Scaling a new peak of rash over-ambition, Tim Moore tackles the 9,000km route of the old Iron Curtain on a tiny-wheeled, two-geared, East German shopping bike. After three months, 20 countries and a 58-degree jaunt up the centigrade scale, man and bike finally wobble up to a Black Sea beach in Bulgaria, older and wiser, but mainly older. Moore is a British travel writer and humorist whose previous book was also cycling-themed: Gironimo! Riding the Very Terrible 1914 Tour of Italy. Interviewed by Robert Penn, author of It’s All About the Bike.