Kicking the Camino

The adventures and misadventures of a madman with a cat and too many footbikes.

[dubhans-blog]

Introducing another one of my toys, a 1991 Czechoslovakian made Favorit road bike. I bought this bike two weeks ago for the princely sum of 400 CZK ( approx €16 ) .

When purchasing I was hoping that the bike was going to be of an older vintage, pre-1987, as I hope to take part in an Eroica vintage bike event at some point in the future. The ridiculously low price and it's relatively good condition meant I couldn't say no to buying it.

The search continues for my pre-1987 Eroica bike and I'm also on the lookout for a bike manufactured in 1944 for a future daring adventure.

[dubhans-blog]

A moment of madness.

So in a moment of madness I think I've gone and purchased the cheapest available new road bike in the UK in 2025, a Basis Tourmalet 14. Price including shipping £144.

How bad can this thing possibly be? Time will tell. I ordered the bike last Friday and had it delivered to my mother's in the UK. It arrived on Monday.

I fly into the UK on Friday so I shall see what sort of pig in a poke I've managed to purchase.

Buy a Basis Tourmalet 14 Adults Road Bike from E-Bikes Direct Outlet

Basis Tourmalet 14 Adults Road Bike, Alloy Frame, 700c Wheel, 14 Speed - Black/Lime - E-Bikes Outlet

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Time to get this show back on the road

It's been a while and a lot has happened but I'll bring you all up to speed in the next few posts once I get my bearings and find out where I left off. Watch this space!

[dubhans-blog]

The deed is done and the die is cast. Next year's long distance footbike adventure is going to be the Trans-Pennine Trail which runs from Southport on the west coast of the UK to Hornsea on the east coast with a plan to stop off in York along the way.

Having completed the Camino Portugues a lot of lessons were learnt about loading up the footbike and for next year's trip I'm going to see about adding a pannier rack to the front of the Kickbike rather than having a basket on the handlebar.

[dubhans-blog]

Why I will never do another Camino.

Yesterday I returned from Santiago de Compostela having completed the Camino Portugues from Lisbon to Santiago on a footbike ( no it's not @#£&ing electric). The trip was punishing, challenging but on the whole enjoyable. As I scooted through Portugal I started to think about my original plan to scoot the Camino, originally I had planned to do the Camino del Norte, maybe I could do it in 2024 or 2025? Arriving in Santiago my plans for ever doing another Camino were crushed.

The last time I was in Santiago was 2003 and it was a quiet almost provincial place with a few pilgrims dotted about. The cafés were run out of someone's living room or cellar. Now the place is a massive commercial enterprise thousands of tacky souvenir shops along with a million bars and cafes.

The night life seems to go on into the early hours of the morning with drunken revelers roaming the streets singing and shouting and no-one policing their behaviour.

Back in the day access to the cathedral was up the steps and through the majestic front entrance in front of the statue of Saint James. It seems that there are now so many people arriving that the church is being damaged so now entry is now through a lesser back entrance.

The pilgrim's office is now a slick computerised modern affair which it's had to become in order to deal with the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims arriving each year back in the early 2000s that number was in the tens of thousands.

For me Santiago has become a victim of its own success. People are doing the Camino not for its intended purpose as a journey to reflect and maybe become closer to whatever one believes in but to score bragging rights amongst friends and family. As the saying goes, it's all about the journey not the destination and for my Camino that was certainly true.

My next Camino will be along a route of my design and it definitely won't end in Santiago. I loved you Santiago de Compostela but you've changed and in my eyes definitely not for the better.

[dubhans-blog]

I've just returned from my Camino adventure. Probably the toughest adventure / challenge I have ever undertaken on a footbike. 12 hard days on the road has changed my body and all for the better.

Now I'm on a real health kick. Next year I want to take part in some European footbike championships so I need to bring my weight down. I weighed myself today and I clocked in at 97 kg. My ideal fighting weight is 85 kg so I've set myself a goal of losing at least 12 kg by 31st December 2023. For every 1 kg under my target I will donate €40 to charity.

[dubhans-blog]

T-31 days.

I went on tilt over the past three days with regards to my intermittent fasting, eating all the wrong foods at the wrong times. I'd lost 5 kg up until Friday. I know what my weight was on Friday but I'm not going to weigh myself today as it will be depressing. To remedy my transgression I've decided to go on a three day fast to hopefully bring me back to my weight as it was on Friday. Let's see how that goes.

I've done no scooting since last Thursday. The weather here in Ireland has been miserable. Hopefully I'll get out this evening though it's going to be tough going if I haven't eaten.

[dubhans-blog]

T-36 days until Camino Portugues

I've still to decide on my weapon of choice for kicking the Camino. Up until a couple of weeks ago I was planning on using the Yedoo Wolfer. I'd modified it a little fitting it with oversized tyres to handle less than perfect roads now having watched a video about the Camino Portugues I'm having doubts. My instinct says take the Kickbike Cross 29er. The Cross 29er is better suited to the job but I really worry about it's hydraulic brake lines getting damaged on the flight to Lisbon. The Wolfer is fast and agile but it's designed for racing, it uses regular bike parts and can be repaired by any bike shop. The Cross 29er is robust, it can handle really bad terrain. I proved that by once scooting down Croagh Patrick! I just worry about the disc brakes and hydraulics going bad, getting them repaired in the middle of Portugual I'm guessing would be difficult. What to do?

[dubhans-blog]

Where to begin ...

Well I guess I have to start somewhere and this is it. I've started this blog to document my Camino. My official start of the Camino Portugues is 1st September 2023. This blog will not only document the journey from Lisbon to Santiago by footbike but I will also travel back in time to discuss everything ( well almost everything, I have to leave some parts out to protect the guilty ) that finally lead up to booking the flights to head out to Portugal. After the Camino I'll use this space to document future adventures that are in the planning.

Bom Camino!