Today we bring you a guest post from two brothers, Alex and Greg, who are currently on a world tour riding two Montague folding bikes. They’ve been riding since May 2011, and have crossed 22 countries, cycled 9000 miles and carried their Montague folding bikes on trains, buses, planes, and cars. They even towed one of the bikes behind a motorbike for 3000 miles across Laos and Vietnam!
It all started in Paris where we were looking for a way to travel a long time around the world, for cheap. By foot ? Too long. Hitchhiking ? Too dependant. What about cycling ? Well… We never really cycled before, so we needed a bike we could fold in case we wanted to hitchhike or catch a bus. We quickly stopped our choice on Montague and the X50. The folding system seemed indestructable, the 26 inch tires are the standard size around the globe… and it looked terrific. After adding all the necessary accessories to turn them into true touring bikes, and upgrading a few components, we were all set up.
For the two first months we crossed Europe from France to Ukrania. We cycled about half of it. We hitchhiked for the other half. Two guys, two bikes and two 70l backpacks. That is quite a lot of volume when you intend to fit them into someone’s car, but thanks to the Montague folding design, we always made it work! We even managed to hitchhike in a tiny Fiat Punto, and the owner was already carrying another bike in his trunk. 3 guys, 3 bikes!
Then came Russia with the Trans-Siberian Railway. There we traveled by train and kept our bikes hidden beneath the bunks. We then crossed Mongolia and China with a mix of trains and cycling. Every time we would arrive in a train station in the middle of nowhere, those bikes gave us a total freedom. We just had to open the bags, unfold, and go. No need to bargain with taxi drivers or walk downtown to look for an accommodation.
After 3 months in China we went to Laos, which is the big « south east asia chapter » of our trip. We stayed nearly a year visiting all the countries there. Alex got lazy and bought a motorbike for a few months. We tied the X50 to the motorbike with bungee cords. A lot of them snapped and it was highly dangerous, but we had so much fun traveling like that through probably the worst roads we could find.
We were back on two bikes when we went south through Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. We cycled on the Java island and then caught a large boat for a 5 day trip to Papua New Guinea. This renowned dangerous country was the best part of our trip, so different than what we had ever seen. The cycling part was quite an adventure there. Sealed roads are rare, road signs nonexistent, and river crossings are everywhere. We had no choice but to take 2 boats and a small plane to reach the capital city of Port Moresby.
From there we flew to Australia. We lived there for 2 years in the desert. We didn’t cycle much during this time as we just stayed there for work. It was a crazy experience in itself, but not one we wish on anybody.
Three months ago we restarted the trip and flew to New Zealand. It was winter there so we added some extra stuff to the bikes : 4 season tents, bigger sleeping bags, and 2 bags on the front fork. We cycled for 2 months. We went all around the country : 2500 miles, freezing temperatures, millions of sheep and very friendly locals.
We planned to continue to Chile by boat (hitchiking), but having no experience sailing, we found nothing. So we decided to fly to San Francisco and visit a good friend we met 3 years ago in Laos. Then the worst happened when one of our bikes was stolen while we were trying to understand a baseball game. The police never traced it and we had to extend our stay in the city. We spoke with Montague bikes to see if they could help us out because buying a new bike and all the equipment needed was not an option. They quickly answered and few days later Fedex was delivering a Paratrooper Pro. Here we are, ready to hit the road again and take those bikes south, to Central and South America.
You can find even more photos on their website at www.deuxsingesenhiver.com.
it would be a neat trip to do something like that.your bikes looked good also
Thank you for sharing about this great adventure. It has inspired me to get a Montague bike and start my own. I’m not sure I will go quite as far, but I plan to travel from Seattle Washington down the west coast through California and Mexico to Panama. It’s going to be an amazing journey!
Hi Pablo. Excellent to hear! I’ve personally wanted to do the first leg of that journey for some time (from Seattle down to San Diego perhaps?). Be sure to keep us posted about your adventures, we’d love to feature you on our blog as well! – Ryan
Hi Pablo
That’s great !
If you need advices with the equipment, let us know. As the bike is foldable, with suspension fork and disc brakes, you will need some specific racks.
HELLO, thank you for sharing a wonderful adventure with us.
Please let me know the specific type of racks needed for the paratrooper pro.
Thanks
Very good written article. It will be useful to everyone who usess it, including myself. Keep doing what you are doing – looking forward to more posts.
Wow !!! very interesting story n adventures. I encourage u boys to keep going until u make it to the finishing line of ur trip n may God guide n protect u guys all the way. I had a great times with u guys here in Aussie n hope we’ll meet again somewhere in the world….good luck n stay safe for the rest of ur trip….luv n missed u guys……mike n sione….
