Jeremiah Watt Cycling around God's Creation

long distance bicycle touring

Posts by Jeremiah Watt-saddlemaker

Post 3- Whats happening with JW

Some of you may be wondering if I am gone, while still others I am sure just WISH that I was gone. For those in the later group- wait yer turn, I will be gone soon enough.
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The departure date has been put back a little, looks like May of 2017 now………..ha, ha, caught ya there didn’t eye. So don’t choke on your false teeth with that surprise. The whole Russian Visa thingy is proving to be a little larger hassle than we may have expected. Slowly and with the patient help of my wife we are getting all that put together and sorted out. So, for now the date for departure is later May, with Visa dates and it has to coincide with my son Pine getting done with his studies at San Jose State.
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Here is a run down on what we have been doing to the bikes to get it all ready for the trip. On Pines bike it had 32 spoke wheels and we just felt we needed something a little stouter, plus we wanted another Dyno hub to charge all the electronic junk we will pack along. When for 26″, 36 hole Rhino-Lite rims, all this laced with Alpine Spokes in a 4 cross pattern to a Son 28 hub. Mounted a new from B&M lite that ran almost 300.00………I swear it would probably be cheaper to do drugs. We changed out the brakes to Tektro, and put those venerated Salmon Brake Pads that all the tour cyclists brag about. Top off those rims with some new Schwalbe Supreme tires and about $1450.00 later……all of that for just 2 bike wheels. Now if any biker ever complains about the price of equine equipment there will surely be a quick fist fight. We double wrapped the drop bars, to relieve our hands and palms a wee bit on the rougher roads, we stayed with the Bar-Con shifters even though we thought of changing out to Paulies. So, Pine not has to find a saddle that he thinks he can tolerate for his time a-straddle his whip. And for the best of luck, and to maintain tradition he will have to give his bike a female name of some meaning at least to him. Other wise the cycling demons will plague us with bad luck.
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Since we last spoke, not much has changed with my own bike, matter of fact nothing has changed.
We have been getting in most of our camp gear and clothes as of late. Nothing out of the ordinary, some layer stuff, shirts, litght jackets, testing rain gear, finding durable sunglasses and testing super sized water bottle carriers. Its all fun, but I have just about had enough of it, and now just want to ride.
Maybe the most frustrating is this new tablet, Samsung Galaxy 10.2 Tablet with Android OS (affectionately nicknamed Hemorrhoid OS) Guaranteed, this little beast will do every thing you can imagine, except work. For me its a game of Rock\Paper\Scissors, ya just never know what yer gonn’a get dang it. And I did not mention editing images because this is still a family affair, and editing an image is more of a non-disclosed XXX situation. Maybe more on that later if it smoothens out, or we may have to leave that as one of the secrets sort’a like the Bemidji Triangle.
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I have taken off 2 weeks from the weight bench, my wrist has been so sore that I could hardly work. I blamed the heavy fly’s and wrist curls, but it may also be old age playing havoc………I am not a Doc and don’t plan on seeing one. I really miss the weights, and its funny, but my body seem to be responding to this lack of heavy weight as well. I notice my back is stiffer, my shoulders are stiffer etc, may all be in my mind?? I will start back into the weights this week, do some different routines, avoid the twisting wrist moves, and most likely do higher rep’s and lighter weight.
Next time we talk, it will most likely be about the assorted chargers, solar dynamo etc…………so, whatever ya do don’t miss that episode as it will keep you on the edge of yer seat.
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Post 2- packing practice………..really

Post 2- packing practice………..really

 Now, I know, I can see the raised eyebrows of wonder and maybe even confusion. Packing practice Jeremiah, you need practice throwing 14 items into a bag and finding the bike seat? Well okay, maybe if you were to carelessly summarize what a bike trip was all about, then you may arrive at that conclusion. I understand. But the reality of it is, it is not nearly as simple as what is often described. Everything must be ironed with care and given a crisp tri-fold……….okay, okay I am just checking to see if your really awake with that.

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For those of you who may not know much about me, I actually work all day at building saddles, and doing silver work. For a hobby I guess you can say I ride my bike and lift my weights. About 7 years ago I done a bike trip solo across USA and absolutely loved that trip, it was indeed the inspiration for this trip I am planning now. One of the bits of wisdom gained from my first long trip had to do with training and preparation, I came away concluding that you could actually just pack and get on the bike. Meaning that I felt you could forgo most all the pre-disembarkation training and just get on and ride. Your butt and legs would harden in short order and you would be just fine.  I have just recently come to the conclusion that while that theory may hold true for someone under say 50, I am not sure it holds true at 57 or almost 58 as I am right now?? I am having some trouble with the loaded weight of a long tour bike.

The weight lifting, so tell me about the weights and why? Most tour cyclists lose approx. 30% of upper body mass on an extended tour. I began about 4 years ago with the whole weight program. Started with P-90x, which as a whole program I really like. It will work you hard and get one fit in pretty short order. By the way, I no longer give my wife a hard time about Yoga……….OMG, what a brute that is. From the P-90X I went into the Whole Body workout by Tim Ferris. Sorry Tim, but this proved for me to be a total waste of time. I stayed the course for about 9 months and finally just abandoned all of it. At age 57, I can tell you that like many of you, we end with aches and pains we can only explain by previous horse wrecks or the like. So the constant moves of P-90 were taking their toll, I needed something with less joint stress. I finally just went to a series of Power Lifters routines. To this point, I have been able to add 2” to the arms, and over 4” to the chest and I doubt that it will change much from that point.

