- “If you want to learn to swim jump into the water. On dry land no frame of mind is ever going to help you” -Bruce Lee
-
Recent Posts
- Strange bike designs and the experience of cycling
- David Bryne – the Bicycle Diaries, Cycle touring as a narrative and a way to understand the ‘real world’
- The Collective – Roam – Six million ways to live, choose one.
- 21 Observations about Mongolia – tips for the Mongolia traveller
- Seth Godin on the Tribes we lead
Photos from Flickr
Popular Posts
Photo Prints for sale
Pages
- About
- Adventures with bikes
- Bike Maintenance
- Gear
- Brooks England Champion Flyer Leather Touring ATB Bicycle Saddle
- Carradice Super C Bicycle Touring Panniers
- Chris King Mountain Bike NoThreadset Headset
- Extrawheel Single Wheel Trailer
- Kona Caldera Aluminum Mountain Bike Frame
- Kona Explosif Steel Mountain Bike Frame
- Magura Louise Disk Brakes
- Magura Odur Mountain Bike Suspension Forks
- Schwalbe Marathon XR Long Distance Touring Tyres
- Singlespeed Converter
- Sun Rhynolyte Hardcore Mountain Bike Wheel Rims
Archives
Category Archives: Asia
Georiders – Mountain Biking in the Republic of Georgia
When I was travelling in India in 2009, I often dreamt of going back to Georgia and doing loads of mountain biking. I wanted to get involved in the local biking community and contribute. Back in Georgia, I was lucky to meet some local mountain bikers. I didn’t expect to find them because I thought [...]
Also posted in Constructive Ranting, Georgia Tagged Cycling, Georgia, georiders, Mountain Biking Leave a comment
Mongolia Mountain Biking Adventure – Some thoughts in retrospect
Yesterday I cycled 140km from Dover to Central London where I now reside. I’ve had a lot of time to digest the brilliant travel experience I’ve had in the last 2 months.
The relative shortness of the Mongolia trip compared to previous trips has not made it feel less worthwhile. On the contrary the trip has [...]
Also posted in Expedition Journal, Mongolia, Mountain Biking Tagged Adventure, bike touring, Mongolia, Mountain Biking, tips Leave a comment
Frozen Lakes, Mosquito infested bogs, and riding down rivers
Tom and I headed from Moron, where we had taken some days off to rest, to Hatgal which is a town on the Southern tip of lake Hovsgol. We had grown sick of pedalling across the steppe and were in search of a change of scenario (quite literally). We met two Finnish and an Australian [...]
A couple of Morons go off the beaten track
Over the last week of riding Tom and I have hit the off the beaten track after deciding that it would be more interesting. From Bulgan we reached the end of the asphault which was a token gesture as we left the settlement. Soon we were back on the dirt tracks which have made Mongolian [...]
Wind-powered pedalling and diving into walls of dust for fun
Summed up the last week has been a lot of fun cycling off-road tracks through stunning scenery with a generous helping of bizarre weather conditions.
We started out from Ulaan Baatar on a hot sunny afternoon through the gridlocked traffic but were soon in the countryside. We stopped briefly for a plate of noodles with mutton [...]
Soviet Mattress Suspension and Ulaan Baatar
Tom and I are now in Ulaan Baatar. The bus journey here was arduous. We expected it to take around seven hours but it took the entire day. However, one day is nothing compared to the four days on the train. The bus had extra springy suspension and Tom and I were lucky enough to [...]
Mountain biking across Mongolia – Trans Siberian to Ulan Ude
Tom and I are in Ulan Ude. We spent 4 days on the train and 5600km on the Trans Siberian crossing Russia from Moscow. I came overland from London to Moscow via Eurolines and Ecolines buses. Tom came from Yerevan on trains and buses and took the ferry from Trabzon (Turkey) to Sochi (Russia).
The countryside [...]
