I drove down to Friedrichschafen, Germany from Rotterdam to meet Henry and attend Eurobike last week.    Before I get into what Eurobike was like let me just tell you that driving in Germany was a pain.  I drove 1800 kms of German Hwy to get to Eurobike and back.  I ran into no less than 6 traffic jams that slowed traffic to 20 kms/hr for 30 minutes or more.  Sometimes highways just ended, blocked for construction and there were no clear indications of how to get around it.  I got lost. 

I was looking forward to driving in Germany because so many people have told me how great the autobahn is and how you can drive as fast as you want.  Well it turns out letting people drive as fast as they want has some problems.  It’s not accidents.  In fact I only saw one accident on the whole trip.  The biggest problem is this:  not everyone wants to go 180 kms/hr or has a vehicle that can go that fast.  I drove 120 when I could.  I would have felt safe driving faster but the little Ford car I rented sounded like it was going to explode if I pushed it past 120.   Most cars and trucks in the right hand lanes seemed to cruise along at 80 - 100 kms an hour.  Cars in the left lane went from 140 to 210 kms/hour.  So I’d cruise in the right hand lane until I came upon a slower vehicle and then try to pull into the left lane to pass.  But trying to pull into a lane with BMWs flying by at 200+ kph.  It ain’t fun. 

Anyway.  The drive wasn’t that pleasant but arriving in Friedrichschafen was nice.  It’s beautiful town located on the Bodensee - a big lake that also borders Switzerland and Austria.  An interesting piece of trivia:  The Zeppelin was invented in Friedrichshafen.  The entire time the bike show ran there was a giant Zeppelin taking off and landing from the back parking lot.  It’s quite impactful, seeing a Zeppelin take off.  They’re huge. 

Eurobike is the largest bike industry tradeshow in the world.  1000 exhibitors.  Tens of thousands of bikes and who knows how many parts and accessories.  It’s overwhelming.  Outside there was a trials course, BMX track and bike jump area where kids from 12 to 20 showed off some pretty amazing skills.  A hip hop style fashion show ran twice a day.  Eddy Merckx was there, so was Tom Boonen and Ivan Basso and a personal hero of mine Hans ‘no way’ Rey. 

But over the hill and disgraced cycling celebrities aside there wasn’t too much new to see at Eurobike.  Carbon, carbon and more carbon.  Curvy, superlight, soulless carbon.  New Shimano groups, Campy, SRAM… blah blah bah.   A $13,000 e-bike (who is that for?) Hundred of singlespeeds and fixies in evey color imaginable.  New colors were the big thing.  For the last couple of years black and white has been the predominant color scheme.  Now the pendulum is swinging back and orange yellow and yes, (gasp) even purple anodizing is back. 
 
I was pleased to see Chris King there displaying his excellent hubs, headset and bottom brackets.  Chris has also dusted off an old frame design that he used to build in limited runs for US teams.  Called ‘Cielo” and built in Portland.  It was one of the only steel frames on display that didn’t come with a set of skinny jeans to ride in.  Great craftsmanship and nice details like stainless steel dropouts and bottom bracket shell.  I wanted one.  Coincidently I was wearing an old Chris King t-shirt, the same one that I have worn from Cairo to Cape Town twice now.  Jay Sycip, who build the frames for Chris, noticed me ogling the Cielo and commented on the shirt.  We chatted about our tours and I told him the unfortunate story of the demise of the Poprad.  He empathized and offered me a deal on a frame!  Sweet. 

