Looking for Diabetic Adventure Bikers!
 

Hi all,

I'm a final year design engineering student at Bournemouth University, and currently working on my main dissertation/project.

For the project, I'm working towards designing a "Shock-Mounted Insulin Refrigerator for Overland Travel". I rode my GS to the Sahara this summer, spending days at a time wild camping away from civilisation through both Europe and Morocco, having an incredible time. This made me realise that it must be incredibly difficult, if not impossible for riders with type-1 diabetes to be able to do a similar kind of trip, due to needing to keep their insulin refrigerated, especially in very hot conditions.

Therefore, I'd love to hear from any of you that have type-1 and your experiences with dealing with your insulin on long trips. At this point, I'm also looking to gain some form of market scope, as obviously it will be a fairly specialist product and not just a cool box strapped to a bike!

I hope to hear from some of you soon!

Fergus

Hi,
I know a guy that's just started a bicycle trip from Brussels to Cape Town and he's raising awareness of Diabetes. I know he's had some logistical challenges in ensuring an insulin supply in Africa.
I'm sure he wouldn't mind you contacting him if you think it could be useful.

https://www.facebook.com/BikewithDiabetes/

I remember meeting a Belgian couple, one of the two had diabetes (no idea how bad or which type). The guy made some kind of simple cooling installation in one of the boxes, very small and not even filling the box completely (they were these Yamaha bikes).
Seemed to work for them, although it would probably never meet medical transportation standards. Didn't keep them from going to India overland.

I travelled with Joe who did his fair share of RTW traveling with type1 diabetes. Here is his website page about it.

1 Planet 2 Wheels: Diabetes

If you send him an email I think he will be happy to answer any questions.