Bicycle Traveler Magazine June 2013

8/13/2019 Bicycle Traveler Magazine June 2013

1/48JUNE 2013 - WWW.BICYCLETRAVELER.NL 1

WWW.BICYCLETRAVELER.NL - JUNE 2013

Hannibals trail Photo ContestWashout Baluchistan- - -

International Magazine on Bicycle TouringBicycleTraveler

Hilleberg tent -


2/48JUNE 2013 - WWW.BICYCLETRAVELER.NL2



ARTICLES

EQUIPMENT

24

BIKEPARADISE By Michael Tran41

A REALMANINBALUCHISTAN By Loretta Henderson

13

ONTHETRAILOFHANNIBAL By Sam Wood

26

PHOTOCONTEST By Various Photographers

18

TESTHILLEBERGNALLO3GT By Friedel Grant22 TRIPGEAR By Grace Johnson15

over Photo: KEES SWART www.keesswart.nl

hoto Left: PAUL JEURISSEN

38 GIJSSTEVERS By Grace Johnson

CONTENTS

44

PARTINGSHOT- FRANCE By Charlie Baxter

06

UPSANDDOWNS

PHOTOGRAPHY

INTERVIEW

BicycleTraveler

20

IMAGEFROMTHEROAD- VEITNAM By Karlijn Jukes

THEWHY QUESTION By Edward Genochio

TV PRESENTATION By Sam Wood

32

IMAGEFROMTHEROAD- OMAN By Paul Jeurissen

42

IMAGEFROMTHEROAD- NEPAL By Dirk Huyghe

47 WASHOUT By Steve Fabes

46

IMAGEFROMTHEROAD- OMAN By Paul Jeurissen

48

IMAGEFROMTHEROAD- INDIA By Paul Jeurissen


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6/48JUNE 2013 - WWW.BICYCLETRAVELER.NL6 Hannibalwith the BBC

On the trail of

BY: SAM WOOD


7/48JUNE 2013 - WWW.BICYCLETRAVELER.NL 7Photo: ZISSI KAUCH



E` vietato no shorts allowed! We weresurrounded by a patrol of towering Italian

Cuirassiers, the President of Italys per-sonal bodyguard (they have a minimumheight requirement of 190cm). Not onlywere we dwarfed, but we felt even moreunderdressed than usual in this the mostfashionable of countries. We were grub-by after six weeks of bike touring throughSpain, France and Italy.

The Cuirassiers guard the QuirinalePalace, which contains the only existingbust of the Carthaginian General Hanni-bal. In 219BC he had led his huge armyand 37 elephants from Cartagena insouthern Spain all the way up and overthe French Alps and into Italy in an at-tempt to defeat the powerful Roman Re-

public. We had followed his route so faron bikes and now, 2,500 long kilometreslater, found ourselves clacking aroundthe drafty side entrance of the QuirinalePalace in our riding shoes, being barredentrance to see the inspiration for all thathard work.

Sam, Danny and Ben Wood cycled nearly 4000 kilome-

tres in Autumn 2010, following the trail that three ancient

brothers Hannibal, Hasdrubal and Mago Barca had tak-

en over 2000 years before. The Barcas were invading It-

aly with a huge army in an attempt to defeat Rome and the

Wood brothers were presenting a BBC TV documentary about this ancient conict.

OLARGUES, FRANCE -the bridge inthe foreground (12th C.) was known as the

place to go in medieval times if you wanted

to make a deal with the devil!



Following the 4,000km route thatHannibal marched was an idea born ofmy love of cycling and history. Alwaysup for adventure, I proposed to my broth-ers that we take on this epic journey onbikes. And seeing as we had had greatfun lming home movies as kids about

Chuck Norris, zombies and King Arthur,why not lm it as we go?

All being in Europe at the time, wesent in a proposal to the BBC, which was

so well received that they commissioneda documentary series based on the idea!We were utterly shocked and perhapsslightly apprehensive we were com-plete novice documentary presenters.My eldest brother Danny had at leastdone TV news reporting but was no keencyclist. Ben and I had done plenty of ridingbut had never stood in front of a camerahoping to talk semi-intelligently aboutanything. Following Hannibals armys

Photo:SAM

WOOD



At the beginning of the trip- we joked about

epic journey on our bikes with a BBClm crew in tow was a dream come true.

So we trained hard and got our equip-ment together. We had some brillianttouring bikes for us which we tted out

with huge panniers to house all our gear.We would attempt to experience the tripas close as possible to how Hannibalsmen may have done (which in all hon-esty, was not very close) but we travelledunder our own steam, camped in tents,

cooked meals and carried everything weneeded. And once the BBC put Ben andI through a crash course in TV present-ing we all of a sudden found ourselvesarriving Murcia airport in southern Spain.

Our location manager Jason metus there parking our support vehicle,which doubled as the crews living quar-

ters, illegally but conveniently right out-side the front door of the airport. I initiallythought perhaps this is what happenswhen you are on a lm shoot you do

whatever you like and ignore all the rulesfor the sake of your bloated ego.

