Blog – Ecotopia Biketour

An amateur-proof guide to inspecting a bicycle’s technical condition

Ecotopia Biketour 17 rugpjūčio, 2026 August 17, 2026

A relatively short-ish guide focused on what can be easily checked by a layperson, with a handful of simple advice; harder shit omitted. With POST SCRIPTUM: IF YOU’RE JUST LOOKING FOR A BIKE FOR EBT Introduction Tour is much more challenging for bikes than usual riding. A lot of bikes have malfunctions during the journey. A lot of people neglect to check the bike well before touring. Some don’t try, unsure of their capabilites. EBT is generally open to join with a shitty bike. We also know that it can be difficult to come to the tour from far away…

Childish Weeks: Sjövik–Trollhättan

Candid 15 rugpjūčio, 2026 August 15, 2026

The paved part of the former railway ended exactly at our sleeping place in Sjövik. Afterwards, the cycle route would turn north to find its way back into the valley of the Göta älv river towards Trollhättan. This national cycle route was now following a very busy road. We did not know this in advance, as we had simply assumed a national cycle route would follow child-friendly bike paths, but we had not checked it outselves. Somewhat luckily, one family had left us this morning, and now only one toddler on a child’s seat and one child with their own…

Childish Weeks: Göteborg–Sjövik

Candid 13 rugpjūčio, 2026 August 13, 2026

We woke up to a really windy and cold day on the lake in Göteborg. Our communal space was on a rocky peninsula reaching into the lake and completely exposed to the winds. Things kept flying away, and it felt like the wind was stressing us to leave. During the route planning it became clear that with our new daily distance of 15 km and still one rest day per two cycling days, we wouldn’t be able to make it to Trollhättan on time. This did not seem like a big issue, as few people are joining in this last part…

Childish Weeks: Göteborg

Candid 11 rugpjūčio, 2026 August 11, 2026

Our sleeping place in Göteborg was about 5 km outside the city limits on the shore of Lilla Desjön lake. It was the perfect mix of being close to the city but not having that many people around. There were picnic benches, a fireplace and a toilet. In the day, some people came around by bike, by walk or by boat, but at night we were alone. The only downside of the place was the long uphill to get there when returning from the city, but at least that kept us fit on the rest days. We decided to have two…

From Stockholm to Boras

Ecotopia Biketour 8 rugpjūčio, 2026 August 8, 2026

Now that i’m in the bus in the way home i’ll try to honor the rota task i took two weeks ago about writing a blog post (sorry dear rota). I’ll try to give my very personnal impression of the last 4 weeks I spend in Sweden riding with Ecotopia. This does not reflect the all storys of theses times but only my time here. I arrived in Sweden after many troubles: the person i’m travelling with has forgotten their id card at home and now we spend all our time stressing about getting into the bus and border controls…

Childish Weeks: Hindås–Göteborg

Candid 8 rugpjūčio, 2026 August 8, 2026

From Östra Nedsjön lake, some people decided to change our original route along the train line Borås–Göteborg and instead divert north via Floda and then Gråbo. It had turned out that for the children cycling themselves, any amount of car traffic was making the ride harder. Staying motivated the whole way was already a struggle, and when the route was not so beautiful and adventurous, when they had to cycle in a straight line, when they couldn’t spontaneously stop to pick some berries that they had spotted on the side of the road, motivation was even lower. The rural roads…

First Days of the Childish Weeks: Borås–Hindås

Candid 5 rugpjūčio, 2026 August 7, 2026

On the evening of the 1st of August, the Biketour arrived in Borås for the start of the Childish Weeks. In this experiment, which we are doing for the first time, the coming two weeks of the Biketour have been organized to especially focus on the needs of children. Some parents and their children had already arrived the night before and found a suitable campsite in Borås. Others arrived over the coming days. There are now 11 children with their own bicycles and one toddler who is travelling on a child’s seat, along with around 20 adults on the tour.…

Cycling with a toddler in Sweden

Candid 4 rugpjūčio, 2026 August 4, 2026

I cycled for a few days alone with my 2-year old child on my bike with the special bike seat construction through Sweden towards the Biketour. I wanted to gain some experience and develop a routine before joining the group. It was the first time for my child to be on the bicycle for so long in a single day, the first time for them to camp in the wild, and the first time for me to biketour with a child. Despite having a lot of experience travelling on the bike alone and taking tools and equipment for every possible…