Brother In The Wild Munich

It's not often 3 blokes in their 40’s get to road trip across two countries for a bike ride! Thats what I kept telling Ben when he threatened to pull out of ‘Brother In The Wild Munich’ because he was too busy at work, trying to build a house and look after his new baby, valid excuses, but not quite good enough.

The event is organised by Brother cycles and Guten Biken In Munich, an awesome Alt bike shop, we know the crew well, they have come to BITW Purbeck many a time, and all ride very interesting bikes! From Davo's soft tail ATB, to their Bike Friday folding MTB's!

After a 15-ish hour drive, and a stopover in a quaint French campsite, we rolled into site! 

BITW Munich maintains all of the vibes of the Purbeck version, but with more mountains, more lakes and more pretzels!

The 'Alt bike' world is small, we met some friends who we haven't seen in a while, many of which are the same crew that we see at Bespoked and BITW Purbeck, we love this little niche family of bike nerds. 

We set up camp, well, James and Ben did, I was happy to have my van! as much as I love camping, having the super king bed in my van is such a pleasure! 

We set out on the 100Km route, unsure if we were going to opt for the 'Rough MTB' extension or not.

This is Anh, he asked if he could ride with us, he's German, but lives pretty far from Bavaria, it was really nice to see that he was just as blown away by the landscape as we were! We got to know Anh quite well, he works for Cube as a designer of their kids bikes! What a cool section of the bike industry to be involved in! 

Our friend Maik Joined us, he lives in Leipzig, about 5 hours from Munich. We met when he lived in the U.K, we hope he moves back one day, we miss him and his family and I miss seeing him riding my old Ritchey Outback that I sold him many years ago!

Rivers, lakes and mountains, the Bavarian alpine dream!

The route started in the woods, we felt at home. the gravel was surprisingly smooth, even by New Forest standards, plenty of climbing though. 

Onwards into the foothills, some smooth lovely roads and some open gravel.

Ice cream stop! 

Lovely shop, expensive, but full of organic produce, ice cream, and my choice, Kefir chocolate milk! 

The heatwave was real! 37 degrees, quite dry heat though, not like the U.K where the humidity gets you, this was quite pleasant, even so, a water trough head dip felt good!

We decided to skip the 'MTB option' as much as I would have liked to give it a go, it made more sense to stick with the group and enjoy the views.

Biggest climb of the day, glad I rode my single speed! No, honestly, it was fine! Rode most of it, with a little push at the top!

and then the descent! what a descent! winding gravel all the way down.......

to the most beautiful lake you could wish for! a dip, before heading to a pub for fish, and more ice cream.

Beautiful trails to finish Saturday's ride off, a mix of road, gravel and riverside single track!

Back to camp for a dip in the river, and in time for the BBQ!

Now a BITW tradition, the 'show and shine' where anyone can prop their bike up, grab a number and enter the competition for 'best in show' 

It's a nice way to spend the evening, chatting about your considerations, an apt edition to any gathering of bike nerds. 

Did I mention Anh's bike? A Dirt Drop 26" Colnago MTB with Brazed disc tabs!!

This got my vote, partly because it's cool as fuck, partly because Anh road with us and laughed and smiled the whole way round! 

On Sunday we took it pretty easy and road a short loop along the river. 

We hit the road on Sunday afternoon back to the same French campsite for the night, then a long slog back home throughout the hottest and most humid part of the heatwave.

We'll be back next year, albeit for a week, those mountains were calling me. I've already planned a route to ride before or after the event that heads right out into the peaks; it'll require a night under the stars, but what more could you ask for!?

Tom. 

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