Early Summer 2026
Click on the gallery to view the pictures in full size
Pictures taken with a Minox 35 ML and Portra 400 film.
Some years ago I was delighted to hear that an event called Fenderfest would be organized. The name resonated instantly - not only am I a big fender advocate, but it was obvious from the start that french-style touring bicycles would be the theme along with them! Last year due to bicycle business busyness we could not make the trip, but this year nothing very important was happening at the time and thus the possibility to visit presented itself.
Planning and logistics
The plan with Inka, my life and traveling companion, was to combine the trip to northern Germany with our traditional summer bike tour. To get to Europe from our faraway ‘island’ that is Finland is always a chore and one does not take off lightly, especially as we are adverse to flying, due to the bad taste involved. So the possibility to combine two trips into one was taken advantage of.
The previous years’ vacation locations being Finland, Scotland and Norway, this time we wanted to get somewhere “not rainy and possibly even warm”. The Alps had been mentioned a few times, but no definite decision was made.
We had bought Interrail tickets that allowed 4 days of unlimited train travel in the previous year's sale, not knowing then where we would go with them, and this would be our opportunity to spend those tickets. The Stockholm ferry and a few high speed trains would take us to Hamburg, and one more regional train to Gross Lüben, the starting place of Fenderfest this year.
Bicycle spots for trains should of course be reserved weeks or months in advance, which we of course did not do. So my Tunk and Inka’s Bridgestone camping bike needed some ‘trash bag rinko’ tactics, but the train travel on the way in did not present any large obstacles or problems. Disassembling the bikes on the platform and stuffing them into trash bags and taping all over is something we have done a few times already. We did get on one sold-out train with our huge bags but the conductor let us ride. The way back would be more eventful.
An international bicycle festival
We haven’t really participated in international bike events much, so it was quite exciting and new to land somewhere with around 100 mostly unknown people. I’m personally a wary and timid person before I get going and relax, but expecting at least some friendly faces made the decision to go a bit easier! And indeed there were some familiar people at the start, most of whom we had met at Bespoked Dresden ‘25.
The event itself was quite like I imagined it: some easy scenic riding along flat roads while mingling with bike nerds. And then afterwards eating, drinking and mingling some more with bike nerds! But the visit to the local Krankenschwester -rock festival, seeing the storck village of Rühstädt and especially the two nights of camping together with the whole bunch made it all quite special. Nothing makes you feel properly together like sleeping in the same place and having breakfast! People are so purely themselves at bedtime and especially early in the morning.
It seemed like almost everyone at the event was somehow part of the industry or at least a hardcore enthusiast. Chatting up people you would hear about their project: a bike company, framebuilding shop, bike shop, bag making, designing, journalism... This made for lively discussions and some business contacts.
There are good comprehensive reports about the festival itself elsewhere, like this one by Rob at bikepacking.com, so you can catch the general atmosphere from there just as well as I would describe it.
As the days developed and we talked to different people about our plans to go touring in the Alps afterwards, we got plenty of good and encouraging advice. Somehow we started sliding towards South Tyrol and the Dolomites as a destination, and got even more encouraging remarks, along the lines of ‘it’s very slow to ride there as you have to stop all the time to take pictures!’. And traveling to Italy in general of course is always a romantic and good idea!
Pit-stop in Berlin
Already on the first day of Fenderfest I had a little technical problem: my front rim cracked almost completely due to being too worn out. Before leaving on this trip I replaced both of Inkas rims, having measured the braking surfaces to be well under 1mm in thickness. But after those were done my steam ran out and I didn’t check my own bike properly!
After opening the front brake I was able to continue for a while, expecting it to explode at any moment. But I was not too alarmed: Fenderfest is probably one of the better places in the world to find a replacement 650b rim! In no time at all we took off with Tom Becker to Meerglas HQ and they very kindly borrowed a wheel for me. During the weekend I inquired if someone would have a replacement for my rim, and in the end I met Claas from ACE! Cycles in Berlin, who had a Velo Orange one in stock.
So after the ‘fest was done we rode to the closest train station and headed towards Berlin. Not a bad place for a pit-stop before continuing south, there is always stuff to see there.
I got the rim from Claas (and while we were at it we closed a business deal and ACE! became the first ever Tunk retail shop!) but unfortunately I needed new spokes as well. But that was easily sorted, just head to the other Berlin bike shop contact we made at Fenderfest, Pedalage! After rebuilding my front wheel there, dinner and wandering arounnd we slept at a cheap hostel and were ready to continue.
Towards Dolomiti
Again we would stuff our bikes into trash bags and hope that they let us ride the trains from Berlin to Innsbrück. All went smoothly enough and before night fell we could see the Austrian side of the Alps from the train window, huge and dark, appearing suddenly after traveling through flat country.
After assembling the bikes at the station again we simply looked for the closest patch of forest to hide our tent in, which wasn’t many kms from the center. Already the massive presence of the mountains was making itself felt, and when we woke up the whole grandeur of the nearby ones struck us with awe, almost shock… This would be the theme for the rest of the trip.
