Globe Cycle

You might think this is a bit previous but I want to join up with other cyclists on my return from the south coast back up to London. I was thinking that people could join me at any point from Dover to London; Dover is 80 miles, Sittingbourne is 40, Greenwich is 5? The date is likely to be the middle of September - I’ll try and make it a weekend!

It won’t be a race and it would be great to see a lot of people on bikes out there…

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I say x because it will depend on who is pedaling! Whoever it is, it’ll be quicker than walking. Even if you can’t walk, cycling is an enabling force; have a look at this band on their bikes . I scanned this picture from a recent article in The Independent and the band is called Staff Benda Bilili. (They have a MySpace and you can listen to them there, but I’m not sure how or where you’d get the album.) I’m into the music and I’m into their adapted tricycles; they are paraplegics so steering and pedaling (manualing?) are done simultaneously with the same part of the trike. Have a read about them here ; seems there is a film out there too. Anyone seen it?

At the other end of this piece of thread is a bike that has been developed especially for people with Parkinson’s Disease. A friend of mine sent me this link and it looks like it might be good for mobility in general - electric assisted drive, lightweight, wider access to the seat to help people to get on and off easily. I don’t know anyone who has tried it, but it looks like it might work.

I must admit that I am drawn more to the homemade trikes than the lightweight electric model. There is nothing like advancing under your own steam, and if you have built the bike yourself and it works for you, I imagine that nothing could be better. (I should also admit at this point that my bike for the record attempt is being built by someone else…) It might be fun to do a little project where you start off just walking along and build your means of transport as you go from things that have been discarded. I know that I could probably get at least one wheel just by walking past my local bike shops, they are always throwing away slightly dented rims. I often see frames pokin out of skips and I almost ran over a chain on the Waterloo Bridge this morning… It wouldn’t be perfect, but the goal is mobility, not perfection.

Come to think of it, some people in Edinburgh did something along these lines a few months ago and again, a friend sent me this link for their video… not the most practical things ever built but there is a lot of elegance to them and some of them are quite funny too!

Ahh, the links train has stopped for water and more coal. Today’s thought is that bicycles are great and they make you go faster or further than you could on your own. If you want an explanation of the science that is (not) in this post, read the book Bicycling Science, by David Gordon Wilson. Don’t forget to buy it from a bookshop!

I’ve got a bike! It’s a Santos Travelmaster - relatively unknown here in the UK but they are great touring bikes with nice geometry and a custom build system. If you like bike part bins and precision milling, as I do, you can find their build process video on YouTube somewhere… I’m really pleased. Of course, it’s important to have a good strong bike with big wheels and the Rohloff hub if you are trying to break a very tough world record. It is also important, for me, to be trying out new things. This is why I will more than likely be trying out the Santos belt drive system. More on this when I’ve actually used it!

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

I installed iBlogger on my phone… This will mean that I can blog whilst on the road, if I can think of something to write. If I can’t, I can twitter instead.

Hi… I think I’ve worked out how to embed YouTube up in this place. Not what you’d call programming or anything, but its a milestone for me…

Here is the promo by Lucy at www.UpsideDownIt.com

And here is the 120 miles around London video… more to come once I get a few more scenes shot.

You can subscribe (please do!) at www.youtube.com/globecycleguy

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Ooh some potentially good news about product sponsors, but I can’t tell you what it is yet, sorry.

What else? I went to Edinburgh with the two doctors who lead the research team that I volunteer for; we met up with Scottish MP Margo MacDonald who agrees that something needs to be done to advance promising Parkinson’s Disease research. She is an independent MP and seems to be a great believer in PE and improving people’s access to sport (doing it not watching it I reckon). She has Parkinson’s Disease herself and it was good to talk to someone who understood the less obvious elements of the disease from first hand experience.

The rest of the week consisted mainly of cycling and other exercise. I do a lot of my miles on this:

a kind of mindless multi-tasking

I bought a turbo-trainer that you can put a normal bike in and pedal away; the trainer simulates the resistance of riding a bike on the road. I found a flat screen tv arm and mounted it on the side of a work bench. I adapted it slightly and used some yacht pulleys to help support its weight (and my hands resting on it) from the ceiling. I am just editing a little video about this if you need more explanation! It has solved the problem of having to do lots of hours cycling and computer use in one day. I had thought of adding a generator to it so that this laptop could be powered by me pedaling, but there just isn’t time, because I’m cycling and emailing so much.

In the future, as in about 6 months, everyone will be sitting at their desks pedaling and emailing. It saves electricity and gymnasium membership, and also stops you falling asleep and getting fidgety at work.

