I'm Marc. In 2007 I cycled from Turkey through the Silkroad countries to Tibet and further. With this website you can join me on my travels, catch the ride!
Contact:29.03.08 19:00h, Gaststätte Schwenk, Bayreuth
04.04.08 20:00h, Museum Oud-Overschie, Overschie
24.05.08 19:00h, Wereldfietser weekend, Twente
01.05.08 19:00h, Radforum Treffen 2008, Dahn
31.05.08 19:00h, Wereldfietser Voorjaarsweekend, Leersum
28.01.09 20:00h, Nederlandse Vereniging Bayreuth, Bayreuth
Hi all!
Sorry for the looong silence but it took a long time to get a new router (more than 2 months) and by then I was either learning for my PhD-defence or visiting Poland (more below).
Anyway, a lot has happened so let’s start.
First of all I want to announce that I survived 5 years of PhD-work and my PhD-defence with magna cum laude. Not bad. So I am a Doctor now, hoooray!! 
A big thanks to all my friends and family who supported me through all these years! I am sorry that I could not give you the attention you all deserved and the mess I made in the office at times. My colleagues build me a nice doctor cart (a German tradition) and I had a BIG celebration with my friends afterwards. You can find the pictures here. They are mostly unsharp as I had forgotten to tell the Polish photographer to use the flash 
As you all know I like to travel so even during my preparations for my defence I travelled to the alps with my friends Mark and Jeroen to do some ‘’light” mountaineering. The weather was great, the mountains were steep and we did some great hiking near Kruen in the south of Bavaria. We visited the Wettersteingebirge and Karwendelgebirge and because of the loose rocks climbing was at times very tricky. But the views were as always unbelievable. The hardest trip was to the Meiler-Huette as we chose the difficult ascend and it was true. We had to climb almost 800 meters without a track, so it was real rockclimbing. The rocks were slippery and unstable so it was quite tricky at some places and the drop was looong. But we made it to the pass and were rewarded with a beautiful panorama. After we crossed the remains of an old glacier we could enjoy some good Bavarian food and beer in the Meiler Huette at (2374m). You can find the pictures here. More will follow soon…
Afterwards I had a short brake before traveling east, all the way to Tychy in Poland. Magda (my biggest blog fan and more) invited me for the wedding of her brother and I never say no to an invition, especially not to a polish wedding. The marriage was in the Catholic church (a big thanks to Magda for telling me when to stand and sit) and afterwards there was a great party with LOT’s of wodka, delicious food (kloesti, sausages etc, hmmm), wodka, dancing, wodka, funny games and mooore wodka. I had a great time with Magda and her family and I was second in the “carry a lady” contest. It was not that difficult as I had carried a heavy backpack in the mountains a few weeks before. Lady or backpack, what’s the difference
Then Magda and I went to Zakopane in the Tatra mountains in the far south of Poland and had a beautiful but cold time down there. I wanted to do some mountaineering but things turned out different as most passes etc were already closed because of snow. Nevertheless we managed to do some nice hikes and although the pictures are not the best (I need a new camera) they still show the beauty of the Tatra Mountains and the typical buildings from that area. More pictures can be found here. I will go back there for sure If they only had heating in the hotel…
Next week I will visit Magda again and hang around in Tychy so who knows I will make some more pictures. In the mean time enjoy the pictures and the panorama’s I created using Clevr.
So stay tuned!
Marc
Hi all,
Sorry for the looong silence but I don’t have internet at the moment as my router has died. As soon as this is fixed there will be a BIG update with pictures of my hiking holiday in southern Bavaria near Mittenwald and pictures of a Polish wedding I will attend next week thanks to Magdalena
So don’t despair and see you soon!
Marc
Hi All!
A short post but the content was A LOT OF WORK. Because….
The roadbook is finally ready! Hoooray!
So what is in there:
All the gps data of the places I staid for the night including recommendations for hotels
All the gps data and altitude of the passes I had to cycle
Information on where to find shops, water etc
Information on the roadconditions (2007)
Information on the Kora around Kailash (Tibet)
And MUCH more!
Feel free to use it if you are planning your next tour or want to read the details of my journey but please give a little credit (a link) to this site as it was A LOT OF WORK to gather the data. Here we go:
10 countries (I count Tibet as a country)
9 months
10.234 km
3807 km extremely bad bumpy offroad (37.2%)
Avarage speed 14,4 km/h
Cycled 29 higher passes, 14 between 4000 and 5000m and 6 of 5000m and more (Mont Blanc: 4811m)
Lowest temperature: -25C (Tong La, Tibet), highest temperature: +50C (Karakum desert, Turkmenistan)
Lowest altitude: -31m (Caspian see, Iran), highest altitude: +5660m, Droma La (Tibet)
41% of the time I camped
And last but not least I had to fix 3 punctures, endured 4 days of foodpoisoning and 6 months of stomach problems
My final google earth file is almost ready so stay tuned for the next update!
Marc
Hi all,
As I am preparing my next project I’m also looking for better ways to charge the batteries for all the electronics I carry. The home-made battery charger is OK but very fragile and I had lots of problems during the trip.
Not anymore! Thanks to kind sponsoring by Zzing I now have a very fancy, beautiful battery charger! Thank you Zzing team
So how does it work? The package is delivered in a stylish wooden box and contains the Zzing and the components to install the Zzing on the bicycle. The Zzing itself can be easily removed using a mounting system so you can take it with you.
The Zzing contains an accupack (5x 2400 or 2700 NiMh) which charges all kind of equipment by using an USB-Out located at the left side on the front. In the middle you can find a bright LED light so you can use it as a torch. On the far right it has a power-in, which connects to the dynamo (hub -or rim).
