Stuttgart to Munich — a cycling adventure
This was fun and really tough! A few days ago I decided to visit a friend in Munich and rather than taking the train I wanted to take up the challenge and cycle. The distance: 220 km. That’s the farthest I have cycled to date. Here is a little adventure story for you and sharing my learnings for your journey if you take it up.
First a few stats and facts.
The bike: I used an E-Bike to test its limits. My dad has just recently purchased one to support him as otherwise cycling might not be something he could still easily do. The bike is awesome but weighs 25kg! If you run out of charge (which I did, more on that later), this might be an issue. Without any cycling experience, I wouldn’t recommend attempting this challenge in one day — even with an E-Bike.
What I wore: I always wear a helmet for these types of challenges but nothing specific here, just a cycling helmet. I wore cycling shorts with patting which I am a fan of and am sure made quite a difference for me. Also, a short cycling top and a long sleeve to avoid the cold. Cycling gloves, however, I borrowed my mum’s which I won’t do anymore. They were a little tight which I only noticed on the route once they started cutting into my hands.
Lights: Besides the build-in lights of the bike, I added a front light and a helmet light so I have more visibility and also to be seen better. I set off at 6 am and there was no daylight yet. The return was after sunset which required again light, so worth taking them.
Additional stuff: Locks for quickly locking my bike securely on the route, i.e. to buy food. I took more than one as I had a bike stolen in the past and am a little conscious now in regards to bike storage safety. 3 liters of water with one liter accessible while cycling in a cycling bottle. I forgot my food package at home, can you imagine!? 😵 So food! Don’t leave it in the fridge. Sunscreen and sunglasses. A power bank for my phone (32000amp, equivalent to roughly four charges and it wasn’t enough…). Money as in cash and bank card. A facemask. Handgel and wipes. Some emergency pharmacy stuff.
The route: You can check out the details here if you like. I used Komoot as I like that it understands what cycling routes are and you seem to be able to determine what type of surface you are comfortable traveling on with your bike, i.e. gravel OK or not. I didn’t plan it specifically in detail, I added my start and endpoint and let Komoot calculate what route is best to take. There is a lot of elevation!
What else I would take next time for such an adventure: I am lucky and got a GoPro which I would definitely take next time for photos and/or videos to preserve my phone battery and also for easy access. An additional power bank for my phone. An offline and non-electric option for the route…
It was 5.20 am on Wednesday and my alarm ran. It’s my last day of vacation and I had decided that a little adventure was needed before going back to work. In my opinion, everything was perfectly arranged and I was heading out for a nice day of cycling to Munich. Sounds easy saying it like that. I had made sure that all devices are fully charged and my bags are packed. At six on the dot, I hit the road.
It was still dark and I was excited about the sunrise. A little drizzle welcomed me a few kilometers into the ride but it wasn’t too bad. I had the right gear and felt good. My phone run Komoot to show the route and ran Strava in the background to show off after what I had accomplished. Leaving Nürtingen behind (I didn’t start in Stuttgart directly but that’s probably better known than other little villages around), it hit me. My food is still in the fridge and I had absolutely no food with me. As I had breakfast before setting off, I thought ‘that’s OK no problem you’ll find food on route’. Another two hours later I panicked a little and thought that’s bad you need to have some food with you. I decided that in the next village I will stop and get food. I arrived in a town, stopped, and googled and found a butcher. I bought a coke, a boiled egg, some dried sausages to snack, two bread buns with sliced sausages inside, and chocolate. If you are vegetarian or vegan, I guess a butcher should still be OK as they usually have cheese (for vegetarians) and can make you a sandwich and salads to take away such as potato salad. Alternatively of course stop by a supermarket or bakery instead.
