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| This was my first bike tour. I started in Kronach, north Bavaria, Germany. From there I rode to Switzerland, to Lyon, from there South in the valley of the Rhone, through the Provence, along the Cote d'Azur and the Riviera, across the Apennin and the valley of the River Po. Then I went across the Alpes back to Kronach. Altogether I covered 3700 km in 18 days. |
| Starting from Kronach, I rode to Vienna, and then to Hungary, and from there across a few alpine passes back to Kronach. This was 1800 km in 13 days. |
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I arrived in Cristiansand in Norway on a ferry from Denmark. Along the coast I rode to Oslo and from there to Trondheim on the road number E6. I continued north to the polar circle and to Bodö. Also, I visited the Lofote Islands and Vesteral Islands. From Fauske I took the train back to Kronach. On this tour I covered 4500 km in 32 days. |
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From Reykjavik I started South, along the coast to Skaftafjell. There I visited the largest glacier in Europe, the Vatnajökull. Of course, I was the fist biker, to ride on the glacier! From there I went on to Egilstadir, to the waterfall Dettifoss and to Myvatn. From Akureyri I turned into the high plateau to the Sprengisandursvegur. Then, I took the road through the center of the island, which is very desert-like, to Landmannalaugur. From there I went to the Gullfoss, and visited the Geysers. After a visit to Thingvellir I returned back to Reykjavik. From there I did another short trip to the Vestmanneyja Islands. This tour was 2000km in 25 days and often rough roads! |
| From Brussles I rode to Gent and Dünkirchen. From there I took a ferry to Ramsgate. After a trip through all of South England, I rode to Exeter, Bristol and Wales. From Fishguard I took the ferry to Rosslare in South-East-Ireland. Along the southern coast I rode to Killarney, where I visited the National Park. From there I rode to Kerry and to Dunquin (Dingle), to the Cliffs of Moher and visited the Aran Islands. Through the Burrans I went to Galway. From there I crossed the Island back to Dublin, from where I returned to Germany. |
| Together with Winfried, a friend from Cologne, we took a flight from Copenhagen to Nassarssuaq in South Greenland. For four weeks we explored the areas around Narssaq and Qaqoroq per bike. It was off-road only! There are no trail outside towns in Greenland, so we had to fight with swampy and rocky terrain. Of course there were no bike stores anywhere out there, so for this tour we had to use finest material, such as Rohloff's SLT99 chains. This tour was a trip between backpacking and off-road biking. |  |
| Together with my friend Norbert I decided to explore the new countries that have openend also for bikers: The Czech Republik and Slovakia. From Bayreuth, North Bavaria, Germany we cycled to Pilsen and continued to Brünn. From there on we went to Olomuc, Gottwaldov, Zilina and some Slovakian mountains. We spent some time in the Fatra and the Low Tatra and the High Tatra and also in the Karpartian Mountains in eastern Slovakia. At the Ukrainean Border we were not allowed to continue East. So, from Kosice we took a train back to Cheb and cycled back to Bayreuth. This tour was 1800 km in 17 days. |
| Together with my
friend Gottfried I did the second bike expedition to Greenland. This was
the most challenging tour that was ever done in the cold. We were in North-West
Greenland for three months with our bikes. The temperatures of up to -40°C
made film rolls and cable housings break like glass, Rum froze in the bottles
and the fuel for our stove precipitated. In 1992 it was the coldest winter
in Greenland since the recording of weather data, so we were able to cycle
on the frozen sea for three months. The natives (Inuits) in the regions
of Iluissat, Upernavik, and Uumaanaaq were totally astonished to see us
cycling in the cold and on the sea. Often we were the attraction to the
locals, and thus had some really nice contacts to local people. We had previously
shipped our food supply to three towns, since we had a far too high demand
for energy to live on local food. Our diet consisted of 5500 kcal per person
per day. Altogether we had 120 kg of food with us in Greenland. On our bikes
we had capacities for food for three weeks, due to our self made large bags.
This allowed us to do tours in the areas near our food depot, on which we
enjoyed the fantastic winter landscapes. |
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| Of course we had to plan everything very carfully. In such an environment even small mistakes can lead to dangerous situations. Therefore, a 2.5 year's planning time proved to be very valuable. Also, selection of the right materials was essential. Rohloff's SLT-99 chains were certainly part of it. With this tour, I was then called a Friker (= Frost-Biker)! Such extreme tours of course improved my knowledge in the fields of fist aid, all kinds of bike repairs and the important tools, and establishing a diet plan for tours and producing high energy food myself. Also I have gained experience in knowing what material and equipment to bring for such extreme situations. |  |
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This tour was together with Waltraud. We started the tour in Ushuaia, in Tierra del Fuego. There we first visited the National Park Tierra del Fuego near Ushuaia. We spent a few days there hiking in the forests. Then we rode to Rio Grande and San Sebastian. From there we crossed the island from east to west and continued to Porvenir. We crossed the Magellan Strait by ferry. From Punta Arenas we continued on to Porto Natales and the National Park Torres del Paine. There we did a three day's backpacking tour to Glacier Grey and the Campo de Italiano. From the National Park Torres del Paine (Chile) we went across the green border to the National Park Moreno Glacier (Argentinia). From El Calafate we then went back to Rio Gallegos, from where we had a flight back to Germany. The last two days we had the wind from behind, but the rest of the time we had to fight the wind. At times it was a real fight, on one day we had an average speed of 3 km/h per day! Nonetheless, the fantastic landscape rewarded for everything. |
| This tour was together with Waltraud. For two weeks we explored the volcanic island Tenerife by Mountainbike. Since both of us are interested in botany, part of the tour was to look at plants at different regions of the island. Of course, we also climbed Pico de Teide, 3774 m. In the two weeks we covered 440 km, but 7700 altimeters! And that with quite a load of gear! |  |
| Another tour together with Waltraud. We traveled for seven weeks in Mongolia: steppe, mountains and the Gobi Desert. |
| Two and a half months on the bike through the deserts and savannas of Namibia and Botswana testing the new shifting system, the SpeedHub, by Rohloff. |
| Four weeks mountainbike tour in Australia traveling from Adelaide to Gladstone via the Birdsville Track. Of course in January, during the Australian summer, and the wet season... |
| Escaping the winter season for two weeks in December 2001, and riding some nice tracks near the Eastern Erg in south Tunisia. And the Sahara Sand is tough to ride! |
| This tour was one if the nicest and wildest. Together with Waltraud I explored small tracks of the Kamchatka Valley and rode up to the Volcano Tolbatchik. |