Archive for the ‘Background information’ Category

The next city I want to talk about is Minden. We shall pass this probably on day 2 since it’s about 290 km from home and we might actually try to find a place to sleep around that city.

The city has a rich history going back to the 7th century. The first time the town was mentioned in an official document dates back to 798. After that the town has been the capital of various states and provinces. One of them being the Bishopric of Minden, a province in the Holy Roman Empire.

Minden features an important center where rivers, roads and trains all come together. This makes Minden an logistic-wise interesting city.

During the “Seven Year’s War” there was a famous battle near minden called the “Battle of Minden”. This battle was all about the English, French and Germans who had a go at each other while wearing the latest fashion a soldier could imagine in that time. I mean… isn’t this the most epic cosplay costume you’ve ever seen in the history of your eyes? I’d say it is. Okay maybe it’s not… hehe.

Next to this, Minden is also “famous” for it’s aquaduct, or two actually. Boats can pass a river over a bridge. The is the second largest water bridge in Europe.

The city itself is quite old and especially in the center you can find a lot of old buildings. It also features some modern structures since the city is still expanding.

Here some pictures I found online.

Hey guys! Made a small video explaining how we plan our Route.

Of course we use the great software from Google, namely Google Earth. Through this application we plan our waypoints and then print a list with all the cities and villages we need to reach. Look in the video how we do this stuff..! Enjoy!

Our team member Victor purchased a bicycle through “marktplaats”. Or so he thought…

They had a deal to get the bike for 240 euros. Victor would call on Sunday to say at what time he’d collect the bike on Monday.

So today, as was agreed upon, Victor called. Apparently some-one overbid Victor and would collect the bike on Monday too. GREAT!

The excuse this ’seller’ gave was that “usually 90% of the people don’t call back so when I got a different offer I just did that. So tough titty”.

Is that a way to treat customers?  We don’t think so. We called him too and after 2 minutes he just hung up on us.

And thus we strongly advise not to do business with this man. What a disappointment…

His webstore: http://www.fietsenvanbas.nl

His “marktplaats account“

The following city I’ll be telling you a bit about is the wonderful city of Stadthagen. This city will be at a distance of about 310.7 km. We expect to reach this destination at day 2 or 3 on our journey. If we have the wind in our back and the sun is shining, we’ll be easily doing 150 km per day so having Stadthagen as our third night target is quite realistic.

Stadthagen is the capitol of the Schaumburg province and counts about 24.000 habitants. In 1224 the city was founded by Count Adolf of Holstein the third.

In the year 1400 they’ve built stone fortifications of which there still are some parts standing today. A good example is the tower.  In 1501 they began mining coal till 1961.

In 1847 they’ve built the train station which is still being used today.

The Second World War

During the second worldwar the allied forces bombed the city twice. In a total 2 bombs just missed the city hall. Another 6 bombs fell parallel to the Windmuehlenstrasse. In 1938 during the “Kristallnacht” the synagogue was burnt down and all Jews where banished from the city.

So..

I think we can look forward to go through this very historical and old city. It’s said that it became more a cosmopolitan city in the last several years with many foreign people. A lot of Turkish people are currently living in the city. Well.. we’ll see how nice this town is. By the sounds of it it’s going to be a nice city to capture by camera, while enjoying a nice kebab after doing 300km of biking. Can’t wait!

Okay so we have to cross Lübbecke. One of the many waypoints on the list. I’m currently looking up all the distances between waypoints and sometimes you just have to check a city. This time it was Lübbecke.

First thing that caught my attention was this picture of a car on a road we actually have to cycle.. and later I even found some more cars wrecked on the side of the road. GREAT! So my first concern is… Do they break for bicyclers!? Apparently they all think they’re a Schumacher.. lol!

The roads seem a bit small there and it’s not the flattest place on earth. South of the city there seems to be quite some “mountain” formations. Will this be an issue? Well I think we stay north of all these steep hills. But still it’s something to investigate further.. that’s one thing for sure.

