Low points? My worst day was definitely when I decided to take a rest day, with the opportunity to do a leg of my trip by boat. It sounded really fun, but was actually just really loud, and everybody on the boat thought I was odd for taking my bike on the boat. There were also sweet dirt roads lining the riverbank, which weren’t on my map…
All in all, a pretty good time. I’d recommend North Thailand any day to someone looking for a friendly place to tour. Roads are generally quiet, it’s beautiful, all the infrastructure for travellers is there, and I can’t stress enough how I truly always felt safe and looked after, even as a solo kid who looks about twelve in the middle of nowhere.
A word on the bike- supple tyre casings are not to be underestimated! When hitting sudden roadwork sections/cracked roads/gravelly bits at speed they soak it all up, even at high pressures, so you can have an efficient, drag-free ride for long periods of smooth road and still retain comfort on the rough stuff. Overall, I was super impressed with how the Pathfinder– which I used on my last trip as a mountain bike- faired as a rig for a more conventional road-based tour. It feels satisfyingly heavy-duty, but never sluggish.
Some thanks go to…
The Woods Cyclery team for putting up with me asking loads of questions about my own bike while they’re trying to work/letting me buy all our stock/putting up with me generally.
Colin Roth- a family friend living in Chaing Mai who so kindly let me stay in his apartment before and after my tour, and gave me a ton of priceless local knowledge. Words cannot do justice to how lucky I am to know him!
Tak- a friend of Colin’s and resident to Mae Hong Son, who let me stay at his for the night and showed me the sights whilst I was staying in Chaing Mai.
David of Painted Roads. I had just turned up in Chiang Rai and was looking at a city map on the side of a busy road, when a very friendly cyclist pulled over, asked how I was doing, and recommended me a guesthouse where he was staying with his wife. The next morning we got to chat properly, and I found out about his awesome guided bike tours. At the time he was scouting for his upcoming ‘Thailand Gravel Grinder’ route, but has done tons of tours in Mongolia, China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Sri Lanka… the list goes on. He then kindly recommended me an all-gravel ride to Phayao, around 100 miles away. It’s clear he knows these places so well, check out his website!
Sven Cycles for making such a sweet bike, and Compass Cycles for amazing rubber.
Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more really big bike rides. Next one will be the really biggest yet.
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