Bicycle Patches and motivation.

[Pavel]

I've decided to make my Carradice  panniers a bit more interesting and am going to buy some patches to sew onto the rears.  I bought a lime green Cancer Ribbon to stitch on the very back, as well as bicycle in a road sign patch and a waving green alien (looked cute).  Then I thought that I'll get one for each country I've cycle toured in and one for each state I've cycled through.  I'll make sure the Texas patch is larger than any other ... so as to not upset anyone from that state and hopefully this will be a bit of motivation for me to wander far.  I've spent the summer roaming on what was to be my daughter's 17th birthday present, the 300cc Ninja and find that motorcycle travel is too much like car travel - too fast. It's like watching a film rather than being in real life.  Now I just have to try to find some fitness again, order 12 state patches, get some sewing skills and go hunting for new states to visit and eat in. 

The Carradice Super C rears, sure do provide a large "canvas".

Anyone else collect any patches or other sort of memorabilia with the same motivation as I?

[jags]

only have 2, the fell club  and world traveller  got that one from Dan.
i wish you luck sewing them onto the carradice bags those things are  tough maybe glue would be better no idea what kinda glue just a thought.

jags.

[Danneaux]

Anyone else collect any patches or other sort of memorabilia with the same motivation as I?

Yes. See: http://thorncyclesforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=4523.msg22535#msg22535

Couldn't sew mine on because Ortlieb, hence the potential to break the waterproofness, so I used SeamGrip instead. No sign of peeling or lifting after the passage of four years' time.

All the best,

Dan.

[Pavel]

only have 2, the fell club  and world traveller  got that one from Dan.
i wish you luck sewing them onto the carradice bags those things are  tough maybe glue would be better no idea what kinda glue just a thought.

jags.

Yeah ... I wondered about that myself and also reducing the rain shedding abilities a bit.  I don't think I could find anything to stick to the wax coating so I think I will melt a bit extra on on top of the stitching after I'm done. I use dry bags inside anyways to keep my stuff sorted. Being much like Dan, it could be that by the time I'm done I will have come up with the systems approach to doing this.  There must be some optimal way, of course, right?    I did buy an industrial straight stich sewing machine a few months ago. I haven't used it yet ... don't know anything about sewing ... except the fact that I don't know anything about it - and that it needs skill!

[jags]

just keep your fingers well away from the pointy bits and all should be fine.

jags.

[onebikeoneworld]

I don't collect patches. My souvenir is flags. I get a flag for each country I visit, and the people that I meet get to sign it. It can get really fun when you have a creative person signing it early, as that inspires everyone else to do something fun. After visiting 62 countries there's only one comment that I'm not fond of and the rest work as wonderful reminders of some of the fabulous people that I've met during my wanderings. Only one person hasn't wanted to sign it, and that was a policeman in Bolivia. He would have been the first person, and I guess if there had already been some other signatures he would have been willing to do it.

[Pavel]

62 countries?? you are living the (bicycle) life!