Singletrack/MTB
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Dirt-road Touring
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Generational Tales: A Daughter’s Father (Film)
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Generational Tales is an uplifting new film from Bombtrack Bicycle Company that follows Franzi Wernsing of Tales on Tyres as she guides her dad through a crash course in bikepacking, taking him out for a five-day trip on Italy’s beautiful Tuscany Trail. Watch it here…
Photos by Matteo Dunchi (@matteo_dunchi)
Bombtrack’s latest film, Generational Tales: A Daughter’s Father, follows our friend Franzi Wernsing and her dad, Ulrich, during their five-day ride on the Tuscany Trail in Italy. The film tells the heartwarming story of Franzi, an experienced bikepacker who pedaled around the world with her partner, Jona, for seven years, introducing her father to bikepacking by teaching him the ropes and guiding him through his first trip. He hadn’t slept in a tent since his teenage years but was inspired to give bikepacking a try after following Franzi and Jona’s many adventures as Tales on Tyres. Lured by promises of pizza, wine, and ice cream along the way, Ulrich set off from the starting line with Franzi as his coach, full of nervous excitement.
Generational Tales takes viewers on a personal and meaningful journey shared by a father and daughter. It’s equal parts funny and insightful, offering a candid perspective from a first-time bikepacker who isn’t necessarily fully convinced by the concept, as well as some reflection on how relationships between parents and children change as we enter different chapters of life. You can find the full 22-minute film below, along with a few still images and some brief thoughts from Ulrich about his motivations for taking on this challenge.
“I was 17 when I did my first (and until now, last) ‘bikepacking’ tour. With fully loaded panniers and a tent, I cycled from western Germany toward London during the early 1970s. Although I’ve kept cycling around the flatlands of my home area in Westphalia, Germany, since then, I never slept again in a tent or did another multi-day tour. It was Franzi and her uncompromising lifestyle, bikepacking around the globe for seven years, that fascinated and made me so curious to try such a trip on a bike again.
Seeing all those tremendous shots Franzi sent from different parts of the globe attracted me to a surprising extent. I yearned for being outside day and night, biking through nature, and enjoying the landscape in the purest way. As I did in my youth, but even more now, I wanted to understand what drove Franzi to travel and explore the globe by bike for all those years. With every photo Franzi sent from abroad I got more curious to try it all out again myself, that so-called “bikepacking,” the way you do it nowadays, more than 40 years after my cycling trip to the UK.” —Ulrich Wernsing
Find several other pieces we’ve shared from Franzi here, including feature stories, how-to guides, a Rider’s Lens, and more. You can also see a handful of routes from Franzi and Jona here. Want more from the Tuscany Trail? Check out Bombtrack’s excellent 2019 film, Inside the Tuscany Trail.
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