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| Two bikes, Two cities, 1200 kilometers, One goal: change the world by teaching kids to read |
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| On the bike: Life in the saddle |
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| When something sits between your legs for 7 hours a day, and all your hopes, dreams and aspirations for two weeks rest on the performance of that thing, you get quite attached to it. So, our bikes were important to us. Oddly, Nicolas, the Swiss guy, was riding an American Trek bike (850 with Deore XT and Rolf Wheels, if you care about such things). David, the American Guy, was riding a Swiss Bike (BMC Gattopardo, full Deore XT). A lot of our attention each day was devoted to these bikes. In the photo at left, Nicolas unpacks his bike after we arrive in Lhasa (it had spent the last 8 days in a box, so it needed some care). |
| The terrain was challenging for any bike. Not least because of the constant pounding and extremely dry conditions (see next page for some not so dry conditions). Here, Nicolas pauses at a turn in the only road visable for a bajillion miles. We had been riding next to a very strange sea of massive rocks, which you can see on the left of the photo. |
| Our machines performed flawlessly for most of the ride (the Trek giving up with 500m to go to the hotel in Kathmandu, with a broken front derailleur and a bent middle chainring). Pemba and Tenzing, our driver and guide, both enjoyed working on the bikes. We would show them how to put the things together, how to make sure they were ready in the morning and they would be all over those bikes. We even got Tenzing to ride one of the bikes in Tingri. Here, Tenzing holds Nicolas' bike while Pemba puts the wheels back on after some adjustments. In the background, you can see my bike and the entire earth behind that. |
| With scenery like this, no matter how much your ass is killing you, it's a pleasure to be on the bike. |
| Nicolas, bike, mountains, long road with no turns for the next day or so. |
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| Since Tenzing and Pemba were driving in the Land Cruiser with most of our gear, we didn't need to carry much. On the back of my bike, you see a pack (Nicolas had one on the front of his bike). The pack contained some first aid stuff, camera, sun block, powerbars and gels, map, tigerbalm, sunglass lenses, money and passport, as well as an extra jacket or something like that. By the end of the trip, anything that went into the pack came out smashed from the road. |