Hi Riv-listers, This summer I took the best bicycle ride I have ever been on in my life. In the last few years, I’ve made an effort to go on better vacations. Two summers ago I bought a BMW GS and rode from NYC to Yellowstone and back. The BMW GS has the best reputation as a travel bike, so I wanted to try one. It was great, but I decided I wanted to do things a little differently on the next trip. Instead of an expensive dream bike with all the farkles, I decided to just get a whatever bike. One of my best friends moved to Finland, and has invited me there for years, so I finally took him up on it. He told me I should do a longer trip and check out some of the neighboring countries, so I decided to fly into Riga, Latvia and travel to Helsinki. The second I booked the trip, I started thinking “hmmm… this should be a bike trip.” I thought about bringing my Rivendell, but I didn’t want to risk having it stolen. It’s only 200 or so miles from Riga to Helsinki, so I figured I could do it on any old bike. I emailed a bunch of shops in Riga and one responded. I told them I wanted to buy a bike for 100 to 400 euros, and they said sure no problem, they’d hook me up for 100 euros with one of their old rental fleet.
I packed my bags. I brought 2 ortlieb bags, my favorite hoodie, a Brooks Cambium saddle, Adidas sneakers, 1 pair of shorts, 1 pair of pants, my Giro helmet, and my camera. Here’s what I didn’t bring: a sleeping bag, a tent, bicycle-specific clothing, any food, a water bottle, tools, a camp stove. I wanted to travel as light as possible and maybe even blend in. I got to Riga and was so excited that I could barely sleep. Also my airbnb wasn’t really someone’s home, it was more of a college dorm. College kids were in it, coming home at all hours. I went to the bicycle shop as soon as I could. I paid 100 euros and bought the bike! They sold me an older Gazelle bicycle. It wasn’t a Rivendell - it was aluminum - but it would do! It had Shimano Alivio components, 700x35 or 38 tires, V brakes, no fenders. It rode just fine. It even had a back rack for my Ortlieb bags! I had them change the seat to my Brooks, added a Rivendell-spec safety triangle, and I took off. I rode all around Riga. I went to the Vespa shop, the art museum, up the Radisson building for the best view of the city. It was great. I spent another day there seeing everything. Then, I took off. I was so excited to ride on that first day that I woke up at 5 in the morning. When I travel, my official philosophy is “freestyling/freewheeling” which is a joke of mine - that I didn’t even decide on what to call the not-planning-ahead. It’s not all improvisation - I do browse the website Atlas Obscura. The streets seemed dead in the morning. Traffic was so much lighter than what I’m used to commuting to work in New York City. I went to the Bicycle Museum in Saulkrasti. It was my goal to get there before it closed for the day, but I crushed the riding and got there before it opened. You Rivendell fans would love it. It was just the garage in the backyard of someone’s house. They collected bicycles from Latvia only. They had all sorts of cool bicycles and interesting parts. There was a full-suspension wooden bike made by an engineer in the 1930s that looked like a 1990s mountain bike. It was great. Even their collection of head-badges was amazing. I looked at everything and left to keep riding. I ended up just riding and riding that day. My navigation was just hotels that I had started on Google Maps. I hadn’t realized camping is actually really popular there. I marked a campground called “Kemping Klintas” and aimed there. I got there around 4 PM, really tired. My legs were mushy and I had done around 50 miles from Riga. I felt so tired that I thought someone else was going to have to lift me off of my bicycle. The last 3 miles were on dirt washboard roads to the campground. When I arrived at the campground, they told me they just had tent camping, and all their cabins were full. I told them I didn’t have a tent - was there any place I could stay? It was just me and my bike. They made me a deal that I could stay in their sauna! They had a sauna shaped like a boat that overlooked the Baltic sea. They gave me a blanket and a camping mattress, and charged me 15 euros. I didn’t bring any food, but they had a restaurant. I was worried I wasn’t going to find much vegetarian food and I’d be subsisting on cashews and apricots, but I got a huge plate of roasted veggies and quinoa that looked more like a “vegetarian option” at a wedding. It was great. The next morning, I woke up chilly. Ironically, the sauna was cold. It was overcast, and I rode out of the campground. There were some dirt roads along the Baltic with incredible views. There were lots of old farmhouses. But, most of the dirt roads spit you out back to the main highway. That morning, almost as soon as I hit the highway, I met two other bicycle riders. They were two college girls from St. Andrews in Scotland. They immediately let me follow them, as I was wearing my safety yellow