- How To Adventure More.
Yes I know, a slightly clunky title for a film,
but hopefully you know what I mean.
I'm going to talk to some riders who could be labeled
adventurous, for their stories, some advice,
and most importantly, some inspiration.
(intense music)
This isn't your average how to video from us at GMBN,
but this isn't your average week.
This is Adventure Week.
From mountain bike to gravel to road,
these riders all share one thing:
The ability to commit to something that pushes
what you think is possible on a bike.
- Hey there, I'm Hans Rey, I'm 53 years old.
I've been a professional mountain biker
pretty much all my life for over 32 years.
And my background is trials riding,
but really, in the last 20 years, I've been doing
a lot of adventure trips all over the world
to very remote places.
I've been to over 70 countries.
- My name is Mark Beaumont.
I'm 36 years old and I'm mainly a roadie, but by that I mean
ultra endurance expedition riding,
as opposed to in the Peloton.
But, I kind of love all things on two wheels
which means a bit of mountain biking, as long as there's not
too much gravity, and a bit of vintage.
Love the old fashioned stuff, penny farthings,
and the rest.
And I've been riding a bike my entire life.
Maybe since I was four?
- Neil Donahue. 38.
I am an ex-Downhill racer and enduro racer
but someone who, now, just likes to try a bit
of everything.
Been riding for 23 years.
- My name is Blake Sampson. I'm a GMBN presenter.
I am 34 years young.
I am a mixture of free ride,
dirt jump,
and Enduro.
That's my type of riding.
I've been riding for sixteen years, professionally,
but I've been riding since I was five.
- Simon Richardson. 36.
Jack of All Trades,
Master of None.
Whoa! 28 years.
- The biggest ride I've ever done
is
I biked 220K, I think, on a road bike.
On a mountain bike, 110 kilometers in a day.
I did the Dollar Meter Super Bike with Si Richardson.
And that was a big day out.
It's a race, as well, so you're trying
to go as quick as you can.
And, I think it was 3300 meters of climbing.
So, definitely, by my standards, that was
a big ride.
- The longest single day ride I've ever done
was, actually, accompanying Mark Beaumont
on the first day of his around the world,
record breaking ride.
So, we did 386 kilometers.
Embarrassingly enough, that was all I could do
before I completely cracked.
Mark then carried on that day
and then, obviously, the next day
and the next day for another 78 days.
So my biggest ride was a 78th of his biggest ride.
- My biggest and hardest adventure, I think, was
in 2016 when I climbed Mount Kenya and
Mount Kilimanjaro, back to back.
It was something that had never been done
in that order and, to me, it was really
the Mount Everest of mountain biking.
Because it was a...
I know there's higher mountains that people
have tackled, but usually, you know,
they just carry their bikes once they
get over 6000 meters and, Kilimanjaro,
you can pretty much, you know, ride
the whole way down.
Obviously, you have to carry your bike.
But that was, definitely, a challenging trip.
- My most adventurous ride on the road
would, definitely, be peddling around the planet.
Does that count?
Done that twice.
Once unsupported.
Once fully supported.
Totally different ballgame each time,
but that's pretty massive.
18000 miles against the clock,
greasing 240 miles a day.
But mountain biking, I sort of flippantly thought
I'd do a coast to coast a couple of years back.
Thought, take about 12 hours, no bother.
Massively underestimated it
and it took the best part of an entire 24 hour day
to get across doing single track the entire way.
And I was a broken man.
- The biggest ride I have ever, ever done
has to be...
I have no idea.
(beep)
I've ridden around the Isle of Wight.
That's pretty far.
Patagonia is pretty far.
Yeah.
I haven't ridden to Patagonia.
I rode in Patagonia for two days
with Neil Donoghue.
So, I would say the Isle of Wight is my longest.
Probably like 100 miles or something.
- Wherever I've taken on a ride which I
underestimated, definitely, definitely.
But I do love the planning, you know,
as much as I love getting out there
and pushing myself,
I do love pouring over a map.
Getting the highlighter pen out, you know,
just figuring out what's in store.
The training.
You know, I think part of taking on difficult
stuff is knowing what you're in for.
But, of course, if you try difficult stuff
you're going to end up in some difficult places.
But I've never turned back.
I've never not completed a ride.
Either road or mountain bike.
- I think, in recent times, all of the, sort of,
challenges that I have either been set or I've
set myself, I've managed to complete.
