Someone recently asked how I carry water on my tours with the #Brompton.
Sometimes I only use a pouch attached to the handlebars for a bottle of water (0.6 lt).
On longer tours I use the big Borroughs bag in the front. This provides two rather large bags which are easily accessible. Each of them can hold up to two bottles (2 times 0.6 + 0.5 lt)
In the back, I can carry another large bottle (1.5 liters).
Our route, the only existing road, led us all the way up into the mountains. Since we hadn't seen snow in a long time, it was kind of exciting. But the most amazing part of being there was smelling the cool, fresh air without air pollution from cars and trucks. Although it looked on the map like it should have been a big road, there was barely any traffic. When we arrived at the mountain pass (2250m), a very nice downhill awaited us. Wow, this was great 🤩
Around midday we reached Yüksekova, where we had lunch and bought a Turkish sim card. In the afternoon we cycled on with the idea of finding a nice campspot and finishing the cycling day early. It turned out to be super difficult to find a spot to pitch our tent. We cycled along the Nehil river. The land around the river was extremely wet and muddy, not a good idea to pitch the tent. Then the landscape changed from wide swampland and farm fields to a narrow valley with steep rocky mountains on both sides, also no possibility to pitch the tent. So we kept pedaling and pedaling. Finally, we saw a flat and grassy place 20m away from the road. We pushed the bikes up there when we suddenly realized we were being watched from the mountain peak. Armed military men shouted down to us 'yallah, yallah,' sounding like 'get your butt off here...' and that's what we did. We almost lost hope. Finally, we found a place where we saw no military posts or guards around and where we could set up a bivouac (no tent).
We cooked a very delicious meal with lots of veggies and fell asleep immediately 😴
Get moving! Yes, I mean you! I know several people whom I wished they would finally get on their bicycles and get moving. So far, they only talked about it, but never really acted. They have a variety of excuses: They "have no time"; "their body is not in shape"; "it's too cold right now, I wait until it gets warmer"; "my bicycle would need to get fixed first"; and many more. I would like to urge them to lift their bodies now.
Contrary to our fears, the border crossing went very smooth.
Of course we had to -still on the Iranian side - remove the bags from the bicycles and slide them through the x-ray scanner.
At the passport and visa control, the officer tried to convince us that our visa had expired. 'No, that's not the case' we explained and showed him that he should not consider the time period for picking up the visa, but rather calculate 90 days from the date on the entry stamp. He kept the visas (for Iran it is on a separate paper, as some countries would refuse entry when having an iranian entry stamp in the passport) and gave us back our passports.
In the next room, we were greeted in High German and immediately led to the next x-ray scanner. All the locals, with their worn bags, old suitcases, and dozens of plastic bags full of tomatoes, had to wait. We felt totally uncomfortable and so sorry when we saw how the Turkish border guards treated these people.
As quickly as possible, we packed all the bags from the bike into the scanner and were then asked to push the entire bicycle through 🤣 Wow, we had never experienced anything like this before! - too bad we didn't have a photo of that! - then got the entry stamp and off we went...
The first thing Fiona did, on turkish ground, was removing the headscarf 💁♀️
The temperature was quite chill up there and the snow was within reach. From the border we pedaled ~15km uphill until almost sunset and until we found a suitable campspot for this night 🏕️ 😴
I did it! I bicycled all the way between Copenhagen, Denmark, and Graz, Austria, with the #Brompton. I did this in three portions between April 2023 and now. I covered the distance of 1900 km in 25 days of bicycling.
Neue Taschen für das Rad, hier eine komplette Serie von Osprey. Rucksäcke können die ziemlich gut. Die Radtaschen sehen vielversprechend aus. Aktuell nutze ich ein Frontrack mit Packsack sowie eine Ortlieb Saddle-Bag, Verarbeitung usw. nicht zu beanstanden. Mich nervt an der die Packerei im montierten Zustand. Das Konzept mit Harness und Packsack gefällt mir, erinnert an Restrap. Hat jemand praktische Erfahrungen damit?
@DerForstHorst
So sehr ich Osprey bei Rucksäcken, v.a. wegen des geringen Gewichts, schätze, die gezeigten Taschen kommen mir jetzt nicht soo wahnsinnig innovativ vor.. Das haben andere schon vorgemacht.
Das Konzept Harness kann ich aber sehr empfehlen, eben weil die Taschen auch unabhängig vom Rad bepackt werden können.
