Thoughts on a bicycle

For this trip...

I'm not taking any form of corporate sponsorship, other than the free marketing which we're obliged to do for using blogger, facebook, twitter and so on. I'm not promoting any profit-making industry or shoe-horning in any vested interest. The funding for this trip comes from about £2,500 I have saved up over the last year, and the only kick-backs I have received from Shelter are the kind gifts of two red t-shirts.

ALL money donated to Shelter through the Justgiving page will go to Shelter.

I am very much inspired by the round-the-world cyclist, Julian Sayerer, whose circumnavigation by bicycle went largely ignored by the press - presumably for his ideas on cycling, politics, and the politics of the cycling. He writes here and is worth a read http://www.thisisnotforcharity.com/

I'm not constructing and cultivating a myth about myself or about the trip, as it's just a holiday. I am not aiming to break any records, though I do have to pedal quickly. I will not wax lyrical about 'the things I've seen' or write prose for prose' sake. I will not write about the 'delightful natives' I have encountered and their 'extraordinary traditions' as we share one world as one species, where culture is merely a way of trying to explain the rising and setting of the sun from different places. I will instead write honestly (and hopefully humorously) about the stuff I'll be getting up to in the next five months, for those who might be interested.

The only cause I am promoting is that of Shelter - a non-profit charity that does wonderful things for the homeless and the under-housed. It is a charity that needs, and deserves, your support.

Shelter in 2009/2010 http://england.shelter.org.uk/about_us/how_we_make_a_difference/recent_achievements

Leave date changed

The leave date has changed - it's going to be Sunday 17th April, instead of the day before

But why do I hate airports?

"The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart." Iris Murdoch

The first post should always begin with a quote, as any fledgling blogger knows, but my favourite is by JFK: "Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride". Well, yes, that is true, but I also enjoy the simple, uncomplicated pleasure of a ride in an open-topped saloon car in the afternoon sun.

Leaving aside the flight I have to take from Tehran to Mumbai, and the flight back from Australia (surely you didn't think I'd cycle there and back?), this adventure will take me through 19 countries but only three airports. So I hope you'll let me off.

So, the airports. The queues. The constant barrage of security announcements. Being patronised and humiliated by airport security: "please remove your belt", "please remove your shoes", "please take that smile off your face", "please refrain from having dirty or dangerous thoughts".

For speed and distance we put ourselves through the abattoir of the airport, forgetting that the journey, however long or arduous, is part of the adventure itself. It's a good thing to see the world from your handlebars - to see it only as fast as your pedals can turn. No one is your boss on a bicycle - you are as free as your physical limits will allow.

The bicycle and the rider become one machine - it is the most efficient method of travel: if you were to hypothetically convert calories into petrol, the bicycle would get the equivalent of 3,000 miles per gallon. However, when you're weighed down with pannier bags, tent, and all sorts of 'essential' gadgetry it probably pulls that down to about 35 miles per gallon, but that's still slightly more efficient than my old fiesta.