hoodie and helmet, and we were on the shoulder of a major highway. They wanted to get off the highway, and instead of Google Maps on airplane mode, they told me they had a bicycle-specific app with the bike routes marked. I followed them, and the bicycle paths turned out to be more of sandy hiking paths. It started raining. Our bicycles got very sandy. One thing I love about riding bikes is that you can never tell who is a poser and who isn’t. These girls turned out to be super tough riders, powering through these sandy trails. It started raining hard. We were in the woods. We passed amazing old farmhouses. We weren’t sure how long we were riding. We ended up in Salacgriva, and we stopped for more food. We got hot stew, noodles, and veggies. The sun came out. We rode more and made it to Estonia. In Estonia, we were off the highway. I expected cows and farmland, but the farms and country houses looked more like the Hamptons. There were Range Rovers and nice Volvos in the driveways. The girls had brought camping gear with them and had maps of the state forest where they could camp. As the day got later, they pulled off to camp, and I rode on alone to find a hotel. I found a cabin campground, but it once again was full. There was another hotel next to it, so I went there. It turned out to be one of the most pleasant hotels I have ever been to. I got my own little cabin for 55 euros. It was a lot, but the place had everything. It had a restaurant, a bar, a sauna, a dock, a swimming pool. It was great. I sat around and listened to some Grateful Dead and just felt my heartrate dropping and stress melting away. It was so tranquil there. I was the only American there. If you’d like to fact-check my story, the hotel is called Lepanina Hotel. I took a rest day there. I went in their sauna. They had a big all-you-can-eat breakfast with little silver dollar sweet pancakes and cappucinos and berry jam. I walked around on the beach. Also, my bicycle had started to make a funny noise. I was worried that some spokes were coming loose! But, I flipped the bicycle and investigated! Of course, it was the pie plate! The pie plate came loose. I didn’t have any tools, but there were some Germans in the campground section of the hotel. I figured they would have tools, and they did! They had huge pliers and clamps. Any little bike kit wouldn’t have had huge pliers. I borrowed the clamps and left the pie plate in the trash. The next day I rode off again toward Parnu. Again, I was on the highway, but the weather was lovely. I stopped for some snacks at the supermarket, and felt kind of sad once I was in Parnu. I felt like I returned to civilization. It was a small city. They had a really cool historic downtown. I checked myself into a hostel that was part of a church and had come recommended to me by a cyclist traveler I met on the road. I put my bicycle inside and left to explore by foot. I took pictures all over the beach, then turned around and saw a sign that said “Women’s beach, please respect their privacy.” Oops! I felt like a creep. Then, I walked and saw the big rock jetty. The legend has it that if you walk to the end of it with your love, then kiss, you’ll stay in love and live happily ever after. I was alone and didn’t bother. I went looking for a vegetarian restaurant. I really like VW Buses (I have one), and I saw one parked in Parnu. I started talking to the owners who were two French girls on a trip to Tallinn to go to the singing festival. Of course, I didn’t do any research and didn’t know anything about the singing festival. Estonia, I learned, gained independence from Russia by singing traditional songs. Every five years, they celebrate, and now was the year. I hung out with the girls and had dinner with them. I told them how much I like music, and how I was headed to Tallinn anyway, so they offered to bring me with them. I initially protested because I wanted to ride my bike, but there’s always more bike rides and how often do people invite you to go in their VW? The next day, I totally gave up on my bike tour. “I’m not here to earn a merit badge,” I told them. They let me drive their bus, which was actually a high-roof panel Vanagon diesel. They were impressed an American knew how to drive stick shift. There’s more to the story, but I’m tired and I need to go to sleep now. I took the ferry from Tallinn to Helsinki, and I rode all over Helsinki. The furthest I went was out to Alvar Aalto’s house for a tour, which was understatedly beautiful. I left the “slow gazelle” bicycle in Helsinki at my friend’s house (he already has 6 bicycles, so one more was no big deal), and I might go back again to ride more next summer. I definitely wouldn't have done a trip like this had I not been influenced by the Rivendell philosophy, "Just ride," under-biking, never trash talking any two wheeler, and so on and so forth. Thank you to all of you who roll that way and thanks for reading! Michael -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/06716c3d-2108-455c-8143-d0f1a2efeadd%40googlegroups.com.
