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Hello!
After 23 years and almost 130K km of service, my old bicycle buddy Jim needed replacement. The frame was cracked and this couldn't not be fixed anymore. Together we have cycled from Amsterdam to south east Asia, China and back twice with living in Asia for many years. However for this new journey I need a new bicycle, a name is not yet given. Well, it's time to show you the new bicycle. And a beauty it is!
Photo above is the new bicycle, while below is the old bike in front of my moms house in 1999 when I started my journey to Shanghai.
But who am I? I started cycling from young age, then school and finally in the mid 80's on a racebike (see the picture below). It was a Rih bicycle. I did several tours in Europe with it, France, Belgium but also in Hungary and Czechoslovakia, as it was called before the wall came down. It was a good bike for the shorter and lighter trips I did at the time. Below is my only photo of that old Rih bike.
As time passed, I needed something more robust when I started my ideas of cycling in Asia in the late 1990's which were given to me by and English guy in north Pakistan. He cycled the Karakoram Highway on dope, that is he was all the time stoned. I thought if he can do that being stoned, I can do that sober. In the rest of my backpacking trip of that year I developed a full scale plan to cycle Amsterdam to Shanghai and when back I bought a Koga Miyata World Traveler, at that time the very first, the photo below is that very same bike just a few weeks after I bought it in 1999.
Little did I know what sort of problems I would run into, the Koga's frame was fine but it was further equiped with material not suitable for a journey I wanted to do, as I experienced in the first 1000 km. But I solved all the problems and had a wonderful time although I didn't make Shanghai (eventually Shanghai became a goal if ever reached would be the end of my cycling journeys, or so I thought).
Fast forward to the lat few months, my Koga turned out to have cracks in the frame and is therefore no longer able to do such long journeys but we did many years together and it was quite hard to let him go, like below in downtown Kowloon, Hong Kong.
So I need a new bicycle, one that is good for the job will cost in between 1200 and 1600 euro but I will also need some additional supplies, hence the 2000 euro target. Furthermore I will need a new tent, sleeping bag, cooking gear and stove and several other things I all left in Malaysia when I left there due to covid. So basically I need to rebuild my whole equipment.
Photo below during one of the 6 or 7 visits to Angkor, Cambodia.
The journey will start in Urumqi in the far west of China. The idea is to continue to cycle through the former Soviet republics Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan to and Tajikistan to the Caspian Sea.
There is a ferry to Aktau in Azerbaijan and from there to Georgia, Armenia, back to Georgia and to Greece. After Greece there are ideas but so far nothing is for sure.
Photo below, in Yangshuo, China 1999.
I have calculated it will be a total of about 15-17.000 km. This is possible when cycling 1000-1200 a month (it's not about speed, it's about the experience itself). This means it will take me about a year.
Photo below, Jim at the ferry from Langkawi, Malaysia.
The journey will start in early April and you can follow it on Facebook and Instagram (links below). There will be sights so beautiful you can hardly imagine. However, the best of the journey surely will be meeting the local people and I am very much looking forward to that. The photo below was made during a journney in Myanmar in the early 1990 in the Mandalay area where some people felt bad I was cycling alone, so they invited me for some beer (I did drink in those days).
Video/photos and stories will be available as much as possible on my social media, in fact I am already sharing already some of my poast experiences (like the one below in Turkey).
The question of course, is Greece the end of the journey? I hope not! The idea is to continue into Morocco (at least I want to see the Atlas Mountains) and who knows what might happen after.
I lived my first (Amsterdam-Pakistan and back) and second dream (Bangkok-Hong Kong-Vietnam-Laos-Cambodia-Thailand-Malaysia). In the years after I cycled a lot of different countries in Asia, a couple of years in China, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia (where I lived for several years), Singapore, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Indonesia and India amongst others. However for this upcoming journey I need some help for the fulfilment of the third (this) dream: Central Asia. The photo below was made on my 3rd visit to the Karakoram Highway, unfortunately it was too cold, I came too late in the season.
Jim has cost me lots of extra money which was not foreseen at the time. During the first 1000km, almost everything broke of the bike and I do not want to get in the same trouble this time (front rim, rear rim twice, saddle, racks both twice, stem twice, gear and brake systems, handlebar, even the frame had to be replaced!).
Central Asia is a dream I had already in 1997 after my first visit to Tibet which was even before I did my first long bikeride. Now I want to fulfill this dream I once had but never really forgot. April will be a good moment to start, so it's time to prepare. So please help a still passionate man to reach his final dream.
But why do I still need your help? After all the money you gave me was sufficient to buy me a new bicycle! And a big thank you for that. However, I had to leave all my equipment in Malaysia after the covid epidemic. So I still have to buy tent, sleeping bag, cooking facility etc,. And that is why I still need some help! Please consider 20 euros, it will be a important to me.
Thank you so much for your support.
Peter
links:
Photo below, Jim at the mainland near Penang Island, Malaysia.
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