Ride4Life

Starting my journey from home near Birmingham, UK, I was overwhelmed by the support of everyone who came to see me off.

A special thank you to those who joined me for the ride to Alcester—your company made the departure even more memorable, and the party poppers were a delightful touch! The weather couldn’t have been better; it was a stunning evening for cycling.

Our route took us along the National Cycle Network, weaving through Redditch before reaching Alcester. We arrived to the sweet surprise of a beautiful Victoria Sponge, a perfect way to end the ride.

Just come back from 4 days riding to and from Brecon in Wales (around 190 miles). Scenery was absolutely stunning. Those hills in Wales aren’t half hard work though, especially riding a bike i can hardly push! I shouldn’t need quite as much gear for the real thing. Here’s a picture of my bike fully loaded!

Updated: Ferry is booked, so my date of departure from the UK will be from the port of Weymouth on Monday 11th April 2011. Getting excited now!! So from this date keep an eye on my Travelogue for (hopefully) regular updates and a plot of my route.

The bike is finally complete. Well, its been complete for a few weeks now. I messed up the bar tape a bit but will redo this at a later date.

I’ve been out on two 30 mile rides, both were very enjoyable. Would like to have done more but the weather has been so bad recently. Overall I’m happy with the build but probably should have gone for a 1.5” tyre. Still to buy are racks and panniers and then I’m pretty much all set!

Its been some weeks since I started building my bike for the trip. Its now starting to resemble a bike, the only remaining items to buy before I can ride it is a brake and gearing system. I’ll need to buy mudguards, racks, panniers, etc but at least I can ride it soon and start wearing in

that Brooks leather saddle.

I have been updating the equipment list if you’re interested in my specs. I’m yet to fit the bottom bracket and chainset, just waiting on the delivery of some grease.

Building the bike myself will (hopefully) allow me to fix/bodge any breakages on the road. Thank you to the guys at Two Wheels for ordering my frame and building my wheels!