Saturday, March 30, 2013

First Impressions

My new bike.... It's Just Fantastic!. Possibly the best bike I have ever ridden. I am not a bike expert but I have owned a few bikes and ridden a lot of different bikes from mountain bikes through to a full on race bikes, such as the Pinarello Dogma 2. As of today I've been ridding the bike for a couple of days now. Thorn Sherpa MK2 is stable, smooth and very comfortable. I'm really pleased how the bike feels in general, although it is quite a bit heavier than my race bike I'm surprised how fast it is and how well is climbs. In fact it climbs better than my Specialized Secteur Comp 2012 although they are two very different bikes.
The riding position is bang on and I felt that I could of ridden all day. I bought this bike over the phone and I didn't test ride it, so I was little worried about the sizing, but the guy's at Thorn know their stuff and reassured me that the size was right for me. How right they were. The Bike feels like it was custom made for me.. It's perfect.


For Tech Sake

Staying in contact with family and friend's whilst on my trip is very important to me. Having the ability to speak to loved one's or video calling them something of a must. If nothing else just to reassure them that I am in good shape and all is well. I am a keen photographer and I would like to document my trip using some of the photos I will be taking.

Laptop

Now, my original thought was to buy a cheap laptop. I noticed a flaw in my plan, A small laptop is not cheap. Yes you can buy a laptop for around £300.00 pounds but there is a problem. Number one, it's going to be too big and number two, who needs to be dragging along the Titanic with them. To get a small laptop, or should I say an ultra book, it going to set me back £600.00 min. Then there is the weight issue. Not a problem when your at home but when riding around Europe it's something you need to think about.  
The laptop I chose was the Lenovo IdeaPad U410 Ultrabook coming in at £699.00. The spec on this laptop is really good for the price but at the end of the day it's still a lot of money. Then there's is the weight issue, at 1.85 Kgs it's not really heavy but this is just the laptop and not the charger. So with the charger this would come in at around 3.6 Kgs. Then you have the battery life, which at best will give you about 8 hours... so the manufacturers claim? But in reality I think 3 to 4 hours, is a more realistic estimate. Managing power is a different matter also. I looked at the Solar Gorilla which is a fairly large solar capture device and a power gorilla which is a solar storage unit. So all in all with the Laptop and Solar units I would be looking at £1000.00 


Tablets 

The idea of a laptop soon became unrealistic. I looked at the Apple Ipad and the Mini Ipad. The main problem's that I encontered was firstly price, secondly price and thirdly, there is absoulutey no way of loading images on to these devices without  the aid of a computer. Now Danny a good friend of mine, advised me about google's Nexus tablet. We started looking at the Nexus 7 which comperes to Apples Mini Ipad. The price was bang on, at only £200.00 for the 32 gig version, compered to Apples £350.00 for the same storage, but what about loading images on to it? Well that's not a problem either. There is a app called Nexus media importer that cost £2.62. which lets you import images and other media such as music or even video footage. I will also need a OTG cable which uses the mirco usb on the nexus and a normal female USB socket, there fore allowing you to plug in a media device such as a card reader. There is also the power consumption. The Nexus will run for 9 hours on the web, and has a standby time of around 300. hours. Managing the power needs of the tablet, my iphone, my camera and various accessories will all be  catered for with the Powermonkey Extreme coming in at £120.00




So all in all my communication, creativity, entertainment and power needs will come in at £320.00 pounds. 
Needless to say I've ordered the Nexus 7. I'll let you know how things pan out.  

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Solving My Data Needs

Thank you Brussels for the Euro roaming rules. This means that at £1.99 per day O2 will give me 25MB of data.

Personal Hotspot

I wanted to know if I could use my phone as my personal hotspot, so I took a look at O2's T&C and I am happy to report that its allowed. This is great news as I can know use apps or software like Skype to communicate. Staying in contact was a concern of mine, and also having the ability to use either use my phone or laptop to search via the internet is vitally important to me, especially when looking for a place to stay. 


Click the picture above to link to O2 travel.

Where Is My Bike?

Today the bike arrived.

Friday, March 22, 2013

No Turning Back

I had trouble sleeping last night, I wasn't sure if its the cold I've got or the fact that I've got two months before I leave on my journey and the only thing I've purchased is my ferry ticket. When I woke up it was still on mind. What the hell am I waiting for I asked myself. 
I was wrestling with the fact that Thorn, the people who make the bike are in Somerset and I should really go down there and look at all the options and get fitted out before spending all this money.
The problem was finding the time to drive down there and because they are not open on the weekend. This means taking time off work which I didn't really want to do as my work have been really good to me and I did want to take advantage. 

So whilst checking out Thorns website http://www.sjscycles.co.uk
I saw they had a ex display bike that seemed to fit the bill. After a telephone call and going through some options I purchased my new bike.. So now I am the owner of my first touring bike. 

It's a Thorn Sherpa MK2 510XL finished in Satin black. 
Now I need to give her a name, after all I will be riding here every day! lol 
At the same time I purchased the front and rear panniers, handlebar bar and a Brooks B17 saddle. Click here for a list of items purchased to date. 

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

One Step Closer

Today I am one step closer to my adventure of a lifetime with the purchase of my ferry ticket. My departure day is set for Tuesday 4th June and I sail at 17.15 from Portsmouth and arrive at Santander on the following day at 18.15.

I am not a seadog so to be honest I am not looking forward to this part of the journey but I am very excited now I've booked the ticket. 


Now I need to buy everything else. Also this just come into my mind. I arrive in Santander at 18.15 which will not give me anytime to find somewhere to camp for the night. I better start looking for a B&B for when I arrive.. 


My Journey begins... 


Update. booked a B&B for the night I arrive. 





Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Not Long Now

It's now just over three months before I leave on my adventure and I've not purchased a single item yet. To say I am getting a little jumpy is an understatement. Also it's all I am thinking about at the moment. I've made my list of item needed, I've roughly planned my route and mentally got my head around the idea of travelling on my own for three months. I've thought about how to keep clean, wash my clothes, eat, stay healthy, all the things we take for granted.
I've also worked out with my employers a plan to cover me while I am away so everything is really in place now. 

Today I really feel my adventure is starting. 


Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Congratulations

Congratulations to Steven Skelton for coming up with the winning name for my adventure.