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My kids will tell me this is a TMI sort of image, but I wanted to put some context to what I am describing.

The practice miles we put in, I say we, because with any luck my son Pine is putting in some loaded practice miles as well. He is living up in San Jose going to SJ State. My bike only has about 45 pounds on board right now, plus the bike weight and you are cranking quite a bit down the road or worse yet- up the hill. I know from past experience that most of us would by nature over pack or over prepare. It’s the Mrs. Potato Head syndrome-packing up Mr. Potato Head in the classic Toy Story movie………………”you just never know when you will need it”. I thought I had trimmed the load pretty well, but I can see in my practice packing that I will have to be even more diligent. Add to the fact that we always pack more than is actually needed, we also forget that along the way we gather. Not sure why a person with ultra limited luggage space on a bicycle would fall prey to the old “hunter/gatherer” syndrome, but I guarantee it happens. You will leave the store or bazaar with a huge smile. Strap the new wares on the bike, ride 10 miles and find yourself wondering WHY?  So the moral of this story, pack lite.

In preparation, I am just now starting to ride loaded miles, better yet, partially loaded miles. The last 3 weeks to a month I will ride fully loaded. I will cut the weight room back to 2 or 3 days per week, right now I am in the weights for 5 times per week. I am doing about 20,000 to 45,000 pounds per work out all depending what day and what routine is being done. A small confession is in order, I have never had any interest in weight lifting. Over time what I have found is that I enjoy it very much, even a little addicted to it if that is even possible.

I have a pack list that is made up of the minimums required as far as clothing goes, and with a consideration of latitude/altitude and weather expectations. The one thing I do remember, is that you do not want to be stuck in a place or situation where you are cold and have no way to get warm. So that thought alone would have a person slightly over pack, rather than under pack. With all that said, you are still on a bicycle with extremely limited space, the challenge being that we take exactly what we need, nothing that we don’t, and no luxuries period.

I will keep you posted on how our progress is coming along, follow along, tell your friends

Gott’a say I really like this bike, love the way it handles and love how stable it is, now if I just have the horse-power to get it done.

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Post-1-The early stages of preparations

My name is Jeremiah Watt and the full time KEEPER of this blog, age 57 at the time of this writing. I am a saddle maker and silversmith when I am not pedaling my bike. Let me take a moment to introduce my son Pine,age 21, a 4th year student at San Jose State University here in California.

The aim of the ride, to circumnavigate the world in the safest manner possible by pedal power.

We ride Surly Long Haul Truckers- LHT’s as they will be called in other places on this blog. we will camp more often than stay in Hotels, I affectionately call this a “Hairy Legged Man Tour”- Townies need not apply. I have estimated 10 months to complete the trip. More to come about all the gear and what not that we used on this adventure- for another day as they say.

Pine will be traveling with me for those first 90 plus days of the cycling trip, as we circumnavigate God’s Creation. The intention is to start in Qingdao China, as coastal resort community and begin heading west from that point till we arrive in Lisbon Portugal. And from Lisbon we fly to USA and cross the USA in winter, so it shall be along the southern route that we ride.

This is not meant to be a true equatorial mileage ride, but rather a ride planned to keep us in a reasonably safe area of the hectic world we find ourselves living in, and still travel around the world. The route takes us north thru China, then into Mongolia mostly north by west to Russia. We will ride threw the barren rough Altai Krai region and on into the Ukraine. It is roughly planned that Pine will then pack his gear and fly from Kiev home so he can conclude his 4th year of study at San Jose State where he is a majoring in International Business.

This post simply introduces the idea and plans that have been made so far. We are busy getting used to our bikes and all the gear such as panniers that attach to them. It’s all pretty new to us, we are both pretty fit…………..I think? Ready for this new adventure to start. I began over 2 years ago getting serious about lifting weights every day in prep for the amount of upper body mass that is lost on a extended tour such as this. I will be leaving with a little extra “CYCLING PUDGE” as a cushion to start, I currently tip the scale at 215 pounds.

I am an amateur photographer at best, but will do my best to post images that give you the reader/follower a sense of what it was like to be in our sweaty shoes or nearly frozen sleeping bags. I am a terrible writer as my grade 12 English teacher told me, but I do promise to write something about each day. If it happens that there is the chance smelling mistake, maybe bad punturation or grammer………….get used to it- after all it my blog.

You know when I first conceived this ride I thought about doing something along with it to fix the world we are told is falling apart. After a little research I realized that everyone doing anything like this or milder is out to gather money and save the world. It’s so bad out there now that we have to invent problems to solve in order to seem remotely viable as a charity blog.  I have come to the conclusion that anytime you strike on a blog pertaining too ADVENTURE……………….it follows by a tug on yer purse strings.    NOT MINE   . Its not because I don’t care about this planet nor the people/flora/fauna ( did I miss anyone/anything in my disclaimer, if I did then mentally add them in would’ya) that tread upon it. Because I do, but I think society is hit on every front with a plea for MONEY to change things that can only truly change with the condition of the heart and not the pocket book.  So this is just a bout a father and son, pedaling bikes around the world, enjoying that which God created, meeting the people of different regions and cultures to share in theirs and to in turn share ours with them should they want to know. Nothing more, nothing less.