Links....

Let me know if you have a tour site running or know of some useful resource that I really ought to link to. So far I am running links under the following categories although it is bound to expand:

Tour sites, Route planning, Eclectic Bike Interest, Cycling Groups, Bike Maintenance, Training, Clothes, Bikes and Equipment Manufacturers.

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Other Tour Sites

There are plenty of people out there who are also planning a major trip and even more that are out there doing it now. I've gleaned a lot of hints and tips from their sites and I hope you will too. Below I have included links to the most ispirational tour sites I've come across so far:

• Impressions from bicycle travels - excellent photos, particulalry the themes from America.
• Corax - Truly beautiful journey with photos to boot!
• Down the Road - A major life changing tour of the world!
• Freewheelers - Excellent rating for equipment - must remember to check this when I'm drawing up my list of essentials.
• Tallabomba - Europe to Asia
• Cycling to Sydney - Sisters from London to Sydney
• Mr Pumpy - Definative Info for cyclists in Asia
• Bicycles to Australia - Really informative, a real gadget man
• BicycleTrek - Dave and Maxine's blog across Canada
• A Long Ride - Interesting idea

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Tour Planning and routes.....

This stuff is all new to me, I've never really had to plan anything major before. It includes maps, route planning, pre-planned routes, GPS and general area information:

• Route Ruler - just click around the image of a map to find out total distance, useful for running as well! Its free too!
• Tracklogs - mapping software, usefully they can provide you with maps centered on a postcode, useful for holiday bases and home.
• Memory Map - useful imaging software, great for use with GPS.
• Pete Martin's route archive - useful archive of club run's and audax routes, mapped with profile.
• BikeTrip.org - General info on planning for a tour - not a travelogue
• BikeTouring101 - This is growing to be a great resource, not overly beautiful but it does have some interesting articles and reviews.
• Trento - Really useful site for anyone planning a tour of Europe, includes routes and more.
• Ciclismo site - Profiled ascents from around the globe.
• Bertevers - Useful profiles of ascents across Europe.

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Bike Interest Sites .....

I have to give a mention to the CyclingPlus forum which I hope will remain a huge source of knowledge and inspiration as we set off on our journey:

• Cycling+ Forum - superb!
• Audax UK - The official audax site, home of the long distance challenge ride.
• Cyclosport UK - these are tough, audax style rides but for competitive riders.
• Bike-Events - They run a lot of well organised charity rides like London-Oxford, they have the full support crew and you can just ride for sport if your friends are getting fed up of sponsoring you.
• Critical Mass - A fairly anarchic group ride around London. Reclaim the streets on the last friday of each month.
• Sustrans - for cycle routes and campaigns
• London Cycle Campaign - I recommend joing these guys for the mag alone which is great!
• BikeJournal - a free site for logging all of your cycle stats
• Ice Bike - this is pretty cool! Great and inspiring photos and full of advice for winter cycling. Should be useful for this winters commute which threatens to be a rough one.
• Graham Watson - This guy shows off his amazing cycling photos and you can buy them as well if you like. He has rather a lot of some guy named Lance Armstrong.

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Cycling Groups .....

Most of these groups are based in and around London and have a bias towards West London (I wonder why?):

• Dykes on Bikes - this is an exception as it isn't West London
• Kingston Wheelers
• Uxbridge Loiterers
• Cycle Touring Club - organise good accessible rides.

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Fitness and Training .....

Useful motivational sites and more :

• Ultracycling - Useful resources and training tips for the long distance cyclist and audax rider.
• Polar Global Site- Training advice from the heart rate monitor people
• Polar UK - Uk site
• Peak Performance - hundreds of training articles for just about every sport
• 2 Peak - Excellent online personal training site for runners and cyclists
• BikeJournal - a free site for logging all of your cycle stats
• Joe Beer - loads of technical training advice
• ChiRunning - effortless, injury free running. Not sure if its true yet but I'm going to give it a go.
• RunnersWorld Forum - a UK based forum for the runners.
• KBKickboxing - Gay friendly martial arts group in west London.
• BodyForLife - The main site detailing the motivational trasformation program by Bill Phillips
• Dr Hussmans Transformation Guide - super stuff, explaining how the BodyForLife champions managed the program and how you can tweak the BfL program.
  

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Bike Maintenance Sites .....

I'm sure we are going to have to use some of these sites from time to time:

• Park Tools
• Sheldon Brown
• PJCS Bike Maintenance course - These guys offer accredited training - used by the cycle industry. I better get myself on one of these courses before we set off.

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Equipment, Clothing and Bike Sites .....

These link you straight through to the manufacturers sites for clothing, equipment and bikes:

Clothing Manufacturers:

• Corinne Dennis - specialist designs for women
• Minx - Trendy cycle clobber for girls!

Bike Manufacturers:

• Joe Waugh - the new (nearly new) bike!
• Cannondale
• Airnimal - home of Peryl
• Ridgeback
• Marin
• Specialized
• Koga-Myata - worthy WorldTraveller
• Thorn - arguably the sturdiest world tourer - we are saving up for a Rohloff model.

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