Words by Jimmy Ashby
There’s an untapped level of beauty and freedom when living on a bicycle, it’s a simple life. A life I’ve been trying to live off and on for years now, since I was a teenager. Travelling the world in search of moments, people and mountains. I’ve spent years of my life all up, cycling the world with now 45 countries ridden. To me living from a tent with only a bicycle as transport is the norm, it’s the day-to-day life back home that I find strange. Travelling between people, cultures and smiles, there’s nothing else like it. It’s a life of constant unknown, not sure who you’ll meet, where you’ll end up and the chaos you’ll find yourself in. To have everywhere to go and nowhere to be is a special thing. That’s the way I lived for the past seven months.
I’ll be honest though, it’s not always glamorous, it very rarely is. But maybe the unseen side and the excitement of it all is why I keep coming back to this lifestyle.
These here are moments from the road – seven months, 15,000km+ and six countries.
Northern Thailand
My seven months began in a corner of the world that I’ve grown very fond of over the years, a place I keep returning to, Northern Thailand and the Mae Hong Son region. You may have heard about this area and the popular bikepacking route, Lanna Kingdom, designed by Sam and Chiang Mai local, Pnuc. If not, check it out, it could be your next bikepacking destination!
The Thai people are some of the kindest and most helpful people out there, as Sam says, “You don’t need an emergency device, just yell ‘Help’ and someone on a scooter will show up for you”. Mix that with the food, culture and cheap bungalows to stay in each night, it’s one of the best places to be.
Whilst there, I crossed paths again with Adrien Liechti, who has the greatest moustache in ultra cycling and bike touring. The last time I saw him was in South Africa. It’s funny when and how you run into people around the world. Together we roamed around the mountains of Mae Hong Son from Pai to Chiang Mai, eating pad thai and drinking coffee. Riding many laps up Doi Suthep at sunrise, the most beautiful climb in Chiang Mai.
Like I said, it’s funny who you meet on the road and you never quite know how or when your plans may change. After a week with Adrien, he flew back to Europe and I was at Triple Cats Bicycle Shop, hanging out with Pnuc. While there, by chance three girls from Colorado rolled up on bikepacking rigs to say hello to Pnuc, the local celebrity, before heading off on their own Lanna Kingdom adventure – Julia, Aiden and Jade.
I was back in my favourite mountain town of Pai when they stopped over for a few nights and again in Chiang Mai. I mention these three because they become kind of important in how my seven months eventuated.
UAE & Oman
After a month in Thailand, I was off to the Middle East, a corner of the world I’d wanted to travel to for a long time. When first planning this trip, I had the dream of travelling from Muscat, Oman, across the United Arab Emirates to Saudi Arabia and into Jordan and Israel, finishing in Cairo, Egypt. That plan was one I’d schemed up before the war broke out… Hopefully, I’ll be able to complete that one another time.
Instead, I stayed in the UAE and Oman for five weeks and could easily have stayed longer if it wasn’t for the ever-looming summer heat. The Al Hajar Mountains are mega, one of the most beautiful corners of the world. It combines the two landscapes I love the most, deserts and mountains. From 3000m+ peaks to vast desolate views, it had it all.
I flew into Dubai and was met with the super city that it is. Very quickly, however, I was walking my bike through sand dunes in the desert. It didn’t take long to escape the money and noise of Dubai. I always try to find quiet roads and backtracks but I took that to the next level as I rode towards Oman. Taking what I thought was a shortcut, turned into a half day of walking up and down steep and deep sand dunes. Up, down, up down for hours. However, like all things, it eventually came to an end and I stumbled into the actual road that I thought was going to be much closer.
Once I entered Oman, it felt like I was in a playground of mountains, valleys and epic passes. I’d see the roads cutting up and over the ranges and be in constant awe. Views and valleys would go on as far as the eye can see. Mixed with the amazing wadis, oases of water and palm trees, it very quickly became one of my few favourite countries I’ve ever cycled.
It was the people who made it extra special though. A whole mix of cultures – African, Indian, Turkish and Sri Lankan people who opened their own restaurants, ran cafes and brought a beautiful mix of traditions, food and conversation.
Alongside the quite reserved culture of Oman, it was a fascinating place. As the weeks went on, the temperature rose and rose and by the end of my time there, it was reaching mid-forties. I was ready for some cooler weather and a change in scenery – that’s when an invite to Taiwan popped up.
