Project Announcement: Exploring Asia on a Loaded Mountainbike 2013

Some years ago I developed a desire to participate in the Iditarod Trail Invitational (Iditabike), an infamously gruelling winter event that follows nearly the same 1,100 mile course of the also infamous Iditrod Sled Race , along the Historic Iditarod Trail in Alaska. Many other ridiculous adventures came and went in my mind since that time, but the Iditabike remained on a personal pedestal of grandeur. Then I watched a documentary by the name of Long Way 'Round, by Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman. The two well known actors and their camera man Claudio, set out on matching BMW GS1150 motorcycles, to ride from London to Magadan in Siberia Russia, ultimately ending in New York, USA. They were trailed by a support crew that would help produce a television show in route and provide aid in case of disaster and to help assure the success of the business side of the venture.

Inspired,
I started to fantasize more
and wondered if I could do that.

Too much money would be needed to ride my own moto through a similar route across Asia and Europe, so I just about let that concept go.

However, as my curiosity was fed more and more by this new interest, I began to find blog after blog of other people from all over the world who have either done an intercontinental tour by moto or by pedalling a bicycle.

Of course!! By bicycle! Why not?

I thought of the guys of Riding the Spine and how they have been traveling for several years trying to get from Alaska to Ushaia in South America on Xtracycle-equipped mountain bikes. My imagination ran wild and I shelved this cracked-pot idea on the same plane as the Iditabike. The route that began to formulate in my head would take me through Siberia, Mongolia and then southbound through the former Soviet Block countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. I would pass over the icy roads of the Karakoram Highway in northern Pakistan and into India where I saw myself spending a significant amount of time riding from one holy site to the next. After Nepal, the tour drew me into Southeast Asia and down into Singapore,ultimately eastbound ending somewhere in Papua New Guinea.

Oh, to dream.

Time moved on and more immediate and firmer adventures required my undivided attention.
This particular dream would have to remain as merely a possibility for the future, right alongside the Iditabike Trail Invitational.

After recently returning from an amazing four weeks in Europe, traveling by train, bus, or plane, I decided that the next time I visit this area of the world I would not do it without a bicycle. Then it suddenly occurred to me: I would be taking a long bicycle tour the next time such an opportunity comes, only it wouldn't be through Europe.
And so I resolved after that moment of clarity, that in the year 2013, I would take a loaded Xtracycle-equipped mountain bike to Magadan, Russia and begin a pedal stroke that would last at least two years in length.

I reassessed my immediate goals and far off dreams with this now numero uno project in mind. The coveted Iditabike would have to wait and from now until that day, I have to prepare.