Vorsichtig wäre ich nur, wenn sie offensichtlich nicht 100%ig wasserdicht sind! @mastobikes_de@fedibikes_de
The small island of Kish (91.5km2) was quickly traveled around by car. In one of the typical Iranian picnic huts right on the seaside, we took a late lunch break. Behnam made fries and Marc cooked lentils with babaganoush. We already know, the Iranians always eat the national bread 'lavash' with everything. And of course, we are always offered the bread over and over again. But since we are gluten intolerant, we have to constantly decline. It is really difficult to make it clear that we will not try a single bite of the bread...
Just before sunset, suddenly a lot of people appeared. Everyone was taking selfies, photographing their posing partners and tried to capture the perfect shot while the sun sank into the sea. It was truly a beautiful sight and Marc and I were fascinated by the spectacle. As soon as the sun was gone, all the crowd had disappeared as well. Only us and our Iranian friends remained, drinking tea, chatting, often with the help of the translator, and went to sleep a little earlier than the night before, in Bandar Charak. #cycling#bikepacking#biketouring#biketravel#travelbybike#bikelife#cyclinglife#adventure#traveling#nature#sunset#photography#photo#capturethemoment#focus#photographylover#behindthelens
Yeah, so I hear you saying this helmet looks slightly unusual.
This is however the #gravel#bikepacking specific version, and the storage space under the helmet contains storage for an entire sleep system, food and lube
The helmet itself is utilised when camping to attach the tarp, proving ample living space, and doubling as a bowl for crisps and snacks.
The pro uci #cycling version contains the battery units for the bicycle motor, and the size varies depending on the race length
Goodby Amber, Ich vermisse dich jetzt schon!
Sie hat mich ca 120.000 km begleitet, von 24h Rennen am Nürburgring, über die Alpen, bis an den nördlichsten Punkt Europas.
markantes markmal, hat einen Lackeinfall auf dem Oberrohr
From Bandare Laft we took the ferry to Iran mainland. Our plan was to pedale along the coast northwards, to stay a bit longer in the warmth. The weatherforcast for the inland regions (Shiraz, Yazd etc. ) is still a bit chilly, espeacially at night...
'Badgir', the so called Windcatcher are very impressive.
Badgir are built like the traditional houses, from clay and straw. From all directions the wind get catched and brought down into the rooms, essentially a natural air conditioning system.
In the little traditional village 'Laft' a lot of these Badgir are still visible. From a rocky little hill in middle of the village we enjoy the fantastic view over the old part of the coastal village.
:boost_ok: Est-ce qu'il existe dans le #Fediverse un équivalent des fonctions "sociales" de #Strava ou #Komoot pour partager des itinéraires et sociabiliser avec d'autres cyclistes ?
(Le partage de performance ou de données de santé ne m'intéresse pas trop).
May we proudly introduce:
Pauline and Madmax ❤️🚲🚲❤️
Wow, look at these beautiful bikes! 🥰Even though the bike assembling is now almost 2 years ago, we are still so in love with them, like we had finished them 2 days ago 😍
Let's highlight some special gear and parts:
First, our frames were built by mawis-bikes in Germany - like you already know from the previous post!👍
Second, we went with a 1x11 drivetrain from Garbaruk, and we are really impressed with the quality 👌 To keep our smartphones charged while riding, we chose the 'Son' dynamo hub and 'Sinewave Cycles' charger. Very stable an reliable 💪 And to give a bit of comfort to our buts we selected the 'Infinity Seat' saddles 🫶
Let's look back 🔭
Some weeks and months before we sat off on this journey - this new stage of our lives - we had a lot of preparation to do.
Besides selling and giving away all our belongings, we built our own bikes 🚲🚲 Special thanks to Mathias - mavis-bikes - for the beautiful frames 🫶
Marc welded in our one-room flat gorgeous racks and bottlecages. Fiona prototyped and sewed bags, sleeping bag inlays, buffs, and other useful stuff...
we are new here on #pixelfed 😊 starting now to share our journey on this platform. before we tootet on mastodon 😎
4th of September 2022, the day our journey around the world started.
🚴♀️🚴♂️❤️ 🌍
We felt the thrill of adventure coursing through our veins as we hit the road on our loaded bikes, knowing that every moment would be a memory to last a lifetime...
I analyzed the split and total times of the just finished Atlas Mountain Race 2024 to the 2023 edition in a short article. Hop over on my blog if you are curious.