A serendipitous meeting

[sammcneill]

Hi guys,

I’m currently doing a 5 day, 550km bikepacking adventure on a non-eBike.

However, on day 2 I crossed a river ford and paused at the rise just beyond the exit, and saw two e-bikes coming towards me.

One was an R&M Load & the other a late
Model Delite.

I stopped and chatted, warning the rider of the Load he might bottom out in the stony river crossing. Turns out the girl on the Delite worked for R&M and had (or still was) the NZ rep for R&M. One of the dealers had “loaned” them the two bikes to see if they could ride the Tour Aotearoa on them.

I chatted for about 20mins and then watched as they both successfully powered through the river crossing.

I did take a photo of their bikes (the Load was definitely well loaded!!) but won’t share as didn’t have their permission to post it publicly.

It’s what I love about riding my bike - who will I bump into?

I did 115km with 984m elevation and my legs are feeling tired at the camp site but the Rohloff & Beltdrive killed it as you’d expect!

 

[peterh_nz]

Good luck with that Sam.

May be worth mentioning that the Tour Aotearoa you referred to covers about 3,000 km spanning the length of the two main islands of Aotearoa/New Zealand.

Home

Tour Aotearoa is one of the world’s great bikepacking trips: stretching 3,000 km from Cape Reinga to Bluff it follows a combination of cycle...

www.touraotearoa.nz

Cheers

 

[sammcneill]

Good luck with that Sam.

May be worth mentioning that the Tour Aotearoa you referred to covers about 3,000 km spanning the length of the two main islands of Aotearoa/New Zealand.

Home

Tour Aotearoa is one of the world’s great bikepacking trips: stretching 3,000 km from Cape Reinga to Bluff it follows a combination of cycle...

www.touraotearoa.nz

Cheers

Thanks mate - yep it’s a big ride.
I’m just doing six days of it before Christmas, good fun but tough (100km+ and 1000m+ elevation )… one more day to go

 

[Neville Welsh]

Sounds terrific! It must be quite a feeling of freedom to not only cover huge distances on a bike, but also the camping bit sounds exciting

 

[sammcneill]

If anyone interested in the rest of the photos / route / writeup from my bikepacking adventure they're here:

Tour Aotearoa: 6 Days 5 Nights In Lower North Island – December 2022 (+ bonus 2 days in South Island!)

A summary of my 6 days of bikepacking on the Tour Aotearoa trail as I wound my way north from Wellington to Levin via a dirty detour (Plus a bonus 2 days in the South Island)

samuelmcneill.com

Could definitely do a lot of this on my SuperCharger 2 I reckon, just would be a bit more range dependent.

 

[Neville Welsh]

If anyone interested in the rest of the photos / route / writeup from my bikepacking adventure they're here:

Tour Aotearoa: 6 Days 5 Nights In Lower North Island – December 2022 (+ bonus 2 days in South Island!)

A summary of my 6 days of bikepacking on the Tour Aotearoa trail as I wound my way north from Wellington to Levin via a dirty detour (Plus a bonus 2 days in the South Island)

samuelmcneill.com

Could definitely do a lot of this on my SuperCharger 2 I reckon, just would be a bit more range dependent.

Thanks for sharing your lovely story and experience! I not only enjoyed it but have started dreaming about doing something similar - albeit with an e-bike.

 

[AleksR]

Siberia bridge?

 

[AleksR]

Siberia bridge?

 

[sammcneill]

Siberia bridge?

. In 1880, a huge gust on an exposed corner nicknamed Siberia, blew two carriages and a brake van off the rails. They plunged down the hillside and three passengers were killed.