Fighting for my life out here on the Carretera Austral. I went from never owning a bike to agreeing to cycle 6 months through South America π
by Pahrnia
Fighting for my life out here on the Carretera Austral. I went from never owning a bike to agreeing to cycle 6 months through South America π
by Pahrnia
27 Comments
Hah, love this and can relate on some rides. The good times always vastly outnumber the bad times/crashes though! And kudos for taking on such a challenge, a lot of people want to but never commit and actually do it, me included (although taking smaller steps to change that this year).
When you do it for years before going on a 6month tour lol. Legendary though
Gets easier when you ride more and perform for cameras less! jk
Happy trails!
Awesome
Also it never gets easier, you only get faster
Hang on hereβs a dangerous bit let me get this helmet off!!
It gets easier when you unclip and put a foot down before you fall over.Β
It doesn’t get easier, you just get stronger and embrace the suck more. Then the type 2 fun becomes the only way you can have fun.Β
it gets easier the lighter you pack
Personally speaking. I found it easier once I gave up trying to load up a drop bar gravel bike with so much. Got an all terrain capable bike with plus tyres, flat bars and much lower gears! You will also get stronger with time. It’s worth having something more capable for off road sections to be slower on tarmac. IMHO
It gets easier when you take all the heavy crap off of your bike lol. Get rid of half of it, then report back.
Gets easier when you get the right tool for the job.
Gets easier when you ride on gravel roads rather than terrain better suited for a hard tail mountain bike.
Up that steep hike a bike it’s easier if you have a lighter bike. Use the brakes. Push, brakes, pull yourself up. Flat bars are easier for that too, but the best bike is the one you have.
Looks like bikepacking more than gravel to me. Did someone sell it to you as a leisure ride?
Straight to BCJ (“BrΓΌtΓ¦Ε GrΓ₯vΓ«Ε”).
Is it my turn to upload this to BCJ?
Youβve got too much shit on your bike
do you not use the biggest sprocket in the cassette?
It gets easier when you stop riding mountain bike trails with a road bike and remove the 10 bowling balls from your packs.
Id blame the car-load worth of luggage youβre carting around before Iβd blame the gravel π³
That’s the neat part: it doesn’t (but you become stronger and more resilient)
I didnβt know gravel riding was hard.
Youβre on a fully packed bike doing borderline XC mountainbiking. The second trail, that looks steep even on camera, is something most wouldnβt even ride up with a MTB and tbh I wouldnβt want to ride that down on a loaded gravel bike either
I mean, you basically skipped all the prep and experience gain and went right to expert mode.
π
If you move to gravel from bikepacking itβs a lot easier, or get fatter tires for that type of terrain, youβve Β got a ton of swing weight with those bags on your ride, if you want to ride single track and medium gravel with all the baggage get yourself biggerΒ tires and lower your PSI, better grip and stability to keep you and your rig planted to the ground
If you took the bags off the bike what you got would be a-ok for that terrainΒ
All that said 6 months through South America on a bike sounds rad, enjoy the trip
It might help if you lose about 800 pounds of pack
When you stop filming yourself falling over