Paul_P

Interesting rack, gets around the complication of mounting to a suspension fork. I wonder if unsprung weight is much of an issue when common touring wisdom recommends a rigid fork making everything unsprung.

I like my suspension fork - and the fact that it's a cheap one (just two coils) makes it about impossible to break.

The bike looks similar to mine, could it be a cheap Specialized ?

I only dream of going on a very long tour, for now...

Tourist in MSN

I was curious, but could not find a label that was not covered with stickers. I met her in 2014 in year 7 of her long tour, so the bike would be from 2007 or earlier, probably bought in South Africa.

Roughstuff

of course, Guinness has to have a standard criteria otherwise they would not really be able to authoritatively state that a world tour had taken place or not. But as far as I’m concerned around the world tour doesn’t have to mean go to every single continent see every single square mile, etc. My world tour started in Alaska and finished in southern South America, I flew to Portugal and went across Europe, the Middle East and Asia to the Korean peninsula through China. To me that’s a world tour OK. Oddly enough, I really did want to do some cycling in Africa, but I was afraid I would get malaria. As it turns out, I got malaria anyway! The main reason I did not do Africa, however, is I wanted the bicycle tour to be two years in length not three.

Roughstuff

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i’m the exact opposite, I usually recommend to people who are touring that they travel alone. It is a lot easier to meet strangers when you are solitary, and you have a lot of time for reflection and self analysis of what you just went through over the course of a day or over a longer period of time. When I was planning my world tour, I thought about having somebody come along and they’re really were only two people who I knew who would have any chance at all of enjoying the experience. So I went by myself. It made the experience unforgettable.

Roughstuff

a dream is a good start.

mev

I have done a mixture of both. A nice thing on an extended tour is that it offers the possibilities of doing different things, e.g. in 2007 I did:
- A solo set of riding through Texas (one month)
- A ride from Amsterdam to Vladivostok (six months); to St Petersburg was solo and across Russia was with Dutch and English speaking cyclist
- A ride across China with TDA group of ~30+ (two months)
- A solo ride across Thailand (one month)

When I went from one phase to another, I enjoyed the contrasts. For example cycling with someone else through Russia took some adjustment because she was faster than me. Other than ~10 days where we lost each other, we camped in same place each night and generally traveled separately during the day. My brother also came to make it a trio for a few weeks. After cycling with one person I was happy to be in a group for a while in China and then just as happy to be solo in Thailand.

Everything else being the same:
- In English speaking countries I prefer cycling solo where I can interact more with locals
- In non-English (and non-Dutch) speaking countries, it is nice to cycle with someone else - both to problem-solve and to have more significant conversations than the "where are you from, where are you going" sequence I get very good at in whatever language
- If things are more complex with borders/visas or related logistics such as for me Africa or China then at least for a while I appreciate a group for trading off logistical help vs. independence
- After a while in one mode, then it is also nice to switch. An extended trip makes it easier to have such phases in different areas

I'm sure others are wired differently...