James Bowthorpe will try to beat the record on his round-the-world bicycle trip.

The record time for cycling around the world is 194 days 17 hours set by Mark Beaumont early last year. Now British cyclist James Bowthorpe is aiming for 150 days, with a goal of raising funds and awareness for a Parkinson’s disease charity.

The 31-year-old will leave London on 29 March, with a goal of riding 120 miles a day and travelling 18,000 miles through 21 countries. He hopes to raise £1.8 million (US$25m) – £100 (US$140) per mile cycled – for the Psychiatry Research Trust’s What’s Driving Parkinson’s? campaign.

Setting off on his Dutch Santos Travelmaster bike with Rohloff hub and the Santos belt drive system, Bowthorpe will pass through Western and Eastern Europe, Iran, Pakistan, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada, Portugal and Spain.

Read the following press coverage for more info:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/all-geared-up-for–the-ride-of-his-life-1656047.html

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/british-cyclist-aims-to-break-round-the-world-record-20690

The concept of the world record is well established in the UK and something of a British obsession. The present record holder is a guy called Mark Beaumont who completed the ride last year on a Koga. He received a lot of press coverage and the BBC also produced a 4-part TV documentary which was shown widely.

More details about Mark’s ride here:

http://www.pedallingaround.com/start/?page_id=4

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/interview-mark-beaumont-18628

http://reclamewereld.blog.nl/campagne/2008/08/13/mark-beaumont-en-orange

James is presently trying to beat this record by 3 weeks which would be an amazing performance if he acheives it. He’s riding a Santos 700cc/28″ Rohloff Alu Travelmaster with the new belt drive system. Santos wanted something MAJOR to prove the credibility of the new belt drive and this really is probably the ultimate challenge. James has his own website below and he’s also providing regular updates on via his twitter

http://globecycle.org/

http://twitter.com/GlobeCycle

GPS linked site charting his progress: http://whereintheworldisjames.com/

Pictures of his departure from London: http://greghughes.tv/globecycle/

On his departure pictures you’ll see the name of another One of his sponsors, namely the www.bikebagshop.com This is a US wesbite operated by this company: www.wandertec.com who also operate www.biketrailershop.com