Travel tips, books, ramblings, and the story of a great cyclist you’ve never heard of

Who wrote the story of that different kind of cycling the one we like?
The one of the underdogs, the misfits,
the people who pedal to escape?

So who are our heroes,
(assuming we even need any)?


In more than 10 years of BAM!,
we’ve fallen in love with the mad ones far more than with the winners.
Many, and we mean many, of you have stayed in our hearts,
and it was love at first sight, made more of fragile things
like dreams, breakaways, defeats and fleeting victories
than of glory.

That’s why we love the story of Jobst Brandt so much.
Because his visions,
his passion,
his pioneering, slightly crazy journeys,
with a bag tied to an improbable bike,
are the roots of our way of travelling
and of imagining ourselves far away.
If Jobst were still here,
he’d be one of us, a travel companion,
a friend to share a beer with at the end of the day. 🍻

But who was Jobst Brandt,
the greatest bike-riding madman you’ve never heard of?

Years before mountain bikes or gravel existed,
Jobst Brandt was riding where few had ever thought to go.
Engineer, explorer, visionary, Jobst opened roads (literally)
and pushed generations of cyclists to go further.

His legendary Jobst rides shaped riders like
Tom Ritchey, Gary Fisher, Eric Heiden,
taking them onto dirt roads, across landslides, over alpine passes,
and into any place that even vaguely resembled a bad idea.
For almost fifty years he rode across the Alps,
in love with the mountains the way only true travellers can be.

And being the great visionary he was, Jobst wasn’t only a traveller,
he was also an inventor who helped write the history of the bicycle.
With Palo Alto Bicycles he founded Avocet and introduced innovations such as slick tires,
the first cycle computers and touring shoes.
He directly influenced the birth of the mountain bike,
especially through his relationship with a very young Tom Ritchey.

His story resurfaced thanks to JOBST BRANDT RIDE BIKE!,
an Isola Press book full of stunning photos, documents and interviews
that tell a life so rich and beautiful that we wish we’d had the chance
to meet him and share a coffee after some improbable climb.

Courtesy of the Jobst Brandt estate 

Photos of Jobst from the book JOBST BRANDT RIDE BIKE!

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

😬 Tutte le mappe che hai usato, ti hanno mentito
An interesting article about how maps — and our imagination —
have represented and continue to represent a world with distorted proportions,
a legacy of our white colonial mindset,
especially when it comes to Africa.
Perhaps those of you who have cycled there have already figured that out. 😎

😎 Some travel ideas, so you don’t dream only of Patagonia
Need a few suggestions to fuel your travel dreams for 2026 or for the rest of your life?
Traveler suggests the best destinations for next year and some of them would be pretty great by bike too.

🍺 Seen by others
Tristan Bogaard cycled through Italy and turned it into a beautiful reportage.
Just a reminder that Italy, by bike, is almost always a good idea.
⚠️ Niceeeee

🔧 Tech – Dynamo yes, dynamo no, dynamo maybe
Dynamo hubs, which generate electricity for bike lights as the wheels turn,
aren’t new, but modern ones are very efficient.
Some people love them; others would never use them.
The best-known are made by SON, and as far as we’re concerned, we give them full marks for convenience and reliability.

❤️ Barco + Mason
The partnership between Cicli Barco and Mason is long-standing, bringing together good ideas and good people to create bikes we’d all love to find under the Christmas tree (yeah right).
The new bike designed for bikepacking? We like it a lot.
👉 The new Exposure Primitiva 

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🌍 BECAUSE WE’RE NOT JUST TRAVELLERS

🛫 Staccando l’ombra da terra

What does flying have to do with bicycle travel?
Staccando l’ombra da terra is Daniele Del Giudice’s masterpiece:
a small collection of stories about his passion for flight
and for those who dedicated their lives to airplanes.
And above all about that moment when, lifting your shadow from the earth,
you will no longer be who you were before.
Do yourself a favour and read it.

📖 Staccando l’ombra da terra, Einaudi