THEN I NOTICED Jason was busy

fending off Spanish parking police. Itturned out the camper van was just toobig to get into the car park. We hastilypacked up and headed off to Cartage-na, lucky to escape without a ticket. Onreaching our rst campsite, we spent the

rst few sweaty hours on location get-ting our bikes back into one piece, all thewhile joking about how we were going ona paid holiday.

These jokes paled rapidly as we start-ed to understand what it took to put to-

gether a TV documentary. The actuallming required patience, imagination

and expertise qualities the BBC crewhad in abundance. Hours of wide shots,close shots, wide non-sync (no sound),GVs (general vision), PTCs (pieces tocamera), POVs (point of view), pullingfocus, tilt shots, tracking shots . . . Whatwe imagined as a physically strenuousbut mentally fun touring bike holidayquickly became an intense lm shoot

with a strenuous touring ride squeezedin around it.

EARLY STARTS AND late nishes

designed to make the most of the goodlming light meant riding in between,

during the hottest hours of the day, andhaving much less time than we had an-

ticipated to cycle the allotted distanc-es, so night time catch-up riding was aregular necessity.The rst leg of the trip took us from Cart-agena, at the bottom of Spain, up thecoast to cross into France over the Pyr-enees. In hindsight, this leg was easy

respectful drivers, mostly good roads,

lovely scenery but often touristy towns,and no great hills to climb.We stopped briey in Alicante as La

Vuelta (Spains equivalent of the Tour deFrance) rolled into town. Matthew Lloyd(Silence-Lotto) very graciously got upextra early the next morning to chat tous before Stage 10 of the race. Able tolift his bike literally with one nger, I tried

to convince him into a swap, but he washaving none of it, and as he went off tobreakfast with his teammates we lum-



bered off in the opposite direction think-ing what a nice bloke he was and dream-ing of light road bikes.

The Pyrenees passed by surprisinglyquickly as we skirted the beautiful Medi-terranean coast, but once over the moun-tains we had the mistral wind shriekingaround our ears and seeming to pushour laden bikes backwards, leaving usphysically and mentally broken and withtens of kilometres to catch up on.

Over the whole trip, however, we wereincredibly lucky with the weather; onlythree days of rain out of eleven weeks onthe road, the heat of September in Spainnowhere near the highs of July and Au-gust, and winter hit the French Alps justas were leaving them behind a metreof snow lling the pass I had traversed

just the week before.

WE WERE ALSO incredibly luckymechanically plenty of punctures andblown tyres, one wonky rear derailleurand a pedal fell off, but no signicant

breakdowns over the 4,000km.The Alps were one of the highlights of

the trip denitely the hardest but alsothe most rewarding. With a sibling raceup Mont Ventoux warming up our climb-ing legs, and being pretty t by then,

we were excited to be there, but after aweek of long mountain hauls and hugeamounts of lming, often arriving at 10 or

11pm exhausted and famished, we wereon the brink of collapse.

We did, however, enjoy some beauti-ful quiet night-time rides with huge shad-ows of anonymous mountains and the

eerie feeling of vast chasms at the edgeof the road. These evenings you couldeasily imagine Hannibal and his menlooking at the same night sky and think-ing the exact same thing what on eartham I doing here?

AT THIS POINT we split our trio aswe each explored a possible route Han-nibal may have taken over the nal

passes into Italy the greatest mystery

of his journey. We each found ourselveslooking for clues as to Hannibals pass-ing, and being the youngest I got Col duTraversette, a walking trail which reach-es 3,000 metres and has snow all yearround. My bike survived the drag but ittook me days to physically recover.

Back on our bikes and forty kilometres

all downhill from the pass at Col Agnelmeant that before we knew it we were inclassic northern Italy. We headed souththrough rolling Piedmont away from thewinter cold, through Emilia Romagnaand into the beautiful countryside of Tus-cany and Umbria. Hannibal spent ve

epic days traversing the Arnoswamps

here his men couldnt rest in the mud-dy marshes and Hannibal himself con-tracted an eye infection that led to theloss of one of them.

We then headed to Rome and to ourconfrontation with the Presidential body-guard. To nally be in the presence of

Hannibal after a few thousand kilome-tres of cycling in his honour was strange-ly moving. But there was no time to stopand relax -- we had to get on and lm our

PTCs, POVs and GVs!

ow we were going on a paid holiday.



For more information on the documen-tary and journey please take a look at

www.woodbrothers.tv. In 2012 we took a

group on the same epic ride but without the

campsites and cameras! It was a spectacular

and beautiful cycle combined with fantastic

food, hotels and history. In September 2013

we will be doing it all again. If you fancy

joining us then visit www.rideandseek.com.

After Rome we crossed to the eastcoast towards Taranto in the heel of Ita-lys boot. Italy seemed to be changing aswe travelled further south. The sophisti-cated north was long gone and we rodethrough hundreds of kilometres of olivegroves and vineyards often guarded byunchained dogs which would liven up along stretch of road. Its surprising howfast you can go with a salivating dog onyour wheel.

To nish the journey we rst had to get

to Hannibals homeland, Tunisia, a ferryride away. We wanted to get to Zama, a

long day ride west of Tunis, and wherethe nal battle between Hannibal and the

Romans took place.

