Alright, so after a September of two weeks in Italy sandwiched by a couple of three-day bike trips and boys’ weekends in Germany, I was off to Taiwan. On the itinerary: two weeks of cycling around the island with one of my best buddies and one of his best friends, a giant labrador of a human. Constant good vibes haha. Why Taiwan of all places?

(The start) The stats Total distance: Roughly 2250km Total climbing: 30,790m (just over 101,000ft) Highest point reached cycling: 4663m (15,298ft) Riding days: 30 Total days owning the bike: 64 Hours ridden: 124.5 Average ride time per day: just over 4 hours Flat tires: 8, from 13 punctures (that’s pretty bad luck!) Other mechanicals: bent the derailleur hanger pretty much every bus ride Crashes: none, and I

My itinerary in Peru was roughly the following: Arequipa & Colca Canyon; Cusco, Sacred Valley of the Incas, & Machu Picchu; Lima. Both Arequipa and Cusco were meant to include multi-day bike trips essentially concluding the bikepacking part of the South American adventure. Arequipa & Colca Canyon After my stop in Copacabana, Bolivia and Lake Titicaca (basically on the Peruvian border), I took an overnight

Leaving La Paz My bike sorted (or so I thought), I left the hotel, once again, to a warm embrace from the same hotel manager, this time telling me I shouldn’t break my bike again. 50 meters out of the hotel, I dropped my chain and realized my derailleur hanger was bent towards the wheel, meaning even if I was in 8th gear per the

Well, maybe it was more bad luck and stupidity, but the Death Road played its part! The plan was to do a five-day jungle backcountry cycling tour from La Paz, starting with the (in)famous Camino de la Muerte. While in Sucre and La Paz, I had searched high and low (four bike shops and a few other sports stores) to find a couple of tubes

Day 1 - Already in love with Bolivia Things didn't get off to a great start, as it took me over three hours to get my Bolivian visa, then another hour criss-crossing the border, changing money, paying for the visa, then going back to Argentina to get processed exiting, before I was finally on my way. But things started to look up when, just outside

The plan was originally to cycle a very "wild" route, from the Atacama desert up into the Bolivian high plains (border crossing at 4900m) and across the salt flats, but getting ill and not feeling confident about either acclimating or carrying 7 days of food made me opt for a safer, paved, more populated route from Salta basically straight north to Uyuni. Day 1 -

I'm not sure if any real bikepackers, the folks who load up with 50kg and head out for years over some of the roughest terrain in the world, would agree with any of this, but this is what I've found this far: Line choice is 50% of the battle The difference is felt in your ass, joints, and soul, as well as on your speedometer.

Day 1: Great start Though it was chilly and drizzling when I rolled out, it wasn't too cold, and after about ten minutes the drizzle disappeared, the cloud level rose a bit, and I was treated to just about 100km of spectacular scenery on undulating, relatively smooth gravel roads. I crossed paths with a few other cyclists going the other direction, having a quick chat,