Wow guys, what an amazing trip. First, all the winter weather we are missing here, well it went over there. Damn, it was cold. There was 4 foot of snow. It was a beautiful winter playground. The snow actually stayed on the trees and then was covered with ice. It was like Crystal !
I did ride 5 days out of the 22 I was there. I rode an old cruser which was a way different workout. People are so much nicer to bikers there. One does not actually need a car. Between the bikes, walking trails, and mass transit, you can go anywhere. One does need to REALLY pay attention to the time schedules. I missed the bus back to my place and had to wait an hour.
The coolest thing (in regards to bikes) about germany is the bike expo. They have so many different types of bikes. Mountain and road bikes are popular, but the commuter bike and vacation folding bike are even more popular. They do a lot more family vacations on bikes than we do.
Mountain biking in Europe is actually done at Bike Parks like Diablo. Their LBS told me that the world class mtbers do not speak or post about "their" singletrack in the woods. Europe has a far bigger hiker vs biker disputes than the US. Therefore, mtbers are much more secretive. At the bike expo, there was one town Schomberg, that actually built "Singletrack" in the forest. It was free and they gave me maps. The funny thing is, the whole course is only 3 miles. All that hoopla for 3 miles. I told them of NJ and its Ringwood, Allamuchy, Hartshorne,... They were in awe. For them to do that, one would have to travel to Garmisch the southwest corner of germany. I just we should be thankful that we have such a great mix of trails in NJ!
I did ride 5 days out of the 22 I was there. I rode an old cruser which was a way different workout. People are so much nicer to bikers there. One does not actually need a car. Between the bikes, walking trails, and mass transit, you can go anywhere. One does need to REALLY pay attention to the time schedules. I missed the bus back to my place and had to wait an hour.
The coolest thing (in regards to bikes) about germany is the bike expo. They have so many different types of bikes. Mountain and road bikes are popular, but the commuter bike and vacation folding bike are even more popular. They do a lot more family vacations on bikes than we do.
Mountain biking in Europe is actually done at Bike Parks like Diablo. Their LBS told me that the world class mtbers do not speak or post about "their" singletrack in the woods. Europe has a far bigger hiker vs biker disputes than the US. Therefore, mtbers are much more secretive. At the bike expo, there was one town Schomberg, that actually built "Singletrack" in the forest. It was free and they gave me maps. The funny thing is, the whole course is only 3 miles. All that hoopla for 3 miles. I told them of NJ and its Ringwood, Allamuchy, Hartshorne,... They were in awe. For them to do that, one would have to travel to Garmisch the southwest corner of germany. I just we should be thankful that we have such a great mix of trails in NJ!