"Off the Rails" by Tim Cope and Chris Hatherly

Oh, BTW, the 'bents they used were custom-built by a Wayne Kotzur of
Canberra. He seems to have been very active in the Australian scene,
but doesn't seem to have an online presence anymore (?).

They looked like your standard USS 20/26 front-susupension 'bent, with
a mesh seat.

Now, I must again reiterate my slight disappointment with this style of
travel-writing which seems like those group tours that rush from one
point of interest to another. For example, it was a big deal for them
to have secured year-long Russian visas, but no explanation is given
for the achievement of this well-nigh impossibility, despite the very
strongly stated goal given by both authors (they take turns writing
alternate chapters, with little overlap) of inspiring others,
particularly young people, with their trip. Well, their account,
interesting as it is simply because of the story itself -- as opposed
to the art of telling it -- won't serve as some kind of how-to guide at
all, that's for sure.

As REMFs in the Army like to say: amateurs talk strategy, professionals
talk logistics. More useful than knowing their plans -- which are
mostly ad-hoc, really -- would have been to know how they handled stuff
like funding (beyond obvious stuff like family loans).



Hull 697 wrote:

SNIP


NYC, did you ever find out what brand they were riding? Appreciate the
review. Am requesting both these books through the local library
tomorrow. They are getting used to me, never a dull moment when I head
for the requests desk, occasional twinge, but they secretely enjoy the
challenge.


--
Hull 697