Slow and proper touring
Our style generally while touring is quite improvised, meandering and curious. We don’t have clear targets for the day, nor the hunger for kilometers. We just go forward with a loose plan and see what comes up, stopping for pretty much all sights and breaks if we feel like it. Only the places to stock up on food and water need to be really seriously considered.
In this way we started and continued for the two weeks we would spend in the area known with many names, as the Dolomites after the distinctive mountains, as Süd-Tirol by the tyroleans, as Alto Adige by the Italians and as Trentino the province.
To recount each day like a diary is not interesting for most, and as this was not the most eventful and incredible adventure, just a good fun bike tour, I will just focus on explaining some of the most interesting features, sights and difficulties.
As for the statistics, it is quite telling that we cycled (and walked and pushed the bikes) every day for about two weeks, for most of the daylight hours, and our daily average was only 35 kilometers, but in elevation the daily average was 1170 meters! Basically we climbed a rather big mountain every day, sometimes two.
The mighty mountains
To see and experience those mountains was for me personally a reason enough to travel to the Alps. Only to breathe the air of the heights and take in the majestic sights is a wonder, therapeutic and inspiring. The everyday world can feel so closed and oppressive at times, and just to climb a mountain makes your awareness wider and more spacious. Ideas become grander. It is a very welcome change of mindset for us, who at home never get to see very far. (Except over the sea but that is just not the same..)
And I don’t mind the climbing at all, I very much enjoy it. Inka doesn’t seem to mind either, but happily pedals on for hours. The steady pedaling effort with every stroke making the view better is for me pure contentment, and the thrill of the downhill afterwards makes up for the natural decrease of the vistas that it causes.
I often have said that one of the only reasons to move out from cozy, quiet and comfortable Helsinki is to get somewhere with mountains! For now we will just have to travel far every time we want a proper good view.
The definition of bivouac
The question of wild camping abroad is always a pressing one and usually not easy to answer. We like to stay in the tent as much as possible, so we are ready to stretch the rules around camping a little bit, but also don’t want any extra trouble.
In Italy, at least in this area, it seemed to be allowed to bivouac for the night, meaning a short temporary stay. Officially as we understand it is only allowed in ‘high mountains’, but the exact definition is not clear. If one wanted to be absolutely sure, it would maybe mean above the treeline? We just interpreted this in our own way: stay in random wild places that don’t seem like anyones private property and stay out of sight: set up late and leave early. We did not get in any trouble at all but some nights were a little too exciting and tiresome as we couldn’t find a good spot.
We wanted to ask some local hikers about this, but as it was off-season we did not meet almost any. I think in total we saw maybe 3-5 people with any kind of camping equipment during the trip, if camping grounds are not counted.
So our advice about bivouac in northern Italy would be: stay out of the way but just do it. Use common sense and respect vulnerable natural areas, rather camp next to a clearcut or an industrial area than a nature reserve. Ask a local for advice if you can.
The responsibility of the tourist and access to land is a tricky question, and probably gets more difficult the further you go from home. In general I think bike tourism generates a lot less issues as people tend to move slower and camp in much more random spots, dictated by fate and the weather and not their own choice, spreading the wear more evenly. Car campers can all easily pack into the same spot and overuse it.
A short side-note on camping: we were surprised to learn that using gas stoves outside is not allowed in national parks and nature reserves in Italy, and in southern Europe in general this seems common, I understood it is not allowed anywhere in the whole of Spain! Coming from cold and wet Finland this is odd, but makes sense when you think about wildfires, droughts and overall the extremely dry mediterranean climate.
We also stayed a couple of times in paid camp sites, when we wanted an easy place to sleep, charge our phones and take a shower. The campsites were quite plentiful and not super expensive, at around 18euro per person. We even chilled by the pool in two of them, quite a funny luxury after days of sweaty tunking in the mountains and sleeping in bushes!
We tried also getting to the famous hüttes, mountain cabin hostels, but due to off-season they were mostly closed and the ones we could have stayed at were too clean and bougie and expensive for our taste. We’d just want to cook and eat pasta and tofu and bread and vegetables and beans and sleep on the floor…
The routes
As long as we stayed on small paved roads, even mountain ascents were all good fun. The trouble began when we wanted to try some gravel adventure cycling, to which we are quite used to at home. Often the most interesting spots are found on the unpaved smaller roads and paths.
But in the Dolomites the gravel roads were almost uncyclable due to the steepness of the hills and the roughness of the gravel. It’s one thing to push your bike all the way up, but when you have to push down as well due to the road being too dangerous to ride, the enjoyment starts to diminish very quickly!
So I would advise either to stay on paved roads, or do your research very carefully, and even then be prepared to do some very hard tunking. Before the trip we researched routes in the ‘Rough Stuff - Traversing the Alps’ guidebook, but as we did not know which part of the alps we would go to the planning was inadequate. Access to a scan of the book on our phones would have helped greatly, but we only copied some random pages before leaving, and not really the right ones.
The gravel roads and paths did get us to incredibly nice, scenic awesome spots, so on the other hand I wholeheartedly recommend it. We would have missed out a lot if we didn’t do them. But it’s not for those looking for an easy time!
