Thomas Houf is on the road and writes in detail with very good pictures of the trip and his impressions.

His website: derspurensucher.

Excerpts from his pages with good tips:

My bike

How long do long-distance cyclists spend choosing their equipment? I don't know.

I can only tell you that the process of thinking, of getting it together, of deciding if you want to go on a long trip with a bike is a long time. - Long enough. If my decision really meets my needs, I still can't say for sure, after almost 2 years, without any real bike travel experience.

How do you know that with all clarity, if you have never done that. Therefore, I am very grateful for the advice of Peter Dedenbach from the Cologne Stadtrad.

My specifications were:

I want a bike that will take me on a long journey, through thick and thin, for the next few years without much grumbling.Low maintenance and powerful. I am 194 cm long and currently weigh a good 110 kilos.

With all the "material" and bike comparisons on the net, in various forums - some 75 kilo people who only go as far as the Eifel, forget that a bike on 10,000 and more kilometers, on bad roads, gravel and potholes with a complete travel equipment, and possibly food and drink for a few days is exposed to quite different stresses ... than a bike off the shelf can endure even half.

Peter Dedenbach from Stadtrad Köln, - by the way with his own really good workshop in the background, had listened to my idea to go to China by bike, had a look at me and recommended the following:

The London bike from the German manufacturer Utopia - 200 kilo payload.

Reduce Speed

Many of the cyclists are fast. I can't tell if they are driven to make distance, to get ahead, if endorphins, body morphines, released by the effort affects their behavior. Do they already start fast, do they get faster, do they get more restless on the way?

That's exactly what I don't want.Reduce Speed, said the Rad Nomads, that wasn't just a title of their talk, that stuck. That appeals to www.reducespeed.de Dorothe Krezmar and Kurt Beutler. 160000 kilometers in 10 years. I would like to do 18,000 kilometers in a year, and that already seems very fast to me on average.At the moment it's still too fast for my knee.