Riding to BAM! 2024: The Bicycle Adventure Meeting

Words by Sofiane Sehili, photos by Nicola Damonte

Last year marked my first time attending the Bicycle Adventure Meeting, commonly known as BAM!. While I had a great time, something was missing from my experience. Pressed by time, I traveled by train from my home in Paris to Mantova. Of course, I still had my bike because I don’t go anywhere without it. But BAM! was first created as a convergence of bicycle travelers, and the whole idea was to ride to Mantova and then party. So, when last year’s edition ended, I promised myself that if I had a chance, I would ride to BAM! next time.

I didn’t have to wait long. The weekend before BAM!, I happened to be on Italian soil. Well, sort of… I was in Sardinia, an island far off the coast. Nothing a ferry couldn’t fix. After a decent night in a cabin, I rolled out of the ferry, ready to take on Tuscany. Now, four days to ride from Livorno to Mantova is plenty, so I could afford a few detours and did my fair share of sightseeing, albeit always from the saddle.

I got to Mantova a day early, on a warm afternoon, and the temperature was looking to get hotter. I joked a bit, saying I had brought the sun from Sardinia. I quickly met some friends there. The bikepacking community is not a big one, and I’ve been a part of it for a long time now, so when there’s a gathering of bicycle travelers, it doesn’t take long for me to see a familiar face.

That’s very much what BAM! is about: being reunited with old friends and like-minded people to talk about bikes, events, routes, and new destinations. At least, that’s what it is about for me. But in reality, there’s a lot more to it. Gabri, a bike shop owner from Florence who I met during my trip to Mantova, will teach you the basics of bike maintenance during his workshop. Or, if you are more of an artist, you can attend the creative map-making workshop. There’s always something going on. Guests were talking about their bikepacking or bike touring experience (like myself). Of course, there’s gelato and pizza at any time of the day since this is Italy. And beer, since this is a festival.

But if there’s one thing I love about BAM!, it’s that it doesn’t discriminate. Bikepacking may now very well be the fastest-growing trend in the realm of bicycle travel. But BAM! welcomes all bike travelers, not just bikepackers. A 40-year-old steel rig with a rack and panniers doesn’t mean that you don’t belong here. You have a place at BAM! as long as you travel on wheels powered by your own two legs. The idea is always to unite and never to divide.

On my way to Mantova, I met a couple from Barcelona traveling with their (rather big) dog. Their bikes were fully loaded, and they were taking it pretty chill, riding 50 to 60 kilometers a day. As always, I didn’t carry much and did a lot of mileage every day. But for a moment, we just rode together and chatted, doing something different in form but similar in essence. I was reminded that there’s always more value in finding what reunites us than what sets us apart.

The Italians, like most Mediterraneans, are passionate people. There are few things here that are done with measure. A lot that is done with all their heart. I felt it both times I attended BAM!. I received the warmest welcome I have ever received out of any event. Cycling is a religion here, and Italians have embraced bikepacking with devotion. The philosophy and the values I have built year after year by riding my bike all over the world find an echo here, and this is why I feel at home here in Mantova.

A Decade of BAM!

Words by Andrea Benesso

“See you at BAM!” has become a way for bicycle travelers to say goodbye to each other.

Eleonora, my partner in many more or less unsuccessful projects, and I launched it exactly 10 years ago, before the gravel wave and bikepacking became cool. In short, at that time, it was a “countercurrent” idea. Yet it worked right from the start. BAM! is the European gathering of bicycle travelers, by the numbers, one of the largest bikepacking events in the world in all its forms.

But how was BAM! born? The granfondos, the XC or DH races, the historic rides, the randonnées, and the fairs. The Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France. Ten years ago, there was no space for bicycle travelers, still identified with the Nordics in sandals and white socks, heading to the sea with very heavy bicycles. We started from here: why don’t we organize a gathering for those who travel by bike? It is a real gathering made by people that everyone can experience in their own way, bringing stories and a desire to meet others. Soon after, Livigno, in the Alps, hosted us the first year, and the concept was simple: arrive by bike from home, and we would take care of the rest. We were 150, many more than we thought, but above all, it was immediately magical, and from the second year on, the participants began to be a thousand, then three thousand, and so on, up to 2024. BAM! was an event we had thought of for a few friends and ourselves: we didn’t realize that that punk spirit, that desire for adventure, for sharing, that nonsense that drives you further than you should and against the wind and sometimes gets you into trouble would involve thousands of people, each looking for something different: inspiration, ideas, dreams, friends, adventures, or simply to feel recognized.

The current dimension of BAM! is not measured in numbers, but in the quality of the experience it nurtures: getting on a bike and riding far. Almost all BAM! participants arrive by pedaling from home, covering even thousands of kilometers, full of stories and life, enough to create an incredible energy that overwhelms everyone: there is a desire to tell, to dream of distant journeys, to learn, even to fall in love.

But the most important aspect for us is that BAM! is an inclusive event, not only from the point of view of gender or sexual identity but also because it welcomes every type of bike and cyclist: you don’t need to be thin, young, fashionable, with a beard or ride fast or further. And in an era where it sometimes seems you can only ride if you fit a certain model, we like to see BAM! as a bastion of freedom, where you can be whoever you want: an ultra cyclist, a traveler with 50 kilograms of bags, a bikepacker who has pedaled Patagonia, or a family traveling with children and e-bikes. After all, we all find ourselves pedaling against the wind, thinking at some point in the day that maybe it was better to stay home, only to arrive at our destination full of a simple joy, where victory or kilometers matter little, but being full of life matters a lot, thinking only of the simplest needs: where to sleep, where to eat, the sore butt.

Every year, BAM! offers a program with dozens of meetings with travelers of all kinds, workshops where you can learn about mechanics on the road, drawing, how to draw maps or photography, rides, concerts, yoga, and much more, but what matters is reuniting, all different and all similar, to fuel a passion. It’s a simple format that we would like to make even more essential over time, as it was during COVID when BAM! became Campfire: limited numbers, in the mountains, everyone in tents, one night only, and with a minimal program. What matters is feeling against the wind, but along a road shared with others.

You can find details about BAM! over on at BAMEurope.it.

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