Our world record ride is now a book!

I'm only about 1/4 of the way through, and I keep thinking "surely, thats it, they're through the bad luck now, right?" Then I turn the page. You 2 not only did an amazing ride through every possible disruption, but the book is absolutely stellar!
 
Having finished it - man, you two are tough. I genuinely can't fathom personally how you got back on that particular bike after page 715 (ever). Do you still own it, or did you get rid of it at the end of the ride?

The one thing I wish you'd gone into more detail (and wish _anyone_ went into more detail on, to be honest) is what advance planning the ride looked like. Aside from the consumables-logistics and taking that sort of time away from the rest of your life, how detailed were you planning in advance? Roads? Just highlights? The alaska ferry implies you were at least looking quite hard at time windows.

Great book
 
I was surprised, as I didn't think i would be able to get into the journey. Was I wrong. Read the whole book over two days, in between unavoidable interruptions from work stuff.
Well-done, Wendy and Ian.
 
Norman said:
Having finished it - man, you two are tough. I genuinely can't fathom personally how you got back on that particular bike after page 715 (ever). Do you still own it, or did you get rid of it at the end of the ride?

The one thing I wish you'd gone into more detail (and wish _anyone_ went into more detail on, to be honest) is what advance planning the ride looked like. Aside from the consumables-logistics and taking that sort of time away from the rest of your life, how detailed were you planning in advance? Roads? Just highlights? The alaska ferry implies you were at least looking quite hard at time windows.

Great book
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Hey Norman, for some reason this got bumped off my notifications list and so 18 months later i stumble across your query.
To answer your query.
The inital concept was mapped out in 2012, 2022 was always the year of its execution, the year kinda got set while in conversation with Howard at the 2013 Pizza Party.. It was just broad strokes - how far between each capital and total distance.
2013 to about 2019, I'd revist it yearly and fine tune the broad strokes, started adding specific location data, co-ords of carpark/ slash picture taking locations etc, add a bit more detail about consumables volumes and adjusting fuel pricing etc so I could see what the max cost would be. The plan - while I was solo - was to simply sleep in the dirt or at an IBA motel. I have done this all over the world in all sorts of countries and sleep really well outdoors in all sorts of weather.
Given my 30 years of global wandering like this, this is a much detail I put in up to 2019. I knew the ferry to Skagway was there but it wasnt worth kinda getting sorted that far out. I knew rear tyres were going to be potentially problematic but didnt sweat it to much this far out. Food, oil changes etc, that wasnt planned on being planned beyond carrying filters and plugs and a alt belt, just in case.
Then the IBR of 2019 happened and the wierdest duo to ever ride together not as a team leapfrogged each other over a few massive days. Enter Wendy. Wendy is detail driven so the plan then got a really close, pull it apart review. Her input, along with hours of discussion with beer saw the original milage go from the 63000 short route to the 100 000mile route. Her detail built pretty much every other detail on this ride from the service point, the ferry bookings 12 months or so out. This point was our biggest risk, miss it and we were delayed badly, with my visa at risk of expiring before the ride was done. We go thu all that in the book along with the copious lists f stuff we created.
What was left completely unplanned were things you normally plan on a ride. We didn't book hotels, fuel stops, rest locations, service points( as we had our one location), we didnt factor in diversionary roads - we just basically smashed our way thru whatever weather and roadworks were on our main route.
Hope this helps mate. TD.
 
Yes, I still own the buffalo. ITs residing in a shed in MN and the dream, ah dreams, is to one day bring it back to Oz and have it in a museum where its story can be shown.. However that is an expensive exercise and Im not sure will ever be realised..
 
bionicpelvis said:
Hey all! As many of your know, Ian McPhee (aka Tabledrain) and I did a massive, mayhem-filled ride in 2022 which resulted in the first ever IBA Alphabetical Capital Expedition certs as well as a World Record. (The company that gave us the world record is touchy about us invoking their name without paying for the privilege, so we'll just call it a Dark Beer World Record.) We spent 2023 writing a correspondingly massive, mayhem-filled book about the experience, and now you can get your very own copy on Amazon! Right now we're the #1 best seller in one category and the #1 New Release in another, so needless to say we're humbled and amazed at the response. If Kindle/eBooks are more your style, that will be available in the coming weeks as well.

Thanks for the bandwidth, and thanks to everyone who helped us debut on the best seller list! We hope y'all enjoy reading about the chaos way more than we enjoyed living it. :D
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That book is really great!
 
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