Giovanni, tell us about yourself. What was your childhood like, and how did your love for bicycles and adventure develop?
Living in Bologna, a city mostly lacking in climbs except for the hills, the bike has always been my daily mode of transport. My passion for cycling developed over time.
In 2006 (give or take a year), I bought my first road bike: a Giant Peloton Superlite from the ’80s that accompanied my rides on the hills of Bologna, and later on the roads winding up the Apennines. I began cycling more for fun, meeting friends on weekends and occasionally trying a timid solo long ride.
As the years passed, I got more into it and started spending more of my free time riding my road bike with some Sunday adventure buddies, dressed in questionable gear with little knowledge on how to manage a ride in terms of physical effort and nutrition.
I got into gravel because I was tired of just asphalt and liked the idea of riding on trails. I’d been frequenting the Apennines since I was very young, and it was natural to revisit it by bike because, simply, it’s the place where I feel the best, and it’s always sparked my desire to uncover its secrets. Over the years, it became a fun challenge to design routes that would let me explore the mountainous territory even more deeply. The bike has therefore complemented everything related to my interests.
A few years ago, I decided to create Strade Montane, a project that’s the result of my personal experience with and knowledge of the Apennines in my life so far, aiming to give back something useful to anyone who wants to fall in love with this wonderful corner of the world.
What was your first bike trip like? What motivated you to go? Was there a specific experience or moment that inspired you?
The very first trip was just recently. One summer after the 2020 lockdown, two friends and I took a couple of days for a little trip between Emilia and Tuscany. We left Bologna and crossed our Apennines, passing through Vidiciatico and arriving at a truly incredible place called Vico Pancellorum.
I had just dove headfirst into the gravel world, which had already been exploding for a few years, and we were eager to spend a few days in the wild on our bikes. It was very nice. We weren’t interested in going anywhere in particular, but just spending a few days together crossing semi-unknown landscapes.
"...it’s durable, absorbs vibrations well, and with the right care, you don’t have to worry about torque specs, suspicious cracks, weight, aerodynamics, or other parameters that, on a touring bike, I just don’t want to think about."
What motivated you to use a 26-inch MTB for your latest trip? How did it work out?
A few years ago, I bought an old Bottecchia Sunkiss for €20 from a guy who was clearing out a yard full of junk (ravaldoni, as we say in Bologna). I didn’t know exactly what to do with it, but it was the only 26-inch bike in my size that I had ever come across, so I decided to try transforming it into a gravel bike to experiment with riding off-road.
I’ve always been interested in tinkering with bike mechanics; years ago, I had a habit of fixing up old, wrecked bikes. Today, you find fewer of them because bicycles have become highly demanded and, luckily, “trendy.” But back in the early 2000s, bikes weren’t cool at all, and it was pretty easy to find them in semi-pristine condition in trash bins. They were thrown out just because they were considered old. I found it absurd that they ended up in the landfill.
I grew up around garages, with a crew of people consisting of my grandfather, my dad, and the local railway workers who’d let me play with screwdrivers, hoping I wouldn’t poke my eyes out, and when I was young, they taught me all the basics of maintenance and mechanics.
I tried various experiments with the 26-inch bike, then with the advent of carbon gravel bikes, I left the Bottecchia in the garage until this year.
I took it out because my friends and I were planning a trip to Romania. I wanted a reliable, robust bike that I could work on entirely if any repairs or maintenance were needed. I opened drawers full of spare parts I’d salvaged from various bike wrecks over time, and in a month, the Bottecchia was back on the road.
On the trip, it turned out to be an excellent bike. With Schwalbe Marathon Plus 2.25 tires, as heavy as a death in a hospice, I threw it down some rough descents with rocks everywhere, and it didn’t flinch. You just have to keep in mind that the v-brakes are shot after 500 km. I made some modifications after the trip, changing the modern stem for a traditional one to raise the handlebars and swapped the original wheels for a pair of Mavic rims I converted to tubeless with special tires.
I had been thinking about bike trips for many years, but I only made them in the last 4 or 5. I became really interested in a project by a guy from Bologna, Francesco Alaimo, who cycled across Europe and Asia to China and Vietnam after covering 20,000 kilometers on an old 26-inch mountain bike built from a discarded steel frame. He documented it all on a wonderful website that’s now a blog where he shares his experience. If anyone wants to read it, it’s called I’ve Got a Bike.
The average bike traveler nowadays is a guy with a brand-new gravel bike, phone in face, and more interested in telling his own story than what he’s seeing. I’ve got a bike reminds us that storytelling can be much more interesting than what Instagram has accustomed us to.
In an era dominated by modern bikes, what are the advantages of steel for you?
It depends on what you need it for. I don’t know much about material mechanics, so I rely on what I’ve always read and on my direct experience as well as others’. Undoubtedly, steel is a great material for bike frames because it’s durable, absorbs vibrations well (they say), and above all, compared to carbon, and with the right care, you don’t have to worry about torque specs, suspicious cracks, weight, aerodynamics, or other parameters that, on a touring bike, I just don’t want to think about.
In short, steel seems to me like the perfect material for those who don’t want too many problems.
Also, I think it’s great that there’s interest in old 26-inch bikes, whether it’s trendy or not, because it can lead many people to rediscover a bike they’ve left in the garage for years. Instead of throwing it away because it’s considered outdated, it can be repurposed for what it’s meant for: moving around. Something similar happened in 2008 when the fixed-gear bike craze exploded. I’m completely useless on one for more than 2 meters, but it was a time when that hype led many people to prefer a bike over a scooter or car, and get interested in a cycling culture they were previously completely unfamiliar with. The same could happen with old mountain bikes.
Can you share an example of how this bike made your adventure better?
Personally, just the awareness that I can fix 90% of the bike in case of a problem allowed me to travel with a lighter mind. It was also fun to challenge myself with a bike like this when I’m used to riding a more performant, modern, and definitely lighter bike the rest of the year. I didn’t know how it would go, what problems I’d encounter, but I was excited about the idea of going around on what many would consider a real junker, but which turned out to be more than suitable. After all, before the boom of bike tourism as we know it today, touring bikes were often exactly those old 26-inch bikes.
How do you prepare for a bikepacking trip? What are the three things that absolutely cannot be missing?
Depending on where you’re going, you need to adjust your gear. You should consider the season, the altitude at which you’ll be spending your time, and the average weather forecasts for the time of your trip. Apart from all the technical spare parts, for me it’s always been useful to have:
- Waterproof plastic bags, because when it rains for real, it’s best to keep electronic gear as safe as possible.
- Elastic luggage cord. These are the hooked cords often used to secure loads on car racks. If during a trip a seam breaks on your bag, you can be sure that a cord like this will help.
- A piece of chain compatible with yours, because sometimes just a quick link won’t be enough.
Do you have a memorable story about a special encounter or a place that particularly impressed you during your travels?
The place that really impressed me was the Agriates Desert in Corsica. We went there two years ago. The day started at 5 or 6 in the morning, startled awake by the ferry staff who gave us a heart attack by shouting that we had arrived early and needed to hurry off. Once on the bike, we took a dirt road with a 1000% gradient, and at just two hours from our destination, we decided to take a beautiful detour to a truly stunning beach.
Instead of going back to the main road, we followed a trail cutting across the cliffs. I think we walked about 10 km, pushing the bike up and down rocks, sand, and steep sandy climbs, with few descents and almost no pedaling sections. Water ran out in a couple of hours. It was one of the toughest moments, and I remember that when we arrived at the campsite, I raided the mini-market for the last fresh drinks. But that stretch, out of time and full of unexpected moments, was unforgettable.
I’ll remember it forever.