HANNIBAL HAD returned from Italyand lost a battle at Zama against an in-vading Roman force and retreated to thecoast, much as we had done. For a time

he was involved in Carthaginian politics,but after some political intrigue he wasforced from the city and spent the rest ofhis years roaming the Eastern Mediter-ranean, looking for allies to continue hisght against Rome.

Eventually the Romans caught upwith him and surrounded his house.

He took poison, saying proudly, Let us

put an end to the life that has given theRomans so much anxiety.

WE DIDNT TAKE poison, althoughwe sometimes wished we could have ad-ministered some to each another! After11 weeks, nearly 4,000km and over 200hours of footage we were nished, men-tally and physically, but hugely satised

with our accomplishment and relieved atjust having survived it!

2 years on, the BBC has aired OnHannibals Trail many times in the UKand National Geographic bought the

show and have been showing it world-wide (besides USA unfortunately!) Mylegs have recovered and I spend muchof my casual riding time thinking whatcycling adventure to do next?, or Which

other great commanders or epic journeyscan we follow?

Photo:ZISSIKAUCH

BT



S L O W E R L O U D E R Moreexpression!

These were the words I heard mostfrequently while doing my pieces to cam-era (PTCs) during lming On Hannibals

Trail. An honest appraisal of our perfor-mances would be, in my opinion, that inEpisode 1, I was pretty bad, by the end

of Episode 3 I had stopped being scaredof the camera and by Episode 5 and 6 Icould (hopefully) almost be mistaken fora TV presenter.

Neither Ben nor I had any previous TVpresenting training, whereas Danny, hav-ing worked in Media for years, was com-pletely comfortable. Luckily, on the other

hand, Danny was very worried about theriding having rarely ridden farther thanthe corner shop!

Fortunately the BBC support crewswere amazingly patient and supportive,and as well as a crash course in present-ing, given to us by one of our directors onthe lawn in front of BBC at Shepherds

Bush, we did learn a few general tricksof the trade and a few bike specic onestoo: Basic TV Presenting

Speak as slowly as you cannothingis worse than a presenter who speakstoo quickly to be understood. One wayto slow ourselves down was to pre-tend we were talking to a young child.

Speak Loudly. This seems odd aswe were wearing microphones but it

is essential for clarity and speakingloudly generally adds expression andslows you down too.

Express yourself. This is a hard oneas for me I was always being told touse my hands and emphasise wordsmore, however for someone like Dan-

ny who is fairly dramatic he was occa-sionally being told the opposite. Theconsensus of our lm crews was that

dramatic emphasis is essential andthat physically hands should alwaysbe up if they are in the framed shot.Emphasis with hands or on wordsshould only be done 2-3 times maxi-

mum per (30-45 sec long) PTC oth-erwise you appear like a bird apping

its wings.

Always look at the camera, pretend itis a friend or your audience or what-ever you like as long as it keeps youlooking as this engages the audience.

Smileit may seem odd but it drawsthe audience in, so look happy other-wise your audience wont either!

If you can, walk and present or havethe camera move. If everything is still,unless you are very dramatic and ani-mated, it is hard to maintain the audi-ences interest. If you are walking andtalking, although it can be harder, it isa lot easier to watch.

TV PresentationBY: SAM WOOD



If you have one, listen to your Director .It is very hard to judge how you lookwhile you are performing and we

quickly came to realise that the Direc-tor is the most important person on alm shoot and their word is nal.

If you are doing a PTC start and endlooking at the camera and make sureyou pause a little so the editor (possi-bly you) has a few frames to work withwhen cutting up your programme.

Practise recording yourself and watch

the play back. You only realise howsilly you look and sound until you dothis. And you only realise how muchbetter you sound when made to speakslowly, loudly and with expression you still look silly though!

BIKE CAMS are great but they take a

bit of practice, here a few tips which mayhelp you get the result you want:

Choose quiet and smooth roads, play-ing with a camera while cycling alongis dangerous enough without addingcars into the equation. Also trafc noise

destroys any audio you might want to

record and rough roads are uncomfort-able for both you and your audience.

Take shots from multiple spots on thebike. If your camera has a clamp use iton your handlebars, seat stem, front/back pannier rack anywhere youcan (these are called GVs generalviews and you use them in all aspectsof lming) especially if you plan to also

to do PTCs on the bike while cycling.This will allow you, when editing, to

cut shots of the moving road and biketo join shots, x errors, cover up when

a y goes in your mouth, etc. You can

always continue the audio over theseGVs and cut to you talking while rid-ing to give the sense of movementand travel.

Make sure your bike cam has a goodclamp! A rattling picture is impossibleto watch.

When choosing a bike camera, if youcan afford one with a separate screen

to the camera body then this can bean excellent investment. There isnothing more frustrating than thinkingyou have lmed a great shot only to

nd that the camera was aiming the

wrong way or the light was terrible.

Lastly if you are lming from the bike

take care and make sure you have afriend riding with you who can keepan eye on your line! The last thing youwant to do or lm is a crash!

If you have any questions, feel free toemail me: [email protected].

