Maybe I shudda said "Hello" before

[Enogeze]

Hi there.

Not sure of the etiquette of the forum but thought that maybe I should just say a brief few words of introduction.

I got my Dawes Galaxy 2 days ago so am very much a newbie to cycle touring. I'd been looking at Dawes bicycles but seeing posts from BigTallFatBloke about how it coped with his former weight swayed me. I've got loads to research to do (tools, panniers, rainwear, saddles, tents, etc) and aim to dig around CC and see if I can shed light on these matters.

For starters I'm just making commuter trips but hope that in the not too distant future I'll eventually be able to do +/-50 miles a day. For inspiration I'm working through some Josie Dew, Anne Mustoe, Pam Goodall, Alaistar Humphreys. It was great to find out about crazyguyonabike.com from Cathryn's TeamRamsden signature!

I'm originally from South Africa but moved via England to Mallow, Co. Cork, Ireland which is home base. I'm a bit of a jack of all some trades (IT support guy - motorcycle courier - taxi driver - English teacher amongst other things). I've worked abroad a bit now and again.

I was keen on motorcycles but am really interested to try and do something under my own steam now. I did one long motorcycle trip (Dallas - Los Angeles - Vancouver - Inuvik - Anchorage - Vancouver) mostly camping. North America seems pretty well developed for camping. I had one campsite to myself in mid winter in New Mexico where there was even a natural hotspring to dip into. There were no campsite staff, only a little sign saying "Please put $3 into the mailbox."

I'm conscious that time is not infinite and maybe I should try and get into this cycling marlarky before I reach that stage where the mind says "Go! Go!" but the legs don't wanna participate any more!

So I'm looking forward to reading the CC forums and hopefully will be in a position to contribute more as I get some experience.

Grant

(The photo is me near Guilin, China on an old banger of a Chinese bike that I'd rented for the day.)

 

[rich p]

'morning. Sounds like everywhere is abroad for you! Cycle touring is a great way to get a really close-up feel for a country. I recommend it highly.
You're very welcome.

 

[Andy in Sig]

Welcome.

I would offer one general word of advice: it is possible to spends loads of money on all sorts of gadgets. IMO the best thing is to find out what you need by gradually increasing the lengths of trips and the variety of conditions in which you make them. For instance, I would suggest that GPS is a pure luxury and not a necessity. The ability to read a map is a necessity (and is not battery dependant) and carrying a compass is useful for when the ability to read a map occasionally deserts you. I reckon that low tech is usually better.

 

[snorri]

Welcome Enogeze.
If you get as much touring pleasure from your Dawes Galaxy as I have had from mine, you will be a happy guy!

 

[domtyler]

Marnin'.

 

[Amanda P]

Hi - and welcome. Learn and enjoy, but don't be afraid to talk as well. It'd be awfully quiet round here if no-one did.

Mrs Uncle Phil and I went through Mallow a couple of weeks ago - and I was on a Galaxy. It was pretty wet at the time...

 

[Cathryn]

Hi

Welcome aboard....welcome to the addictive world of cycle touring. You'll never be the same again. Glad the crazyguy link was useful - it's an amazing, inspiring site...gets me through the dark cold days of winter!!!

Nice to have you on board!

 

[Enogeze]

Thanks for your welcomes

I had a look at both rich_p and cathryn's blogs on crazyguyonabike.com - real nice to get a feel for what touring might be like. Currently I'm reading Friedel's Travelling Two which is pretty amazing.

Cathryn - you must really have put a lot of time into your blog's - I had a read of the France to Austria trip - great stuff - some amazing photos - thanks a bunch - hope that leg is fully healed now.

Uncle_Phil - where did you tour in Ireland take you? I hope you got to see a whole lot more than Mallow!

Andy_In_Sig - sound advice about not going crazy on gadgets! As a consequence I've just saved myself €500 on an eeepc solid state laptop which looks pretty small and indestructable. But you still have the problems of running out of power, where to charge up, smashing it a crash and losing that blog, having it (and all your blog) nicked. It's kinda amazing how a pen and paper will solve all these problems for a couple of quid!

I am looking forward to getting a cycle computer though!

 

[jags]

what's the craic enogeze ,well you came to the wright place here great bunch of tourer's loads of good advice hope you stick around ,im up the other end of the country n/east i hope to get away this week for a couple days if work allows.

 

[Amanda P]

Enogeze, we started and finished in Banagher (where Mrs Uncle Phil is working temporarily). We headed down towards Skibbereen, but were sort of pulled off course by broken spokes, which necessitated trips to bike shops in Mallow and then Cork.

From Cork, with a fresh supply of spare spokes, we headed west and hit the coast at Ballydehob. Then we stuck to the coast around the five peninsulas: the Ballydehob one (can't remember its name), Sheep's Head, Beara (where we enjoyed the hospitality of tdr1nka and marvelled at the legendary Shedravan at Allihies), Iveragh and Dingle. We were about two hours ahead of the Tour of Ireland around the Dingle peninsula. Then back across country to Banagher.

Full details to come on our CrazyGuy pages in a couple of weeks.

 

[Enogeze]

West Cork is probably my favourite part of Ireland. Please let us know when your CrazyGuy site is updated - I look forward to reading it!

 

[Amanda P]

My favourite part too. When Mrs Uncle Phil and I were there twelve years ago, we were so inspired that... well the upshot was we became Mr and Mrs Uncle Phil.

I won't let you miss the launch of the new write-up. The photos may not be much, though, because it didn't stop raining very often...

As a taster, here is the famous Shedravan:

and a random flowery shot: