About

Ecotopia Biketour is a self-organized, international community that has been organizing a yearly bicycle tour in different regions of Europe since 1990. During the tour we visit environmental and social projects and practice forms of activism and sustainable living. We cook communal vegan food, practice consensus decision making, and share skills by doing workshops. One of our core values is to create a non-discriminatory environment. Participants are asked to give a voluntary contribution of 3–5 € per day to cover food costs, but if you cannot afford this you are welcome to join for free! Ecotopia Biketour is for anyone interested in travelling by bike, community life, DIY, an ecological lifestyle, and/or learning by experience. If this sounds good to you, feel welcome to join us!

We try to make the tour as inclusive as possible for any level of fitness or experience with bike touring. We cycle a maximum of 30–70 km per day (depending on the hills), and on average half of the days we stay in a place without cycling. Our experience is that almost everyone can manage this, but there is the possibility to shorten the distances if we discover that it is too much. People cycle in small groups or alone, at whatever speed suits them, and many people like to take it slow and take lots of breaks. A detailed route plan for the day is shared in the morning, arrows are drawn with chalk on the road at every turn, and if you get lost you can always call the Biketour phone. If you have a shitty bike, you will not be the only one, and we enjoy supporting each other if something breaks. We make sure that the last people to leave carry a toolbox, a phone and a first-aid kit in order to assist if anything goes wrong on the road.

Read more about what the Ecotopia Biketour is. If you would like to get an insight into the organisation or just ask a question, contact us.

Biketour concepts

Participation Guidelines

Because we all have different visions of life and diverse personalities, Ecotopia Biketour has developed a set of basic values which helps all of us to create similar expectations from this project.
> participation guidelines
> awareness

Self-Organisation

As we oppose any leadership or hierachical structures, the Biketour is organised in an open way where everyone can be a part of.
> how it’s prepared
> consensus
> circles

Online Tools

We try to use free and open-source software as much as possible in the preparation process. The same goes for sharing photos and videos in the group.
> online-tools
> photo-sharing

On the road

Everyone should be able to cycle with the Biketour. Therefore we keep distances low and have scouts going ahead who mark the route. Everyone can follow the signs on their own level of speed. Any tasks like scouting, cooking or pulling a trailer are shared.
> on the road
> tasks & rota
> trailers
> wildcamping

Food

All communal food on Biketour is vegan and cooked with wood on our mobile rocket stove.
Whenever it’s possible we go dumpster-diving and buy food from local farmers and small shops.
> veganism
> rocket stove
> dumpster-diving

Activities

We plan and make many activities on the tour: skill-sharing, helping at projects, joining actions and protests, bike-fixing and other events.
> skill-sharing

Latest blog posts

Snakes in the lakes, Plums in the slums – 21st July

mandolinquent July 23, 2013 August 17, 2013

Sorry this entry is not available in this language For the sake of viewer convenience, the content is shown below in this site default language. You may click one of the links to switch the site language to another available language. Skinny dipping at sunset ‘Red next to yellow, kill a fellow. Yellow next to black, venom lack.’ This little serpent is black all over, with no yellow or red. And she quickly slithers past us to a quieter spot. Still I’ve never seen our group of sweaty cyclists so hesitant to plunge into the cool inviting water of…

The Price of Coal…

kate July 21, 2013 October 26, 2013

Sorry this entry is not available in this language For the sake of viewer convenience, the content is shown below in the alternative language. You may click the link to switch the active language. A few of us cycled up to whitness the enormatiy of the the Coal Mines just outside Lauzitz….

Landesgrenze = Kohlegrenze

grenzblog July 21, 2013 October 6, 2013

Sorry this entry is not available in this language For the sake of viewer convenience, the content is shown below in this site default language. You may click one of the links to switch the site language to another available language. Nicht nur sprichwoertlich kann die Landesgrenze von Brandenburg und Sachsen als “Kohlegrenze” gesehen werden, weil das eine Bundesland als reicher gilt, als das andere. Nein, an der “Linealgrenze” aus dem Atlas koennte eine scharfe Klippenwand die Grenze der Braunkohletagebau-Krater markieren, wenn denn wenigestens eines der beiden Bundeslaender gegen die Foerderung waere – was durchaus in ihrer Kompetenz laege. Jedoch…

Grenzen zwischen staatlicher Souveränität und Konzern-Herrschaft

grenzblog July 21, 2013 October 14, 2013

Sorry this entry is not available in this language For the sake of viewer convenience, the content is shown below in this site default language. You may click one of the links to switch the site language to another available language. Wer sich mit globalen Fragen, Entwicklungsökonomie oder den Nord-Süd-Beziehungen beschäftigt, kennt diese zwei Aussagen seit Langem: Reichtum und Macht einiger weniger transnationaler Konzerne gehen weit über Reichtum und Macht vieler Staaten dieser Welt hinaus. Und: Vielerorts sind jene transnationalen Konzerne die Instanz, die de facto anstelle eines Staates Macht ausübt (Neo-Kolonialismus, Landgrabbing, Wasserprivatisierung, etc.). Wie der Einleitungssatz schon suggeriert: Bei…