Once upon a time - My memorable bike story

I just went through some pictures and remembered this little bike story:

Prior to moving to London me and g/f went travelling. It happend that we
were in Nepal at the time when the King had called state of emergency
and the Nepali people went to National strike , demonstrations & the Maoists started their terror.
We were stuck 200km from the border to India without any hope for transport for almost
2 weeks when suddenly the penny droped and me thought: LETS CYCLE TO INDIA
We asked arround for a bike shop and finally found one, closed of course, found the owner
and after some serious convincing bought these:

2 Made in India for 20 quid each (which already was the tourist price) brand new. SingleSpeed of course,
for the same reason like here - unbreakable simplicity.
Heavy as fsck but good bearings, but very poor stake brakes mind you
The roads were blocked for cars by heavy logs but bikes cant be stopped ! This idea out of boredom turned
into a complete highlight since there was no traffic, sun every day, mountain scenery and hidden villages we normally
would just had busride through..The landscape was REALLY moutainized as you might expect in Nepal. Hard work &
pushed a big deal... I freely admit. One day we had 30km almost constant ascend. - That was one mean bit of road.
I was writing several complaint letter to the Nepali Tourist board in my head per day and called a lot of Names.
But when you are in hell you better keep going and the only way out was forward

Plenty of interesting bike concepts (look at that saddle !) on the way and cheerful Locals hanging arround with not much on their to-do list.
Bicycles were the King on the road. They really meant business during the strike month

and after some strong 3 days we left the mountain road and cruised to the Indian Border where we even sold the bikes on for 15quid
to other Nepalis trying to get home before we entered that lunatic asylum called India

My next travels will be by bicycle...It must be the ultimate freedom. Bicycles to the people !

Thanks for reading to the end and please share your story !

that looks amazing!..i am so envious of you.i have nothing to match that..

Yeah, nice tale breglis!

brilliant, i would love to do that,
in fact i will.....

yes...one day i will

must have been so much fun

I've spoken to Dermott from http://www.redspokes.com/ a few times. I really wanna do one of their trips.

thanks guys, glad I did not bore you. do not speak about my travels much,
people often take it the wrong way, but I thought I may share his one.. Thanks !
And sorry for the bad spelling

On the road in China (Dali City) I met a French Couple
in a backpacker hostel. They had some nice imported bikes in the yard...
I stared at a little a finally got into a chat.
Me goes 'Where did you start ?' They french chick went : 'Paris'.
I just went quiet..and waddled along with head hanging in shame.
Greece-Turkey-Iran-Pakistan-India-China ! Those were clearly some more innocent days

it's brilliant.

well done and thanks for sharing

Atlas Goldline Super's or HeroJet?

Oh and cracking tale too, I'm deeply envious

You know Indian bike brands ? are you da bikepedia ?
One was named 'Hero' (mine) the other was a 'Royal' (g/f)

@hippy:
Just had a look at the redspokes website. Amazing routes and resonsible tourismn too. Me likez !
But if you manage cycle to the North Face Everst Base Camp (5300m) I will buy you a pint
whenever I see you and you are not hung over
I got bad altitude sickness somewhere there .....and I got driven there by Jeep !
Good thing though was while throwing up all night while experiencing murderous headache wasnt a big
problem because the vomit froze in minutes and did not smell. had too keep the drinking water in my sleeping bag
to rinse my mouth for same reason...So the Kathmandu-Lhasa trip must be the toughest bit of cycling known to man

breglis

@hippy:
I will buy you a pint
whenever I see you and you are not hung over

he won't refuse a pint, hungover or not

in fact, it's unlikely that a situation would exist in which he wouldn't accept a pint

breglis:
You know Indian bike brands ? are you da bikepedia ?
One was named 'Hero' (mine) the other was a 'Royal' (g/f)

:-) No, just a dyed-in-the-wool bike nerd I'm afraid - my bike nerdism was heightened by doing shitloads of cycling whilst on trips to India - I love those bikes, they're the nuts. Especially going downhill really fast, dodging cows and monkeys

breglis @hippy:
Just had a look at the redspokes website. Amazing routes and resonsible tourismn too. Me likez !
But if you manage cycle to the North Face Everst Base Camp (5300m) I will buy you a pint
whenever I see you and you are not hung over
I got bad altitude sickness somewhere there .....and I got driven there by Jeep !
Good thing though was while throwing up all night while experiencing murderous headache wasnt a big
problem because the vomit froze in minutes and did not smell. had too keep the drinking water in my sleeping bag
to rinse my mouth for same reason...So the Kathmandu-Lhasa trip must be the toughest bit of cycling known to man

I'll be sure and let you know once I've done it so you can start saving for my triumphant return pint.
I like how Dermot(t)? described it to me as "an expedition NOT a holiday".
My mate has trekked up there and he could barely walk - he was not sure how anyone could cycle at that altitude.