Singletrack/MTB
Gravel/All-road
Dirt-road Touring
Fat-bike
Vicky Balfour attended the 2025 Brother in the Wild Munich event, and in this recap, she reflects on her experiences and why it ended up meaning so much to her. Riding a freshly tuned Brother Cycles Big Bro, Vicky’s familial adventure was packed with all kinds of fun…
Words by Vicky Balfour, photos by Conny Mirbach
How does one decide what cycling events to attend? I’m a sucker for a personal connection, so attending Brother in the Wild Munich has been a dream of mine for a few years. Brother Cycles is my local bike company, and I recently acquired my own Big Bro, which I’ve dubbed “Lil Sis.” Because my brother moved to Munich last year, BITW Munich presented an interesting opportunity. I had visions of the event playing out as a sort of “siblings in the wild”, but it ended up being a different kind of familial outing, as my adult son, Henry, and a couple of friends, Kristian and Roo, jumped aboard for the trip.
For those who aren’t aware, Brother Cycles hosts several events around the world each year. From the festival-like BITW Dorset gathering in May to the Kent-based Big’Un at the end of the summer, Brother Cycles does its best to bring the community together irrespective of where they live. BITW Munich sits in the middle, offering laid-back European vibes, numerous swim stops, beer, food, and glorious rolling terrain.
Squeezing in an overnight visit to my brother and his family, Henry and I started our bikepacking adventure by taking the train from Freising into central Munich. Not only was it easy to take fully loaded bikes onto the train, but riding around Munich felt safe and comfortable. Traffic lights are staggered to allow safe passage for cyclists and pedestrians, and the sheer variety of riders is heartwarming. This is where Europe gets cycling so right. It’s easy to ride a bike in urban areas, and the natural conclusion is that there’s no reason not to.
For context, Davo and the team at Guten Biken, a small bike shop in the city, have hosted BITW Munich for the last six years. This year, 130 riders joined for an extended three-day bikepacking trip that featured routes starting from the shop door. Word had spread of the coming adventure, so my brother Henry and I weren’t the only people traveling from afar for the event. We were part of a group of nine riders from the UK. After feasting our eyes and treating our bikes to some service at Guten Biken, we started our journey on Friday at lunchtime. Will from Brother Cycles had told us about a great food market just off the route, so we pedalled off along the river to find this insider tip.
I’d never bikepacked on my Big Brother, so I wasn’t sure how it’d feel riding fully loaded. Initial impressions riding on the smooth city tarmac suggested it would be fine, but it wasn’t until we found a steep, punchy climb up from the river that I really got the measure of my bike. To my surprise, I found that it could climb far more capably than I expected. The Big Bro has often made me smile on local trails with its playful handling, but this just added a next level to my respect for its handling characteristics.
As we were in Germany, pretzels, schnitzels, potato salad, and helles beers were the standard fare at the stop suggested to us by brother Will. Consumed with the elation and splendor of the treats we downed, we thought we knew better than the route planners and decided to carry on along the west bank of the Isar before rejoining the route further on. Alas, it turns out this wasn’t possible, so we rode Sunday’s return route in reverse to get back on track. We’ll never know if it was better or worse than the planned route, but it was beautiful, and the wooded areas provided shelter from the only brief rainstorm of the weekend.
By the time we arrived at camp, we’d been caught by many of the other riders who started at Guten Biken. The campsite ran along the river, had a few portaloos, a couple of fire pits, and two large open marquees with Bavarian beer tables and benches. A few metres away was a slide and makeshift pontoon at the river, which made for the best shower facilities.
That evening, after we’d all eaten, my mind was soothed by the babble of happy voices and a gorgeous sunset over the treeline. It made for an idyllic day of bikepacking, and the fun was only just beginning. The morning that followed delivered a typical German breakfast of fresh coffee, fresh bread, cheese, and meats. Glancing around the field, I took in the mixture of cyclists: young families with trailers, older riders, friends, even a pair on a tandem. I’ve never seen such a fabulous mix of people and bikes at a bikepacking event.
With the riding to the campsite done and dusted, two routes were provided for the day—a shorter, 35-kilometre option that routed riders to a lake, and a longer 75-kilometre ride out into the foothills that included even longer extensions along the way. We opted for the 75-kilometre route and followed the Isar south before cutting west towards the Austrian border. Known as Das Blaue Land, we rode through forests and rolling pastures towards the hard line of lumpy, dark mountains that rose like a wall above the horizon.
Moments after entering another set of woods, a fizz of excitement passed between us all and through the trees to our right, glinted a translucent blue lake. Instinctively, our bikes pulled us off the trail and down to a clearing at the edge of the water. Unable to resist, in a matter of minutes, we were splashing in the lake as if we were on a long holiday.
The furthest point of the route was Murnau am Staffelsee. After hours of forest tracks and quiet roads, it was a shock to find ourselves in the middle of a beautiful town surrounding a hilltop castle. Eventually, we stopped and refuelled on beer, bratwurst, and sauerkraut, swapping stories with other BITW riders who’d gravitated to the same spot. After some time, we made our way back out of town and went straight to a nearby lake, where a narrow channel cut through the water lilies led out into cool, clear water.
The joys of the day reminded me that I love riding and adventuring with my son, Henry. It’s always been our happy place, and an activity where traditional mother-son roles dissolve. With stifling heat and still another 30 kilometres to go, I was grateful to have his reassuring presence there as we climbed up a rocky farm road to the crest of a ridgeline.
Sadly, we’d missed the shop on the way into the village that sold the best spaghetti ice-cream, but we stumbled across a restaurant and parked ourselves in the shade for a refreshing drink. The view from the terrace was breathtaking. We were face to face with a large wall of mountains that had been in the foreground all day. With tired and overheated minds, the names of the mountains brought on a fit of the giggles, but I don’t think I’ll ever forget that view.
A final descent from the restaurant was steep and spit us back out along the Isar, where we rode through tall grass and swathes of bullrushes. Like I had been all weekend, again, I was in once more in awe of the variety of landscapes we passed through. We took one more opportunity to cool off in the river before hot-footing it back towards camp. By 7 p.m.,we were back at the tents and figured we had just enough time to play in the river one more time before the BBQ ended.
Henry and I caught a lift back to town on Sunday morning, leaving the others to enjoy one last ride and swim. By 3 p.m. on Sunday, we’d loaded up the van and were back on the road to Calais and the tunnel home. It was an eventful drive back in 35-degree heat, but that’s a story for another time.
Thanks to Will, Davo, and everyone who worked so hard to put it on. And thank you to Henry, Kristian, and Roo for being awesome road trip and bikepacking buddies.
For more on the Brother in the Wild events, head to BrotherCycles.com.
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