Surly World Troller - touring thread

Thats the problem with bicycle touring if you wanna see all the good places you will never get somewhere... but it's a good reason to go back again;)

Update time!

Now that I've read more I finally decided on going on the Southern route. I'll be following the Amsterdam-Rijn canal from Amsterdam to Tiel, then I'll follow the Rijn river into Germany to Frankfurt am Main from where I'll go to Vienna. From Vienna I'll be following the Donau river to Bratislava, Budapest, and Belgrado. From Belgrado I'll cycle southwards to Bulgaria from where I'll cross Into Turkey. Following the big rivers in Europe means I won't gain as many elevation meters, which is nice.

From there I'll cross Turkey through Ankara, Sivas & Erzurum and cross the Iranian border to travel to Tabriz & Tehran

From Masshad I'll (hopefully) cross the Turkmen border from where I'll try to race through the country before my week-long travel visa runs out. And then ...

Good news! Yay for open borders! No more need for a visa by the time I'll reach Uzbekistan. This means I can comfortably stay there for at least 30 days before I'll go to Kyrgyzstan. In Uzbekistan I'd like to see Samarkand and Tashkent but I'll have to put some more research into the region. From there I'm still planning which route to take. The massive Taklamakan desert in the Xinjiang region is keeping me up at night.

This is what the route roughly looks like right now

More good visa news: I found out I can get second passport from the Municipality. This means I can leave that second passport here, have someone else apply me for a Chinese visa in the Netherlands while I'm off somewhere camping in a ditch, and then post the 2nd Passport + Chinese visa to a post office on the road where I can then pick it up! Genius nón?

nb: suggestions for the route are more than welcome!

Bike Update time!

The Surly Troll has landed and is now with me. I also ordered the AK30 rims from Bike24, they only had one and won't be receiving new stock. Bugger. Ordered another one from Ebay, hope it'll turn up soon. Also, the SP hub is here. Feels heavy! But I think I'll be very glad to have it.

More news:

Santa (aka my girlfriend) got me a Shimano RD-M3000-SGS derailleur. Wow!
The local bikeshop is closing down... sad news

Thanks for the link!

Sub'd.
I will be reading with envious eyes.
I hope you have an amazing time.

When will you be setting off? Should come to London first and we'll throw you a leaving party!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vRQM_nH0a4

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03qb130

That bbc4 programme on the Silk Road was pretty good, particularly on the 'istan nations of west asia. The presenter's fairly unbearable but I remember it being worth watching and seems slightly relevnt to the latter bit of your trip. I think it's available on youtube for a fee

July '17 hopefully! 🙋

@fredtc thanks for the suggestion! Let's see if I can find it 😉
@Tomo187 thank you!

Yes! southern route is definately the best choice!

Why not make things just a tad more complicated and follow the Pamir Highway?

The route I made is near enough the same form Turkey onwards with the exception of the Pamir, something I've always dreamed of doing.
Really glad you went for the southern route.

Also want to see this. Not much I know, but It's a burning hole in the ground!

Adventure time! I'm so in for this!

You're welcome,
I've just remembered something and found a link,
you are the One putting a plan together.

Oof- might do that, looks awesome. The visa for Tajikistan isn't that hard to get. I'll read into it. What's the hole?

Winter riding there looks pretty casual :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0jObAKWVdM

Rode a not too similar route in 2014. Pamirs were the highlight. Can't recommend them enough. Went through in October. Was bloody freezing. Wouldn't want to go any later in the year than that!

@Heldring can you send me some La Chouffe!? I can't find it locally to me.
In fact does anyone know who stocks this in England?

EDIT! Majestics!!!

Uh oh. Wish I could leave earlier... I'll probably be there around November

@Tomo187 You can PM me if you end up not finding it!

FFS- Nobody has 559 AK30 36h rims in stock. Now I'm stuck with one rim only. ARGGHHH

I tried to order two AK30's from bike24 this summer - the emailed me to tell me that they only had the one in stock - so I ended up getting some other rims. Sad to hear, you got stock with one.

edit: They're on ebay in 32h
http://www.ebay.de/itm/Ambrosio-FELGE-AK30-26-SCHWARZ-32L-PR-EO-TQB-CLINCHER-559-24C-DISK-FA003372054-/122151033376?hash=item1c70c4da20:g:z00AAOSwNRdX539A

Wheelie all the way!

Found a 36h on Ebay but didn't have them in stock either. My options right now:

1. Send 36h rim + 36h SP hub back, get two 32h rims and a 32h SP hub instead
   
2. Get a different 36h rear rim
   
3. Get a 32h AK30 rim for the rear
   
   

All options suck :( Hope I can find another 36h AK30 rim somewhere

Option 2.

^ so much

Yes option two. Don't go for 32h. I bought a Ryde (rigida) Sputnic rim for my touring bike. Very cheap and should be extremely strong, the choice of many touring cyclists. Pretty heavy though. Plenty dutch shops have them in stock.
Edit; bought mine here for only 22 euros. http://www.fiets-onderdelen-online.nl/

Sputnik £18 each from Spa Cycles, plus postage http://spacycles.co.uk/m2b0s116p67/RIGIDA-Sputnik

+1 for sputniks. Had a set on various wheel builds, absolutely indestructible. Weighty but probably a good thing for touring