Cyclist, archaeologist, follower of historictrails by bike. Sam Wood is the co-founder

of Ride and Seek Bike Tours who specialize

in adventure cycling in the footsteps of his-

toric legends like Hannibal and Caesar.

www.rideandseek.com.

For those who have already shot a

bicycle touring video, why not add it to the

World Cycle Videos group on Vimeo at:

http://vimeo.com/groups/wereldetser.

BT



When were on a bike tour, theres no place that feels more like home thanour trusty tent, the Hilleberg Nallo 3GT. Its not the cheapest tent on themarket by a long shot (about $1,100 U.S. for the current model) but price doesbuy quality and in our experience this tent is extremely durable and depend-able, even in the worst of weather. Among other things, weve tested it in 15

straight hours of the hardest rain weve ever seen (we stayed perfectly dry),and in gale-force winds (the tent exed gracefully with the gusts).

Test

By: FRIEDEL GRANTHilleberg Nallo 3GT

Photo:FRIE

DELGRANT



We love this tent so much that weveactually bought two of them. The rst

one was the tent that accompanied usfor most of our 3-year world bicycle tour.When we decided to replace it, wed usedour rst Nallo 3GT over 400 times. To put

that in perspective, if you bought this tenttoday and used it as much as we did,youd pay around $2.50 U.S. for eachnight of worry-free camping. Bargain!

When we replaced it (30 months intoour trip), the Nallo 3GT was still function-ing perfectly but the outer shell had suf-fered some heavy UV damage and we

werent sure how much longer it wouldlast. We were offered a newer model at ahefty discount so we jumped at the chanceto renew our tent. Had we not been soimpulsive, the old one probably wouldhave lasted quite a bit longer. We couldalso have renewed our tent by simplybuying a new outer tent from Hilleberg,

although we didnt know that at the time.Our second Nallo 3GT has been used

about 100 times and we expect it to lastfor at least as long as the rst one. With a

little luck, it will last even longer because

were now more vigilant about protectingour tent from UV damage by using a tarpand pitching in shady places.

You can set this tent up with the frontfully open. This is great in light rain, andon hot days (it allows for a lot of air ow).

We can sum up the reasons why wereally like this tent in a few short points: Quality. The Nallo 3GT really does

stand up to everything. Weve tested itin heavy snow, pouring rain and erce

winds and its never let us down. Lots of space.We have the 3-per-

son model. Its perfect for 2 bike tour-ists plus all the associated gear. Wecan put all our bags in the porch, andstill have room to sit and read. Thatmeans we dont feel claustrophobic,even on rainy days when we might beinside the tent for a few hours.

Light.At 3 kg, this is one of the light-

er 3-person and all-season tents onthe market.

Easy to pitch. There are only 3poles and set-up is intuitive. Not longafter we bought this tent, we had to

NALLO3GT

WEIGHT: 3 KGFORMOREINFOSEE:

WWW.HILLEBERG.COM



EQUIPMENT

BT

set it up in the dark. We had no prob-lems. Hilleberg say you can pitch thetent with as few as 4 pegs. On veryrocky ground, weve pitched it withoutany pegs, simply by using rocks tosecure the corners and tying the guy-lines to nearby trees, bushes or otherxed objects.

Great customer service. Hil-leberg have promptly answered anyquestions we had about the tent, andhelped us to nd a solution when the

zippers wore out. This was easily xed

(http://travellingtwo.com/resources/

keep-your-tent-zipping-along).

Multiple set-up options.In addi-tion to the standard set up, you cancompletely open the front of the tent.This is really nice in the summer, orany time you want a lot of air owing

through the tent.

Nothing is perfect, of course, and thereare a few downsides to this tent: Too short for tall people. If

youre over 6 feet tall, youll struggle tostretch out fully in this tent. Andrew is511 and his feet nearly touch the end.

Expensive. This is denitely not the

cheapest tent on the market. Its go-

ing to last you a long time but if youreonly planning a few shorter bike toursthen youll probably do just as well witha cheaper tent such as MSRs HubbaHubba model (another favourite ofours). Alternatively, watch for sales.Sometimes you can get a deal on lastyears model. You can also try to pickup a lightly used second-hand model.

Occasional condensation. Onvery cold nights in damp climates,we try to keep all the heat in by fully

closing both the main entrance andthe door that separates the porchand sleeping area. That does leadto some condensation. Most of thetime, were not camping in extremecold and so we dont entirely seal thetent. You can leave the doors partiallyopen (while still keeping the mosquitonet panels closed) to improve airow.

Sometimes too big. This is aroomy tent and you need a relativelydecent amount of space to put it up.This isnt often a problem but some-times we have to hunt an extra few

minutes for the perfect spot. Groundsheet sold separately.

Its not all that unusual for tent ground-sheets to be sold separately, and youcan expect to fork out about $100 U.S.for the ofcial groundsheet for this tent.

The footprint is almost essential, as itmakes the porch usable in all weather

(even when the ground is wet). Alterna-tively, you could just lay a small sheetof plastic down, but then thats onemore (relatively heavy) thing to carry.

On the whole, we feel the advantages ofthis tent far outweigh the disadvantagesand wed heartily recommend it for any-

one planning an extended bike tour. Toparaphrase a famous commercial:Cost of a Hilleberg tent? $1,100 U.S.