Thats it for today. I’m going to get off the bike and go to the gymnasium (no, I won’t be abbreviating that word, not ever).

Blogging about Quotes is like Talking about Music

Its all happening now. I have my first equipment and service sponsors! Upside Down It (who designed the site) and James Robb (who programmed it) are both already there. Now I can put up the Honest Jon’s badge and a link ; they are DJ’ing at my send off and are also acting as a kind of sonic consultancy; there’s also going to be a button for Cactus equipment, who are providing me with one very tough pair of shorts. There is going to be a thrilling video about preparation for wearing these shorts very soon (I’m not joking, its fascinating).

While I’m on music; I have been compiling lists of music that I like cycling to. I don’t really know why, but I know that making a list is good for my nerves – it makes me feel like I’m preparing for the miles of silence, even though I’ll probably save the music for evenings. You can find beginnings of the list here .

As an aside I was thinking about the Frank Zappa thing where he said (at least I once thought he had said this) that “Talking about Music is like Dancing about Architecture”. My capitalisation. I like this epithet because it’s a bit cheeky. If you have any interest at all in the true origin of this quote, you will not satisfy your curiosity by visiting this page . Perhaps it was Elvis Costello, maybe it was Henry Kissinger, who cares?

I was thinking about Frank Zappa because he is supposedly a fan of Tenores Di Bitti who are a group of singers/vocalists from Sardinia. They are on my cycling music list. I read somewhere that their music sounds like and was inspired by the lowing and bleating of livestock; its very warm and resonant stuff. My Uncle Tim gave it to me and I like it for cycling because it has a good regulating effect on one’s breathing - you sort of have to breathe for the singers because they don’t seem to. Don’t go listening to it and then complaining that you didn’t like it - I can’t help that.

I think I’m about to tie this one off by saying that getting a start on the equipment sponsors side of things is a good feeling – Honest Jon’s, Cactus, great. These things will hopefully make others more likely to join in, as there is nothing like seeing someone swimming in the sea and not shivering to encourage one to dive in, if you see what I mean.. “Come on in..” etc.

I should say that I will not be receiving monies from any equipment sponsors – What’s Driving Parkinson’s will get everything or maybe a sponsor will offer to pay for flights that I’ll need, but there will be no cash. Most of the people I am approaching for in-kind sponsorship are companies that I already respect for their long-lasting, well-made products, the way they go about their business or the fact they are just very good at what they do. If anything changes in this arena, I’ll let you know!

I almost forgot – if you have any ideas for music to cycle to, please let me know on here or in the forum.

Welcome to the GlobeCycle blog. My name is James Bowthorpe. I am aiming to break the record for cycling around the world to raise £1.8 million for unique research into Parkinson’s Disease. I will be cycling 18000 miles over a period of about five and a half months; cycling 120 miles a day for 150 days (there will be rest days). If I manage this target I will beat the existing record by about three weeks (set by Mark Beaumont ).

£1.8 million is a massive fundraising target and I think that the challenge at hand is big enough to match it. My target time teeters on the limit of what I think I can do; the physical challenge made all the more difficult by the psychological barriers I am (apprehensively) anticipating.

I have been volunteering at the research clinic for the last two years. I have seen patients’ symptoms getting better because of the work that the doctors do; often patients are on no anti-Parkinson’s medication at all and they may never need to be. I continue to be impressed by how the research team, lead by Drs. John and Sylvia Dobbs, is tackling the question of Parkinson’s root cause rather than focusing on symptoms alone. I have also been humbled by how much they have achieved on a shoe-string budget.

GlobeCycle has come about because the traditional mechanisms for getting funding for research like this are too slow! Organisations talk about having something that can start to be translated into humans in 15 years. The next phase of the What’s Driving Parkinson’s research programme will take five years and cost around £5 million; a long time for sufferers and a lot of money. However, it is based on a solid foundation; the team already has a disease modifier and several promising leads that the next phase will explore.

You can find out more about the research charity “What’s Driving Parkinson’s” (WDP) and view patient diaries at www.whatsdrivingparkinsons.net

I will bring you more updates on what’s happening with WDP; for now let’s get back to GlobeCycle…

Globe Cycle Promo

Follow the link above to view my promo video and others that will appear as time goes by… subscribe to the channel if you like what you see!

I am in the midst of training, planning, equipment selection and building up awareness of the project at the moment. If you are on facebook, myspace or youtube, you can help me by becoming my electronic friend (look for James Bowthorpe or Globe Cycle) or by subscribing to my youtube channel ( http://www.youtube.com/globecycleguy ).

I’m off to do some more of the recommended exercise now…

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