But there have been many, many rides
in the past where I've bailed out half way.
But, generally, it's been a training session
and I've decided that I've not fancied it.
But I can't think of like a proper, epic ride
that I've not managed to do.
No.
Not yet, anyway.
There will be something. I'm sure.
- I haven't actually planned a route super hard
for me to not complete.
I've got to the point where I was, like,
this is getting really hard
and I don't want to be here anymore,
but I've never over done it.
Maybe I should one day see what it's like
and, potentially, get lost and make
it a big challenge.
- Actually, that did happen a few times
and one particular time was
at Mount Mayon in the Philippines,
one of the deadliest volcanoes in the world
and Brian Lopes and myself tried to tackle it
and we got about 1 and a half days up.
We still had about a 10 hour climb to the summit.
But the terrain got so steep and vertical
and unrideable and there was no shelter,
no place to get water and we even figured
that we would have, probably, had to walk
90 percent on the way down because it was really
much steeper than we thought it would be.
So, we ended up knocking it on the head.
- There's, definitely, been a couple of times
where I've had to abandon rides
and it's, probably, more, actually,
in the olden days when we used to train on a road bike
in winter, when I would just set out for big days
and take a good amount of kit with me: food and stuff.
But I remember one situation where there was
a weather warning for snow and it was, probably,
you know, February or March.
I thought, you know, I'm going to prove
that I'm a hard man.
Would go out anyway and go for a big road ride
and I got snowed on and I got really cold
and I had to ring up my Dad and get him
to come pick my up.
So, there's definitely been a few times where I've
had to make out a call of shame for a friend
or a parent to come and pick me up in the middle
of nowhere.
- Have I've ever felt like I've been in trouble
on a big adventure?
Ah. No, I haven't.
To a point, I...
Nope. Don't think I have.
- I don't think I've ever been stranded
in a dangerous situation before, thank goodness.
To touch wood.
A lot of times where I've had to call in support
because I've had a terminal, mechanical problem
that, again, it was kind of, it was when out training
so, I wasn't that far from home.
I did once, actually, have to call my Dad
back when I was about 15 years old
and I was out on the road bike, in winter,
and my hands and feet got so cold
that I, basically, couldn't ride anymore.
And so I phoned him up to see whether he'd come
pick me up.
And he said "No."
(laughs)
So, I had to ride home, regardless, with the coldest
hands and feet I've ever had.
So, I would like to have seen the approach now.
You know, I should thank my Dad for this.
It's made me the person I am today.
But, it still hurts, Dad.
- I suppose, actually, this year when I got hurt
in South America.
So, I fell off in Namiafisco, landed on my leg
and that night, I got rushed off for emergency surgery
and spent 7 days in hospital.
The other side of the world was, was actually
not as bad it sounds.
Got some good friends or made some good friends
in South America that really helped me out.
But that was a situation where I found myself
really needing the help of other people
and
I got it. You know.
It's good to show that the mountain bike world
can be a super nice, super friendly place
where when you need help, hopefully, you'll get it.
- With some of the things that happened over the years,
you know, in Mount Kilimanjaro, we almost got robbed
and we did some smart moves the last minute
to prevent some locals from stealing, trying
to steal our camera gears and bikes.
And in Egypt, we were, had an actual police escort
which we tried to ditch because we were on
an adventure and we didn't want to be monitored
the whole time.
In China, we had the Secret Police follow us.
In Ecuador and also once in Nepal, I got altitude sick
and that knocked me off my feet for 24 hours
but, then I did recover.
And in Copper Canyon, we had to avoid the drug cartels.
And in Botswana, we were actually stalked by a leopard.
So, you never know what's going to happen
and you don't want to be in those situations.
So, there was nothing good about those moments.
- On some of the big, ultra endurance rides, keep
in mind that these adventures have taken me
to well over 100 countries around the world.
It's the big strips of the planet where there's
just very little supplies.
You're food rationing, water rationing, especially
when it's super hot deserts.
Going through the Baluchi Desert on the Helmand border
province, that's through the Afghan-Pakistan country,
the Atacama Desert, you probably saw the trouble
that "Top Gear" got into riding across there.
Equally tough on a bike.
More so, I would recommend.
The Outback, I got battered going across there.
3000 miles into a headwind.
So these are chunks of road where, occasionally, I've
gotten into a real pickle and needed to ask
other passersby for water, for supplies.