Cost of the groundsheet? $100 U.S.

Cost of knowing that you can sleepthrough the worst storms? Priceless!

Friedel & Andrew Grants extensive website

www.travellingtwo.com contains their trip

reports, resources for bicycle travelers and

the e-book Bike Touring Survival Guide.



PAUL JEURISSEN

www.pauljeurissen.nl

Oman

ImageRoad:

thefrom



PAUL JEURISSEN

www.pauljeurissen.nl

India

ImageRoad:the

from



TRIPGEARA look at equipment for bicycle travelers.

An ultra-light packing bag to help keepsmall accessories organized whiletraveling. Its made of silnylon rip-

stop which allows you to see whatsinside the sack.

Weight: 0.6 oz (18 gr)

Price: $ 15. U.S.www.eaglecreek.com

Pack-It Sack

By: GRACE JOHNSON

Why not carry a bit of extra comfort?

The Quechua compressible pillow hasa soft front side, you can stuff extra

clothes in the backside and measures15x13 in. (38x32 cm.).

Weight: 6.3 oz. (180 gr.)Price: 7.45 Euros

www.decathlon.co.uk

Compressible Pillow

This ultralight and ultrastrong 1.3Lpot from Evernew has a silicone-ce-ramic non-stick coating which makes

cleanups a breeze.Weight: 5.7oz. (162 gr.)

Price: $ 77. U.S.

www.evernewamerica.com

Titanium Non-Stick Pot



The Eureka Veloci SUL tent offers alot of storage space in the vestibule for

your bike bags and even your bikesWeight: 8.4 lbs (3.8 kg.)

Price: 549.95 Euros

www.eurekaeurope.com

2-Person Bike Tent

EQUIPMENT

With the Fiber Fix emergency repair kityou can replace a broken spoke of any

length without having to remove thefreewheel cassette.

Price: $ 11. U.S.

www.fberfxspoke.com

Spoke Replacement

Suspension SeatpostThe Thudbuster seatpost from CaneCreek absorbs the bumps of rough

roads so that you ride more comfortably.Weight: 20.1 oz. (570 gr.)

Price: $ 175. U.S.

www.canecreek.com



A

s I sit and wait at sun rise in theno-mans land between Paki-stan and Iran, I patiently wait for

the Iranian border gate to open. I havelearned that the Baluchi, Pakistan peopleare as jovial as it gets, with a laugh that

jiggles their bellies, a laugh that Santawould be proud of. The Pakistani militarypolice and I have become intimately ac-quainted lately when I was scooped upin Quetta in the Baluchistan province

and prevented from cycling the majorityof the way to the border by some surpris-ingly super fun police.

I cycled the remaining KM to the bor-der at sunrise keeping a low prole. I

park Pandemic the magic bicycle withthe Pakistani border police, sit and waitfor the Iranian gate to open. I get to chat-

ting with one of the guards. He tells me,he is looking for a wife and the rest ofPakistan has gotten too liberal and itis not good. Funny enough, he is veryhandsome and has a likeable demeanor,which is, until he starts talking. He is whatI would call an unique conservative manand not your average Pakistani. He tellsme with a big friendly smile , that he is 25years old, that he cant wait to become aman, he asks me how many women theboys at home have slept with at 25, and

says he has only slept with one, he tellsthat my downtown area has gotten tooold for these sort of things because of

the cycling. As the sun continues to rise,I am trying not to laugh and therefore en-courage any conversation that may takeus further downtown or encourage a de-bate about the present tness status of

my aging hoohaa.I put on my best curious travelers

smile and sit back and listen. He con-

tinues with his views about how womenare to stay at home and only after hav-ing birthed two boy babies will his wifebe allowed to leave the house wearing aburka with full face coverage to go to themarket. She will not be allowed to havefriends, an education after 10th grade,and marrying at 15 is good. He is con-

sidering having a couple of wives, he is

allowed 4. However, he is not sure hecan afford it. You have got to love moneyfor at least that, I think to myself. I askhim about some burn marks I have seen

I wished him well

fnding his 4 wives

Story & Photo: LORETTA HENDERSON

While talking to an atypical Pakistani, Loretta decides

shes glad that polygamy is expensive.

BaluchistanA real man in



on some womens faces, he tells me she

did something at home and its ok thatthe man burns and/or beats her. As myteetering smile and eye balls pop out, Iforce myself to keep listening. I am gen-uinely fascinated and try to be respect-ful of differences; however, I think mytongue might be bleeding.

I asked the guard what he thinks aboutme. As a women bicycle travelling alonein Pakistan, I have often felt guilty aboutmy tremendous freedom and signicantly

concerned about my sisters of the world.

He says he thinks it is ne and wonder-

ful because I am not a Baluchi woman. Iwished him well nding his 4 wives, apol-ogized that I wasnt a polygamist and offI went pedaling into Iran on my aginghoohaa grateful for the education andthat much more concerned about someof my sisters in Baluchistan.

Loretta tries to be respectful of cultural

differences as she pedals around the world.

Follow her solo female cycling adventures

at: www.skalatitude.com

BT

Lorettas bicycle is safely transported to the Iranian border.



