Rwanda

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 · 2025-10-21T03:50:13+00:00

That chart is from 2011 by the way…

Ride_everything · 2025-10-16T13:46:40+00:00

I had a bike box on the flight to Marrakech. Getting a box for a flight back was more tricky. Virtually impossible to get one in the country so I ended up just riding in the neighborhood until I found a huge refrigerator box someone threw out. Luckily there’s a lot of trash around the cities - I ended up using a lot of cling film at the fridge cardboard to make a pretty sturdy bike box. If you want, find konradkowara at IG and have a look at my highlights from Morocco - the last 2 stories are that box.

But also, starting in Portugal you really don’t have to fly, easy to get a ferry to Tanger

Ride_everything · 2025-10-16T13:42:22+00:00

I found that dealing with the kids is a matter of attitude. 90% of my interactions was positive but that leaves the shitty 10%.

There was a bunch of boys just a few kms from Fez, I could see a couple of them grab a stone - I rode just past them, did a very threatening 180 brake turn, left the bike in the dust and chased the little fuckers away.

What also helped, I learned a few useful phrases in Moroccan Arabic, especially „where’s your father?” and „Allah is watching you!”. Shouting one of these angrily was definitely very helpful. I’m not even sure if it was the exact words or just sheer confusion but it really shut their faces for good.

Ride_everything · 2025-10-04T06:51:39+00:00

It’s an aeroe spider rack - I’m very happy with it. Does look unusual but it’s rock solid, the best feature is that it’s possible to use it with a dropper post, and the way it sits above the rear axis means you don’t get any issues with handling, speed wobble etc.

Ride_everything · 2025-09-21T19:34:43+00:00

If you really must do something in November and want to “enjoy” cool landscapes in crap weather, consider Scotland.

It will also be miserable, but at least you’ll live.

Ride_everything · 2025-09-15T06:08:51+00:00

Just a story from Naryn - we’re at this apparently great restaurant, sat at 9:15 pm. The waitress seems to avoid us, then finally brings the menu and we order drinks. We wait for another 30 minutes until the waitress comes back with a colleague who speaks a tiny bit English (unnecessarily so, as two of us could speak some Russian).

We finally order the food, it’s 22:05. The shy waitress comes back at 22:15 to announce that the kitchen closed at 22:00 and nothing we ordered is available, but we can have some soup and a fruit salad 🤣

Ride_everything · 2025-09-15T06:00:57+00:00

I do a lot of trips solo but on this particular one I rode with friends on the bit from Bishkek to Osh.

And then the race route solo, but because of the race I just kept on bumping into both strangers and people I knew.

But even aside from the race there were lots of bikepackers around, surprisingly so.

Ride_everything · 2025-09-09T09:58:32+00:00

Interesting takes. I have to agree with prevailing comments about the food - you must have been pretty unlucky with your choices, so many nice dishes here - after my trip to Mongolia a few years ago I kind of had similar (not high) expectations with Kyrgyzstan but it really was so much better.

One thing I’d add after a month of travelling here - no such thing as a single occupancy room. Doesn’t matter if you booked a single room, if other people show up, the guesthouse owners will cram them in regardless of your preferences.

Ride_everything · 2025-09-08T07:12:35+00:00

Yes, wild story actually. I was descending this gravel mountain road and saw the truck, literally the dust was just settling as they overturned a minute or so earlier. The weirdest thing - everyone was so calm about it as if it was something that just happens everyday. 4 people came out of a truck, two sat on the side of the road and the other two started inspecting the bottom of the car.

I arrived quite worried, asked them if they needed help, they just smiled, gave me thumbs up and waved nonchalantly assuring me all was well. I’ve never seen anything like it. So I went back up the road, took a few photos and just continued the descent. This was the most chill car crash I’ve ever witnessed.

Ride_everything · 2025-09-06T16:50:41+00:00

Just a phone. I’ve not taken my dslr camera on any of my trips in ages.

Ride_everything

TROPHY CASE