When you’re cycling the power can be used directly to charge all kind of equipment but because of the accu you can also charge when you’re not cycling. Additionally the Zzing can be charged using an AC-adapter so it is also very neat to have when you stay in hotels irregularly when backpacking
The following weeks I’ll buy the cables etc to charge my mobile phone, camera, AA batteries and GPS over USB and start testing. I’ll also torture the Zzing in Bayreuth the coming months on offroad tours to test if it would survive the harsh conditions encountered during my journeys.
So stay tuned!
Marc
Hi all!
During my travels I always use a voice recorder as I am to lazy to keep a diary. The last week I finally listened to all of them and I want to share some of them with you. They show the hardship and adventures (including bureaucratic ones) I had during my travels and my opinion about the people and countries I travelled through. It is all very personal and sometimes my opinion is very colored (see India) so don’t feel offended. I hope you all get an idea what makes me ‘tick’ as a world cyclist and what kind of experiences you get when cycling over the world. The recordings are in dutch.
Have fun
Why I prefer to cycle:
Russian soldiers at the Afgani border:
Fighting my way up through the storm on the Kyzal Art pass (4289m):
Small sample of the incredible Chinese Buro-crazy :
Beautiful hell of Tibet, climbing the Lhakpa La (5252m!) in an ice-storm:
First impressions of Nepal-paradise after 1.5 months icecold and remote Tibet:
Crazy India, an example after 24h waiting on the train and finally getting my bicycle:
Cycling in Mombay, India, on a big road and how to find a hotel :
Hi all!
There’s not a lot of news on the cycling front at the moment as I am working hard to finish my PhD.
I still had a little time to cycle however, and I attended various world-cyclist meetings in the weekends to give talks and to gather information for my next journey. I won’t tell you my destination yet but it’s going to be very sandy, very hot, very dry and very though Oh, and camels will likely be involved at some point, too…
Last week I received the travellog of Toon (thanks!) and I am now working on the roadbook of my journey with detailed information for future travelers. It’s a lot of work so it will take some time to complete as my PhD thesis has priority at the moment.
However, the moving of the website is going well. Thanks to kindly sponsoring by Solid Hosting I now have my own domain at http://www.itchywheels.nl, hoooray! At the moment you’ll get linked back to this site but that will change within the next months (insallah).
I also added a link to the (german) website of the dynamo battery charger. It is a great piece of equipment to have as it makes you independent of power sources when traveling remote places on earth. You “only” have to cycle to charge the batteries. Have fun building one and don’t blow the fuses please
In the meantime enjoy the pictures of the German world-cyclist weekend in Dahn and the Dutch world-cyclist weekends in Twente and Leersum. The pics are not that special but now you’ll see that I’m not the only looney out there
Marc
Hi all!
The website had some small updates today. I added my previous travels and some sponsor links and removed some small mistakes.
Furthermore I uploaded the Google Earth KMZ file with all the locations where you can find water (W) and food (F) between Tabriz and Theran (Iran). I hope it will be of some use for the highway cyclists.
As I have received various complaints that the web address was hard to remember I decided to move. Thanks to Solid Hosting I will move to a new address soon: http://www.itchywheels.nl. My very own domain, hooray
Moving will take some time and as we will upgrade the site to a newer version there might be some downtime of this website. But it will be back leaner and meaner than ever
In the meantime feel free to enjoy my previous travels through Scotland and Ireland and Jordan and Egypt. It is both in Dutch and English.
Have fun and don’t forget to check now and then!
Marc
Hi all,
A lot has happened since the last update so here goes.
The last weeks I have been busy organising all the paperwork after coming back to Germany. I had to renew my insurance, work permit etc etc. Lots of work but peanuts compared to the central asian burocrasy
Furthermore I worked on my talk and after sorting through 5000+ photos it is finished now. I already have some talks planned. You can find them on the lefthand side under ‘Talks’.
The google earth file is almost ready and I am now finishing up the last bits. I want to geo-tag my pictures so you all can see the pictures in google earth but it will take some time.
So stay tuned for the next update!
Marc
Hi all,
Today I heard about the death of Sheldon Brown, famous cycle- mechanic guru.
The last years he suffered from progressive MS but despite this disease he remained optimistic and still hit the road using his nifty Greenspeed Trike.
He died of an heart attack on 03-02-08.
I learned a lot about bike mechanics from his website and I and the cycling community ow a lot of our knowledge to his extensive bicycle glossary.
I really loved his optimistic view of the world and his humor; especially his Fools day jokes were marvelous. I even considered taking his ‘cycling helmet’ and ‘credit card’ with me on my journey
He will be missed
Marc
Gute morgen all!
I just received an email from Toon from Louang Prabang (Laos) that the frame of his (aluminium) Koga has cracked (near the left back axle) a few days ago. He will go to Bangkok to buy a new bike (most likely a Trek) to complete the last two months of his journey so stay tuned…
I myself am back in the ‘Heimat’ again after some relaxing weeks in the Netherlands. I visited the hospital to get myself checked and according to the doctor I am ‘clean’ but the toilet thinks differently though The docor thinks that because of the duration of the diareah, the hardship, foreign food and medicine the bacteria are not in balance anymore. So the following months I will have to build it all up again. Yogurt here I come
In the meantime I am preparing a talk about my journey and working on my promotion but if I have time I’ll surely hit the road for some adventures. The google earth file of my trip is almost ready and I’ll put it online ASAP so don’t forget to have a look now and then
Grüsse,
Marc
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