WHY?An answer to a flm producer who wanted to

know why I was going on a bicycle journey.

Te



uestion



Sometimes I think its Why? in the

sense of I seriously want to know whatit is that gets into your head or your heartor your soul and makes you want to do athing like this.

And sometimes I think its "Why?" in thesense of "What story can you tell that justi-es this expedition in terms of the prevail-ing social interpretation of worthiness?"

I'll give you my take on this you maynot like it, but here is what I think.

A lot of expeditions pick a story tohang their ride on, either because they

think in advance -- probably rightly -- thatit will play better in the mediasphere; orbecause, belatedly, some journo/pro-ducer/PR jock has told them to.

So you get all these "In the footstepsof...", "Retracing the ancient....", "Could

Alexander the Great have come thisway?", "The sweet and sour trail: eating

Chinese from Shanghai to Shoreditch,BY BIKE" type of themed expeditions.(OK, actually I quite like that last idea.)

89.5 % (forgive my rough estimate) ofthese things are phony. The participantsknow it, the intermediaries (journalists/producers etc) know it, and I think theaudience knows it too, most of the time.

It's pretty obvious, most of the time, thatthese adventurers don't really give muchof a damn about their meeeedjia-friendlytheme: they are really doing what theyare doing because they want do some-thing out of their skins, to go hard anddirty, to hurt like hell and achieve what-ever it may be, climbing Everest or pogo-

sticking across Antarctica. If they have totell everyone that they're pogo-stickingin Shackleton's footsteps in order to getnancing or recognition, well, so be it.

HOW OFTEN HAVE you watched orlistened to or read about this kind of jour-ney, and you think to yourself: OK, I knowthe game here: it's a hell of an adven-ture, it's exciting, I'm hooked, good luckto these guys, bloody-hell-rather-them-

A

funny one, this. The "WHY?" question is the

one everybody asks - friends, relatives, jour-nalists, and proposal-mauling folk such as your

good self.... (I mean that in a positive sense.)

BY: EDWARD GENOCHIO

PHOTOS: PAUL JEURISSEN



explored before. His passion for drain-age ditches is obvious and he can talkauthoritatively about the subject like no-one else can. He hasn't read the booksbecause he wrote all the damn books,for heaven's sake.

But he is a rare bird.Most "themed" expeditions that nd

their way into books/newspapers/lms

don't have this kind of expert. Maybe

the leader has read a thin paperback onAfghan tribal dancing before he set off,but we all know why he is really hompingover the Hindu Kush.

Because it's there.

FOR ME, GEORGE Mallorys "Be-cause It's There" line is one of the most

abused quotes in expedition history. Readit the wrong way, and it sounds like a ca-sual, lazy-witty, now-leave-me-alone-you-pesky-little-base-camp-hugging-media-types sort of off-the-cuff remark from atired guy whose mind was more focusedon climbing mountains than on cookingup sound-bites for tiresome journalists.

But I think it's not that at all.To a mountaineer, a mountain is likea blazing beacon, a huge neon-lit chal-lenge in the sky that screams (or whis-pers, menacingly, or seductively), Comeon, climb me, you bastard, if you're goodenough. The mountain gets into themountaineer's soul. It messes up thesurvival instinct that evolution has doneits best to hone, and replaces it with akind of obsessive-compulsive mania: I

than-me (or: cor, I wish I was there),but, really, what has Marco Polo got todo with this? When he came through

town I'll bet he didn't have to trot past 15miles of white-tiled ribbon-developmentgarages and cement factories, and no, Idon't suppose he was choking on blacksmoke from the constant stream of DongFeng trucks either. Marco Polo was then;now is now.

There are some honorable excep-tions of course. Thor Heyerdal and KonTiki, that kind of made sense becausehe had to have some reason for makinghis rafts out of whatever it was he madethem out of, stone-age Polynesian coco-nut matting or whatever. But even then,you pretty much knew that at bottom

those guys were having an incredibleadventure, the Polynesian migration (orwhatever it was) theory was a pretty neathook to hang it on, but let's be honest itdoesn't really much matter whether thetheory was right or wrong, it was a hell ofa journey.

FROM TIME TO TIMEyou get a realexpert on ancient Mongolian drainageditches, and I mean a real expert, some-one who lives and breathes ancientMongolian drainage ditches, someonewho knows ancient Mongolian drainageditches better than the ancient Mongo-lians did. For him, the 3000 mile cameltrek across the desert is almost inciden-tal to the prize at the end of it, to explorea drainage ditch that no-one has ever

Long lines on maps from A to B;- these are th



must climb that bloody mountain, andhonestly I don't really care three hoots ifit's the 90th anniversary of Mallory andIrving or even that today is European An-ti-Littering Day. I need to climb that thingbecause it's there, because it is com-manding me to climb it, because my soulwon't rest until I have climbed it, becausethat is who I am, that mountain has be-come me, and I have become it.

