Which Bike!??! Help please!!

[pkeenan]

Hi Hubbike!

Thanks for your long and detailed post. It's great to hear from someone who's pedaled S. Am. already! I'll definitely be in touch at some point for advice and queries!

As for the sponsorship - I actually feel quite bad now for even thinking of getting sponsorship! You're all totally right that companies would just donate the figure to the charity before handing it over to someone like me. And as I've said - it's the cause of the ride, and the actual ride that matter to me - not the sponsorship.
I guess i just thought I'd try because that seems to be the done thing... whoops! So I hadn't thought about it in much detail.

But it would be amazing to do it, I really want (and in many ways - feel I neeed!) to do a massive expedition like this. I've never been travelling, and as you say - cycling is a perfect way of doing it! And it's that experience that I would like to have had first hand.

Thank you all for unravelling things in my head for me...

 

[Dave Davenport]

You haven't said but I get the impression that you're fairly young? (compared to me anyway) and don't know what sort of work skills you have but maybe planning a trip that took in some places where you'd be able to stop and work for a bit to top up funds would be an idea.

 

[pkeenan]

You haven't said but I get the impression that you're fairly young? (compared to me anyway) and don't know what sort of work skills you have but maybe planning a trip that took in some places where you'd be able to stop and work for a bit to top up funds would be an idea.

You're right: I'm coming out of university this coming July. I thought of doing something along those lines - like teaching english as a foreign language - a while back. Perhaps that would be the best way! And this would give me the opportunity to integrate into the cultures.
Thanks Dave D

 

[Danny]

Willem - that is extremely helpful. Thank you!

I agree that a good frame should not break. Which brings me to think that everyone seems to talk about steel being necessary because it's repairable anywhere - but how many people have actually been in that situation?

I have read loads of forums over the last few years, and never actually heard of someone having that happen to them.

I've bent my rear gear hanger on two different steel bikes as a result of minor accidents. On both occasions this was easily repaired by a bike shop.

If I had aluminium I would have needed a new frame.

 

[pkeenan]

I've bent my rear gear hanger on two different steel bikes as a result of minor accidents. On both occasions this was easily repaired by a bike shop.

If I had aluminium I would have needed a new frame.

I don't think that's entirely true... (Not knowing the actual scenarios, you'll no doubt correct me):

The hanger is *meant* to brake/bend at impact to save impact doing anything to the actual frame. I was once coming away from some traffic lights, when my chain snapped and my rear wheel just popped out from underneath me (nightmare). Anyways, the hanger snapped clean in two. I took it to my LBS asking them whether I just had a cheap part, and he said NO, and explained that it did its job.

He explained that it is similar to a car - which is meant to fold at impact, because that's safer for people inside.

So this happened to me, on my aluminum frame - and the frame is fine.

 

[pkeenan]

Surprised you're not considering a Thorn Nomad or a Hewitt.

Just an update - I've done some more research into this bike (the Thorn), and Wow: that's pretty much the kind of thing I'm after, not sure why I overlooked it the first time!

Thinking I'll go down that route... thanks for the heads up.

 

[tbtb]

Reading your other posts, I got the impression you are on a budget but are very fit. It's a great plan, the Americas but it does sound in danger of being a plan so expensive it can never happen, almost by design.

Do you have this spending cash already or is it in the pipeline somehow? You may be better to grab a £400 bike in Anchorage (plenty of bike shops there) rather than spend ages saving up for a superbike to ship over.

Or, if the flight costs are a barrier to this plan, tour south from where you live, down through France, Spain, into Africa even, or east from France, heading towards Russia. That sounds pretty exotic! Veer towards a Ryanair airport town as the cash runs out. That sort of plan might require 1k or 2k, the sort of sum you could raise by working for a few months.

 

[pkeenan]

Thanks tbtb - yeah, you're right that the Americas is an easy one to let slip. I'll get there, though!
But yes!! You're totally right about heading through Europe, or Africa, or Asia - the world is anyone's oyster on a bike!

Many thanks to everyone's comments - it's been a very helpful thread for me, and I'll probably let you all know what comes of it when a decision is made!