About
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
> participation guidelines
> awareness
Self-Organisation
> how it’s prepared
> consensus
> circles
Online Tools
> online-tools
> photo-sharing
On the road
> on the road
> tasks & rota
> trailers
> wildcamping
Food
Whenever it’s possible we go dumpster-diving and buy food from local farmers and small shops.
> veganism
> rocket stove
> dumpster-diving
Activities
> skill-sharing
Latest blog posts
Track records
I am gonna upload the GPS logs of what we cycled. It might be helpful to others in a future :-) This is the second day track, until ZEGG – where we are staying. bt13d02 For now, we are having problems with wordpress accepting files beyond common media ones… so You’ll need to change the termination, from .pdf to .gpx
Dreaming of football – 17th July
We woke early for breakfast at 8pm, and then joined a tour of the campus. After the tour some people helped in the garden whilst others swam in the pool, or relaxed, before we met the community for an information exchange. After lunch, we cycled into town, just 2 km, to the local refugee project, Der Winkel, info cafe, a project also connected to the ZEGG. There we cooked with some people from the project, a traditional African feast, and listened to some of the stories from two brothers now living in Bal Belzig, who are fighting for asylum in…
Grenzen zwischen Stadt und Land
Fuer Fluechtlinge, wie diejenigen, die wir in Bad Belzig getroffen haben, ist die Grenze zwischen Stadt und Land eine, die fuer sie noch viel mehr von Bedeutung ist, als fuer Menschen mit nicht-eingeschraenkter Bewegungsfreiheit – fuer welche ja die Stadt-Land-Unterschiede auch sichtbar, aber nicht unbedingt lebensentscheidend sein koennen. Denn wer als Asysuchender_r nach deutschem Recht innerhalb der “Kreisgrenzen” einer kreisfreien Stadt (z.B. Berlin) gefangen ist, hat dort andere Moeglichkeiten und findet weitreichendere Strukturen, als innerhalb der Kreisgrenzen duenn besiedelter laendlicher Gegenden.
An Introduction to the Zegg – 17th July
A coal-fired power station, a Hitler youth camp and a Stazi centre for international espionage. None of these things could be further from the Zegg – a Centre for Experimental Culture Design based in Bad Belzig in East Germany. It’s difficult to believe in the site’s dark history as Nadia, our guide, walks us through the quiet organic gardens. The peaceful, leafy site has more the feel of a former university campus – with cottages dotted about next to car-free paths, the extravagant canteen and admittedly musty library and seminar centre – a smell typical, Nadia informs us, of former…