• don't trust EV planner on their website, I am apparently insane so can average ~100km/day so 7,5 day trip took me about 6 days.

Austrian part Expect nice asphalt or smooth gravel roads. No traffic for most parts. But nothing in a case of pubs, coffee places, restaurants or stuff like that, just few stores here and there.

Czech part Expect everything, nice roads, more traffic, totally broken asphalt roads, forest roads, trails, panel roads... but nothing that needs full suspension, 35+ mm tires with reasonable tread is enough. Pubs and other places here and there where you can get lunch for about 10€.

Notable places to visit

• Bunker in Šatov (I posted a pic there ~week ago)
• Valtice - castle and nice park
• Znojmo - castle and there are few brewerys
• Čížov - museum of Iron Curtain and visitor center of NP Podyjí
• Slavonice
• Gmünd
• Nové Hrady
• Cetviny There are more but I didn't choose optimal time so most places were closed (like bicycle museum in Retz)

Routing/signage This part of route I took has really good signage from Bratislava to Gmünd, you really don't need any computer or GPS tracker with maps. From Gmünd to Cetviny look up local routes, on cz side they are well signed and are in a process of putting EV stickers on them. On Austrian side the route doesn't look entirely finished so get GPX ready in your navigation, I found 2 EV signs on 20 km section.

And few stories along the way

• I met a guy who emigrated in 80's from CZ to A, he bitched about how Austrians can't brew a beer...
• I rode from Slavonice to border with some German guy (Joseph) and we chatted about how this route has bad surface and of course about Czech bunkers, in Slavonice there is museum of light bunkers I translated for him info sign about their construction.
• In Novohradské Hory I met totally wet French family, chatted a bit and they asked where they can find some food (restaurant or shop). When I told this to my friend he just said that he was there few months ago and had a beer in both open pubs there lol.

Last thing I want to say is that in Slavonice there is a guy who makes clocks from LP's. You can visit his shop there and he makes custom orders, so I want something like this but not on tt bike: https://www.dmznamky.cz/Hodiny-Kolo-zavodnik-d1070.htm If someone is interested I will order more of these and ship them in EU if you are interested (first one for free), we can finalize the design together.

Also I will add pics in comments when I get to it.

How it looks inside:

I just bought few postcards so first correct guess can decide where I will send it (I don't have stamps yet).

~50 km away another (same type) bike for comparison

And small earlier type (~1936)

So after the Pyrenees i kept cris crossing around France, bit of Cevennes, Provence, Verdon, Haute Alpes, back to Provence, Vercors, Chartreuse, Jura then to Freibug to take a train home. Title picture is taken on the Montagne de Lure, Mont Ventoux' little brother close to Sisteron.

Gorge du Tarn in the Cevennes. I was getting sick here again

Riding out of Gorges du Verdon to Castellane

On the descend of the Col de la Sinne, looking onto the village Ilonse

This is not some gravel track but the still closed Col d'Allos on my way back south after riding Bonette. Nobody around but two roadies.

Riding the prealpes, from Digne-les-Bains to Sisteron via St Geniez, very nice.

Vercors mountains look awesome, picture taken close to Die

Riding out of Vercors down to Grenoble

After Grenoble i rode through Chartreuse mountain range then down to the Lac du Bourget towards Jura

Second to last day, in french Jura, after that i rode to Freiburg to take a train home

Route of France section Part 1, Perpignan - Barême and Part 2, Barême - Freiburg

So few weeks ago my friend told me that he and 2 of his friends are planning trip to Slovenia. I was interested because I could get week off and ride with them.

Then I learned more about the trip, these guys didn't know what are they doing- first they planned to go there and back in a week ~170 km / day (I told them that it isn't possible), then they planned to take some trains along the route (they didn't checked if they take bikes...). Then I just told them that they are doing it for the first time so don't complicate it - start from home and see where you can go and adjust the route on the road.

So we started from Brno with plan to get to Břeclav, join EV13 and ride south to Hungary border and then go west to Graz.

At the start I saw for the first time all our bikes - my bike on which I have ~6000km, my friend with borrowed older mountain bike properly maintained, one pretty new mountain bike but small 26' wheels (the guy is taller than me) without rack so he had backpack, short guy with 29' new mountain bike and guy who "planned" this trip on really old road bike with flat bars (standard frame from 80's that was made in all sorts of bikes).

