Heiko rode the track end of June and it looks like he had a great time. Thanks for sharing your impressions!
Last orders!
The registration window for Taunus Bikepacking No. 3 closes on August 2nd.
Taunus Teaser: Impressions by Holger Loosen
Holger spent a weekend on the track end of May and sent in some photos documenting his experience. Taunus Teaser is a shorter, independent version of the Taunus Bikepacking track, available for everybody to download and ride anytime. Share your own experience on the route with #taunusteaser or send in your photos by mail!
Meet the riders: Ina de Visser
Hi all,
In this strange year when more exotic travels are out of bounds, I am very excited to return to the beautiful Taunus for a bikepacking adventure! Having lived in Frankfurt for a while some years back, I have ridden a lot in the Taunus. Mostly road though, so I’m excited to discover some of the dirt roads and other tracks!
I’ll bring Juliana, my favorite and most versatile bike (a Juliana Quincy) as well as some bikepacking experience. Previous bikepacking & touring includes Tuscany Trail, Race around Rwanda, crossing Turkey, Scotland and a fair share of Africa (Khartoum – Cape Town) by bike, as well as recent confinement-proof weekend trips from my current home Luxembourg.
Looking forward to meeting you all in Hofheim!
Meet the riders: Tim Zeelen
I have been enjoying to ride my bicycle since my childhood. It always was my choice of transport to discover new places and meet new people. In search for those new places I expanded my horizon to countries all over the world like: Iceland, Canada, Mongolia, Australia and Kyrgyzstan just to name a few. While cycling through those countries I discovered the pleasure of offroad riding.
Some day a friend told me about bikepacking events which immediately made me enthusiastic. It is the concept of such an event that I like: lots of offroad, self supported, long days, long distances. Just my kind of ride… A few days later I registered for the 2018 Bikepacking Trans Germany. In 2019 I was a participant in the first edition of the Eifel Graveller. This year I chose the Taunus Bikepacking from the growing list of events.
For the Taunus Bikepacking I will bring my Kona Sutra LTD. Normally I tend to build my bikes myself, but this off the shelve model ticked almost all the boxes. The only changes I made were saddle, tyres and drop-bars. To carry all my stuff I use Revelate Designs bags.
I really look forward to meet you and the rest of the riders in Hofheim.
Meet the riders: Jan Herrmann
Back from my biketouring trip from Germany to Kyrgyzstan last year, I’m always looking for new ways to experience adventure on two wheels. I used to do cross country races, but that was a while ago. Now I want to know again how far I can go to my limits.
I live in Berlin and since it is known to be very flat here, you don’t have a lot of meters of altitude at the end of a ride. So I roam the vast landscapes of Brandenburg on long journeys and try to collect as many kilometers as possible.
I’m riding an 8Bar Mitte with 42mm wide tires and 1x drivetrain with a gear ratio of 42mm at the front and 11/42mm at the rear. In addition, a SON hub dynamo is spoked.
I am light and that’s how my set up should be. I sewed some of my bags myself.
I can’t wait to get started and I’m really looking forward to get to know all the other interesting riders, organisators and all people around the event.
Meet the riders: Matthias Fischer
„man hab ich scheisse geschlafen“
„meine Knie tun weh“
„wurde ich heute Nacht überholt?“
„hoffenlich gibt’s bald was zum einkaufen“
„einkaufen – ihhhh Menschen!“
„mmmmh Kaffee“
„den anderen geht es bestimmt auch nicht besser“
„habe ich mein Portemonnaie verloren?“
„schon wieder 16Uhr und noch keine 200km heute“
„Mitternacht – Ausschau nach Shelter halten“
„2uhr – immernochnix – Naja dann leg ich mich halt hier hin“
Bikepacking ist Super 🙂
Matthias Fischer
Meet the riders: Olaf Flechtner
Hi, mein Name ist Olaf, bin 56 Jahre alt und ich wollte den Taunus Bikepacking eigentlich als letzten Test für die Bikepacking Trans Germany fahren. Nun ist es eher andersrum.
Habe 2019 mit der Hanse Gravel den Einstieg ins Bikepacking gefunden. Vorher MTB Marathons, oft auch Etappenrennen.
Und davor Triathlon mit mehreren Langdistanzen.
Gemacht habe ich mittlerweile die Hanse Gravel, den Eifel Graveler (dort musste ich leider wegen Magenproblemen abbrechen), die Brandenburg 550, die Holy Gravel und dieses Jahr die Transcimbrica.
Ich fahre sehr gerne lange Touren, entweder alleine oder mit meiner Frau. Alleine eher im Bikepacking Modus, mit meiner Frau dann Campingplätze und Pensionen.
Meine Vorbereitung ist eigentlich ganz einfach, möglichst viel Radfahren.
Ich baue meine Räder fast immer selber auf, zuerst war ich auf einem umgebauten MTB unterwegs. Diesen Winter habe ich mir ein Rahmen von NS Bikes gekauft und mit der GRX Gruppe aufgebaut. Da ich damit auch die BTG fahren werde, sind noch eine gedämpfte Sattelstütze von Cane Creek und ein Vorbau von Redshift dazugekommen.
Während ich auf Touren schon Wert auf etwas Komfort lege, werde ich beim Taunus Bikepacking mit möglichst wenig Gepäck unterwegs sein. Also keinen Kocher, Zelt usw.
Mitnehmen werde ich nur einen leichter Schlafsack, Bivy Bag, Daunenjacke und Hose und ein paar notwendige Dinge.
Bin gespannt auf die tolle Landschaft und trotz Corona auf ein paar nette Bekanntschaften mit anderen Teilnehmern!
Meet the riders: Sofie De Clercq
A few years back, I gave up singlehanded sailing on a boat which, thinking back on today, was ridiculously small. The sailing adventure had started to swallow much more time, effort and money than I could afford and it was time to change something in my way of life.
By chance I discovered that cycling was perfect to fill in the void left by my giving up sailing. Every time I pedal in the rain or the dark, I am reminded of the exhilaration I used to feel at sea, clipped on in a tiny, open cockpit, brutally exposed to the elements.
I began to read Jesko’s messages while he was racing the Transatlantic Way. Completely captivated I started foĺlowing other races and also Jesko’s rides on Strava while he was preparing the first Taunus route. All those photos kept working their magic on me.
This will be my first bikepacking event and I’m thrilled to bits to have a starting spot on the Taunus. I’m giving it my all to prepare properly, but as a slightly overweight 54 year old, I’m not having too many illusions as to my cycling speed and daily distance. Since the severe lockdown in France has been relaxed, it’s been fantastic to find the freedom of riding again.
I’m very lucky to live in the Vosges. Once in a while I grab my bike and climb to a nice spot in the forest to spend the night outside. It’s wonderful to make plans again and I think the summer will be great.
I’m looking forward to meeting you all in Hofheim !
Meet the riders: Christian Biehl
Seit meinem ersten Gravel Abenteuer, dem Candy B.Graveller vor einigen Jahren bin ich infiziert von Abenteuern im Selbstversorgermodus. Habe seitdem unter anderem den Mainfrankengraveller und Hansegravel unter die Räder genommen. Obwohl ich quasi direkt an der Strecke wohne und bereits die Hälfte der Wege kenne reizt es mich mit Gleichgesinnten endlich die ganze Strecke am Stück zu erleben. Ich habe die letzten beiden Veranstaltungen aus der Ferne beobachtet und freue mich auf die perfekte Organisation. Ich fahre mit meinem Custom Made Steel Bike Fern Chuck und nehme einen Schlafsack zum Biwakieren. Ansonsten nur das Minimum.