Coffee First, Then the World by Jenny Graham

Author:Jenny Graham
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781399401036
Publisher: Bloomsbury Sport
Published: 2023-02-24T00:00:00+00:00

We’d flit constantly between the three modes. Sometimes I’d push back from the help, other days I’d soak it up, grateful to feel we were in this together.

Branded kit replacement: One of the classic rules for self-supported bikepacking is to use only commercial services that are available to all challengers, so no private resupply or lodging.

I’d never had any money from brand sponsorship before this trip, so didn’t quite know how best to honour the partnership while on the road. Inevitably I had to replace pieces of kit as I went and it was difficult to stay ‘on brand’ so, mid-ride, I made a new rule: I would accept a new piece of kit from private sources to keep me ‘on brand’, firstly as long as I could find a store which sold the item I needed (even though it was ‘off brand’) and secondly I could prove (to myself) that I had the money to buy it.

While I was passing through Adelaide, I stopped at the Bike Society to replace a chain and grab a seat bolt before climbing into the hills. I also needed replacement bags for the frame and top tube. Both zips had burst wide open, because I’d been over-filling them, and they were currently closed over with zip ties. The shop did have bag replacements available, but these weren’t made by Apidura – and the lovely folk at Apidura had agreed to send me out what I needed.

Dennis from Glenpark Cycles in Perth put me in touch with a woman in Brisbane called Rosemary, so I could get the kit and a new bank card sent to her. Somewhere along the line I’d got muddled up and thought she owned a bike shop in Brisbane and was part of the Warm Showers network (a website for touring cyclists). Once the kit had been arranged and sent, though, I found out she was in fact just a friend of Dennis’s. This played on my conscience, as it felt like accepting favours from mates, so in the final days of Oz I decided that I could no longer accept her help, but instead found a hotel in New Zealand where she could send on the Apidura kit (the card never arrived). This made her a link in the chain whether I liked it or not, but not physically meeting with her made me feel slightly better.

These were my personal tweaks, but not every ultra-distance rider claiming a self-supported title would choose the same rules. Mine were possibly a bit pedantic and not the most efficient. They definitely slowed me down, but they enabled me to maintain my integrity and the integrity of my ride, and they motivated me.

Every day I was aware of the Round the World clock ticking. Whether I was counting up my ride time, trying to hit the golden 15 hours a day in the saddle, peeling myself away from cafés or pushing on through the dark, long after I wanted to stop, it was that clock motivating me, but when I have a flight to catch my whole world ramps up a notch.

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