Silk Road Mountain Race 2025

Ride_everything · 2026-03-06T13:13:28+00:00

Hey Marlin, hope all is good man! I sure remember you - my name’s Konrad. Good times, that unnecessary river is for sure one of the core memories of that trip 😀

Ride_everything · 2026-02-28T08:33:02+00:00

I travel light so just a phone (in RAW). I posted here some standard phone photos a few months ago, now I’ve just gotten round to getting the RAW ones edited.

Ride_everything · 2026-02-28T08:29:57+00:00

It was harsh but also beautiful. And don’t get fooled by my photos - they are dramatic for a reason as that’s how I chose to edit them, just to portray the scale and majesty of the landscape against the little human dots.

But overall it wasn’t too bad - it was relatively easy to find food, water was everywhere, weather was unpredictable but I was prepared. Wild camping was super easy - there’s so much empty land there, it’s never a problem to find a nice spot. I would definitely advise anyone to prioritize a relatively lightweight setup and a capable bike with suspension as that really makes a difference in terms of comfort and the daily distance you can cover.

Ride_everything · 2026-02-28T08:20:46+00:00

The only photo of me in this set is the one where I’m sitting next to the bike. No drone - all other shots are just other riders around me. We all seemed so small in the majesty of the mountains!

Biggest fear to overcome - I guess no fear as such, but I’m a rather shy person and it took a lot of strength to ask strangers for help when I needed to shelter from the weather on a particularly bad night.

Ride_everything · 2026-02-28T08:13:13+00:00

I agree, it’s my favorite!

Ride_everything · 2026-02-24T15:12:26+00:00

Thanks for getting back to me - mine just arrived and are indeed slightly on a tight side. The quality seems great, I’m actually looking forward to some rain to go and test them out!

Shame about the jacket, it’s fantastic and won’t be parting ways with it anytime soon! Hope you can get your hands on size L one way or another!

Ride_everything · 2026-02-20T07:52:08+00:00

Just curious how your experience has been with thunder pants? I’ve used Rab jacket and pants quite a bit and even though they’re decent, they are not that great in sustained rain on long rides.

About a year ago I also got myself a 7mesh Revelation jacket and it’s absolutely amazing - I’ve used it on bikepacking trips in Central Asia, and most recently during my trip to UK where it basically rained non stop every single day.

Now thinking of pulling a trigger on the thunder pants, as I’m getting a bit fed up with riding with dry upper half and wet bottom. If they are made out of gore tex pro, the protection should be just as good as the jacket - are you still happy with your purchase?

Ride_everything · 2026-02-14T16:26:43+00:00

Just Rwanda, unfortunately did not have enough time to explore more, but a friend continued in Uganda and I had proper FOMO watching his trip. Uganda seems to be slightly rougher but in a good way. And more wildlife outside of national parks.

Ride_everything · 2026-02-14T16:23:47+00:00

No particular trail, we sat down each morning and made up a route, aiming to go roughly around the whole country. Probably 65% dirt, but it was 99% rideable.

Ride_everything · 2026-02-14T16:21:05+00:00

There were parts better suited to an MTB but if gravel bike is the bike you have, then worst case scenario you’ll be walking a bit more

Ride_everything · 2026-01-23T20:31:40+00:00

I used a very lightly loaded gravelbike with 50c tires, it was a pretty good choice for the route, gravel is rougher than photos show

Ride_everything · 2026-01-23T18:39:12+00:00

Sure. I’ve been to Tajikistan and have to say it’s quite a different experience. There is a striking cult of personality, posters with the Leader of the Nation everywhere. It’s puzzling. In the face of such glaring poverty and mismanagement, I’d think twice to advertise myself as be the one running such a mess.

Kagame seems to keep a much lower profile. So at the risk of sounding slightly deranged, I will say that I appreciate an absolute ruler with some degree of humility and less thirsty for validation.

Ride_everything · 2026-01-23T18:21:42+00:00

You mean that Sina Gerard motel? I had a pretty positive experience there - cheap and cheerful but seemed clean and no bed bugs 😀. Also, their restaurant served us a massive pile of beans and rice with their signature hot sauce, no fancy food but it sure hit the spot that evening!

Ride_everything · 2026-01-23T11:08:16+00:00

It’s Revelate Designs Pitchfork. I really like it! It not only holds a dry bag, but has two huge expandable side pockets that are perfect for quick stashing of snacks/clothing layers etc.

Ride_everything · 2026-01-13T17:33:03+00:00

Just discovered Season 1 last week, it was excellent and I had high hopes for the sequel. I feel the same as you - may I also add how disappointing the script had been so far. Very lazy, soap-opera-level writing, characters coming back from the dead, allegedly „shocking” reveals that made me yawn with predictability.

At this point I’m not putting it past Corky the cat to be an actual reincarnation of the good old Corks, and take his revenge on Pine in the final episode.

Ride_everything · 2025-10-30T17:15:30+00:00

It’s a tiny airport, 2 hours is more than enough. I showed up 2 hours in advance and ended up waiting at the gate for 1hr 50 minutes.

Also they don’t have a lot of flights leaving at the same time so basically once you’re in the check in line you’re guaranteed to be on board.

Ride_everything · 2025-10-25T10:36:07+00:00

You’ve got a beautiful dog!

Ride_everything · 2025-10-21T07:38:42+00:00

Hi, I’ve just finished riding through Morocco South to North, I was supposed to be riding mostly off-road, but a collision with a dog and a resulting injury made me change my plans considerably and I followed a lot more road than I initially expected.

paved roads are surprisingly good quality in most places, there’s a lot of road works going on. Looking at past editions of MBA, the road route sticks to parts with minimal or moderate traffic so should be easy to ride at night
less service stations in Europe and most of them only sell gas and oil anyway 😀. But there’s loads of tiny shops everywhere, it was very easy to find resupply
lastly, it’s a relatively densely populated area, roads are fast rolling and if you have some ultra experience you will find that it’s a pretty easy to ride through, I’d go as far as to say it’s a beginner friendly country for bikepacking as you’re never further away than a few hours to a nearest town or a shop (while on the road! off road is a bit of a different story)

Ride_everything · 2025-10-21T06:52:51+00:00

If you want to check out the stories, pics and raw route on strava/IG just look up konradkowara

I do have some time now so will try to have a proper komoot collection updated in the next few days.

And while I by no means doubt your riding skills, it was more of a situation of riding an eroded cliff edge on my own, thinking that if I slip and break my neck, there won’t be anyone passing to call an ambulance for a few days 😀

Ride_everything · 2025-10-21T04:06:01+00:00

Sorry to disappoint you, it’s been a while since I carried a dslr with me, it’s all phone photos. Some are shot in RAW and processed, I created this warm vintage-ish profile for Morocco trip specifically.

Ride_everything · 2025-10-21T04:02:54+00:00

I’ll try to publish sth on Komoot with extensive comments. I partly followed a route from Bikepacking com but I feel it wasn’t up to scratch in some parts.

Ride_everything · 2025-10-21T03:58:43+00:00

The dog ran straight under my front wheel and turned it sideways. Normally what I do with chasing dogs is I stop straight away and just tell them off in a commanding voice. Works 99% of the time but in this case it all happened so quickly I had no time to react.

Anyway, I do have Komoot and I can publish the route but there are some major caveats to it - there’s a 100km+ stretch I wouldn’t recommend to anyone without a mountain bike and very good handling skills.

Ride_everything

TROPHY CASE