ShaneCycles.com

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After the extreme trips in recent years where I’ve lived adventure to the bone and cycled/camped in all weather from -45 to +45, touring over 30,000km on 4 continents. Its time to take a step back towards “normal” life. For the coming years I plan to work on my career, new business and all those other boring things we’re supposed to do in life.

Hopefully with some short holidays in Europe (Brompton or Bikepacking), weekend escapes and 5,000km of cycle commuting per year I can still keep my sanity….

Feel free to have a sniff around my site at what I’ve been up to in recent years.
Or burn your modem with this photo journey >>>>CLICK<<<<

Digging up old memories

Warning: This post is not about cycling or travel, but was wrote as an introduction to an old boys club earlier this week and meant as an ironic recap of my short nine years in the British Army. Its heavy on words, and light on photo’s but, just maybe some of my regular readers will like it . This is a part of my life I’ve kept in [...]

2018 plans : From slowly slowly to le...

With Spring almost here its time to crawl back from under my blog free rock and share my plans for 2018. Well, the short version of my plans is simple. Don’t finish last in the Bikepacking Trans Germany this July. The long version: The Bikepacking Trans Germany (BTG) is a self supported race across Germany. From Basel to Cape Arkona (R [...]

Freedom Challenge-pt III

Day 4 : Masaka – Malegolonyane ————————————————- “Whilst you are on the spur look westwards towards the mountains. Below you you will see a floodplain. In the distance, on the far side of the flood plain (if your eyesight is good) you w [...]

Freedom Challenge-pt II

Day 2+3: Allendale-Ntsikeni-Masakala —————————————————————– At 4am we were gently woken by Xavier Rudd singing from my phone: This song would wake me daily and remind me that my mission was to chase the sun. Each [...]

My Freedom Challenge. A story about a...

The Race Across South Africa takes place in June/July each year. It is a 2300 km ( with a total cumulative ascent is over 37000 metres), non-stop, self-navigated mountain bike race starting in Pietermaritzburg KwaZulu-Natal and ending in Wellington near Cape Town. Riders are allowed a maximum of 26 days to complete the ride. Blistered sore f [...]

Going long on Low Carb

Almost a year since letting the cat out the bag about my fancy pants Low Carb Health Fat diet (>Maybe read this first<) and with gradually more readers, friends and family asking questions I thought it time to do an update with more info and tips. Once again if low carb doesn’t fit your belief system (nutrition is very close to re [...]

Drenthe 200 : Chasing 16.7

A shot fired at 6am and the first wave of the Drenthe 200 was off. I stood shivering gently for another 20 minutes waiting for wave three to start. My guts churning, toes cold and anticipation rising. I had no idea this racing thing could be so nerve racking, I was apprehesive of my ability to finish this now infamous 200km off road ride with [...]

Shane Cycles the Freedom Challenge?

Pt 2 :Bikepacking the GR 5,Trans Arde...

(Pt.1 of the story can be found >>here<<) I’d heard hikers arrive late in the night so thought I’d make their day by leaving my spare 4 eggs and extra coffee just outside their tent. I know how much it can suck to wake up hungry and still need to find an open shop, even more so when hiking than cycling. My half day res [...]

Pt 1: Bikepacking the GR 5,Trans Arde...

Inspired by the write up on Bikepacking.com I’d considered having a crack at the GR5 (hiking route) for a while. The last line of the blog “Continue on the GR5 in either direction to lengthen the adventure” intrigued me. When my current contract abruptly ended and knowing I’d be starting a new permanent job less than 2 [...]

How a #LCHF lifestyle changed my life...

The merits of a Low Carb Healthy Fat diet for cycle touring. Note 1 : If you’re totally convinced that you need carbs for sport and blindly follow government guide lines on diet and ” Science” and have no intentions of entertaining a different theory, you may want to quickly leave and save yourself some time. If you have Ly [...]

Bike packing the Scottish Borders

Advertised as a challenging 3 day ride (+/- 240km/ 5000m climbing). I’ve been eager to try The Capital trail route since hearing about it. By starting in Berwick upon Tweed I was also able to add a couple of days and included an option to do the “Peebles loop” if I had time left over. By combining my traveling days straight [...]