I'm being a little presumptuous to putall these word's into Mallory's mouth, Iknow, but I'd take a bet anyway that hewouldn't disagree. "Because it's there" isthe real reason that drives most adven-ture-expeditioners, even if they feel theyhave to say something else to please themeeedjia, sponsors, and maybe even

their own (misguided) consciences.A story well told is a story told with

passion, and when you're only three-quarter-hearted about ceremonial mega-lithic urinals in Ghastlistan (are they ofEtruscan origin?), it shows -- even if ev-erybody (even the audience, becauseit helps them feel more high-brow and

less voyeuristic) is trying to pretend thatit doesn't.

I COULD MAKEup a good story as towhy it is historically or culturally or educa-tionally essential, or vital to the interestsof world peace, that I ride a bicycle fromShanghai to Shoreditch (I might ditch Ex-eter because nothing in China alliterateswith it; oh, now you've got me going, ifyou can't nd a valid humanistic or intel-

lectual peg, try a verbal one, Shanghai toShangri-La -- that would be nice, actually,the perfect contrast between a sea-levelurban-industrial cosmopolitan-consum-erist skycraperland nightmare and an as-cetic little dream-world of peace, karmaand yak-dung high up in the mountains;and, as it happens, they've just ofcially

re-named a little Yunnanese town in theHimalayas "Shangri-La" (I kid you not --

look it up: it was called Zhongdian until auntil a couple of years ago)) -- anyway, Iwas going to say, I could make up a storyabout why I'm going, or I could tell youthe truth: because it's there. I'm not amountaineer, I'm a map-gazer: big blankempty spaces; jumbled piles of contours;roads in places where you ask yourself,

not just how the hell did they build a roadup there, but why the hell?; long lines

from A to B; - these are the things thatcall out to me, saying, "Ride me!", just asEverest bellowed "Climb me!" into Mal-lory's lug-hole.

Enough.

Photographer Paul Jeurissen and his partner

Grace Johnson are now Bicycling around

the world in search of inspiring cycle images.

www.bicyclingaroundtheworld.com

Edward Genochio rode from England to

China and back again and is now writing a

book titled But Isnt There A Bus? read

more about his trip at:

http://www.2wheels.org.uk.

things that call out to me, saying, "Ride me!"

BT



Photo Contest

The winning imageCalifornia, U.S.A.

Photo: SOLIDREAM www.solidream.net



In January 2012 www.travellingtwo.com together with www.bicycletraveler.nl held aphoto contest to nd a cover photo for the next edition of the Bike Touring SurvivalGuide. More than 700 pictures were entered and on the following pages you canview a selection of inspiring images thatcapturethe feeling of traveling by bicycle.



Huascarn National Park, PeruPhoto: MATT KELLY www.pedalpanam.com

ChinaPhoto: RYAN DAVIES www.ryandaviesphoto.com



Sofala, Mozambique

Photo: ENRIQUE GABAS PERE www.ickr.com/photos/29759203@N06

SloveniaPhoto: CHRIS GRUAR www.cycling4cancer.com



Little Petra, Jordan

Photo: ERIC REXwww.goingbybikes.com

Chengdu, ChinaPhoto: LVARO MARTN www.rodadas.net


38/48



plug that you came across? If

not, what sort of problems did

you have?

A: Yes, it could be re-charged in anyelectrical plug. I carried an adaptorand an extension cord with 4 plugs soI could charge my phone, laptop and2 batteries at the same time. In Sudanand Ethiopia I had problems nding

'quality' electricity. Either there was noelectricity at that time of the day, or thecurrent/voltage was too weak to chargethe batteries. Luckily an electric bike

functions just like a normal bicycle!

Q: On the Gazelle website

they write that the e-bikes are

splash-proof. During your

trip did you have any problems

with the battery and motor in

regards to heavy rainfall, dust

and sand?

A: This is the thing I was most sur-prised about. I thought the electricalsystem would be fragile but it wasnt.The batteries and motor survivedtemperatures ranging from -15C to+45C, sandstorms, rain, hail, snow

storms, mud and bumpy roads. Theonly problem was that after heavyrainfall the display sometimes foggedup. Even then it still worked, but someof the numbers were no longer visible.

Q: How did the e-bike perform

with headwinds?

A: The motor added some extra speed.I usually cycled 80km a day withheadwinds.

Q: Did it help while cycling up

the steep hills of Ethiopia?

A: Carrying the extra weight of theengine and batteries almost nullied the

help of the engine when going up reallysteep hills with a grade of 10% or more.

Q: What was it like cycling

dirt roads?

A: The motor added some extra speedand gave more grip, as you have two-wheel drive. This was especially notice-

able on sandy roads.

Q: And on smooth, paved roads?

A: The electric bicycle added comfortand extra speed. Without electric helpI would normally cycle 18km/h. Withthe motor on I averaged 25km/h on at,

windless, paved roads. On the highestlevel I would have a range of over100km using the two batteries.

Q: At which times during your

trip did you choose to turn the

electric motor on?

A: I generally had the electric motoron at the highest level all the time. Ondays where I could not nd electricity or

wanted to cycle further than 100 km., Iwould switch back to medium (range180 km.) or eco (range 300 km.)

Q: What did you fnd was the

biggest advantage of using an

electric bike?

A: The main advantage was that I



arrived at the end of a 100-150kmcycling day and still had energy leftover to socialize or work on the com-puter. After a day of cycling withoutthe motor (for example in Ethiopia) allI could think about was going to sleep.

