Last month, 7 unicyclists spent 12 days riding through northern India; we had a fantastic time. Since then, we’ve worked on assembling photos, newspaper articles etc and I’d like to post some links here.
On that page there are a couple of photo links: #1 is to my “best of” gallery of 310 photos with captions, and #2 is to Geoff’s larger gallery (878 photos) with no captions.
The Introduction link takes you to a page listing the participants, showing the tour’s elevation profile, and a table of links to GPS data that I assembled, with links to view each segment in GoogleEarth and GoogleMaps.
The Journal link takes you to my blog I wrote during the tour and to a set of links to Ken’s official daily updates site. These are long and no one will read it all, but it’s all there if you’re interested. Day 5 (3rd riding day) was the “money day”, with a 40km climb that ascended a full 2000m. We got some great photos that day and it was incredible riding. We started that morning in the hot lowlands and finished in the afternoon in the Himalyas in a little town that could’ve easily been high in Nepal.
From the rider’s point of view, a small tour with 7 riders (plus Jason Williams of Grasshopper Adventures on bike, 2 support vehicle drivers, and a local guide) was a great experience, but this is probably a very rare opportunity because there just isn’t much money in running a tour with 7 paying participants.
Anyway, I hope you like the photos and news articles etc. If anyone knows Hindi and feels like doing a translation, we’d love to know what this one says.
Great ‘Best of’ gallery Nathan, some classic pics! Your journal is a great read too. I backpacked around West Bengal 17-18 years ago I guess including up around Darjeeling. Revisiting the memories through the uni photos and journal was good fun, thanks!
From a nerdy unicycling only perspective I’m interested to know if there was a backup plan if the GUNI had a problem? and with the guys riding GUNI’s, was much/any GUNI specific maintenance required during the ride e.g. checking crank nuts, shifter buttons etc?
I guess I was a little worried about the lack of a backup plan. But it worked great. We did do a “Tighten Schlumpf Cranks” Workshop after the first two days, just to make sure.
Glad you liked the photos and writeup. I wonder how much different Darjeeling and the area looked 17 years ago.
Like Ken, the only spares I brought were buttons. Oh, and a tube. Geoff had a spare Niterider tire. I don’t think we had any flats at all the whole time other than Gilby’s at the beginning. He rode the whole tour on that patch.
RE guni backups – for my africa tour, I’m strongly considering (90% sure) breaking down my geared KH36 and bringing the hub as a spare for me and Louise (on geared 24’s). We will be gone for a total of two months, and are going to do a lot of riding. I’m also considering bringing spare cranks and seat post.
I just looked at the pictures:) The only thing I can say is: great, fantastic etc. While looking at them I got gose bumps. I hope I can join such tour soon as well and I hope to see you at UNICON XV;)
Thanks Nathan, great to hear there were no back up plan required during the ride.
Touchwood my cranks seem to have settled down, though a shifter button fell off the other week out on the trail… DOH! I think the hub should probably ship with a spare set of shifter buttons :o
That really is a great collection of photos of the trip, I’ve looked through them a few times now. Will a write up appear in Uni Magazine? Hope so!
Geoff will probably answer soon, but from memory, he carried a spare T7, spare seatpost, spare Nightrider tyre, spare inner tubes, spare seat. He paid several hundred $$$ at Sydney Airport with all that equipment after being over weight Thankfully he wasn’t called upon to supply too many spares. We didn’t have too much in the way of mechanicals.
The great thing about these tours is that it’s always possible to improvise. for instance, the when Geoffs Schlumpf hub snapped in half, he stopped by a little welding workshop in one of the local vilages and they welded it back together for him (see attached photo). Gilby had his 29" inner tube fixed at in Siliguri as well, after blowing a huge hole in it.
I like travelling as light as possible, so on my next tour I’ll almost certainly be back on my 29" Unguni Triton, same as on Uninam. I didn’t have it with me as I flew out from Sydney and my Triton is back in NZ.
Speaking of next AU Unitour…it’s Mongolia in 2010.
Wow, What a great read and awesome photo’s. “Edge of the World” and “It is hot here” niceeee. Congrats to all on a memorable adventure, keep up the good work!
While looking at them I got gose bumps. I hope I can join such tour soon as well and I hope to see you at UNICON XV;)
Thankfully he wasn’t called upon to supply too many spares. We didn’t have too much in the way of mechanicals.
What? I thought it was the T7 that got welded. Are you sure? Sounds scary.