Travelling back from Georgia for Christmas
I travelled back to the UK from Georgia by public transport to spend Christmas with my family. The journey was an adventure of it’s own. I took overland public transport instead of flying because of the environment impact of flying from carbon emissions. I also find flying quite boring and psychologically disagreeable especially after [...]
Also posted in Europe, Expedition Journal, India Tagged boat, Bus, Christmas, England, Europe, family, Georgia, georgians, public transport, Train, travel 2 Comments
Curry, Dolma and Wilderness Mountain Biking in Armenia
Tom emailed me last week and to tell me he was going to follow an old man on a horse to a hot spring at 3000m. That sounded like my idea of fun so I decided to go to Yerevan and do it.
I went to the bus station in Ortachala in Tbilisi at 9.30 am [...]
Also posted in Armenia, Expedition Journal, Mountain Biking Tagged Adventure, Andy, Armenia, biking, caldera, church, Curry, Cycling, dolma, epic, explosif, kona, Mountain Biking, Mountains, retro, snow, tom, Wild, wildnerness 4 Comments
A Caucausus Mountain Bike adventure in Khevsureti
Tom, David and I went for a bike ride into the Caucasus mountains of Georgia. I’d been planning it for a while and I wanted to get some proper riding in before the snows descended. Tom arrived on the Sunday but leaving was delayed until Tuesday. To pass the time we decided to build up [...]
Also posted in Expedition Journal, Georgia, Mountain Biking Tagged bread, Caucasus, cheese, Dogs, epic, Extrawheel, Food, Khevsureti, kona, mountain bike, Mountains, mtb, off-road, Tbilisi, tour, trailer, wilderness 6 Comments
Weddings, unlike lightning, strike in the same place twice…
This is the first post in a while to the Ride Earth blog because I’ve not been cycle touring recently.
I returned via Public transport back from France to Tbilisi at the end of the summer. I met Tom in Venice and we spent a long and strange evening sleeping on a bench drinking wine with [...]
Also posted in Europe, Expedition Journal, Georgia Tagged Cycling, Georgia, Life, Mountain Biking, Tbilisi, Wedding, Work Leave a comment
Memories from Iran
I wanted to write something more about my experience in Iran. At the time I didn’t write much on the blog. But I did write a lot in my diary which will appear in a book in the future.
Some experiences stay in my mind in particular. They started at Agarak, the Armenian-Iranian border. I remember [...]
Also posted in Expedition Journal, Georgia, Iran Tagged bam, Couchsurfing, culture, Cycling, desert, history, Iran, isfahan, kerman, memories, Philosophy, south iran, yazd Leave a comment
A Two Month Storm
Long time since I wrote, I know. In fact I’ve been spending a lot of time in front of a computer. I’ve been writing every morning and now have written 95000 words of my book. I met one of my sister’s friends a couple of days ago who has just finished writing a book she [...]
Also posted in Climate Change, England, Europe, France, Georgia, Mountain Biking, Switzerland, Turkey, writing Tagged 4HWW, andrew welch, biking, boat, CENN, Climate Change, creativity, critiscism, Cycling, Dancing, dave allen, demonstrations, design, effectiveness, England, Environment, folklore, freedom square, Georgia, georgian, georiders, greece, GTD, Motivation, Mountain Biking, ngo, parliament, Photography, portfolio, public transport, rustaveli, saakashvili, saburtalo, swimming, Tbilisi, Timoty ferriss, travel, Turkey, uk, Websites, writing 3 Comments
10 things I’ve learnt from writing a book so far
I’m now 55,000 words into my book’s first draft and I’ve learnt a few things which I thought I’d share:
Get up early in the morning to write. e.g. 6 am. I tried writing late at night and got into a counter-productive routine of falling asleep at 10.30 pm, waking up at 2 am and working [...]
Also posted in Climate Change, Expedition Journal, Georgia, writing Tagged Cycling, learning, Process, productivity, tips, writing 5 Comments
21 Observations about Mongolia – tips for the Mongolia traveller