We were there mostly to set up a booth on Saturday, the public day of the show.  And we wanted to check out all the new electric bikes.  Everyone is making an ebike these days.  Most of them have a long way to go.  Henry has this idea, and he’s slowly convincing me, that ebikes can make our tours accessible to a whole new group of clients.  On the Amber Route I spoke with several clients who really want to cycle Africa but are afraid the distance and difficulty of some of the days would be too much.  Enter the ebike.  With electric assist to help a rider get over the toughest hill and the harshest headwinds a long distance tour becomes more feasible.  But our requirements for an ebike are very specific.  It has to be simple, no fancy computer controls.  It has to be light.  It has to work with an existing bike.  And it has to have limited power.  We don’t want people cruising thru our tours on electric motorcycle.  We just want something that can give you a boost when you need it.  An extra 50 or 100 watts to get thru a 180 km day or over the steepest pitches of a 2000 meter climb.  There were a couple of promising designs.  Perhaps in the future we’ll see the first TdA ebike tour take form. 

Another reason we attended was for a series of forums on bike related travel the show was hosting.  A good chance to see what was new and what other people are doing the industry.  Unfortunately these forums were more painful than driving on the autobahn. The word useless comes to mind.  Simplistic, uninformative…. Boring.  Oh well. 

The Saturday show went well. We had a good number of visitors to the booth.  The booth itself looked great thanks to Theresa's efforts.  Daniel, a former client who lives in Swtizerland, drove over to the show and was a big help.  We ran into former clients and visited with companies that make some of the best products our clients use. 

Henry and I were there for the whole 4 days of the show.  We walked around and shook hands.  Tried to tell people about the TdA.  It’s hard to develop an ‘elevator pitch’ for what TdA does.  The company just doesn’t fit neatly into a box like that. 

Ultimately what we did was talk.  Sitting outside next to the bike jump sipping overpriced beer and chatting about the company.  What works, what doesn’t.  How to improve the dream tours concept (which I love).  How to better help our customers prepare for and enjoy the tours, how to reach a wider audience with our marketing efforts.  Two guys chatting about stuff they like, telling stories and debating the finer points of running a unique business.  Good times. 

Preparing for a long distance tour is a unique process.  Over the years we at Tour d’Afrique have developed a few tips and strategies that help our clients prepare for and deal with some of the things they will experience on long tour.  Here are 3 tips that cover three different categories of tour prep:  your body, your mind, and your bike. 
 
Rule 1:
 
  Take Care of Your Butt!

Saddle sores.  The bane of every cyclists existence (our tour nurses aren’t too crazy about them either).   No matter how strong your legs are feeling or how great your lung capacity is, if your butt screams with pain every time you sit down on you saddle you are not going to have a fun day.  Saddle sores are essential caused by 4 factors: pressure, moisture, friction and temperature.   Eliminate or reduce these 4 factors and you greatly reduce your chance of getting saddle sores.  The best way to do this?  There are several things you can do:

-         Buy great bike shorts.  Not your favorite ones that you’ve had for 3 years, not the ones that make your butt look smaller, not just good ones, great ones.  Buy the best shorts you can.  You’re gonna live in these things for 4 to 8 hours a day for up to 4 months.  Make sure they fit and are high quality.  The Desoto 400 mile short is one of my favorites and comes in mens and womens models.

-         Fix your saddle position.  Most people do not spend enough time getting their bike to fit them properly.  Having the right saddle position is critical to a comfortable ride.  Millimeters make a huge difference when adjusting your saddle.  Seek help from a pro.  Also make sure your saddle is the correct width.  Most people ride with a saddle that is too narrow.

-         Ride a lot.  You’re going to spend 4 – 8 hours a day on your bike while on tour.  Don’t think you can prepare for that by riding 2 hours a day at home.  Go for some really long rides on the weekends.  Use the bike and saddle you will be bringing on tour.

-         Keep clean.  This is harder than it sounds when you are on a long tour and you are camping every night. Start by wearing clean shorts every day.  And take your shorts off as soon as you get to camp.  Chamois crème is a great tool for helping to prevent and treat saddle sores.

Rule 2:
 
 Attitude is everything

A few bad days can ruin a tour if not dealt with properly.  You get frustrated and it starts to affect your behavior.  You start to complain about things and try to blame other people or events for your frustration.  Other people react to this behavior in ways that strengthen your opinion.  It’s a slippery slope that ends in a bad tour experience for you and those around you.   There are 3 things that you can do to avoid letting your bad days get the better of you.

