Full honesty required. What is the worst bike trip “rule breaking” you’ve ever taken part in? This is a safe space…
I’ll go first. A 1700km drive around the Andes to avoid snowed-in passes. It was in a Daft Punk van though, so that makes it ok.
Full story and more stories here: https://jackgreenwood.substack.com/p/aconcagua-you-shall-not-pass
by Wise_Engineer4500
7 Comments
How to read? There’s a popup with your face showing, it’s covering the content and I have to sign in to continue. No X on it, shame.
Mine wasn’t too bad. There were floods and I was stuck in a tiny town. After a few days locals offered to take me out by boat, where I would meet a truck that would drive me past the sections of road with overflows. This worked, but I got the truck driver to take me to the next town rather than riding the 30km.
I took my rear rack off the bike and camping gear and shipped them home at a parcel company I happened to cycle past just to lose some weight. It was a short trip with 1.5 days to go at that time and I didn’t plan to camp anymore after that though so I was just carrying dead weight and I was a bit exhausted from somewhat steep climbing I’d done.
I know lots of people enjoy the achievement of cycling every inch of a tour, and each to their own, but I’m not someone who gives a shit about cycling the whole way, so I don’t really see the kind of thing you’re talking about as cheating. That said…I had spent nearly 3 months cycling round India and hated probably all but an hour of it, but kept on going because everyone wangs on about how much they love India so I kept trying to force it. Then one day I had enough and hired an entire bus to drive me and my bike a couple of hundred kms to Kolkata airport and I flew out the same day. Not an ounce of guilt: I felt nothing but relief.
There are no rules to biketouring (it’s called gatekeeping), except to enjoy yourself, and that one will forever remain unbroken.
And yeah, lame way to get followers.
Arriving late and leaving early at so many campsites I.e not paying
I know it’s corny but I really don’t think you can cheat at going on a bike ride. The idea is just to go out on your bike for a while and have an adventure.
I’ve taken trains and had people pick me up in the past and changing my route on the fly to avoid sections that don’t appeal or to keep within a deadline is pretty much the norm for me, even on named routes.
I don’t consider any of it cheating because I don’t set off with any rules in the first place.