Categories
Adventure Bicycle Travel

Departure Day

Today was the day of departure, which involved a flight to Reykjavik (who knew it’s actually called Keflavik?), and then onto New York City JFK.

Leaving family on a trip that’ll last multiple months is always pretty rubbish so this morning I thought the best strategy would be to get the goodbyes done speedily and try not to dwell. And what better way to take your mind off of something than faff about with tired and moody airport staff?

Getting to Manchester airport with loads of time in hand, the bike box, which is absolutely massive, took a long while to sort. After plenty of waiting around, the bike being brushed for dynamite, and some very funny looks, the ample buffer time actually ended up being a mad frantic rush to get on the plane in time.

After the previous couple of days, I was totally shattered so slept like a log for most of the first flight and landed in Iceland around 3.00pm local time for a quick switch onto the America leg.

Looking out of the plane from Iceland to America made the cycling part of the project, for the first time, tangible in my mind.  I think I’d been blocking out the reality of the task before that moment. The expanse just coming over the east coast of Canada and dropping into the US is quite something. I was surprised to feel very anxious about it all. Not about the ride, sure it’s a long trip but it’s simple. More the thought of being away from family and friends for months and coping with that. Theres a lot of ground to cover, a ton of time to think, and it’s most certainly going to be an adventure.

Back to the journey, it was all going so well, until the captain clearly was staying in the air intentionally. He’d earlier said that all was well, they just had to clear snow off the runway for twenty minutes or so. Snow? What snow? They didn’t mention that on the forecast! He swooped down, getting very close to landing, and then suddenly used full throttle to avoid touchdown and begin a rapid ascent. Something was clearly wrong, or he just liked drawing shapes on the trip computer.

There was minimal visibility and poor weather, and landing safely wasn’t going to happen. (EDIT: Turns out the Nor’easter had arrived) Then a tannoy announcement. “Ladies and gentleman, due to deteriorating  weather in New York, we have no alternative but to divert to Washington D.C.”  Shit! This threw a major spanner in the works as the entire trip navigation was waiting at a hostel in NYC. A Magellan GPS and ACA maps. Bugger.

Waiting around at Washington D.C. it was quite unclear whether we’d be going back to JFK, until finally the pilot “wanted another pop at it”. And this time with success, and applauses from the cabin.

After cueing through customs, it was time to collect the bags and bike box. The bags came quickly, and then nothing. It took about an hour after everyone had collected their baggage for a friendly chap to bring the bike box into the collection area. It was quite surprising to see the box in absolute tatters! It made moving it a challenge but thankfully everything is in tact.

Leaving the airport, as they’d said, it was snowing in New York, apparently for the first time this year. Not a whiteout or anything but moderate snow and strong gusts.

After a day of mini-epics, I finally made it to the hostel, bike and bags in tow. In a weird way, I enjoyed the travel issues. It wouldn’t be an adventure if nothing went wrong on day 1 right?

Just one last thing –  a massive shout out to all those who have helped and supported the project in the last few weeks. It’s been amazing, so thank you! It begins!

 
Categories
Bicycle Travel

Bicycle Touring: Spec

This is a post about the bicycle spec. To see more about other touring gear and equipment, see this post.

The bike is finally sorted. It’s changed a lot in the last few weeks, from something which was more ‘cycle-to-the-shop’ than ‘cycle-round-a-continent’ to something, I hope, a little more robust and up for the job.

It’s had a revamp: upgraded wheels, upgraded saddle, upgraded pannier rack.

Took it out for the first time fully loaded yesterday. It’s, umm, quite a shock to the system when it comes to ascending. Down hill and flat, it really doesn’t feel so bad at all. It was surprising how nimble and controllable it is. Up hill is a different kettle of fish altogether though, so that’ll be interesting.

Anyway for those into their gear specs, here it is:

Accessory wise, there’s:

Categories
Bicycle Travel

Bicycle Touring: Gear List

I’m not gonna beat around the bush here, I’m not a gearhead and don’t think it’s as important as people make out. Please don’t let “not having the latest gear” stop you from going out and having an amazing experience. A bin bag makes a great rain coat. But I get that these kind of lists can be useful as a guideline, so this is a post about the gear and equipment I chose to take on a multi-month cycle tour. To see the bike spec, click here.

There’s loads of different ways that people gear up for cycle touring, but if you’re thinking of doing something similar to the Vague Direction project that involves multiple months on the bike, through a variety of seasons, I hope this is a useful resource for you to figure out your own travel solution.

Clearly different times of year and different routes call for different gear lists, but something similar to this should give you enough options to stay warm in temperatures down to around -10ºC and handle fairly extreme weather conditions. (I will only ever recommend gear that I personally enjoy using).

Sleeping System

  • Thermarest
  • Thin Foam Matting (to be used under the tent on hard surfaces)
  • Bergans Compact Light 2-man tent
  • Bergans Senja Ice Sleeping Bag (long version)
  • Bergans Sleeping Bag Cover (for being discreet when putting a tent up wouldn’t be wise)
  • Sea to Summit Silk Liner
Cooking

Clothing System

It comes down to layers, being covered for even the worst weather, and easy temperature control.