Taiwan
The beauty of the unknown, that’s why I love to travel. At the beginning of the year in Thailand, I met three bikepacking girls from Colorado, they were going to Taiwan to continue riding and it conveniently lined up with Oman getting too hot for cycling.
Now as all good stories go, within a couple of days of landing in Taiwan and joining Julia, Aiden and Jade, we were hit with a bout of food poisoning. Classic. The best part was that we sought refuge in a Hello Kitty-themed Airbnb with walls covered in Hello Kitty toys and artwork in the middle of Taiwan, you couldn’t script it.
Once the four of us were able to hold down food again, we ventured away from Taipei in search of mountain roads. And oh boy, did we find them. I had no idea Taiwan was the cycling mecca that it turned out to be, roughly 1000km to cycle a lap of the sweet potato-shaped island with bicycle paths to connect it all. Topped off with a big mountain range at 4000m high running down the centre, crossing the island presented passes and climbs that could go on for hours or days. We even got through the Taroko Gorge Road, famous for the Taiwan KOM Challenge.
I found such a love for cycling in Taiwan that I was there for nearly six weeks, three with my Colorado friends and another three on my own, riding as many mountain passes as I could. It was a dream, particularly with a 7/11 on every corner, life was made easy and to share it with my new-found friends was pretty special.
The Philippines
Part of the fun in travel is playing the visa game, timing the entry and exit of countries. That was the reason I ended up in the The Philippines. To prolong my entry into the USA and line up the three months I could get up with my plans.
Now, The Philippines was a hard place to ride a bike, I won’t sugar coat it. The heat, humidity and sheer chaos of the roads was a lot. If you’re ever planning to ride a bike in, out or through Manila then hats off to you. It’s one of the most chaotic and scary city crossings I’ve ever done… And I’ve been through some crazy spots. Once you’re out of the Manila flats however, it does then get very tropical and beautiful. Be careful of the roads you take though, Komoot really sent me down some stinkers. One found me walking through knee deep mud, hours of hike a bike up and down tropical mountains. I was climbing trees, cutting down coconuts for water and crawling along to get to the next village. It really felt like my survival story moment.
Eventually, I found myself in the mountain province on Luzon Island, in Sagada and Bontoc. I ended up staying for close to two weeks here. Higher altitude brought cooler weather and being famous for its coffee-growing offered beautiful cafes and shops with baked goods. Once I got there, it was hard to leave… Saying that though, Sagada is quite a small town and I found myself needing to leave so I could get to a hospital. Oh, the glamour of bike touring hey.
I had a large, no… enormous growth begin to show on my back and I rode the few hundred kilometres south to Baguio to get it checked out. At first, I ended up at the kidney specialist hospital thanks to a translation issue but eventually found my way to the ER room of Baguio Student Hospital. I’ll save the gory details for another time but what had grown was an infected lump in my back and with the help of Google Translate and what seemed like very young doctors, sliced, diced and cut me open. Very painfully might I add. Leaving me with drains sticking out and multiple stitches down my back. The perk I guess, was it turned out to be quite cheap. I think maybe I’d wished too hard never to ride through Manila again, because due to the surgery, I couldn’t.
I used a private taxi to drive the final few hundred kilometres back into Manila and onto a plane out of there. A quick stop at the legends of Tamby Bikeshop had me sorted and I was off to San Francisco, infection-free and ready for some less tropical weather.
USA
I began my three months in North America from San Francisco heading towards a mountain range I’d been wanting to explore for long time, The Sierras. I can tell you now, I was not disappointed! Without a doubt, I could have spent the three months around just these mountains. First in Yosemite then to Lake Tahoe and eventually down to Mammoth Lakes, just stunning. Still early in the season, I was quite good at finding the passes which hadn’t quite melted yet, leading to some good old-fashioned hike-a-bike fun.
The amazing thing about spending so much time abroad is the web of friends I’ve built. Conveniently, I met a man named John a couple of years ago in Northern Vietnam and turns out he lives in a beautiful log cabin with his girlfriend Olivia in Mammoth Lakes. Even more conveniently was as I rolled into Mammoth Lakes, so did a snowstorm. I hunkered down with them – another one of those moments that was just meant to be.
