Helen Skelton's 500-mile journey to the South Pole

...Skelton is best known the host of Blue Peter, (the world's longest children's television show, according to Wikipedia), though lately she's been garnering recognition for more extreme exploits: she's been known to run ultramarathons (she completed a 78-miler just under the 24-hour limit) and she kayaked the 2,000-mile length of the Amazon for Sport Relief 2010. The latter effort yielded two world records: longest solo journey by kayak and the longest distance in 24 hours by a woman...

...As for the specs of the bike: designer Kane Fortune noted that "the wheels are key to the challenge." While the handmade, sealed-bearing hubs come in at about 1lb each, the tubeless rubber tires—20” diameter and 8” wide—weigh in at nearly 8lbs each, due partly to the steel belts woven inside. The wheels, then, are the majority of the extra weight of the 40lb bicycle...


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