Plan A

Plan A will be, of course, my first choice.
It involves cycling from the North Sea towards the East.
First from my hometown Ede, to the North Sea and back in one day. This will be a little over 200 km.

Than in order of travelling;

1. Netherlands
2. Germany
3. Poland
4. Ukraine
5. Russia
6. Kazakhstan
7. China
8. Japan

I do need visa for: Russia, Kazakhstan and China

Visa requirements will be different every year or season. 

For Russia and Kazakhstan I (now) can have 30 days visa, probably enough for my route through these countries.

For China I don't know yet what the requirements will be at the time of my departure.

In Poland I will visit the concentration camp Auschwitz.

Along the way I will find more interesting places I must visit.

In Japan I want to cycle or travel at least 4 weeks.

After I will have shipped or sold the Quest and end my travelling in Japan, I will go back to Shanghai by ferry.
Here I will take the train to Beijing, where I plan to take the Trans Siberian Express to Moscow.
Then I will travel by train, again, back to The Netherlands, the end of my big journey for several years.

A few problems have to be solved before I leave.

1. The transport of my Quest back to The Netherlands by ship (A wooden crate for the Quest and large container to transport it in one of those large container ships)
2. Or if I decide to sell the Quest, I must have a buyer or a guaranty of somebody buying my Quest before I leave home.
3. Visa requirements can be a (big) problem so if I can't deal with those problems I have to cancel Plan A.

I have no idea how many kilometers this trip will be. (another blog entry again some day!)

Last trip I traveled around / about 80 km a day. In the coming years I will find out how many km's will be realistic. Then I can plan the route before I leave.

Next entry I will explain plan B

Pictures of (almost like my own) Carbon Quest!

Many thanks to Richard Serpenti, my velomobiel / recumbent friend of old times!
He sent me beautiful pictures of my Carbon Quest to be.
Several things will be different.
The Name QUEST will be on the rear (white underground) not on the black top.
Reflective stripes will be different too.
Two mirrors and two front lights will be fitted on my SolarQuest!

Quest choice / Plan A or Plan B

Why a QUEST;

Comfort and speed.

On tour it is great to have good protection against headwinds. If I choose the right gear I will be able to climb every hill /mountain.

Now I must be very careful what to take with me. On other trips I didn’t care much about weight of the things I carried. In fact I had to walk with the bike (Condor) only twice during my trip (11.000 km) in 2008: 25 meters and 200 meter.  

Also one puncture!!! Due to good tires; Swalbe Marathon XR.

How this Quest will be in hills and mountains I will find out in the 2 years prior to the big trip to Japan. I still believe in fixing the remaining problems. I will come to those challenges in later blogs.

Distance; I expect to be able to extend the daily distance more, in order to talk and make contact to people, which is the most beautiful part of the trip!

Why SOLARQUEST?

I will use solar energy on my Quest to feed energy to the batteries of the light, phone,  camera and hopefully the laptop I intend to take with me.

The sun is giving people mental power. Happiness of a velomobiel rider!

On top of that I will cycle to the land of the rising sun!

Also I will cycle towards the sun in the morning EAST!

Plan B

If things will not work out for plan A; Due to one of the reasons:

Can’t send the SolarQuest back by ship,

Can’t sell the SolarQuest in Japan (before I leave),

Visa problems in one of the countries I’ll have to cross,

Other problems in one of the passing countries in the time I will cycle there.

Then I will have to change my plan.

This Plan B will be cycling with my Condor from Prudhoe Bay Alaska to Panama in 6 months.

A wonderful plan as well, but only if plan A doesn’t work.

Plan A I will leave april 1 ^st  2014

Plan B I will leave Prudhoe bay around July 15^th 2014

My Condor with solar energy in 2008, Stone Mountain Atlanta, Georgia USA

Last changes!

Today, I sent the last changes for my Carbon QUEST to Mark Burgers!
It will be a basic white QUEST And the top will be black with the visable structure of the Carbon fibers!
This way it is more beautiful when I put the flexible solar panels over this part of the QUEST!
A small increase of the price will be worth it!

start van de blog!

Een grote wens is uitgekomen;
Mijn quest carbon is besteld op 5 januari via ACE Winterswijk!

Mijn ervaringen met ligfietsen is uitgebreid.
Al ruim 25 jaar rijd ik ligfiets.
Begonnen met de M5 (3 wieler; de pre- velomobiel!) in ~1988,
Flevo-bike en -trike,
Alleweder (eigenbouw) en nu al vele jaren de Condor.
Hiermee heb ik in 2008 6 maanden door de VS en Canada gefietst, een ongelofelijke ervaring, dat smaakte naar meer

Nu de Quest besteld voor lange tochten en uiteindelijk de reis naar Japan in 2014!
Er zijn nog vele hobbels te gaan maar die zullen worden genomen net als alle problemen die je op een dergelijk tocht kan tegenkomen.

Op deze blog wil ik de vorderingen vermelden van de Quest oplossingen.