From the Sierras in California, I carried on across the US towards Colorado, through Nevada and the deserts of Utah. I managed to connect as many back roads and bikepacking routes as I could and found myself on the Kokopelli Trail out of Moab, a 300km MTB trail all the way into Colorado. I met a bunch of wild people on that trail, as I rode it on a weekend when some supported guided tours were going on.
All were happy to hand out water, donuts and even a beer or two. One group I met even blessed me with whiskey. Halfway down a wild descent, they were taking photos on a vista. I got talking and before I knew it, I was sharing their flasks of whiskey and hollering into the valley with them.
As I left, one blessed me on my way (in the thickest American accent you can imagine), “My friend, I don’t know what you’re searching for on this journey. Be that a wife, freedom or just that wind in your hair, may God bless you son as you find your way”. That was washed down with whiskey and then I rode into the setting sun. I don’t know what I’m searching for through all of this, maybe all of that. I’m still working it out, I guess. But I did know where it was leading in that moment – The Tour Divide.
Tour Divide
The Tour Divide is a 4400km bikepacking race down the spine of the Rockies, beginning in Banff, Canada and going all the way down to the USA/Mexico border. The plan was for it to be the pinnacle of my seven months. All year through travel and living on my bike I was building up to the Divide. A cultivation of it all. It certainly cultivated in style.
The route is a stunning adventure, it truly does deserve the prestige and aura it has. Every corner you’d turn would be a new view you’d be in awe of. Mixed in with snowstorms, desert heat, wind and rain, it’s a brutally beautiful race. However, for me it wasn’t meant to be this year, that’s just how it goes.
In the Basin of Wyoming, I fell into a state of sickness I wasn’t willing to ride through. It was a hard blow to take but hey, that’s ok. I’m 25, I’ve got a lot of years of this ahead of me and this race isn’t going anywhere. I’ll be back soon again without a doubt. After resting in Wamsutter, Wyoming for a couple of nights I tried my best to roll down into Colorado and eventually pulled the pin in Salida, Colorado. Ironically, the same town where my Colorado friends were from. Maybe that in its own way, was an omen.
As I reflect on the year, it became so much more than the Tour Divide. When I left home in January I would have said differently. Instead, it became seven months of travel, adventure and life on the road. New connections, countless beauty and a whole lot of moments. Maybe as that man on the Kokopelli said, I was just looking for the wind in my hair and freedom in the unknown. I think that’s why I speak so much about the six months building up to the Divide and less about the Divide itself when people ask about my travels. Funnily the Divide ended up playing a small role in the impacts and learnings from my seven months away.
I find the unknown to be one of the scariest things, however, when you lean into it you start to see the hidden beauty it provides. To have everywhere to go and nowhere to be. Try it one day, who knows you might find out something new.
My steed
The project of creating my Tour Divide bike was a fun one, filling me with a lot of joy and pride. I think this setup is one I’m most proud of in all my years of travelling, touring and racing. It was a bike built by Aussies, for an Aussie rider.
Australian brands and people from back home have been a huge support in creating this bike and I want to share it with you.
Starting with a Curve Cycling Titanium Big Kev, designed with the Tour Divide in mind. On it is Curve’s Carbon 415 Fork and Curve’s Carbon 29” Dirt Hoops wheels with 2.1” Mezcal tyres and a SON dynamo hub.
My drivetrain is a thing of gold beauty, built by Garbaruk. I’ve opted for a 10/52 cassette matched with a 36t front chain ring and gold pulley wheels – it makes the bike POP! Bringing it together is a mix of SRAM force/rival AXS parts.
The bags are custom made by the beautiful people at Treadlite and we’ve created a downsized Sol-Seeker Handlebar Bag specially for the Divide.
My lighting is in two halves, with a full dynamo set up from Kerry at kLite and then for those slower, more techy sections I’ve chosen to run a battery-powered front light as well – an Exposure Lights Toro matched with a rear exposure blaze.
The finishing touches are the stylish and comfortable bar tape from Burgh Cycling (I opted for the Ossa White design), wrapped around my 46cm Curve Walmer bar. Finally, an SQ Labs saddle, Shimano pedals, Profile Design Aero bars and Revelate saddle bag.
To follow Jimmy’s adventures, check out his Instagram or website.