Camped out in the middle of the Outback, off the
Great Bight, I woke up with the tent blown down
my face, right on the cliff's edge.
And, I thought, well, I've got to sort this out,
got out and the entire thing blew away.
So, you know, imagine middle of the night,
running across the middle of nowhere
to track this thing down and end up
just sleeping on my tent for the rest of the night,
otherwise it would blow over the cliffs.
And I was still 400 miles from the next town.
So, you kind of got to look after your kit
when you're in the middle of nowhere.
- What advice would I give you if you ever want to
go on adventure?
You know, just be open minded and be ready for everything.
Remember, an adventure doesn't really start until
a journey goes wrong or something unplanned happens.
So, you know, be prepared and be adventurous
but be careful and have fun.
- The advice I'd give someone that hasn't done
bike packing or gone for a big, major expedition
with a bike, the best thing is plan a route carefully,
see where you're going, make sure you know what's
going on in that local area, and don't get yourself
in trouble.
Don't go somewhere where you feel you, you going to,
you know, you're second thinking about everything.
Don't go there.
If you're feeling like there's something bad,
don't do it.
- My advice would be to use the information that's
available, you know, with things like our channel,
there's plenty of advice for people that do want
to go there.
And maybe try something new, like bike packing somewhere.
I mean, I feel I am inspired to push the boundaries
a bit more.
I mean, with the bike packing I've done,
it's been fairly tame.
So far, me and Blake have kept UK and I've really,
actually liked that.
We've not picked routes that have been too big.
You know, actually, the first time I went
bike packing, we only rode 25 miles for two days.
So, that was pretty mellow by most people's standards.
Actually, I really enjoyed it.
It wasn't crazy.
It was much more relaxed.
It was much more fun.
It doesn't have to be gnarly.
Especially, if it's your first time bike packing.
That's what I would say, is just get out there, try it,
and some of the time, where, hopefully, the weather's
going to be nice, gives you a bit of a taste
of what you can do, and then, maybe, start thinking
about going a bit further.
Making it a bit more challenging.
- Most people, I think, get sort of stuck in the distances
they're comfortable riding.
Especially roadies.
Of course, mountain bikers tend not to describe themselves
by distances.
It's more, you know, the, you know, describing the type
of trails that we're on.
But, what I mean is, when you're pushing bigger
distances, be it bike packing or ultra endurance,
it's not that much harder, physically.
You normally just have to slow down and just
think you're way through it.
It's amazing, you know, if you've only ever ridden
a century before, a double century's not that much harder.
I'm not being flippant.
But you just have to believe you can do it,
and just fuel yourself effectively and just break it down
and all the obvious things around targets.
But, so many times, I've been freaked out by the scale
of what lies ahead.
I think if I was to talk about my own comfort zone
going off road, it would definitely
be the technical side of riding.
So, you know, gravity, terrain, drops, gaps, stuff
which, and I need to now go on that same journey
in terms of my XE riding as I have as a roadie.
But, yeah, there's a lot about just surrendering yourself
by people who are better than you, following them,
following their lines, you know, just sort
of assimilating what they do.
And I've had some great buddies over the years who've
just taken me into their world and I've just sort
of built confidence through them.
- I guess, when you're thinking about pushing
your boundaries, there's two things.
There's gently pushing your boundaries in a safe way,
that's exciting and helps you improve or broaden
your horizons.
And then, there's actually undertaking things
that you're not capable of doing, so you actually
get in danger.
So, I definitely say that, probably, baby steps.
You plan things that excite you, that motivate you,
and that will push you out of your comfort zone.
But, if for example, you've never ridden more than,
you know, going to sound like a roadie here,
but 100 miles, then suddenly planning a 400 mile
ride and you're not going to take any kind
of camping equipment, then that might be a recipe
for disaster.
But, I definitely would say, don't be afraid of
getting out there and going camping,
going bike packing.
It's a lot easier than you'd think it might be.
So, if you prepare properly, you know, you
got half decent equipment and you got enough of it,
then you'll have an amazing time.
- So you go, there are some stories and some advice
from some pretty cool people and us as GMBN.
So, hopefully, those will help you give you a bit
of inspirational hope to plan your adventures.
If you want to see that Patagonia film, myself and Blake
talk an awful lot about, it was so good, click over
there a flat one.
If you want to see Chris Opie's Level 100 Challenge
over there, follow him.
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