That's a great trip. The serendipity of everything is refreshing. So many people over-plan their trips & end up with a schedule & miss lots of opportunities. My wife & I have rented bikes for several tours in Europe (just too much hassle shipping the Atlantis) and always gotten something perfectly serviceable that met our needs. Never though of buying a used bike but that sounds a good choice.
Read "The Cyclist who went out in the cold" by, I believe, Tim Moore (guessing on the author but sure on the title). He's a mad Englishman who rides from Finland to Turkey via the Iron Curtain trail. Your experience will make the tale relateable, & you'll congratulate yourself for not starting in winter. dougP On Sunday, November 24, 2019 at 8:07:17 PM UTC-8, Michael Morrissey wrote: > > 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/827dd65e-555b-4854-a487-8d3cde25977c%40googlegroups.com.