-         Set goal and Expectations.  Make sure they are realistic and be ready to change them if being on tour is not what you expected.

-         Talk with the staff.  They are there to help and have probably seen people go thru what you are experiencing n tour before.  Remember, I said talk with the staff.  Yelling at someone doesn’t constitute a discussion.

-         Know your limits and take a break if you need to.  Typically only 15% of our clients will ride an entire tour without missing a day.  It’s OK to take a day off if it will help you enjoy the rest of the tour.  But watch out.  Taking too many days off can ruin your motivation.

Rule 3:

 Get to know your bike

Being a complete idiot when it comes to bike repair is cute at first.  By month two the novelty has worn off and no one wants to help you.  By month three there is probably going to be some real resentment at your lack of knowledge/interest in learning.    When your bike start to suffer, you start to suffer.  All this is avoidable. The more you know about your bike the easier it will be for you to tell the tour mechanic what is wrong and get on his good side because you’ve done a bit of your own research and can even help.


There are some great books and websites out there that can be great resources.  Think of it like this:  you’ll likely spend more time with your bike on a four month tour then most husbands will spend with their wives in the same period of time!  Get to know your bike.

That’s it for now.

I hope you found these tips useful, or at least entertaining.  In case you were wondering, the links I provided above are just for your information and ATMO (according to my opinion).  I don’t make any money from any of those websites or products.  Except for the Tour d’Afrique of course.  I work for them.


    - Paul McManus
 

Newsweek calls us the "leading long-distance cycling operator"



Globe and Mail asks "What kind of person tries to ride almost 12,000 kilometres in four months? Cycling fanatics...who want to see a different world and push themselves to new extremes."



More Magazine says Tour d;'Afrique is "no stranger to0 the exotic" and we arrange tours "to some of the world's hardest-to-access dstinations."



National Geographic Traveler selected the Silk Route as one of its 50 Tours of a Lifetime.

If you are in or around Amsterdam this weekend you should think about taking in the Dutch premiere of "Where Are You Go", a documentary film about the legendary Tour d'Afrique Bike Race/Expedition.

Canada 2009 | 60min | Dir. Benny Zenga & Brian Vernor

Where Are You Go chronicles four months of cycling, from Cairo to Cape Town, en route with the Tour d’Afrique, the world’s longest bicycle race and expedition. Traveling more than 70 miles per day, 50 racers and expedition riders experience the boundless Nubian dessert of Sudan, the great majesty of Victoria Falls, and finally the cold rush of the Atlantic Ocean. The 7,000 mile expedition is a constant adventure full of playfulness and mysterious beauty, and is a testament to the endurance of human curiosity.

For information, please click here.

To watch the trailer please click here.


Enjoy the show!!

We are excited to announce the latest DreamTour to become a reality - An Indian Adventure!

This 7 week, 3100km journey from the Taj Mahal to the southern tip of the Indian sub-continent begins in late January 2011. For more details click here.

To reserve your spot, please register now.\

photo by mugley

If you're in or near Melbourne, Australia this weekend, catch the Tour d'Afrique film 'Where Are You Go' screening at the Bicycle Film Festival this Saturday evening. The screening will be followed by a Q&A session with Tony Wheeler, Quentin Frane, David Nelson, Fiona Siseman and Martin Heng - all from Lonely Planet - who participated in a relay team in the 2009 Tour d'Afrique. More info and ticket details can be found here.

For the first time, the Tour d'Afrique has been documented by a team of film makers and is making its way around the world with the Bicycle Film Festival.

We are working to keep the web site in fine working order. It was down for some upgrades for a few hours today but is now up and running. Apologies for any inconveniences.

In March, 2009, Tour D’Afrique/Planet Wheeler Foundation, through Africycle, donated 10 bicycles to Emmanuel International Malawi for a new program that was just starting up.  This program, called SAVEUP, is a village savings and loans program that is expanding in many areas of Malawi.

