During the thousands of hours I've spent talking about this bike trip in the last few months, I've really just answered 10 or 20 questions millions of times. Here are the answers to these most commonly wondered wonderings:
1) Where are you starting and ending?
We start in Porto, Portugal and end in Shanghai, China
2) That sounds far. How far is that?
About 10,000 miles, or maybe 11,000 or 12,000 depending on how much the roads turn. That's over 16,000 km for those who want an even more impressive sounding number.
3) So, are you going through, like, India or what?
No. We're going through Western Europe, down through the Balkans, across Turkey and the Caucauses to the Caspian Sea, getting on a ferry to Turkmenistan, then going through the formerly Soviet Central Asian 'Stans, crossing into China from Kyrgyzstan. Then we'll get across China somehow to Shanghai.
4) How long will it take? When are you going?
About 9 months, maybe a little less. We fly to Porto on March 1st and hope to arrive in Shanghai sometime in November.
5) How much will you be riding?
Probably an average of 60 or 70 miles a day, with some days being as low as 20 miles and as high as 100. We'll take rest days whenever we want to.
6) Have you ever ridden that far before? Day after day?
I haven't. Nate has. He says it's easy.
7) Isn't this going to be dangerous?
Not really. I expect 99.98% of interactions with local people to be generally positive. We will not be venturing into any war zones or breakaway republics. Riding a bike has some inherent danger, but it won't increase just because we're in Tajikistan.
8) Do you have to get any visas?
Yes. An absurd number. I think it's 8 altogether.
9) Where will you sleep?
We'll surely stay in some hotels and hostels at certain points, especially in bad weather, but we'll also couchsurf, camp out, and stay with anyone we know on the route, which is actually a surprisingly large amount of people. If you have a friend somewhere en route, feel free to put us in contact with them!
10) How will you carry everything?
There are racks you can attach to bikes and then hang these saddlebag kinda things (called panniers) on either side of the bikes, over both the front and back wheels. We'll have some of those. We won't have any backpacks or trailers.
11) Are you going to be like those people who got arrested in Iran for allegedly crossing the border illegally and have to sit in a dank Iranian prison for a year or so?
No. This will not happen. There is nothing we're doing that makes this a possiblity.
12) What will you eat?
Lots and lots of food. Protein. We'll have cooking gear (camping stove, pots, utensils, etc), and will probably eat a good amount of street food in certain places.
13) Are you training a lot?
We ride our bikes a lot. I'm trying to ride mine even more over the next two months. Nate is a bum and isn't doing anything.
14) Are you delaying the start of your real life?
This is my real life.
Only one person has asked me why we want to do this. I found myself strangely befuddled, and was unable to articulate any clear reasons.