In nj USA any suggestions on how to carry things on top of rear wheel thanks in advance evans robinson
Thanks Alex and Ryan,
I’m sure I will have some questions as I get closer to my departure. I’m going to try to keep my load minimal so I don’t have to do too much extra work. Ryan – Thanks for making such great bikes! I wouldn’t try this on any other model.
Pablo
Alex and Ryan!
I own a Paratrooper as well and long ago crossed Europe several times and the US once on a non folding bike with low rider front racks and traditional rear racks. Haven’t been able to find a good solution for front or rear racks for the Montague bike. Can you post a bit on your rack systems and other modifications for touring. Would like to do a similar trip on my own folding bike, but use traditional panniers.
Thanks for a fascinating read.
James
Hey James,
We should have a followup from Alex and Gregory soon with stories from the next leg of their journey down the West Coast of the US. I’ll email them to see if I can get more info on their setup (they have limited access to internet while touring so they may not see your comment).
You can certainly use standard rear racks and panniers with our bikes, you just need to attach the front of the rack to the seattube rather than stays. I believe Alex and Gregory added horizontal supports to make the rear rack wider. Front racks make folding our bikes almost impossible, so you’d need a system that can be easily removed if you want to fold.
Hi James
I will plan a little in depth article about the set up of our bikes.
Basically we have Axiom Low Rider at the front. We put too much weight on them so they keep breaking (they are designed for 9kg (about 20pounds) if my memory is good) so we keep fixing them. We actually fixed 2 today and it seems solid now. We can’t really blame Axiom for that, we just carry lot of water and food.
About the back rack :
On the X50, it’s a normal back rack you lock on the seat post.
For the Paratrooper Pro it’s a 29″ / disc brakes back rack with no clip, but rigid bars and 2 screws (I think you call it strays in english). I just couldn’t find any with quick release. So I had to replace the seat post collar for a fixed one. Bye bye quick release, but anyway I never change the high of my saddle. I’m happy with it, it seems much more stronger than the quick release one which is not a luxury when you carry lots of gears.
I think the pictures will speak better than my average english skills so I will try to take some tomorrow and send them to Montague 😉
The back rack doesn’t prevent the bike from folding. But the front one do. You can still fold, but it won’t fit in the bike bag and take much more space.
Hey Mike M
Greg and I were surprised to see your comment there and made us realized that our english speaking friends actually know very little about our trip because our website is all in french.
Luckily we can now give some news on Montague’s blog, but we are also thinking about english version of our website, translate old articles and go bilingual. The only barrier is time and an access to internet really, but it will see the light someday.
We already post in french and english on our facebook page where we give news (and our position, daily, through a Spot GPS we carry with us). It’s there, and the title in english is “Two monkeys in winter”.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Deux-singes-en-hiver/131770226911819?fref=ts
Take care Mike, say hi to your brothers, Sione and Salomon !
Hi all,
I’m planning to purchase Paratrooper Pro bike and and use it as touring bile.
The main question is rear rack.
I think to use Axiom Mk Journey Uni-Fit Cycle Rear Rack or Axiom DLX Streamliner Disc Cycle Rear Rack with 34.9 rack mount seatpost clamp.
Will it fit Paratrooper Pro?
Thanks in advance,
Alex.
Hi
I think this one should work : http://www.amazon.com/Mount-Seatpost-Clamp-Black-Alloy/dp/B005PBVUFS/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1419024504&sr=8-4&keywords=34.9+rack+mount+seatpost+clamp
And this one won’t : http://www.amazon.com/Problem-Solvers-Seatpost-Clamp-Mounts/dp/B005CAY60I/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1419024504&sr=8-3&keywords=34.9+rack+mount+seatpost+clamp
This is from what I remember when I was trying different racks in a bike shop.
The best is to go to a bike shop and try 🙂
Alex,
Thanks a lot for your recommendation!
Hi Alex and Greg,
You guys gave me a great idea but it would seem a bit late in life for me to actually put it into action. I ride an X-90 and my son rides a Paratrooper-Pro. If we had thought of this earlier, we could have done a “father and son tour the world on Montague bikes” thing. Anyway, touring vicariously will be better than nothing….keep us posted of your adventures while I dream on.
Just bought one, and am planning on riding the El Camino De Santiago on my first Virgin Voyage, it is about 500 miles, I bought the Urban, because I felt it would a smoother ride for the urban parts of the trip. Would the Paratrooper been a better fit? I am making the Journey also a coming of age journey 60. Thoughts and tips, would be much appreciated. Dermot
Hi Dermot. I’m not extremely familiar with the terrain on El Camino De Santiago, but I believe it’s quite varied. Some areas are well groomed and smooth, while others a big more rugged / rocky. The Urban can certainly handle gravel and hard packed dirt trails, but there may be sections where one of our mountain models could be better suited with their wider tires and suspension. This also depends on you as the rider, and your confidence on that type of terrain.