With food in my saddlebags and some in my stomach, I felt a lot more at ease and continued my journey. I came to the hardest part of the route, a constant uphill and yes I did make use of the E-Bike for this and used the e-Mtb mode to make the climb easier. Still, I only traveled at about 12km/h uphill as you still need to peddle. The bike doesn’t go by itself if you don’t peddle. Leaving the massive elevation behind it was time for another little refill. I met a wonderful older lady in the village I was at that point and we had a little chat. She was so curious and lovely and thought I am 18! Ha, thank you so much. I showed her my bike and the devices I used which she loved and she told me that she is already 91 and currently bringing rubbish to the recycling station. After this lovely encounter, it was time to make some kilometers, ideally hitting the halfway point before stopping for lunch.
I was almost halfway when I stopped for lunch. At that point, I knew this will be challenging and that I needed to contact my friend that an afternoon arrival is unlikely. I ate, refilled my water bottle, checked the charge of my devices, and noticed that the E-Bike was at 48 percent already. I set off again, thinking the biggest kudos to all audax cyclists and Ironman people. No idea how this is possible… The sun came out and the landscape was beautiful. The cycling infrastructure itself was really amazing and there are signs everywhere. I am sure if planned a little better, you can specifically target points where you can charge your E-Bike for example. The kilometers passed, and I kept ongoing.
There were 40 kilometers left according to my device and I noticed that my charges were very low. I hadn’t used anything but the eco mode for the E-Bike since the massive hill and also turned the supporting element off while being on downhill or straight sections to preserve the energy for the uphills. I did take the charging cable but I also had a little time challenge. It was 4 pm already and I wanted to reach Munich. I stopped to take a photo, took it and my phone died. Grap. That is bad. This is my navigation device. I connected my power bank again and noticed that I didn’t have much left in it. But I had to keep going. I cycled faster and kept observing my charges, battling the time that passed with the charges that went down. I hit 30 percent left on my phone and decided I need to preserve more. I ended my Strava recording. If you love recording your routes, I highly recommend taking two power banks. I was convinced such a big one as I took should be fine but navigation and recording of routes drain the batteries massively and it simply wasn’t enough.
No more photos, no more Strava, and the battery kept going down. I reached a little town and met some really friendly people. One gave me a pen and I noted down the names of the villages I had to reach before entering Munich. The cycle infrastructure luckily is awesome, with cycle road signs indicating which way to go. I turned my phone off with the thought that reaching those towns will be easier than navigating through a big city without a navigation device. After roughly 210 km on the bike, I decided it is best now to take a train into Munich as it was already after 6 pm and not just the electronic devices were running out of charge. In Lochhausen I took the elevator up to the platform and took the S3 into the city. The S-Bahn trains are super big and it wasn’t an issue at all to take it. I bought a one-way ticket into town for myself and a bike ticket. I reached Munich within 10 minutes, left the station, and did manage with the remaining five percent phone battery to cycle to my friend's house! What a relief.
After an awesome hot shower and plugging my devices in, I had an amazing pizza to refuel. The biggest thanks to my friend, having people supporting you on such a journey is invaluable.
Just before 10 pm, I left my friend's house to make my way to the central train station to take the train back to Stuttgart. Due to appointments for the rest of the week, I couldn’t stay overnight but this shouldn’t stop me from this adventure. It certainly made it harder.
Make sure you have a bike ticket booked as these spaces fill up quickly and you may otherwise not be able to travel. Lovely people helped me again to lift the heavy bike into the carriage. For the bike ticket, at the moment this can unfortunately only be booked at a ticket office and not online… Hopefully, this gets easier at some point. After a very relaxing train journey that included nap time, I reached Stuttgart again and made my final way home. This short journey after being able to recharge everything, in Turbo mode!
Take-aways from my journey:
- Have an offline option and if it is just a blank piece of paper and pen to make notes to support non-electric navigation
- Take two battery packs for your phone
- If you have one, take a second battery for an E-Bike if you ride with an E-Bike
- Don’t forget your food!
- Take cash as well as a bank card, just in case
- Make such a trip in 2 days with one overnight stay, I didn’t manage to stop in those cute towns for a coffee for example because of time restriction. Or cycle very fast
- Speak with the people along the journey. There are super awesome people out there that are always happy to send you in the right direction or just have a little chat about what’s going on where you are which is wonderful.
Happy cycling!