As a side note, from the Rough Stuff guidebook I learned the concept of “double carry”, meaning a difficult stretch of trail where you first carry the bike over, then go back for your luggage and carry those as well. Needless to say, we had a little taste of the double carry on our trip as well, of course on a ‘shortcut’.
I would also mostly stay away from the official bicycle tourist routes that go along the valleys. They seemed very easy, kind of pleasant, but quite boring and seems they never take you to the mountain top! We have flat roads at home, we don’t want to travel all the way to the Alps and then not climb them! Every now and then they were a welcome change though and provided easy transport stages between areas and towns.
Tunnels deserve a special mention as well, as one poorly planned day we had the scariest bike ride of our lives, having to go through a hugely long tunnel, dark and claustrophobic, all downhill, with plenty of high speed traffic and no shoulder to speak of. To go around would have meant another half day of extra cycling and once you’re in and going downhill, you don’t feel like turning back either! So beware!
Map with the route marked
GPX file with pretty accurate final route can be found below:
The milieu, the weather, the food
Though we had some discomfort and trouble with camping, tunking and very hot weather, generally the atmosphere and surroundings were very pleasant. The views were magnificent, roads were mostly quiet and easy, the sun was shining almost constantly with welcome clouds every now and then.
The availability of vegetarian and vegan food we found excellent. As per usual, we mostly cooked our own meals with the gas cooker or ate cold snacks. The variety and quality of vegetables, fruits, cereals, bread, healthy sweets etc was very good even in the smallest towns. And tofu and beans and lentils to complement them were readily available. The Mediterranean diet is a much tastier basis for vegetarians than the ‘meat&potatoes’ diet of cold Nordic countries we usually tour in.
Most restaurants would also have a simple dish of spaghetti with tomato sauce or something similar, for a fair price. And we both like dark toasty italian style coffee with notes of robusta (as opposed to fruity arabica filter coffee so much praised by coffee enthusiasts in Finland), so the cheap (but tiny) espressos everywhere we enjoyed greatly as well.
Top bicycle touring destinations in Süd-Tirol
Although one doesn’t really need destinations while touring, as they tend to come along naturally, it often helps to have some ideas where to go, to not lose motivation. We just improvised our destinations every few days, and this was mostly successful.
Places we would recommend to visit were all the mountaintops and passes that require a great amount of work to reach, all the charming small towns encountered randomly and all the national parks you can find. The funny and adorable marmots on the mountain tops are a reason enough to travel here!
Some specific places we remember are:
The town of Chiusa and the holy mountain and monastery next to it. Just sitting on the town square was an experience, as tons of cyclists pass through on the Munich-Venice route.
The archeological museum in Bolzano, also known as the ‘Ötzi museum’. The city itself was a bit difficult, as cities tend to be while on a bike tour. Seeing Ötzi the mummy in real life was an unforgettable experience! (I’ve always been a big fan)
Also in Bolzano, the Runkelstein castle / Castel Roncolo. A proper castle high up on a hill near outside of town, renovated with care and with a decent museum. Notable features are the frescoes with secular themes, games, romance, hunting parties, historical heroes etc were displayed. Also parts of beloved Pier Paolo Pasolinis movie Decamerone have been filmed at the castle!
The town of Brixen / Bressanone. A cute medium-sized town that we passed through twice. Unfortunately the Medicine Museum was closed during our visits, would have liked to see that.
Passo Pordoi, a famous mountain pass with crazy switchback roads both ways. And the funny memorial of Il campionissimo, Fausto Coppi!
All ends in due time
In theory it would have been possible to stretch our holiday for a few more days, do another mountain loop and see a whole new nature park, but it’s also good to know when to wrap up and head home, ‘to end during good weather’, like the Finnish saying goes. We’re definitely going back to the Alps one day anyway!
A loose plan for the long train journey home was made, along with some last minute shopping in the weekend market at Brixen for souvenirs. Italians do underwear so well, we were glad to get some!
On the way back some train conductors refused our trash-bagged bikes and we got stuck multiple times and had to re-route. Thinking about the journey home, even now after months, brings out feelings of stress. Interrail with camping bikes is again not for those looking for an easy time! Carrying the packed bike on one shoulder and all the camping gear on the other around train stations is very hard work!
We finally decided on the Snälltåget night train, probably as it was the only decent option to get back home. We even had to stop again in Berlin, and spend a whole day there to wait for the night train to Stockholm. This though was a good opportunity to see the museums, second hand shops, book shops, visit Morgenrot, the autonomous co-operative café, and so on.
For the train we booked a whole private compartment and stuffed all our camping gear and bikes and slept kind of soundly. Some technical issues on the train forced us to wake up and continue on normal seats and finally to haggle with the train company for compensation. Not the warmest and nicest ending for the trip, but we managed well!
All that was left was assembling the bikes one final time and riding to the ferry in Stockholm. Both of us stayed healthy and mostly in good spirits after a wonderful and scenic but taxing tour! Our cycling holidays are never easy it seems.
We will definitely come back to Fenderfest, and a mild case of alps-fever was also contracted, at least for my part! A long winter is ahead, and making good plans for next year would be wise. Or then we just improvise everything all over again like usual, we shall see.
Aki
