The joy as the engine of things. And of our going.

Joy as the engine of things. And of our own movement, too.

“tra frondi il palpitare lontano di scaglie di mare”
(“through branches, the distant flicker of shards of sea”)

It may sound strange to begin a newsletter about bicycle travel with a line from Eugenio Montale, the Italian Nobel Prize–winning poet.

And yet that verse about light describes something we all know: that fractured shimmer reflecting off the sea while you’re pedaling between trees.

You recognize it too. It’s simple.
But that’s the moment you understand why you’re moving.

That’s the point: saying things carefully.
Trying to hold them, at least with words.

That’s what Sofiane Sehili did when he spoke to us — about himself, about traveling, about choosing the bicycle as a tool for freedom. A choice sparked, in part, by a book by Henry Miller that lit something inside him.

Years ago, on the BAM! stage, we asked him what pushed him to climb the plateaus of Kyrgyzstan, pushing his bike for hours into the wind.

He answered: “The amount of joy.”

Maybe that’s the engine.
Not the achievement. Not the distance.

Joy.

 Read the interview with Sofiane

👇👇👇👇

Sleeping together at BAM! is already a journey.

Every year at BAM something simple and powerful happens:
thousands of people sleep in the same field.

They arrive by bike, pitch their tents, toast to the road behind and the one ahead.
In the morning you unzip your tent and the festival is already there.

From March 9th, bookings open for the BAM! Camp Area inside the monumental park of Villa Contarini.

Why choose the tent?

– you’re inside BAM, not just nearby
– you wake up steps away from stories, coffee, and friends
– you share something that goes beyond a place to sleep

Spots are limited.
Like all beautiful things, they run out.

🚀 A few beautiful and interesting things. Or just interesting. Or just beautiful.🚀

🔧 Tech – Minimalism that works

We really like the new minimalist handlebar mount from Rogue Panda.
Light, solid, and easy to use. Few things, done well.

Neil tested it — here’s the video:
👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7H2MJZxezQ

📷 The story behind a photograph

In the winter of 1956, Walter Bonatti ended his mountaineering career by soloing the north face of the Matterhorn.

This article tells that moment through an extraordinary photograph — the instant Bonatti returns among people and, perhaps, says goodbye to the peaks.

Chills.

👉 https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/en/2020/02/walter-bonatti-conquers-the-matterhorn/

🚵‍♂️⛷ Skialp + Bikepacking

Sometimes it sounds like one of those ideas that makes you say,
“Why on earth am I doing this?”

And maybe that’s exactly where the good stuff happens.

Strapping skis to your bike, pedaling to the snowline, then skinning up to the summit.
Like in the old days, when alpinists left home by bicycle.

It’s growing fast, and many of you are skiers as well as riders.

That’s why we’re pointing you to SKIMO Festival, where BAM! is a partner this year:
📍Santa Caterina Valfurva, Italian Alps
📆 March 6–8

👉 https://skimofestival.com/

Photo above: Henna Palosaari, Malva Björkman and Sami Sauri in front of the Marmolada.

🚗🌊 Crossing the Atlantic by car (yes, really)

Four friends.
A 1987 Volkswagen Passat. A 1981 Ford Taunus.
An idea that sounds like a very bad idea.

The Amoretti brothers — Marco, Mauro and Fabio — together with Marcolino De Candia filled their cars with polyurethane foam and sailed from La Palma (Canary Islands) to Martinique.

It actually happened.

A reminder of where those wonderful “wrong roads” can take us.

👉 https://www.saidisale.com/attraversare-loceano-con-una-volkswagen/

🌍 BECAUSE WE ARE NOT ONLY TRAVELERS

🏔 In the Siberian forests
“I had promised myself that before turning forty I would live as a hermit in the woods. So I spent six months in a cabin in Siberia, on the shore of Lake Baikal. I brought books, cigars and vodka. The rest — space, silence and solitude — was already there.”

Six months alone in a wooden cabin on the shores of Lake Baikal.
No roads. No notifications. No distractions.

French writer and adventurer Sylvain Tesson chooses subtraction: less movement, less noise, less world.

And discovers that travel is not always about going far.
Sometimes it is about staying, and looking better.

📖  In the Forests of Siberia — Sylvain Tesson