Another advantage was that I was ableto cycle this 20,000km journey in 10months instead of the 15-20 months itwould take on a normal bicycle.

One disadvantage was that I losta bit of freedom. I quickly becameaddicted to main roads which have ho-tels and restaurants where the batteries

could be charged, and thus avoided thelong, off-the-beaten-track routes.

An explanation on e- bikes from the editor

of Electric bike magazine, Peter Eland.

Electric bikes are many things to many

people. Some want to extend a trip or

arrive less sweaty, and others need ahelping hand on the hills, or to keep up

with tter riding companions. And many

just love the fun-factor of riding with

electric assist: it attens the hills and

takes the trudge out of headwinds.

In our reviews in Electric bike

magazine were somewhat cautious

and imprecise when it comes to giving

gures for range. This is because any

gure is heavily dependent on factors

including rider weight, rider effort, hills,

headwinds, tire ination, power mode,

air temperature and more. And these

are not minor inuences. A lightweight,

t and frugal user on the at could get

ve times the range of a heavy, unt

rider in serious hills, for example. So

in isolation, any one range gure is

relatively meaningless.

So how can you tell whether a bike

will have enough range for you? The

best way is to hire one and try it on your

route, or take the advice of an experi-

enced dealer. For what its worth, most

full-size machines seem to be designed

around an average of 20-30 mostly

at miles with gentle pedaling. If your

needs are likely to exceed those condi-

tions, your options are to seek out anextended range model or just carry a

spare battery!

Issues of Electric bike magazine

can be downloaded for free at:

www.electricbikemag.co.uk

www.bicycletraveler.nl

Subscribe now, its

FREE!Subscribers can

download earlier issues

ofBicycleTravelerat:

BT



Ups and Downs: A Cycling Journey across the Alps by Michael Tran tells the story

of his bicycle journey from Paris to Munich. This humorous and entertaining book

combines two of the authors greatest passions in life, bicycle touring and graphic

design. For more infromation see: www.facebook.com/BicycleTouringVisualStory


43/48JUNE 2013 - WWW.BICYCLETRAVELER.NL 43VietnamImageRoad:the from

KARLIJN JUKES


44/48



DIRK HUYGHEhttp://bikeandtrek.com

Nepal

ImageRoad:the

from



Washout. Some days just are, nothing you can do or pre-

pare for and no level of positive thinking will change that.

6.15 am Wake up in my tent. We(Steve and and my friend Nyomi) hadcamped with the police in the out-skirts of a small town. I tell Nyomi

Im excited about the day ahead,my rst day riding through Masai

country (Kenya). Im optimistic wellcover a good 140 km before sunset.7:00 am Tent down, bike packed,mango consumed, police thanked.7.01 am Attempt to pump up back tyre.Pump breaks and air escapes from tyre.

8:00 am Multiple attempts to xpump using gaffa tape, o-rings and myleatherman eventually fail8.01 am Punch air, throw pumparound petulantly, curse everything8.10 am Wander into town. Cant nd

any bike pumps for sale but manage toget tyre re-inated

9.15 am Set off9.25 am Puncture9.30 am I repair it, cycle some tenkilometres on Nyomis bike into townand back to get tyre re-inated9.50 am Return with tyre9.51 am Realise I have another slowpuncture. I repair another tube and thistime Nyomi cycles back into town withthe wheel to get tyre re-inated10.15 am -Nyomi returns with inated tyre

10.20 am Realise Nyomi has a puncture

10.30 am Fix Nyomis puncture andinate tyre with our other pump (the

one that only works with the valves onNyomis bike)10.45 am Nyomis pump breaks. Tyrenot fully inated but we cycle off anyway11.15 am Nyomi gets a puncture. Wex it and re-inate the tyre by screwing

together parts of the two broken pumps12:00 pm We lose a bolt in the sandand spend half an hour searching for it12.30 pm We sit down for lunch.

Nyomi sits on an ants nest, I sit on athorn bush.13.30 pm We set off again15.30 pm Thunder, lightning andheavy downpour. We get a soaking.16.00 pm We agree to ofcially class

the day as a washout and a write-off.Weve covered 26 km all day.

16.30 pm We nd a cheap hostel anddecide to focus on tomorrow. As I liftup my bicycle to get it over the stepsthe back wheel falls off. Id forgottento tighten it back on again after I xed

my last puncture. Crowd of onlookerslaugh. So do I.

WASHOUTBy: STEVE FABES

Dr. Steve Fabes aims to cycle the length of

the 6 continents while raising money for the

U.K. health charity Merlin. You can follow

him at: www.cyclingthe6.blogspot.com.

BT


48/48

TravelerBicycle

Parting shot

With a at tire and no extra inner tubes my friend shows his true Boy

Scout skills by shoving grass in the tire! Amazingly this held until the next

town, admittedly going at a rather weedy speed. ~ Charlie Baxter

Photo:CHARLIEBAXTERhttp://charliebaxter-cb.tumblr.com

Bicycle Traveler Magazine June 2013

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Transcript of Bicycle Traveler Magazine June 2013