  • Glittertind waterproof
  • Isfjorden light insulated jacket
  • Vier fleece jacket
  • Imingem trousers
  • Variety of Merino Wool undergarments and socks
  • Marmot Dri-clime jacket
  • Helly Hansen Balaclava
  • Montane ultra lightweight pertex jacket
  • North Cape thinsulate waist coat
  • Mountain Hardwear lightweight shirt

Specifically for cycling, I’m using:

Baggage

Lighting
Tools / bike maintenance 

Misc

There’s also a variety of filmmaking gear not on the list. All in all, including camera stuff too which isn’t listed, this comes in at around 30 kilograms. Oh yeah, and it all fits in the pannier bags!

Categories
Adventure Bicycle Travel

Welcome to Vague Direction

Welcome to the Vague Direction project.

The website has just gone live today, so there’s a lot that’s new to share!

Have a look around, and take a look at some brand new video content:

I’m hoping that this blog eventually becomes a useful resource for all things touring, adventure and filmmaking. It will be a place to find out what’s happening in the Vague Direction project, so previews of featured people, and updates on actually doing the journey and such. There are some great, and very diverse, featured people who will be involved in the project, so stay tuned. But also, the blog will be kept fresh by exploring topics as broad as travel, adventure and documentary through the use of guest posts and video interviews, plus specialist cycling-related areas such as nutrition, injury prevention and techy repairs.

Thank you for your interest in the project!

Categories
Adventure Bicycle Travel Interviews

Interview with Mark Beaumont

Before the Vague Direction project commenced, I met up with Mark Beaumont to discuss several topics that relate to the project.

The obvious one is endurance cycling. In 2008, he smashed the world record for cycling round the world. After that, he cycled from Alaska to Southern Argentina, climbing Denali and Aconcagua along the way. So clearly he knows what he’s talking about when it comes to adventurous cycling expeditions.

But more than that I was intrigued about his career path, why he thinks it’s so important to follow your instinct and pushing your comfort zone.

Hope you enjoy the clip!

Categories
Bicycle Travel Interviews

VIDEO: Injuries and Rehabilitation

I met with Graham Theobald from The Body Rehab clinic recently to try to and gain a bit of knowledge when it comes to cycling injuries and prevention. He’s currently doing a PhD in cycling-related knee pain, and is a die-hard cyclist, so it was really useful and eye opening to talk to him about what a long-distance cyclist may come up against.

In this short video, we discuss the injuries that a touring cyclist is likely to encounter. 

Categories
Adventure Bicycle Travel

Slight setback.

Had to put the commencement date back by three weeks, so now it all kicks off on the 7th November.

Getting itchy feet now, but the delay does bring positives in terms of preparedness for sure.

I suppose it makes sense to at least get a couple of big days in now too, test the system and all that!

Categories
Adventure Philosophy

If not now, when?

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking. Don’t settle.” Steve Jobs

I know I know, it’s a cliche to use a Steve Jobs quote at the start of a blog post.

But, what he says kind of gets to the reason of why the Vague Direction project has come about. It’s easy to fall into a lifestyle, a career, whatever, almost by accident. And whilst it’s convenient to keep your doubts and insecurities about it locked up, if you are constantly thinking of something you’d rather be doing, somewhere you’d rather be, whatever that is, you know something needs to change.

You know that phrase “sort your life out”? There’s no reason to feel defeated if you haven’t found your calling yet, but there’s certainly a reason to keep looking.

I’ve been doing commercial advertising work in some shape or form for over 4 years now. There have been many points when I’ve thought ‘this is incredible’. But for the last few months, I’ve realised that the passion that brought me to this place has become mixed up, and it’s become less. Sometimes you have to make the difficult decision to shake it up. And do something that you know is what you want to be doing.

So the time was right to keep looking and not settle. To jump into a new lifestyle, one that’s healthier (for mind & body), and try to make a personally meaningful piece of work that gets back to the root of why I got into this game in the first place. Fingers crossed.

Categories
Bicycle Travel

The best form of training.

I haven’t been doing any training for the past few weeks. What with finishing work, and organising logistics, there’s little time to make room for anything else. Before that I did the odd 50Km on a training bike, but it’s safe to say that any gains made by that are long gone.

But to be honest I’m not that worried about lack of conditioning.

There are three reasons for this lack of training:

1) Of course doing a few weeks of cycle training will put me in a better shape than no weeks of training, but, as the trip is going to take several months (potentially up to 12 months), there’s plenty of time to get into condition along the way.

2) I think training may make me think – “Oh God what am I getting in to?”. The realisation that it’s not going to be easy is one that I’m quite happy to keep at bay until I’m in the US, standing under that seemingly never-ending hill climb.

3) The training bike is way too small.

The best form of training for a trip like this, I hope, is just to crack on and get on with it.

Categories
Bicycle Travel

The wheels – starting to take shape.

About 5 or 6 years ago, I was fully into trials riding. With riding everyday, and the strain that the trials bike came under, came a required knowledge of bike maintenance.

There was a time when bleeding brakes, building wheels, replacing brake pads was part of the daily post-ride routine.

But that’s long gone.

Now, I’m building up the touring bike, in preparation for the Vague Direction Project. Whilst there’s still a reasonable base level of basic maintenance skills, the vast majority have vanished and need to be re-learnt.

I’m hoping I can learn these skills now, before having to do them in a severe downpour by the side of a road.

EDIT: Since this blog post was written, and the photo taken, the bike has changed a lot. Take a look at the bike spec page to see the update.