News from the Bike Dinos

hey you! it’s us, the ecologists on bikes! we have just cycled all the way from welten to ljubljana. i hear you asking: «how was it?» – well, let me give you four words: rain, ticks, legpain, porridge. in reality of course, there was more to our 6 days of cycling together than just four words. it all started with an «easy first day» that turned out to be a very hilly, very hot, very full of breaking bikes-day and ended with a very one-colour, one-textured meal. (sidenote: if you ever get the brilliant idea to make instant potato puree…

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Ecotopia 2023 sets off!

On June 30th Ecotopia will embark on a two and a half month journey to Bucharest (Romania), starting in Welten (Austria). The past few days have been a preparation period, where we have been gathering to get everything ready for the tour. Tomorrow we’ll be joined by some people from around the area to create a Critical Mass, going from Welten to the lake Ledavsko Jezero in Slovenia! And also here are some updates! The project in Welten has been hosting an event in June that left behind this muddy pond from a pond-digging action. When we arrived some of…

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ECOTOPIA BIKETOUR 2023 – Route – Equipment – Call for Support

*** feel free to share this post in your circles, platforms and communities! *** hellooo everyone! this is the *official* announcement of the ecotopia biketour 2023! the main region this year will be in romania. more route infos below. the orga has shrunk a lot since the winter meeting and we need your help with some stuff! first of all, REGISTRATION on our website is OPEN! you don’t have to register. but if you do it helps us to know how many people we will be at what time. you can also give us some useful information there such as…

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We have route!

  In 2023 we are travelling from Welten to Bucharest! We will be visiting the Balkan Anarchist Bookfair in Ljubliana (Slovenia) and then head towards Romania, passing through Croatia and Serbia. Along the route we will be visiting several hosting projects, ending the tour in Bucharest. In the first 4 weeks of the tour, we will be inviting all QINTAW people (queer, inter, non-binary, trans, agender and women) and ask endo-cis-hetero men to join from Novi Sad onwards. We are super excited to bike in Eastern Europe. And we are still keeping our eyes open for projects, so if you…

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From Lyon to La Voulte with a visit to the gorges of the river Doux

Leaving Lyon was more difficult as expected. One of our trailer attachments had broken in half, and a shop selling this piece was not in sight. So some of us went to the construction store in the early morning to find anything that could be useful as a temporary solution, and just when we had succeeded improvising a replacement part, we realised that an important part of the trailer had actually broken apart and needed to be fixed as well. Navigating out of a big city is always difficult, and the Via Rhona long-distance cycle route along the river Rhône…

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some thoughts on the LGBTQIA+ & FLINTA start

This year, for the first time on the ecotopia biketour, part of the tour was LGBTQIA+ & FLINTA only (non-mixed, without hetero cis men). For the first 3 weeks of the tour, hetero cis men were not invited to join the tour. The other 9 weeks of the tour are open to all genders and sexual orientations, including hetero cis men. More about the reasons behind this decision are here, but a short summary goal of the would be: An attempt at a creation of a temporary space with less sexism/heterosexism/cissexism, with the hope that it would have a positive…

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Self-organised refugee squat, smoothie bike and a huge collection of bike parts in Lyon

We arrived in the evening in Lyon at a squatted Villa in the Sans Souci quarter. There we were greeted by a few of the house’s residents, the majority of which come from Guinea. They have been living in the house for about 3 years. We set up our tents in the garden with the chickens and fell asleep to the noisy city sounds in the background. We woke up refreshed the next morning and had a circle (our word for a meeting) and discussed various topics, including alcohol consumption within the group, what we are doing in Lyon and…

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I’m cycling in the rain, just cyclin’ in the rain What a glorious feeling, I’m happy again…

Well despite record temperatures through the regions we were cycling in this year, wildfire risks and general drought, there were still a few days where the skies opened up and blessed us with litres of water over us and our bikes.. I guess after 6 weeks of no rain most of us were not so prepared for rainy days Luckily there was someone from Britain – island of rain and changable weather – to coach us about cycling in the rain. Maybe it’s helpful for other people, meanwhile we didn’t see rain since a few days again.. Cycling and rain…

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