Adventure Cycle-Touring Handbook

Stephen Lord spent the first ten years of his working life as a banker in the City of London before getting on his bike in the 1990s to cycle the world.

INTRODUCTION PART 1: PRACTICALITIES Planning and preparation What kind of trip? 9 Research: Online and in print 11 Documentation, money and information Passports and visas 13 Money 14 Health on the road Inoculations 17 - Other health hazards 18 - Sunburn and sunstroke 19 - Altitude sickness 20 - Other hygiene issues 21 A healthy diet 21 - Learning to pace yourself 22 What bike? Narrowing down your choices 23 - Touring bikes 25 Mountain bikes 25 - Expedition touring bikes 27 - Recumbents 28 Tandems 28 - Frame material 29 - Component groups 30 Choosing a new bike Surly Long Haul Trucker 31 - Bruce Gordon Bicycles 32 - Thorn Raven Tour & Nomad S&S 32 - Koga-Miyata 33 Roberts Roughstuff 34 - Thorn Sherpa 34 - Mid-range MTBS 35 HP Velotechnik Street Machine GTE 35 - Marin Muirwoods 36 - Other dream bikes worth considering 36 - BYOB: Build your own bike 36 Adapting a used mountain bike 37 Gears, brakes and wheels Gears 39 - Choosing brakes 42 - Wheels 44 Bottom brackets and headsets 48 Comfort stations! Suspension forks 49 - Finding the sweet spot 51 Love in the saddle 53 - Handlebars 54 Racks and panniers Racks 56 - Panniers 59 Other bike accessories and tools 60 - How much stuff? 62 Transporting your bike by air 65 Clothing Layering 69 - Footwear 72 Camping Tents 73 - Bike touring tents 75 - Sleeping bags 79 - Stoves 80 Carrying Water 82 - Treating drinking water 82 - Kitchen essentials 83 Toilet bag: some suggestions 84 - Other useful camping gadgets 84 GPS 85 PART 2: ROUTE OUTLINES Europe Western Europe 89 - Eastern Europe and the Balkans 95 Asia Russia 97 - Roads & routes in Russia 103 - Turkey 105 - Lebanon, Syria & Jordan 107 - Some routes 109 - Georgia, Armenia & Azerbaijan 111 - Iran 115 - Central Asia 116 (Turkmenistan 120 Uzbekistan 120 - Kazakhstan 121 - Kyrgyzstan 122 - Tajikistan 123 The Pamir Highway 124) - Afghanistan 124 - Northern Pakistan and the Karakoram Highway 126 - India 131 (The Himalayan foothills 133 Sikkim & Darjeeling 133 - Rajasthan and the West 134 - The South 135 The Interior 135 - The East Coast 135 - The North-east 136) Ladakh, Spiti & Kinnaur 138 - China 141 - Cycling across China 141 Tibet 144 (The Friendship Highway: Lhasa to Kathmandu 146 The Tibetan epic: Kashgar to Lhasa 150 - Eastern Tibet: Lhasa to Markham 153 - Leaving Tibet: south to Zhongdian & Dali on the Yunnan Highway) - Cycling in China's south-west 157 - Mongolia 159 - From Mongolia to China 160 - Crossing the Gobi 160 - South-East Asia 163 Vietnam 165 - Cambodia 166 - Thailand 167 - Laos 169 - Malaysia 170 Singapore 171 - Indonesia 171 (Sumatra 172) - Myanmar 173 - Japan 175 Australasia Australia 178 - The Nullabor Plain 179 - South-Western Australia 180 - South Australia & Victoria 181 - An Outback Tour 181 New Zealand 184 North, Central & South America Canada 187 - USA 188 (Pacific Coast Highway 190 - Alternative routes 192 The Great Divide 195) - Cuba 198 - Baja California 199 - Central America 203 - South America 204 - Patagonia 208 (Carretera Austral 210) Bolivia 212 - Peru 215 - Ecuador 215 - Colombia 215 Africa North Africa 217 (Trans-Sahara 222 - Morocco & Western Sahara 223 Tunisia 223 - Mauritania 224) - Cairo to Cape Town 224 (Egypt 225 Sudan 225 - Ethiopia 226 - Kenya 226 - Tanzania 226 - Malawi 226 Zambia 227 - Namibia 227 - South Africa 229 - Botswana 229) West & Central Africa 229 (Guinea 230 - Mali 230 - Ghana 231 - Togo 231 Nigeria 231 - Cameroon 231 - Gabon 232 - Congo-Brazzaville 232) PART 3: TALES FROM THE SADDLE The Hungry Cyclist Tom Kevill-Davis 233 England to Australia Tim Brewer 241 High in Ladakh and the Spiti Valley Stephen Lord with Chris Scott 249 Desert Blitz - across Libya on a transit visa Peter Gostelow 255 On the run in Tibet 'Corsair' 259 A long day to Sihanoukville Jonathan Waite 267 No pay, no pass: on the edge in Central Africa Amaya Williams 273 Now check your brakes Edward Genochio 276 Tour fatale? Extracts from the diary Igor Kov?e 280 The Great Fig Hunt Alastair Bland 288 APPENDICES A: Bicycle maintenance 292 - B: Staying in touch on the road 303 CONTRIBUTORS 304 - GLOSSARY 306 - INDEX 307