The concept is simple:  village people organize themselves in groups who are willing to pool a small amount of money on a regular basis.  As the fund grows, the group members start taking loans.  With these loans, they develop small businesses.  The groups follow a precise methodology of saving while at the same time developing their own rules and regulations that govern group choices….for instance, how much money equals 1 share, how large a loan can people take, and what interest will the loan attract.  

The SAVEUP program, a 2 ½ year program supported by CARE International, is hoping to help 17,200 people join a Village Savings and Loans Association, enabling those living in rural areas to generate a brighter economic future that previously has not been possible.  

It takes at least a year to get a group from start up to maturity.  As groups have been established, the Emmanuel International Malawi field team have worked with traditional leaders in their areas to identify individuals who can keep this program growing, individuals who are trained as Village Agents.  These agents will undergo more in depth training which will prepare them for starting up new groups, thus repeating over and over the village savings and loans opportunities in more communities…..the ripple effect!

And this is where the generous gift of 10 donated bicycles from Africycle through Tour D’Afrique/Planet Wheeler Foundation comes in.  Village Agents who have just completed their SAVEUP training have been gifted with these donated bicycles.  The bicycles will help them reach the communities around them, providing them with a means of  establishing an increased number of groups.  The chief of each Village Agent was on hand to witness the handover of these bikes, a precious commodity to these communities.



Anne Taulo is one of the VSLA participants from Zomba district, TA Chikowi in Chiwamba village.  Anne is the head of her household; she is 27 years old and lives with her 7 year old son, Brian.  Anne has about 3.5 hectares of land to farm.  She has depended on what she can produce from her farm, selling the surplus to make a living for her and her son.  But Anne did not have a culture of savings.  She couldn’t think beyond her door step and she kept doing what her mother and granny used to do:  keep the money under the pillow, in the house and even by digging holes in the ground.  

Anne said, “I couldn’t think there can be meaningful and profitable ventures to undertake.”  Even if she had, she added, “I didn’t have anywhere to get a loan.”

The SAVEUP project targets the poor and less advantaged people, assisting them to improve their economic muscle.  In June, 2009, Anne found herself in the VSLA group.  So far Anne has managed to save MK 4800. 00 (US$34.00) and she has taken a loan out worth Mk 3000.00 (US$21.00).  She ventured into a cooking oil business and made a profit of Mk 2000.00 (US$14.00).  She hired temporary help to assist her on her farm for Mk 1500.00 (US$ 10.00) and with the remaining money, she purchased small household needs like soap and salt.  

When Anne was asked to talk about her vision of the future, she said that when the money is shared out in December 2009, she intends to buy a sewing machine (US$78.00).  Anne is thankful for village savings and loans and believes it will bring change and a chance to build her capacity.  

Anne was selected in her group to be trained as a Village Agent in her area.  She wishes to thank Africycle and Tour D’Afrique/Planet Wheeler Foundation for the gift of the bike which she feels will help her in her responsibilities of forming, mentoring and supervising more groups.  Her final statement is, “No more misuse of money as we have the Village Banks which are in our communities.”

Mr. Ronney Dauda is the head of a family with 5 members.  He provides for his family through subsistence farming.  In July 2009, Ronney joined the Tiyanjane Villlage Savings and Loans group.  Rooney saved Mk 5000.00 (US$35.00) and took a loan from his group for Mk 2000.00 (US$14.00).  He used the money to buy paraffin for lamps which he sold to his neighbors.  The profit on this start up business was Mk 1500.00 (US$10.50) which he used to buy chemicals for his fields and clothes for his children.  When asked about the program, Mr. Dauda said, “I didn’t know how to save.  I was just using the money anyhow.  I felt I had little money so I can’t save.”  Ronney feels the village savings and loans works well for people who have problems and will help to improve household livelihood security.  Ronney stated with a smile, “Thank you, Africycle [and Tour D’Afrique/Planet Wheeler Foundation], for giving me a precious gift of a bicycle.  I will be forming new groups in my area!”