Today is a special day
better tomorrow is a special day
so tomorrow is a special day because I resume cycling around the world
so it's the last day today that I will cycle in this area, the countryside where I grew up in Italy
I know a few people are new to the channel and they are not aware about my my adventure
I started cycling the word in 2015
I started include Prudhoe Bay (Alaska) on the Arctic Ocean the north-most point where there is a road in the Americas
and after about 35,000 kilometres and about 2 years and 10 months
I reached the tip of South America, the south-most city in the world: Ushuaia in the Argentinian Patagonia
I sold my bike to pay for flight tickets to Cape Town South Africa
and I started crossing the African continent from south to north
I reached Cairo
I think this concludes crossing Africa by bike
see you in the next continent
I reached Cairo in Egypt and since I had some problems with Egyptian police
I decided the best way out was to fly to Turkey
I'm at Istanbul airport and this is how I fly. Great outfit
so I didn't do much of the Middle East
I would have loved to cycle through Sinai into Israel, Palestine, Jordan and then trying to find a way to get to Turkey probably hitching a boat ride
but it is what it is
I did a big loop in Turkey and then decided my next continent would have been Europe
and it was not a good idea hindsight
because I did the Balkans, all the countries in the Balkans except Greece
and I got to Italy after over four years I was on the road
I said to myself: I pop home for a month or two, take like a couple of months off to visit my family they haven't seen me in over four years
and then resume cycling but then the world changed the pandemic arrived and and here I am
and I had several challenges, health issues and yeah now I'm fully vaccinated I have the green pass
and I will try to resume cycling the world if it's possible
I will be heading north, the aim is to get to the north-most point of Europe this time so it's Nordkapp, Cape North in Norway
but it's it's already a bit late, ideally I wanted to leave earlier a month earlier at least but it wasn't really possible
so here I am it's the end of July and tomorrow I will be leaving with the aim to get to Nordkapp
if I don't get too wet and miserable on the way there because I hate the rain and this summer is raining a lot
I will resume the adventure with the same bike I made a few changes but I will not go through the setup immediately because I want to to test my setup
I want to travel a few months before before giving any advice to people any tips on gear
because I know some people then they go out and buy so I really want to make sure that everything is working
I will have with a four season set up so you will see lots of things I tried to reduce a little bit the bags size but yeah so it's still a four season setup
I mean I'm going to the Arctic and I will get there in September, hopefully, and in September is already winter in the Arctic
so same bike, the friends of Bikecafe did a full service on the bike
Bikecafe: getting ready
I got thenew racks done from Daniele @reframe_steel
I'm here with Daniele, the artist
he is gonna make my front rack and some other magic on my bike
I published a video about hose racks but I realised I never published any video of the making of those racks
so I'll try to insert them into this clip so you'll see the master working on his craft
I changed the seatpost and saddle, the seatpost is a suspended seatpost
it was recommended from Payman from Nomad's Trails
I bought this seat post to help with my herniated back it's a CaneCreek Thudbuster
it's a bit expensive but hopefully it will help
it has a travel of 50mm and it weighs 580gr
so it's basically a suspension seat post and it has an elastomer
Payman also have some back problems I still couldn't get rid of my herniated disc so hopefully that will help
I changed the saddle as well, the saddle is a SelleSanMarco
it's not that comfortable I think but it's not that that much more uncomfortable than the Brooks
but this one is much more appropriate to my seat bone size it's one millimetre off according to the my bike fitter
I also did a proper bike fitting today back today
Today bike fitting
it was actually a guy that used to bike race with me or against me
because he was not on my team when I was really young and I was doing road racing
last use of my hometown in Italy the trails around here
I will try to publish at least one vlog every week on Sunday
if I can maybe two
will see what's the workflow on the road because editing videos is always time consuming
and also uploading it's very time consuming
by the time you're watching this I should be on the road already a week or so
I encourage you guys to follow me on Instagram as well because I will post those of studies everyday
several pictures everyday
and yeah it's it's a more immediate and raw
way to follow the adventure
if you follow me on Instagram you should have seen that I had made a batch of postcards handmade postcards from Italy
I still have a few ones so if you want just get in contact with me and I will send you a handmade postcard
my friend Ivano who made some Italian leather bracelets/straps
My friend ivano is doing high fashion leather work in Italy
and he was so kind to make this bracelets for me
and my new cover
with the bike and an tent logo
again if you would like one I send them in exchange of a donation
it helps my adventures so I'm really grateful for everybody that kindly made a donation
in exchange for the bracelet
and it was actually pretty cool to see how you made them
so I will insert a few clips here so you can see as well how they were made it
I'm very, very happy to to be leaving and to go back on the road
I was really suffering at home
yeah hopefully i can live a bit more freedom
and complete my dream of cycling the world
cycling all the continents
americas is done
africa is done
half of europe is done
and I only need to do a bit more of europe
it's about 4,000, 5,000 maybe 6,000Km to Nordkapp
then go back, hit the middle east
if land borders open on the silk route
Iran, the Stans, Asia, the Australia, New Zealand and...I'm done!
See you on the road, ciao!