They didn't have some gear and reserve inner tubes... so first stop was local decathlon.

I planned the route for the first day so we had all possible terrain, good thing I did that because the old 80's bike got bent back wheel, I was like ok fortunately I have tool for centering wheels on my multitool but unfortunately I never done it. I was able to get it to not touch the frame (yes it was that bad) but discovered that the bike was in worse shape than I anticipated - bent rear V brake, totally cooked drive train, bad wheels...

So for the second time we scratch route and wanted to go to Bratislava. We started the second day on Austrian side of EV 13 and we intended to take ferry half way to Slovakian side of Morava river. Unfortunately because high winds and higher levels of water ferry didn't operate.

Scratched route again, we ended up on campsite in Petronell-Carnuntum. But before we get there we had to center the wheel again. At the time I was little bit pissed and I didn't wanted to ride somewhere where isn't train connection so he can get home if the bike falls apart. We agreed to go to Vienna and see where to go from there.

At the campsite there was French family with 4 kids bike touring. I chatted with them and they started in France 2 months ago and will probably end in Budapest.

On the third day everything was without a hiccup, we got to Vienna, pitched tents and got to look around there. The guy with 29' mountain bike which was too big for him went home because of back pain (surprise!). And I snatched this pick of the camp area (it is bad but you can clearly see that nearly every tent has bike next to it).

Some of us wanted to go home early so from week trip it became 4 day trip. We get on EV 9 back to Břeclav.

I took some photos for eco minded people:

And some for the the petrol heads:

5 km before Břeclav I fell, I will be all right but I will have to find somewhere these condoms to repair my leavers.

All in all I would categorize this trip as a experience, not bad. I was able to test some gear, new bags that I bought because I have borrowed ones and my friend needed them back, that it is possible to use alcohol stove...

Hey! Newbie to the touring world here. I have a Kona Rove DL 2021 frame, and looking at getting a front rack set up organised. After some research, the Tubus Duo and Tubus Tara look like excellent, light reliable choices which run nice and low on the bike.

My understanding is that the Duo requires "lowrider eyelets on the inside and outside", whilst the Tubus does not. However, I must admit my understanding of eyelet terminology is not up-to-scratch, and as such I'm not actually sure whether my bike would support it. I also haven't been able to find any good learning resource for understanding this specific case of eyelet requirements in my usual sources online.

If I had to trust my limited knowledge, I would say no, and that I would need an additional eyelet running parallel to the one I have at the moment. But I'm hoping to get conclusive advice from others!

Cheers!

Won't be getting any higher, at least not on this trip. On the Cime de la Bonette.

Riding mountains gives me a crazy high, the combination of exercise and the views that come up. There are places where you can get similar views "for free", without the work, but for me the feeling does not really compare.

In the background Erg Chebbi, the highest and largest sand dunes of Morocco, N. Africa: the dunes spread over an area of near 200 km2 (28 x 7 km) and are 150 meters high
#touring #cycletouring #cycling #wanderer #exploring #bicycle #bicycletouring @bicycle_touring #adventurecycling #cyclinglife #cyclingnomads #traveldiaries #biketouringforever #pedalpower #travelstories #travelbybike #bikewander #bikelife #biketouring #fromwhereiride #worldbycyclingù #worldbybike #pedaljourneys #humanpoweredadventures #neverstopexploring #biketocamp #worldbycycling

This "sauna" weather isn't the best for bikepacking, I had to take breaks pretty often. There is cherry season so you always find "reason" to stop for some "snack".

cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/17281060

Hello,

I have an ELEMNT BOLT V2 GPS BICYCLE COMPUTER. Now I'm planning a longer bike tour with breaks. The bike computer stays on. Can you turn off the bolt to save power and then reactivate it to continue recording?

Best regards

This post may be used as resource for others so try to structure it somehow. Share whatever you think will be useful- links, local knowledge, interesting places, routes, maps...

This is a bit of an older link, don't think he updated in a while. I still have a look at it every once in a while.

Ultralight with little money, taken to the extreme (bubble wrap sleeping pad anyone?). I think he has some really good ideas and interesting thoughts, also like his humor.