Ah well…

So what’s this kind of place anyway? On their official homepage I found this image of a wonderful, weird colored yet cool looking church:

I guess it’s a very picturesque village with lot’s of old buildings… but it seems only a small selection of the buildings are truly old.

The district Lübbecke is from 1832 and merged with Minden in 1973 becoming Minden-Lübbecke. The first tribes and habitants settled around the year 800 of what later would become Lübbecke. In the 12th century the first city was built that in the end would become Lübbecke. So.. it’s quite old.

Here some images I found while looking up the area…

Weapon of Lübbecke

Bad news... (hill...)

Good news! (it's flat!)

More good news, they have a Miss Lubbecke contest LOL!

Ooo nice, castle tower.. now where's the rest!?

Anyway I’m off to the Google Earth again to do some more planning… Cheers guys!

Title says it all! ^_^

Hey guys, took quite a big risk on my bike but here’s a new video for you to enjoy! You can also watch it in HD!!

To watch in HD,

CLICK HERE.

During a trip we will use a lot of different roads.

We’ve had strage situations so far like a bicycle road that was made out of grass for about 100 meters.. I mean what the heck!

But in general these are the types of roads we’ll encounter and  that we choose to ride.

How do we judge a road?
- Is the road solid enough?
- Does it seem to go some-where safe, sure it’s not a dead end?
- Is it a busy road?
- How safe is it? How fast do cars pass and how visible are we?
- Is it legal….ish…?

Quality Bicycle Roads Idealy you want to ride these bicycle paths. They are wide and have clear indications of what’s your side of the road. They are well maintained in general and you can reach quite some top speed on these. Especially with the wind in your back. We’ve found these in the Netherlands very often, sometimes in Germany and Danmark. This image was take in Fredrikshavn.

Cheap Bicycle Roads This picture was taken in the northern part of Danmark. These bicycle roads are aprox. 70 cm wide. Overtaking here is an art. Quite often foliage is so tense that you had to cut your way through it since it just grew OVER the bicycle road. For regular bikers this means hitting it with the front wheel and lower legs. For me it meant getting all sorts of flowers in my face (since I drive the low recumbent). Some bushes even got my mirror bent so I had to re-adjust it… great!

One Car Roads These roads are small and have some places where cars can pass. Usually cars have to move a bit off road to pass. In the Netherlands you barely find them but in Germany and Danmark you can find them once in a while. If you’re on one of these roads you are probably off-route. Usually you won’t find that many cars using these.

Regular small roads These roads are meant for cars that will not go faster than let’s say.. 60-70 km/h. You can pass each other but it’s not ideal. These roads are not that busy. For us these roads are okay. Watch your mirrors/back, look ahead and you’ll be fine.

Main Roads There are some roads that function as the main roads from large city to large city. They drive an incredible speed there and also buses and (large) trucks pass you here. I think they often easily do 100-130 km/h. Most of the time there’s a small piece of tarmac on the side of the road as you can see here. This is about 70 cm wide and that’s the safest place for us to stay. I usually go a bit to the left to make sure drivers to the same. If they are close I move a bit extra to the right. This way I force them to take more precautions for us. I usually look more in my mirror than looking in front of me. For this reason I’m often behind Joost (or others) and scream “CAARRR!!” when there’s something coming. Safety is an issue here, but if you handle it wisely it shouldn’t cause any trouble.

Other Roads But of course there are exceptions. Sandy roads, gravel roads or even a bicycle path made from grass.. You will find a lot of creativity in road building in certain countries. Gravel isn’t nice, it’s not good for your tires and it slows you down tremendously. Grass of course is the worst. Walking is quicker sometimes.

That was it. I hope this will enlighten you a bit!

Hey guys, just had a photoshoot and when I had to wait I put my bike in there. So here some images of my Optima Stinger:

and

A larger version of the first picture can be found here:
Optima Stinger recumbent studio picture.

Enjoy!

Well to show you a bit more what the issue is that I’m having at the moment, here a video and a photo.

Here a more detailed photo of the problem: